Skeeve

Awfully convenient "lapse." Ask him what other options he'll offer to "make good." Otherwise, ask Ebay to close his account. Don't think someone is going to "forget" an auction that started with what, a 100E minimum? Sorry to hear this, it really sux.

True, true... but I already *have* the custom polarized prescription sunglasses [Carrera frames even, woohoo! I was quite suprised when they were covered by VSP ] OTOH, I spent $100 on my 1st (p.o.s. "Zeus") flip-up, and have never looked back. My current skid-lid is a Nolan N100E [bought just before they brought out their own flip shade ] & I'm not too happy w/ it, even tho' their quality is far superior to the Zeus I replaced with the Nolan. (no surprise!) You're right, this is a fab deal on the Caberg, & I do like the idea of being able to switch from shade to full sun w/o having to pull off & swap glasses, I just hate giving up the "wear it into the store" convenience of a flip-up! Thanks again for the tip!

Yes, I remember that pic, and thinking much along the same lines as you, but then I remembered that *most* of what they were doing would consist of stripping off the other parts & slapping others in their place, ie: I don't think that anything is irretrievably altered. But it sure was a beautiful bike to begin with! I really like the "laydown" f/x from the longer Jackal? driveshaft they swapped in: very custom [of course, that had no bearing on why they did it; they just wanted the lower drive ratio & added wheelbase for stability, unless I miss my guess....] Wishing them well, I'd love to be up at El Mirage right now cheering them on!

Congrats Slavomir! This should be a big step toward returning your bike back to its unblemished state!

Nuts! They're the standard FF helmets; I saw "Caberg" & thought "modular" which explains my disappointment. Thanks for the heads up, but for those of us who haven't scraped up the dosh & sprung for LASIK yet, it's gotta be modular to fit over the glasses (carbonates? ) Still a smokin' deal. I may pick one up on spec against the possibility of my being able to get my eyes lasered in the next year or two...

Since you seem to be on the inside w/ them, slip'em the word that they need to update the website. Been kinda quiet, aside from a couple of pics w/ the bike painted.

Don't sell yourself short, Pete! They'll notice, it just won't stop them from on it: it has more to do w/ how our values change based upon our circumstances. Ever notice how when you throw up, you just don't care much about anything else anymore? "I don't care about my $200 patent leather shooaARRRGHBlagh!oes...." But, to make up for it, we usually feel so much relief afterwards that we can look at these things much more philosophically "Gee, that sure was a pretty bike before I barfed on it...but I feel much better now!"

Did a quick babelfish on the text, and he mentions a CF "alternator cover" and another in plastic, but no alt. covers anywhere in pix; I suspect that he was referring to the covers for the starter motor [which looks a lot like an alternator to someone who's not thinking of starter motors.] Lots of nifty parts there. I'd be interested in the Tenni green air deflectors (fairing ducts), but only if available at a very low price & if nobody else was interested in them; only novelty value for me, since I don't own a Tenni! The unblemished valve covers would be nice to have for spares, but I suspect that someone else will be wanting them more than I can afford to spend only to have them floating around "just in case..." Seems like someone wants that CF fender tho'; lots of bids pushing the price up!

Not a fair comparison, unless the nuts are sent airmail; otherwise, they'll go the same slow, convoluted ground path that bigger stuff uses. [sorry!] I feel your pain; shipping costs can be simply ludicrous for something that small. Anyway, I only recommended the Manic Salamander bar ends because of your comment about your wrists & bar vibes. You could get the same effect by filling your bars w/ lead shot, if you know anyone who reloads their own shotgun shells near you...

Unlikely to find steel tube of the correct size at most modern ["crap"] HW stores. Steel pipe will have too much wall thickness & weigh a ton; last thing we want on our already portly bikes is more avoirdupois!

That would be the longer con rod [larger rod-ratio] doing its thing...

Excellent news! Treat yourself to some heavyweight Manic Salamander bar ends in celebration...

I'm well aware. However, a properly designed bit of plastic [say Delrin or fiber-reinforced acetal? - something immune to oil w/ some sort of structural integrity] for this purpose - while undoubtedly costing more than the cheapness-has-a-quality-all-its-own PVC schedule 80 - would be infinitely preferable. Failing that, some sort of large diameter heavy wall EMT would likely be better than either, altho' somewhat more challenging to cut. But after all, most places selling such will have a chop saw & only charge a nominal amount to cut to length. Mmmm, mild steel has that yummy, won't crud up the inside of your forks feel about it! Just not a fan of PVC [ignoring the fact that you should never pipe drinking water thru this cr@p, since it'll leach carcinogenic vinyl radicals into the water up until the point it cracks with age & starts leaking all over the place... ]

Yeah, I hate the thought of PVC in the forks. Doesn't mean I haven't done it [be certain to get some steel washers to put btw the PVC and the springs, to prevent fretting of the plastic] but really wish there were a similarly inexpensive & available steel tube option...

Looking at the padding & seat pan, it's pretty clear the rider is literally & figuratively "way out in front" on the stock seat compared to the passenger. This project is still in process, & I'll be adding more to it shortly (I actually got an hour or so to spend on it this weekend. Woohoo! ) so bide awhile yet before passing judgment. The nice thing is that whether you decide to follow suit or not is entirely up to you, & I'm in no danger of putting Rich Maund out of business, but anyone who doesn't find the stock seat entirely satisfactory or wants to increase their (or more likely, their passenger's) riding time w/o necessarily going to the expense of sending their seat to someone else can make up their own mind about what's involved or how involved they want to be... Ride on!

What Hubert said! Moto Guzzi's Ti pipes came/come [NLA? Greg Field would know] with the "Ti ecu" which has a different map from the stock ecu to account for the decreased backpressure, etc. of the "off-road only" (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) Ti pipes. The "01" vs. "03" Ti ecu have slightly differing maps to allow for the front crossover on the headers of the '03+ models; AFAIK, nobody has provided input as to a mismatch of the "01" ecu on an '03 or later bike w/ the front x-over being problematic, since even the Ti ecu seems to benefit from a PCIII despite the supposedly "optimized" mapping of the kit ecu! Net result is that many of those installing the kit sell either the spare stock or the kit ecu & use the money defray the cost of installation & custom mapping of a Power Commander anyway. So my advice is the same as Huberts: stop worrying about it & go enjoy! You got the best aftermarket kit out there for your bike, just include it on your insurance declaration of value/modifications so if you crash you won't have to eat the $1500+ cost of replacement yourself...

Anything from the Aprillia side of the stock room that would work? Marzocchi have other models of forks that are internally similar aside from having preload adjusters on the fork caps? Seems like there should be a simple solution to this conundrum...

Or even brazing, if the break on the casting was a clean one & all pieces are still to hand...

Psycho Whirl's only raison d'etre (subscription) begins & ends w/ Kevin Cameron's column. Peter Egan is worth reading about 1 month out of four; mostly his column is the literary equivalent of onanism, but occasionally I don't regret the time spent reading it. Egan is motorcycling's equivalent of Madonna: for the most part, he's famous for being famous. Rider has Clement Salvadori & the occasional truly great "local ride" contributed articles. That & photography that MCN only wishes it could grow up to offer. Good visual, decent content. Like I said, my fave of the "slicks." Motorcyclist/Sport Rider are like really bad menudo: utter tripe. I normally don't even bother flipping thru them at the newstand, they're that much of a waste of time. Tragic, really, as at one time [20 years ago] they had reasonably good content. Time marches on... The Robb Report is the GQ of motorcycle rags: very upscale, heavy on glitz - low on content fare for the RUBbies & wannabes, but always worth flipping thru at the newstand for the one article in each (quarterly) issue that covers some truly unique corner of motorcycledom. Not that they couldn't be a better mag, but they've staked out their particular niche & have no interest in expanding beyond it. Motorcycle Classics is a new arrival on my list of slicks, and appeals to my "bike nostalgia" enough to pay the unfortunately high price of subscription. If you check it out at the newsstand & like it, subscribe online; they've got a deal that saves a buck or two for the online sign-up. Their website is worth a look anyway; www.motorcycleclassics.com. Between these & the gun rags, I really wonder why my gf seems to think I spend so much time reading?...

What he said! For those in the U.K., this is the American MCN; the Brit rag is utter trash, from what I've heard. The U.S. MCN accepts no advertising from motorcycle manufacturers [due to the rather HUGE conflict of interest this would represent... unlike their competition!] In fact, they're mostly supported from subscription fees; this is the reverse of other magazines. Up until this year, they were black&white only, w/ rough paper stock [kind of like heavy grade newsprint] - they've finally added some limited color after over 20 years of the B&W look! I also like Rider, among the "slicks." If you go to the CWIMS events, then you can usually find a "show deal" on MCN for 2 years for the price of one; this pretty much covers the cost of entry to the show, so I go to the Long Beach every other year to renew. Ride on!

Well crap. Just rotten news. Thoughts w/ his family; a tragically unexpected loss like this is much tougher to deal with than a protracted illness.

Maybe he got himself a Convert? [ever the optimist...]

I think you meant this.

Remembered one of my books that might have some small-block specs & pulled it out: sure enough, there was some info! Of course, it's Mick Walker, so all data is suspect, but from what I can extract, the v35 Imola II, v50 Monza II, v65 Lario & some V75 models are 4v heads (marked with "****" below.) From pics, the v50 Monza II looks like a scaled down version of the LeMansIII. You'll note that the 4v heads were all only produced for a couple years, & then Guzzi reverted to the 2v head designs after running into too many failures [symptomatic of rushing a poorly engineered product to market. ] Some production year info: v35 77-79 v35II 80-85 & 85-88 (updated version? text unclear, just listed two different runs in separate places.) v35c 82-85 v35 Imola 79-83 v35 Imola II 84-85 **** v35TT 84-85 v35 Florida 87-92 350 Trentacinque GT 87-92 350 NTX 87-91 350 Nevada 91-94 350 Nevada NT 95-97 350 Nevada Club 98- v50 77-79 v50II 79-80 v50III 81-85 v50c 82-85 v50 Monza 80-83 v50 Monza II 84-85 **** v65 81-85 v65SP 81-85 v65c 82-85 v65 Lario 84-85 **** v65TT 84-85 v65TT Baja 84-86 v65 Florida 87-92 650 Sessantacinque GT 87-92 650 NTX 87-93 V75 85-87 **** 750SP 89-91 750 Targa 90-93 750 NTX 88-93 750T 91-93 750 Nevada 91-94 750 Nevada NT 95-97 750 Nevada Club 98- 750 Strada 94-95

Maybe something as simple as a bit of foam w/ a piece of sheet metal laid across the top of them to distribute any load evenly [at least as a quick means of testing the theory; any change would mean you were on the right track...]