stobie

Union Cycle in Indian Trail, NC (a few minutes east of Charlotte) is an old-school M-G dealer with a good rep among the old-school crowd, but I know some folks who have been less than pleased with them because of a sometimes curmudgeonly owner. I've been by there several times to look at bikes, and my experiences have all been positive. Very laid-back atmosphere. They'll stand around and chit-chat with you. I don't own a Guzzi yet, so be aware that my views are as a prospective buyer. There is a new dealer in the Triad (Mid-Carolina) region, but I don't know much about them except that they are a large, multi-line dealer. I'm pretty sure Interstate Cycle (Cornelius, NC--just north of Charlotte) is dropping the M-G line. A shame, because they are good people. They are/were also a "new" dealer (post-Piaggio buyout). Let me know when you get to NC. If you're unfamiliar with the area, I'll be glad to point you to, if not show you, some great roads. You're going to be right in the thick of twisty-road Nirvana. It's endless up there.

None of the KTM engines are supplied by Rotax, but KTM did hire the guy who designed the Aprilia/Rotax V60 engine to design the LC8. KTM builds all their own engines. Finding a good dealer is tough. I do all my own maintenance, but still chose my dealer based on the quality of his technician (Cycle Goodies in Winston-Salem, NC), in case of warranty issues. You Guzzisti have it made on maintenance, though. Here's my 950 SuperEnduro, stripped to have the valve lash checked: Here are the parts that had to come off to get there: The upside is, these are all the tools required: Literally one handful of tools. The bike is really a joy to work on if you enjoy working on bikes. Everything is of such good quality, and comes apart and goes back together so cleanly. You can tell KTM designs their bikes to be raced. After all that, none of the valves were out of spec. FuelCooler, SM's are known to be geared a bit tall. Dropping a tooth on the CS sprocket is a standard mod. Third-gear throttle wheelies are $25 away. I have been mostly street-riding my SE, so I have considered selling it to get an SM or SM-R, but by the time I pay the difference, I could just set up a set of street wheels and have the best of both worlds. The SE is just a real handful off road. Great chassis, but too much power. Going 70 mph in fourth on a dirt road, whack the throttle, and you're sideways. Oh yeah, they sound pretty good when you let them breathe a little:

Agreed, but it's usually the front that makes the difference. Modern sport-touring radials will allow you to grind the footpegs of a Multi, VFR, Sprint, etc., into razor sharp memories. Putting a pure sport tire on the front gives you a little headroom in a panic situation. It boils down to, "You pays your money, you makes your choice."

When the capabilities of the bike or rider exceed those of the tires.

I know of quite a few guys riding "sporting", but not "sport" bikes (i.e., VFR, Multistrada), using a sport tire on the front, and the same brand's corresponding sport-touring tire on the back. This seems to work quite well on bikes with, say, less than 100 HP at the rear wheel, which aren't likely to break the rear end loose coming out of a corner. The primary benefit is longer life from the rear tire with no significant loss of traction, which often leads to the convenient result that both tires need replacement at the same time. As far as the mis-match goes, the profiles of the rear sport v. sport-touring tires often match, while the fronts usually don't. The combo of Pilot Power front/Pilot Road rear is a popular one. Some guys like the BT014 front/BT020 rear (now BT021, I guess). Has anyone tried this on a V11?

We have found that 6061 and 356 behave very similarly in the process, and can actually be processed together. As far as making them match, I haven't tried; but black would be the best bet for matching any alloys. If you were trying to match a casting to a wrought alloy, 6061 and 356 give you the best chance. I would avoid glass bead blasting in any case. If you are bent on having a bead-blasted finish, try to find someone doing ceramic bead blasting. Ceramic beads tend to delaminate like an onion instead of shattering, and therefore don't embed.

I've been in the anodizing biz for 18 years, and can anodize any of my stuff for free. I would pay somebody to powder coat my valve covers. All castings anodize poorly; die castings are awful. Edit-in: Never bead- or sand-blast anything you want to have anodized. The blasting media tend to embed into the aluminum, and some of the stuff you are trying to clean off gets hammered into the surface as well.

The world, she just keeps shrinking... Nice to see you at Little Switzerland last week. I had no idea you were going Guzzi. I've been hanging out here for quite a while myself, living the M-G life vicariously through this great forum, waiting for the right V11S to come along. Hope to see you and the new steed out on the road soon. Maybe we can drag mikek out for a ride. Oh yeah; from the above responders, it looks like you're in good hands.

You guys should take a peek at Kropotkin's blog for some well-written commentary and some interesting perspectives. The writer is a Brit living in Holland with a completely unbiased eye. The commentary on the Estoril debacle is especially good. As for Nicky dogging it for points, I wouldn't be surprised to see a more aggressive Nicky now that he has a championship under his belt. He should have little left to prove now that he's World Champion, and maybe that will free him up to go after more race wins. I doubt that many of you European fans have seen Nicky ride balls-out. He certainly didn't have a rep of being a boring, conservative rider when he was in the AMA's.

Nope. You're thinking about West Virginia.

Thanks for the new sig line.

Smart man. Didn't skimp, either.

I know some folks using these with success on dual-sport thumpers that see some rough terrain and don't have much juice to spare. MR11 HID SCMR16 HID These are bona-fide HID's with built-in ballasts. The first only draws 13 watts, the second draws 30. Being HID, they put out tons of light for the amount of power consumed. The only bugaboo is that they are polarity-sensitive, so if you hook them up backwards, you'll blow the ballast immediately, which is true for any HID. The black anodized ones would probably look okay (unobtrusive) on a V11. They're not very big. Not very expensive, either, especially to be HID. Look at me, planning accessories for a bike I don't even have yet!

Let's bring this puppy back to the top. Antonio, I got the distinct impression that my BMW pics had you on the verge of nausea, so you will be happy to to know that I sold my GS-Adv back in June. I was able to buy back the KTM that I stupidly sold in January, after kicking myself for 4 months for selling it. I haven't kicked myself at all over selling the GS. I hardly ever think about it. So, does this make you want to hork? How 'bout this? I guess my do-it-all KTM will have to do until and can put a V11S along side her. I may get to test-ride an '02 LeMans tomorrow (and a Griso). Yeah, I know, I need a new avatar.