Ouiji Veck

Holy crap !!!!! I just typed 8 paragraphs describing my wild a wooly adventures since Hawaii (horrible) and back and my new life living on my sail boat and thanks and apologies for being MIA...then it all disappeared. Arrrgh!! Much shortened version: Thanks Kiwi. I'm going to fuss with it in the morning. It's running and charging fine so I'm going for a ride and pull F1 when I'm done. I've been dying for ride in this gorgeous winter weather. SH was right. Your a gem. Even I could understand your drawings. Everyone else: Thanks for the warm welcome home. I've been from living in a tree house to now living on a 30 foot sloop since we last talked. My second winter aboard here in RI. It's awesome. I neglected the Guzzi all last year for sailing and she's retaliating. All I wanted for Christmas was to take a long sweet ride and get away from boat chores for a day. All I got was a bunch of "stuff". . pffffffft. Not even tires, or even a speedo cable and 60 deg. gear drive. (anyone got a good deal on one of them?) Just useless "stuff" ...ahhh Christmas. Of course I spent enough money on "stuff" other people didn't want or need to buy my own damn tires etc. insane. I'm looking forward to a good riding season this year to make up for last. Do some serious maintenance in the spring and maybe do a Nova Scotia or Blue Ridge ride. It was weird to not ride for a year after 40 odd years of avid riding. I spent a couple of weeks sailing Penobscot Bay on a friends boat ...next thing you know I'm living on a 30 foot sloop. Long story with lots of inner reflection, meaning of it all and Irish whiskey. Well you'll have to wait for another time to hear the hilarious details of the last 2 years. It's so good to see you all. Ratchet is MIA ?? OMG .. who will save us from ourselves?

My new fully charged battery went dead after a couple of weeks sitting. I put a meeter on and found voltage @ F1 with the key off. Whats up wit dat? Oh yea... Hi guys.

We're in for a nasty, nasty ride gents, whoever got elected preznit. 62 trillion gone a missing in "credit default swaps". The all new and groovy "financial instrument" that could operate outside nasty SEC "regulations" thanks to the "Financial Markets Modernization Act." It seems the Wall Street financial markets were hurting in 1999 ( !!!????...yea, right) and had to get rid of the Glass Stegall Act that protected us from speculators in the banking industry since the The Great Depression. Kinda hard to fit that on a bumper sticker. Follow the money. Forget the name calling. 62 trillion is more than the entire world GDP. We had better hang together or we shall all hang separately...

I have got mayyybe 42 at best on highway trips @ 80mph. I've gotten real close to a 200mi tank (190+) I think that's about it. For a V11 Try a 120hp boat. That'll cure ya.. (12mpg)

Hey..you guys are great. My plans are kinda changing. I haven't had an offer on the V11 and that's fine with me. I DO in fact, have a round trip ticket. Worse case scenario -I'm back in April. a few thousand dollars poorer ... Like I said I'll still visit here and see what kind of hi-jinx you guys are up to and maybe wax poetically about way back when, and how I once rode a locomotive around Cape Breton..

Aww thanks SH. I fully intend to stay connected. Who knows. I might even be able to scare up a Guzzi out there.

Well.... Your solenoids working.. But for one of 2 reasons your starter ain't cranking. 1 Low battery 2 Something is amiss in the circuit. ie: Lose or corroded + or - connection at the battery, solenoid or ground. niggle, niggle, niggle. That reminds me, mine needs a twist on the bars to start lately. Well, we know what that means... Oh well, I gotta go in and clean the air box so the mice will have a nice comfortable apartment this winter anyway.

A-ha! a-ha ...a-ha... So....I see the problem. Judging from Docc's post and my 42K mi. experience on El Gordo TorqueO it's an affliction of the wrist more than compound of rubber.

Sorry Ben but wrenching my SS was much easier than the LeMans. Yea..the valve adj is exactly twice as difficult as a Guzzi and 1/8th of an inline 4 Everything else....every nut and bolt, air cleaner, carbs, battery, shock, sprockets,chain clutch, charging sys... everything totally accessable and wrench friendly. Want to pull the shock....2 bolts, air cleaner? prop the tank up on it's built in stand, snqp the rubber bands off and pull the top off. Done. Same with the battery and carbs. Belts? $40 and 20 minutes every 12K mi My 94 SS didn't have as much as one rusty bolt on it when I sold it in '05 and it sat out side 1 whole winter. I just hate seeing Ducati being misrepresented the same as Guzzi. A Monster is pretty much the same exact bike. No...I'm not talking about Quatros. I say no thanks to those. My little 900SS was too stupid for the road let alone a 996 or 999!!... but it was a simple, pure joy to tinker on. I put close to 40K trouble free miles on it and sold it for what I paid 3 yrs. before and talked to lots of folks on line with 80-90K on 'em. They were pretty much of the opinion after 20K you were done shimming valves. I was down to only replacing collets once in a while. Na....I love the way they built my Duc. A tribute to common sense and integrity as far as I'm concerned.. Too bad you have to be a juvenile delinquent to ride 'em on the road.

All my close riding friends (around 20 of 'em) all ride BMWs except for 2 Connie herritics. They love my Guzzi. The core group of 7 or 8 of us include 3 professional wrenches and 4 that ran a racing campaign at one time or another and we've all always done all the work on any bike we've owned. (Makes it hard to give a crap about other peoples opinion) I've got 43K on now with only a failed rear wheel bearing on a short trip a few years ago the only negative point against it. Last year Beemers went down with:\ 1 A failed throttle cable @ 40K on an RT requiring a trip to the shop because they're not field serviceable.....! (wow!) 2 A failed rear drive seal. R1150 w/ some 25K mi 3 A failed ABS on a low mileage R1150 So my V11 ain't lookin' too shabby. Who cares any way. It's all just for fun and I'm pretty sure the Guzzi is the most fun. That's all I say when ever anyone asks "How do you like that thing?" "It's fun...it's just FUN to ride" And it is. And that's all I care.

Another .... .now I'm up to 4 cents. This is getting expensive! After the x threw my beloved CBR 600 Hurricane over an embankment.... ( "It just wouldn't turn!" ???...this after about 400mi under her belt) ( total target fixation) We got her a Rebel 250. I drove it home about 15 mi on the highway. I was scarred. Just too wimped out in the suspension dept. My all time favorite bike for a beginner is the ex 500. On the other hand my friend Kathie started out on a Night Hawk 750. She was total paddle foot and finally had to give it up. Then she got ...(get this...) a BMW "C" class. !!! She's been riding the wheels off it for a year and a half with total confidence. 'Splain that Lucy. She's now a proficient rider. Another lady friend tossed her 1000 Kaw twice (great starter bike...not!) and is now on a Duc. 620. I thought that would help but alas... No improvement. She just never got the mental attitude. Desire and determination yes. By the yard. But no fangs. Ya gotta have a little fangs. Even at low speeds. "I'm going to stick the front tire there then throttle out over there...dam it" As opposed to "What's this corner going to do?" So who knows? How do you teach confidence and will? Caution with an aggressive intent. An intense but unconscious focus. Some got it...some don't I used to whip the car keys at the x and she could snatch them out of the air pretty good. I had to take her bike away before she (I?) killed herself. I later realized she drove a car like crap too. Just "nobody home" when she was driving. I really do hope things go well for you and yours. It would be so great to ride with the one your closest with. Definately worth giving it a good try.

We seek the Grrrrrail.......A 10K mi sport touring tire. Always interested in finding a higher millage good performing tire. I've been running Contis for the last 5 or 6 sets after loving the Metz but hating how bad they square up. The Contis don't last any longer but they don't lose their shape as bad...if at all. I figure an extra 1500 mi of predictable handling is a boon. YMMV Maybe it will be good old Dunlop that pulls a rabbit out of the hat. They're over due for a good idea.

! I'm going to say what I always say. Get her a dirt bike. Let her learn to throttle, shift, signal, brake -WELL-INSTINCTIVElY somewhere where there's no Buicks and SUVs. Riding in the dirt / woods is a total blast. It is the quintessential fun of riding. How is that a bad idea? When she can pop a little wheelie and do a full lock slide just having some fun the road will be 80% safer for her. I've looked in the mirror and found a loved one missing, and seen a full sized van, all four wheels locked up trying to miss her going wide on a corner. Luckily she walked away both times but I'm not sure I survived. It's a LOT of responsibility. What's wrong with a couple of months having fun in the dirt? 4-500$ for the bike, that you'll probably turn around at a profit. No brainer to me. The major hurdle is getting past the "Go where you look " threshold. Or more correctly "look where you go" After bonking into a half dozen saplings it might sink in. Sometimes it never does. Best to find out on saplings not on Buicks. Hate to be a nervous Nelly but the responsability is huge. GO out and have some fun with her in the woods. It will be a lot more fun than riding around with your sphincter clenched all day. Just my Good luck....have fun.

That's why when people say "Oh...your a biker huh?" I always reply with an emphatic " NO, I'm a motorcycle enthusiast." The guy on the "bullet bike" (ooboy..) should answer.."No. I'm a squid without a clue"