callison

Chili is food. Funny, I would've expected that name to crop up in a town in Texas...

Hey Mark! Haven't you invested in a heated vest yet? I still use mine, even on mild days because comfort is more important than image. Okay, the V11 Sport is running, most things appear to be set up correctly. So... tomorrow, it gets a short test ride. I'm resisting the (very strong) temptation to do it tonight because if anything falls off, including me, it'll probably get lost in the dark. If it tests out and makes the 90 mile test loop late tomorrow, then that will be the mount for Sunday. The wiring for the vest has not been installed yet, so if we're all going to be cold, we'll all be cold together. Otherwise, it's the California or (horror of horrors!) the V65C. Hey Al!!! Wanna ride an itty bitty bike? I've got one you can use, just hop in your car and come over to my house Sunday morning. Somehow, I can't see that happening...

I have no problems with bikes other than sport models or Guzzi's. What's difficult is getting a conregation of like minded folks that aren't oriented towards too specific of goals, like dragging knees in every corner or out-chroming the other guys Harley etc. I'm certainly not planning to go exceptionally fast. I haven't ridden the Sport more than a block in 10 months and it may not be ready for Sunday. I'm rusty, I got a ticket two weeks ago and I'm just not interested in giving Murphy any more of my time. We'll just have a pleasant slightly spirited cruise up to the Gold Country and have a good time. Mangy Moose - 07:30 to 08:30 A.M. and probably a bit after that. No hurry, this is for fun and pleasure. The Mangy Moose is literally a hole in the wall, we may find ourselves eating in shifts. At least the gal that runs the place is nice and is a bike rider too.

Antonio, there was a Moto Guzzi rally in Italy, Texas last weekend. The U.S.A. has a lot of towns with names of places or countries in Europe. It can get confusing. Moscow in Idaho, Italy in Texas etc.

I'd say yes, there is a ride. Destination not neccessarily known, but definitely not Yosemite, that would be too long a day, especially for the Bay Area folks if any show. We meet at the Mangy Moose Cafe on Yosemite Blvd, Manteca (that's the Yosemite exit as well, which is probably why it sounds like the ride is to Yosemite National Park - which it's not, as that is a fair bit too long of a ride). From there, it's eastward to the Sierra foothills as described above. That's good for two hours riding time right there, so once we get up to the Jackson area and take a break, we can assess our time requirements and pick any one of several interesting routes to return by. I have some good maps, I just have to remember to bring them. Once back down in the valley, we can all disperse, or we can head for the Villa Toscana restaurant on Coffee Rd. in Modesto for a meal, and then go our separate ways. Al, if you want to borrow a bike, let me know - something can be worked out, it just wouldn't be as classy as your LeMans.

Sure is. Yosemite.

Yosemite is a very long day and ride at not very fast speeds. It's more a thing to do when you're cruising with family. Well, let's see. How about: 7:30 - 8:30 or so, we meet at: Mangy Moose Cafe 506 E Yosemite Ave Manteca, CA 95336-5807 Phone: (209) 239-1958 If you liked the show "Northern Exposure", you'll enjoy this place. Don't order more than one pancake at this place though, they're about 14" across. We can hash out a trip from there, but my suggestion would be to head east to Oakdale, then up 108/120 to O'Byrnes Ferry Rd through Copperopolis, east on 4 to Poole Station Rd which will take us up to San Andreas and from there take Hwy 49 to Jackson for lunch or keep going east on Hwy 88 a bit and double back on Hwy 26 to Hwy 49 south to Sonora or go exploring. There are hundreds of roads up there. I know a guy that claims to have ridden them all, but it took him 17 years of weekend riding.

Cruise this site for a lot of very good info: Daniel Stern Lighting And no, this isn't about lights for the aft end of your boat, it's the gentleman's name...

Sunday is wide open for me. Al, if you want to drive out, you can ride whatever I have that runs that I'm not riding. Meaning... I haven't finished working on the V11 Sport for a shake down drive yet, but I would be ready for Sunday. That would leave the California or V65 to ride. The Bugswatter, unfortunately, is not ready for prime time...

The Hawker Odyssey batteries are supposed to have such pure metal content that they don't sulphate or generate gases. I like them, pay the higher price for them, but I am aware that they fail. I've lost two to external pressure on the case (it doesn't take a whole lot) and one to (just plain stupdity really) being hooked to ground on the positive terminal. Here's a good source for the Odyssey batteries here in the USA: Odyssey battery for V11 Sports

Friday is out for me. But... How about the Italian Dinner thing Thursday evening? Joe in Modesto is free that day too (plus, it's two blocks from where he lives) and at least as an evening meet and greet, we're not obligated to do anything more than be there, eat, converse and disperse. On a weekday, that's generally pretty acceptable. That, and the weather is still quite nice for an evening ride home.

If you want, we can do a local ride in this area. A good local jaunt is to go out Hwy 132 east of Modesto to Roberts Ferry, check out the (new) covered bridge there (about 1/8 mile of 132), then a bit further up 132 to Crabtree Road, north (desolate twisty bumpy tertiary road) to Knights Ferry (via a few other back of nowhere roads) and look at the (old) wooden covered bridge there, and then Orange Blossem/Rodden roads back to Modesto.About 65 miles and a nearly two hours. An even better ride would be like the one up to Jackson a few years ago on the way to the Sutter Creek Italian Day Parade. More like a 2/3rds day ride. That would be out through Oakdale, north to Copperopolis, east on 4 to Poole Station Road and up to Hwy 49 and then a choice of north or south or up the hill (east) from there. There are a myriad of possibilites in that area. The weather right now is not bad at all.

Would that I could, but I'm going to get my guitar signed by Craig Chaquico on Thursday. I can suggest that we all get together for a pre-ride dinner/meet though. At least we could all get aquainted even if not all of us can go. There's a killer hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant here in Modesto. It is, oddly enough, owned and run by Mexicans that have never been to Italy. Go figure. At any rate, the food is very good and the prices very reasonable. I have been wanting to have some sort of Italian Food Night for guys and their wives on Italian bikes, but I've had to wait until at least one of my larger bikes was running before proferring the idea. This could serve double duty or perhaps become a regular thing for our region. Especially since the Doc Wong Italian dinner thing over at Alice's faded way.

Try here: TAW Vehicle Concepts Brembo Products I bought a set of calipers from them and they were very helpful as well as prompt.

The differences in the fuel outlet angle on the electric valve and the manual one from a Sporti gave me some problems when I had the manual one on the V11 Sport. Without re-routing the hose, there was too much angle on the manual fuel tap and when it finally got warm out, the hose kinked and shut off the gas. Re-routing the hose solved that problem, but my manual valve was old and leaky, so I fixed the electric one and returned everything to the original configuration. Yep, there are two Valeo casings. If you're being extremely cheap like I was, you buy a Saturn car starter (spins the wrong way!) and use the case off of that because it: #1 is available locally, and #2, it's about half the price of the part from MG. And about three times as much work. Silver soldering longer brush leads on etc. I did it, saved money and so forth. Too much effort. I'll never do it again. IT's working fine going on two years now.

Yeah, after having the bike completely apart for ten months, I got it back together and it simply would not start. Duhhhhhh....... pull in the clutch dufus. Despite all of that, I've left it in place as it helps restore my humility.

I have vacation days on the books and I've done NO rallies this year. This would help make up for all of that. Hwy 229 is one of Californias best kept little secrets. Too bad the neat stuff is only 6 miles of it.

I'm game. When? (not this weekend though, I'm working).

The gaskets don't have to be replaced until they get brittle. Takes about four years.

Well sure, but you're going to be compared to something in your own class, that being supercharged, and the most popular supercharge kits I've seen in the magazines (which may have no corollation with reality) have mostly been for the 'Busa. Extreme extremism as i† were.

When I went to the Grass Valley ralley in 99, a friend set us up on a ride he had done two months previously with a BMW group. Unfortunately, the roads in the area had been extensively "repaired" by dribblng on tar and a copious amount of gravel after he had been there. We wound up doing 75 miles on gravel with 12% grades with numerous hairpin turns, deep in a forest and a long way from help if anything had happened. Top speed - 37 mph. It took damn near all day. On a Sport 1100i with the stock clip-ons. I bought Helibars after that.

Gawa Guzzi click on verkleidung

It surely is. That picture is 100% responsible for choosing to powder coat the replacement frame for my V11 Sport a silver semi-metaflake color. After damaging one of the porkshops (powder coated black), I replaced those with a set of Sport 1100i side plates (silver). I now have about the same quantity of shiny color below the tank as this picture. Personally, I'm not entirely sold on shiny stuff or I'd buy a Harley Ferguson, but for project bike, being as how it is a "tart" - it fits. There isn't really as much frame in view on a street bike though, so it's not overwhelming.

The ECU would be a nasty problem. Normal operation doesn't require any dramatic changes in fuel delivery, but when the NO2 goes on, the fuel consumption increases by an order of magnitude or more. The regulator is fixed, so it won't change on the fly. The stock injectors probably lack sufficient delivery as well and even the size of the fuel tap on the tank is going to come into play at some point. Personally, I think an investment on this order would be much better spent on some OZ wheels and floating brake upgrades or Ohlins forks etc. Even if you got everything working right, somebody with a blown 'Busa woud come along and bury you on the straightaway.

Note that the hideous MG fairing mount has been ditched in favor of fork mounting. I wish the photo showed how it was done. And now. Just because... Yes, it's a Guzzi small block and if you had to build a custom cruiser Guzzi, this shows a LOT of effort on somebodys part. Very cleanly done.