docc

I was going to skip the ride today but was motivated by your post . . . I must've been in a pretty good mood 'cause the Sport was Oh-So-Sweet! Thanks for the motivation!

Nummy . . . "Veronica Saint" makes me want an old loopie.

Eastwood Alumablast with an Eastwood clearcoat is a close and durable match.

Simplest thing is to check the connector at the neutral switch behind the starter. They often get loose or dirty. Next check, wiggle, clean or change the middle relay.

Naw, I'm all finished sobbing now. S'pose you'll have to call me 'ducc' to cover the quacking thing. Like so many of the complex issues of life (doctors, guns, motorcycles) if we draw our conclusions on the most visible, the average, or the hype we are likely to miss the truth , and with it, much of the experience of life. Per Martin's post: " . . . incapacitant sprays (CS and now pepper) that are "firearms" under UK law . . ." Pepper spray is a "firearm?" Careful Martin, before long they'll have you on a scooter and call it a "Motorcycle." The slippery slope and all . . .

Kind of like a big, black Daytona 1200 at a buck-something?

'Price' is an economic conundrum. If you count my wife's kitchen remodel (tit for tat) my Sport cost $42,000. Lucky for me she gets the 'tat.'

let's still try to all get together around Lynchburg in a few weeks. 19 August is my next window.

4mm 3-3.5 NM 5x0.8 6-7 6x1 8-12 8x1.25 25-30 10x1.5 45-50

The forum sucked less back when we were so busy with our gearshitboxes and electrical maladies we didn't feel compelled to dispute with one another over unrelated topics. The move to put this sort of banter aside into a forum of its own is eidence that what we were doing didn't work well for the best of the LeMans forum itself. Unfortunately , the personal views and disputes between individuals has bled over from unrelated topics into the technical threads. One poster even deleted his posts with some valuable technical links because the thread was heating up. Too bad for all of us, really. As far as one sided opinions, I overtly grant you yours. You don't want to own a firearm? No problem, there are plenty of places in the world where that is mainstream. Don't believe in God? You're not alone. Don't like this thread or this forum? It's a big web out there.

I'm surprised we made it 66 posts before this slant arised. Kind of like having a chat in the parking lot about Guzzis, Ducatis, injection, tires . . . and some bloke walks up to say, " those big motorbikes are dangerous and a nuisance. They should be banned. No one needs one." Freedom is a powerful and fragile existance. It's price is, indeed, eternal vigilance.

Looks like Speer HP for the Glock. Not much available for it locally. Although the TN Highway Patrol has gone to this caliber so perhaps availabilty will improve. And I agree with Ryan; a handgun can be a dangerous thing to protect your home. Storage, access and discipline are all problematic. It can be like getting a 150hp sportbike so you can ride faster.

I've never seen one of these tanks trap that much fuel. Usually it's 0.8 - 1 gallon. I wonder if some other mystery has been visited upon you. Vapor lock, perhaps?

Or the king of anywhere else. We are , after all, free sovereigns each of us. I just added a Glock 33 in that .357 SIG caliber. What an amazing round! While overpenetration could be a problem it is otherwise accurate and very powerful. I've always used the Colt 1911 but it is a bit bulky for carry.The little Taurus concealed hammer revolver in .38 spl always made me feel like I was bringing a cat to a dog fight. In the house: handgun with a SureFire flashlight. Out on the 'ranch' the AR15 carbine is mighty reassuring. I used a modified Remington 870 12guage for years on my other farm. For short range (35m) and limited penetration ( don't try to shoot through the oak barn) it was an imposing sight. I just wouldn't have wanted to come up against that guy with a rifle!

And another:

I removed the connectors from the fuse block. The wires had been hot on both sides. I can't believe these flimsy things could handle 27 Amps ( obviously they can't). I used the lap splice to add in a separate fuse block for the regulator fuse.

There was an old thread in 24/7 : "Who designed the Spine Frame?" I can't get the search engine to bring it up. It must have fallen prey to The Pruning. The story goes Tony Foale had designed a spine frame for the Guzzi which predated the Wittner effort. Wittner showed a good bit of interest in the design and apparently took lots of photos, asked lots of questions. Within a year or so the Wittner spine frame appeared with the help of Detomaso and funding from Maserati of North America. This is only a vague synopsis and I apologize for any inaccuracy. Although here is a photo of the Foale bike:

We could have used that beautiful Sport-i for reference. Lots of questions came up about the changes between the Spo®t 1100 ,carbed, and the first of the V11s. With the bikes parked after a spirited ride, and with proper application of Peroni, the continual evolution of changes becomes apparent.

Thanks, Hubert and Ryan. I'll use some contact cleaner in the connection this morning. EDIT: Well, I've cleaned them and tightened them up a bit. Hubert's concern about the softness of the metal seems likley. Also , the connections are slightly over 3mm while the fuse blades are 5mm. This hardly seems rated for 27amps. Is going gold enough or should the connectors be 5mm? And to use larger connectors wouldn't the fuse have to be outside the fuse block?

Oh, yeah, it's getting hot allright. This fuse was only in for the sustained 750 mile 3 day ride. I'm taking the hot off my junction block and going straight back to the battery. It looks to be only about 16 guage wire ( maybe 14?) from the 30A fuse to the battery where it is twinned to the yellow/black which goes back to the fuses for the lamps and ignition switch. The red crosses from left to right and back to the positive terminal then the ylw/blk crosses back to the right and over left again to the fuse block. Maybe larger wire with a shorter run would minimize the resistance ?

Greg Fields' book is the definitive work. It's as if Walker is so busy cranking out books on everything that the details are mighty unimportant. And, after all, it's the details we get these books for. Another good resource is The Moto Guzzi Story by Ian Falloon. Greg's book is a gem and especially for the interviews with Witner and also Umberto Todero who is now gone from us. Even with the dubious origins of the spine frame and the eary work of Tony Foale, we would not have 10 years of production spine frame variants without the work of Dr. John. It is somehow fittingly Italian for DeTomaso to use money from Maserati to fund an American to smuggle off and develop an idea we've all come to enjoy ( and pay for).

You've got those young eyes so maybe you can reach out to those ranges. It's more realistic to expect pistols to be accurate to 25 meters. If you've ever fired upon anything beyond 150 meters you know how hard it is to stay on target and hold a lethal level of accuracy even with a good high powered rifle. Optical sights, of course, extend the range of accuracy depending on your trigger technique, steady hold, ammunition and perhaps a dozen other factors. Like sport riding , the uninitiated believe that the equipment ( rifle, handgun, motorbike) yields the result. In practice, there is no substitute for skill and experience.

I thought my very hot looking 30A fuse last year was a result of a bad regulator. But I find my current fuse has also been hot. I've been storing extra fuses between the fuses and thought that might be storing heat. I've had all my connectors apart and greased but maybe it's time to go back through them all? What else could it be? Should we all pull that 30A fuse and have a look?

motoRguzzi? Scary, ain't it?

And then there was this: South'n Spine Raid, Cherohala Skyway, July 2006