mdude

Got a very swift answer on perfect english from Rossopuro regarding the gorgeous Alpina wheels. Still no news about availability, but Alpina has got huge orders from KTM, Honda and Ducati among others and struggle to keep up. Rossopuro figured the price would be 1800-2000 euro for a set. And thats not too bad. They're now on my list... HTMoto can provide another spoked set of wheels on request, but not tubeless.

congratulations, but where are the pics?

Thats a babe from Image Bank, innit??

yep, august is a closed month in Italy, and Giuseppe usually takes the first week of sept to shake off the Chianti before starting to churn out designergoodies. My design company orders loads of furniture from Italy and we are talking 6-11 weeks before shipping at this time of year....

dont y'all think this might be a mule with which they test engines and stuff? it doesnt look fresh nor finished to me....

As my hearing has been suffering absurdly loud rocknroll for years (saw The Cramps a couple of weeks ago; totally irrelevant but fun), I am starting to feel the consequences and feel the need to protect my ears. In crowded environments like bars/parties, I can no longer make out what people say to me, it all blends together to a high pitched din. So, time to plug'em up to save the little hearing thats left. I always use plugs on trips lasting more than 30 mins. One thing is the possible damage to hearing done by wind buffeting and howling engines (I sometimes drive behing my wife, and her Laverda is just howling...) another thing is that the noise drains your energy after a couple of hours and kills your concentration with possible dangerous situations as a result. I use those yellow sponge plugs (E.A.R) , but find them to be too big to be comfortable so I cut them in half. With half a plug in my head the engine and other important sounds (like ambulances) seeps through, just loud enough. This also works at concerts. Sceptical about the plugs with small "handles" on them. Dont they touch the helmet paddings? They also look uncomfortably similar to rubber toilet pumps.... what happens if ya yank'em out of yer ear really fast?? EDIT: wow, why did this end up in hicomp piston land???

I looove the tank, where is it from?

Mine has begun playing up too. But I'm dead sure its the spaghetti beneath the tank, not the switch. Ripping it apart while having a beer on saturday. BTW: I had the strangely satisfying pleasure of watching a sweating Duc 916 rider frying his starter yesterday. He tride it all but the bastard wouldnt start. Not strange really since his kill switch was in, the main light was on, the stand was out and he didnt pull in the clutch. Thats four out of four. Impressive. 250 bikers watched.....The guys mate tried after a while, and it started momentarily on the button....

Europe: lead free = green handle.... The Norge Convoy should have reached Nordkap in Norway several days ago, members of the Norwegian Guzzi community met with the convoy and rode with them on pieces of the journey. Here they are in Trondheim (middle of Norway) http://www.motoguzzi.no/Raid2006.asp Here they are in Elverum (deep forests east of Oslo) http://www.motoguzzi.no/raidelverum.asp the red mint Eldo was very popular among the Guzzi raiders. BTW: heres the Norw. Guzzi Club members bikes archive of course not al of the, 1500 members by now. http://www.motoguzzi.no/medlsykler.asp

I think the correct term is that was the day... as in "that was the day my dead pet returned to save my life" (A.Cooper) and the question is what time was that?? and to answer myself: those were the days: I think the time was 8 o'clock in the evening, mostly that was the day: much later in the evening

you got no chance, mate. better ship the bike over to me and avoid all the trouble. i'll take good care of her.

the dark side of adding higher bars is that your bum will take up more weight/vibes. for some, read: for me, that will be a lot more painful than a numb finger or two. I find the sporting bars a LOT better on long runs than my previous sit-up-and-beg BMW, because the weight gets more evenly distributed between hands, bum and feet (and of course the gut, which rests nicely on the tank ) but actually, sitting correctly on a bike is a tecnique which has to be practised and tested. a lot of us men are sitting like a sack of beans: rounded backs, belly out, leaning on the shoulders (the gorillalook...). its a passive position, which make fast corrections slower. look at the women who ride bikes, they adopt nearly at once a more correct and less testing posture with a straight back and low shoulders. why do I know? because I ride mountainbikes in marathons, and if your riding position gets wrong in a race (because of fatigue or injury...), it will make you cry in pain like a little baby after 30 miles.

If you lean passively on the grips with the palm of your hands you'll cut the blood circulation to the fingers and go numb, that will be the result no matter how much you manage to get rid of vibes. Try to sit a bit more actively: real close to the tank, straight back, legs gently pressing against the tank and hold the bars a bit more gently with your fingers rather than grip them hard like a baseball bat. On the longer runs I have no more problems with numbness after I adjusted my grip and riding position. Fatter grips might help also, but it really is mostly down to how you grip the bars. Proper setup of TPS and TBs will help to reduce vibes. With regards to the rear suspension, the right way to stiffen it up is to adjust the preload on the rear spring under the seat/tank (its fairly easy), turning up on comp and rebound will only make the damping stiffer and has no effect on ride height, which is the real issue when riding with pillion. Too stiff damping will make for a nervous and uncomfortable ride quality. Adjusting preload will also make the bike a lot more responsive wr. to steering inputs.

as Lemmy in Motorhead said " thats the way I like it baby, I aint gonna live forever..."

here they come: ###!!!!f#Kin#!!!!! we have reached $2 pr litre.....($10 pr gallon?). beat that. on the positive side, I found that the Greenie pulls 0,5 litre pr 10kms on longer trips, so that helps.

well, then you guys are soon paying the same as we do over here. I paid (hold tight) $2.600 (in todays USD values) for my set incl VAT and customs. so stop whining! it has been a gift up until now.

what time it is? its bloody holiday time, mateys!! four weeks of doing nothing ahead. have a great summer and drive safely. Spain next!

"metrosexual orgy of grief".....

stiffening and helping out the poor old engine ca n only be a good thing. Remember these? from a japanese site some time ago. they seem fairly easy to make, dont they?

Its a Radical, isnt'it? I've seen a couple on the track. The soundtrack is absolutely mental....

going to have a look at it on saturday. it is really a flame spitting hotrod, so it might be a bit too much. the badge is an easy fix, and i think the strap on the exhaust (if it works), and other scruffy details one can see just adds to the raw feel of it

now I'm really counting my money...... for sale in Norway, in my neighbourhood, and at a fair price (46000 NOK = 9200 euros, believe me thats a good price in Norway...) http://www.finn.no/finn/viewimage?finnkode...4B284142&pos=46 its a long link, but it should work...

The buell footpeg conversion solves a lot of problems at a fair price, do a search in the forum and a landslide of info will appear. I'm your height too, but I have adapted to the position. At speeds over distance I think the slightly forward position is much better than the spinnaker-situpandbeg-stance. The latter places all the weight on yer bum. I got moe problems with knee angle, so the Buell thing is what I'll try first.

I'm getting restless and worried with all this talk about the apparent smoothness of transvestites... and another thread just recommended that I wrapped my gonads in cling film... WTF is happening with this forum!?

ehhh...so ones supposed to wrap the nads in cling film? might be interesting, and probably worth trying but is this the right forum for discussing things like that??