Skeeve

Hey, you're welcome, but I've got to fess up: I stole it shamelessly (& then twisted it to my own ends in an effort to make you feel better) from the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Substitute drugs & money for bikes & women in the appropriate places & you'll get back to the original 70's drug culture aphorism... Nonetheless, its very true, from my own experience. Hope your weather is dry enough for riding right now! Best of the holidays for you, & hoping you'll have a magnificent New Year!

Well, that sux. Sorry for you. Just remember: motorcycles will get you thru times of no women better than women get you thru times of no bikes... Ride on!

Actually, so would I. The Guzzi is a natural for using a scale model of a standard industrial cyclonic dust filter, what with that big V between the cylinders. Of course, it wouldn't work on the new quotards, or the spineys: only the T-frames. Hmmm...

That's easy: Any modern air-cooled bike has to have an oil-cooler; it's a requirement from the folks in the marketing dept! Since there's no room in front, due to moving the engine for'ard and making the cool 2->1 headers [part style (the "phat" cosmetic outer pipe), part function (the smaller, inner header that does the actual work of channeling the hot ex. gases to the collector)], where to put the cooler? Oh, how 'bout on the far side from the collector, to balance out the visual "business" going on the left side? Excellent!... Clear now?

One of the local track day organizers did one down here in Lo-Cal So.Cal. back in Rocktober? November? [Maybe Nov.; I think it might have conflicted w/ the CMP West Coast Garand Games, iirc.] At any rate, it was open to all [of course: gotta make rent!] but if you came on a Duck or Goose you got a discount. And that's about the only drawback to your idea that I can see: when even a group like LABikers [which probably has well over 100 actives+lurkers all here in So.Cal.] can't get enough people to commit to justify the cost of renting a track (+ paying the ambulance crew, track workers, blah blah blah), how do you expect to get ENUFF participation to get this whole project off the ground/breaking even when there's probably not even that many Guzzisti in all of CA? Exclusivity is working against us here... Maybe a "Eurofest" track day, "no 'Murrican or Far Eastern brands need apply" would be the trick? I imagine between Triumph, Ducati, Aprilia, & Guzzi owners in the local region, you should be able to get plenty of participation to justify a low cost of entry. 'Cause frankly, for me, the cost of entry to a trackday (about $100 min. + gas, time, etc.) is (just) doable, but the time is more than my budget allows. Blokes with an SO who rides are in better shape, as its not so hard scraping up $200 for both of you to ride vs. $100 for yourself alone, 'cause if she's spending the day riding too then she can't go on about "how you have time for track days but never enough time to take me somewhere, do this do that, yakyakyakwhine..." ;-D Best o' luck, hope I'll be able to make it out to a trackday someday soon!

As a "fer instance," you can pick up a $200 cherry-picker engine hoist & suspend the bike from that ["No worries about the bike toppling over on me, Ma: I'll just use the sky hook!"]

Yahbut... your pic is hiding that ashcan muffler on the far side of the bike! No wonder you like it's looks! Seriously, I'm much converted from my original assessment of the concept bike [which I initially found double-bagger fugly] since I first saw it in the flesh [cappucino paint scheme] at last year's CWIMS. Like it even more since seeing & straddling it at this year's CWIMS [in the black livery. How formal! ] But that GI-NORMOUS bent biconic-section muffler still detracts hugely (pardon the pun) from the visual appeal for me; like someone else said, "long, low & mean" would be a better fit. I can already see an aftermarket "homage to the LM1 muffler" bigger, badder but still much slimmer than the stocker in the cards. Dang, I gotta get myself into the muffler biz! I could make a small fortune! [Too bad I don't have the large fortune I'd need to start with! ] Ride on,

Couldn't have said it better myself, Nige! I'm in total agreement w/ ya!

Bummer. They going to start building a bike around the Harley/S&S clone engines? Hey, it could happen! This reminds me of the way GM killed off Bricklyn back in the 70s; again, it was a loss for all concerned, since the latter (G&B, Bricklyn) did more to boost the sales of the former (Guzzi, GM) powerplant suppliers than they "cannibalized." Short-sighted business decisions usually come back to bite their makers' in the @ss... Sic transit gloria Guzzi. Ghezzi & Brian, we salute you!

Almost. #9 has the same answers as #2, A & C...

Is that a publication or an individual's online handle? I'm still looking for official dates w/ a provenance for verification...

Well, shoot: of course they're sub-par: they're paved! How's he do in the dirt? Does he like the mile or 1/2 mile tracks best? [seriously: what do you expect from a country that likes NASCAR more than F1 or MotoGP? Heck, the best racing news I've heard all year was that Canada was going to do a knockoff of the IoM TT somewhere up in New Brunswick or Prince Ed Isl. or something... Sub-par? Heck, we've a got a lot of climbing to go before we get there!]

Thanks for the pointer, Todd! Regrettably, the links are all "no workee," due to problems with the phpbb software, I think. I get errors stating "database not found" among others. Best of luck getting this all sorted out! Ride on,

Don't quit your day job; Piaggio ain't hiring! Yes, it's a pity that Guzzi hasn't tried to follow up on any of their early, pacesetting work. "Gee, I coulda had a V-8!" [slogan from an effective U.S. tv commercial selling carrot juice + a little ketchup in a can] Absolutely: none of this makes any sense if it's not a commercial success. Using the example of the Triumph 675 and the 'Priller RSV actually go against your argument, tho'. In the case of the Triumph, that company tried to go the i-4 route & realized (several megaEuros later, unfortunately) that they'd have to out-Japanese the Big 4 if they were ever going to do more than lag far behind; wisely, Triumph decided to hew to their own "uniqueness" and go with a product that's going to be destined for greatness (as long as they don't F' it up!): a triple with that extra bit of displacement to punch it up into the middle range (anyone else notice how the 750cc class has all but disappeared lately?) and make it an all-round great ride [i see Triumph execs sitting around going: "Sod the 600cc supersports: Suzuki's been eating all our lunches with the SV650! Look at'em move out the showroom! Let's make [b]that[/b] our target!] The RSV argument breaks down because Aprilia lost it due to financial ridiculousness, not product failure. If Aprilia had foregone spending money they'd had to borrow on MotoGP development, or if the scooter market hadn't taken a dump because of EC-wide changes in licensing, the RSV would still be doing great in sales. The whole debacle of being taken over seriously spooks the customers; why do you think that a year ago you could buy a Coppa Italia for $2k less than today? (Hint: last year, nobody knew if your warranty would last until you hit the street at the end of the dealership's driveway!) WRT Murray's original post, I've thought about this a lot myself. The "supercharged single" has a lot of merit: Guzzi needs to get more "early adopters" who'll trade-up within the brand as their riding needs mature. [This is the *major* reason BMW came out with the F650, folks!] Dual-sports have a lot of advantages in this regard: you have the cross-market growth [riders who wouldn't own a pure-street mount 'cause they can only afford one Bike] as well as the vertical [riders who want/need to start smaller before they move up to bigger bikes.] A dual-sport 550cc single based on parts from the existing engine would make a nice addition to the lineup for Guzzi. Chain drive, for lightness and gearing changeup. OHC 4v head available as higher model option, supercharging designed in from ground zero as "race kit" componentry [a la' NISMO & TRD parts from the J-Brand car companies.] With Aprilia & Piaggio behind them, Guzzi can also offer a "touring scooter" done right: flat-four miniature turbodiesel, 200cc, and 200 mile range between fillups 2 up. Hmm... No, Murray: Guzzi should hire me!

Pirelli Dragon Stradas not-so-evil twin... Muuuuuuch better than the Z4s!

I thought that part of the price of dual-plugging squareheads was having to move some oil journals? Also, doesn't the v11B (for "Breva") mill have a different deck height for the piston, to go along w/ the change to con rod length, blah blah blah? "Just doing a quick changeout of the heads to go dual-plug" was a question I thought I'd asked [at least, I meant to! ] on this board ages ago... where were you then? ;-) C'mon, Pete: you've got the Griso: whip a head off & see if it mates up nice to a v11 cylinder! :-D

Test drive a MultiStrada. Same mill. All the reviews have been good (Stateside.) You'd really need to read one of the Brit rags for an honest opinion, but they're mostly into thrashing, so not likely to give an air-cooled twin a positive write up since it won't perform like a J-brand hyper bike... Who do you believe? Someone who'll give any advertiser a good review, or someone who'll give an honest opinion but to whom anything not 100+PS & The 1000DS is supposed to be the best daily-rider engine Ducati has ever produced: 2-valve, so good torque & minimal cost on the too frequent valve services that practically require complete dismantling of the bike. Air-cooled so the dismantling is quick & relatively painless. Dual-spark so that the air-cooled engine can sneak under emissions barriers while still putting out decent power. But it's still not a Guzzi...

You'll have a long wait: I asked Erik when was H-D going to release him to use the VR mill in his line of bikes, & he said [paraphrased] "I can have it anytime I want! I just won't use it; it's too heavy & big for the kind of bikes I want to build..." The Harley touring bikes are going to get a big boost in sales when H-D finally wakes up & starts putting the VR mill into those lead sleds; they need more juice!

Is this the yellow/red plug off to the side of the ecu, tied to the frame by the sidepanel? [sorry no pic; I've been meaning to ask on V11LM what this is...] Aren't the PCIII #s overlaid on the factory basemap? So for any given basemap cell, the corresponding cell in the PCIII map is just added to it [hence the neg #s in some PCIII cells...] Clearly, I don't have 1st hand exp. w/ any of this, but I'm just going on my understanding of how the PCIII supposedly operates... Ride on,

Tell them they should amend that to: "Sidecars suck... unless you want to ride on slick surfaces like snow, mud, etc. Then they ROCK compared to falling down all the time on a regular motorcycle... Also, they're good if you've got a real dog [no mutt under 18kg counts] that wants to ride along." ;-) Hacks have their features. They're hard to see what they are sometimes [like in fine, dry weather], but they do exist! Ride on!

Ah, but they aren't necessary for a lot of people, since [at least here in the U.S.], most bikes never get smogged after their initial sale, ie: you won't get caught for binning the "cat." It would be nice if there were aftermarket replacement hi-flow cat. converters for motorcycles the way there are for cages, but that's just never gonna happen. Don't get me wrong, I'm not supporting trashing the pollution control parts at 1st opportunity; my bike is still sporting all it's original equipment. I just have a healthy respect for doing the occasional reality check: there's more smog produced by leaf-blowers (aka "noise makers") used by gardeners in a week here where I live in CA than there is by all the motorcycles ridden here all year. It's a numbers game, & motorcycles are small numbers, despite their high output of smog on an individual basis. Ride on!

I'm still a little confused about TuneBoy & TuneEdit: is 'Boy the hardware connection between your computer & the bike's ECU & 'Edit the software on the computer that allows you to change the settings stored in the ECU, or are they two separate products? Very much looking forward to your report on TuneEdit next week...

Tell me something I don't know! See? That's about what I thought... Thanks for jumping into this morass, Cliff! We appreciate the insight...

Can I get an "AMEN! HalleLUJAH!" my Guzzi brethren? Going with a lightened steel clutch [c'mon, people have been doing finite element analysis with eXcel of all things on laptops for the last 10 years already! Spend some cpu time Guzzi, & make the Swiss fear for their cheese! ] might have been the wiser course for longevity, but we'll never know now, will we? But it would be nice if we could manage to come up with a reasonable fix to the existing clutches so that apart from the cost of tearing the motor out of the frame and pulling the clutch off (& of course, buttoning it all back up again), the Scura, Tenni & RM owners out there wouldn't be looking at being out of pocket for obscene sums, wouldn't it? Pete, where are you when we need your insight? Is it merely a case of pulling the whole thing apart, smearing everything w/ Loc-tite & adding some steel shims here & there, or is there a serious structural flaw in the Al-clutch design? Dang I like a good mystery!

I've been asking about this since this year's GMG! So far, nobody has any idea. Like Martin wrote: Guzzi doesn't seem to have much talent at self-promotion!