Gino Rondelli

I last used my V11 3 years ago to ride to Sicily from Scotland, I pretty much parked it up after that trip and have just repatriated it from storage, I was thinking of selling but as always after spending the week servicing, greasing and cleaning I stood back, looked at it and thought "what was I thinking?" Flashbacks to the good times and the grin factor means I don't think I'll be selling it too soon! I have other bikes which I use more but I reckon for all round fun the V11 is up there.

He has an ad in Gambalunga, call on 0208 857 7777 during shop hours tues - fri 09.30 - 18.30

Congrats Docc, impressive, and thanks

I lent mine to my wife who after a short trip announced I may not get it back, I was on the T3, she came charging past me having fun. V11's are addictive.

Try to plan it in with the Scottish Guzzi Rally at the beginning of May, always a good weekend! PM me if you need any advice or help for Scotland Gino

Weekend at Applecross for a Norton meeting but took my V11, lunch at Lochcarron Friday, sun and great roads

Sh*t never checked my tail light but then again my V11 is almost new compared to the impressive almost 100k miles Docc! But then again Fiona is my tail light checker I suppose (although when I'm on the Norton she is the "something's fallen off / smoke out of the exhaust/ it stinks of petrol /oil checker)

I'm sure thats a Norton Commando Crankcase filter spanner.............

What happened to the gearbox?

Thanks for the kind comments guys, appreciated and makes it worthwhile. Bill My dad did his national service in the Alpini. I bought a nice bottle of Grappa in Bassano but its 52% and a bit like fire water It's the only way Gino

And that my Guzzi friends is it for this trip, it was a blast, enjoyable and surprising just how comfortable a V11 can be on a long trip. It's not great for trail riding but we managed ! My parts (Breather hose and oil switch) arrived today so all that stress for around £20 worth of parts! Kiwi Roy's diagram helped me in my electrical hour of need so thanks for that! This story was taken straight from my Blog so it may read a bit strangely but I sure as hell wasn't re writing it again. I hope you enjoy!

So as I said previously the plan was to make steady progress home, the problem with that is as soon as you leave the South of France it gets colder, I don't like cold! We also to begin with decided to stay in bigger cities in case my Guzzi needed to go to the Doctors. The temporary repair was holding up well and we made it to Dijon, nice municipal campsite near the town centre (walking distance in fact) The old town is nice but really just a collection of shops selling crap you don't need on a motorbike or in a tent. A meal in a city centre café was a bit more expensive than the Italian / Croatian side the petrol as well was as much as 1.56 Euro on the highways. We had a beer stop at a café obviously used by the locals, fun pub full of mainly men and all seemed half pissed, a collection of characters, no different from a Scottish pub really apart from the better suntans and they were speaking French! Another day another service station Dijon, another church Nice square Another photo to add to my exotic telephone exchanges collection Very old methinks We eat in a café that used to be a printers, so for all you printers out there an old Heidelberg Don't know why? No campfire just TUC biscuits and whisky in a tin cup There was a weather front moving in so we played it safe and had an early night. The following day was cloudy, very cloudy, we headed up the road and then the rain started, some of the heaviest rain I've ridden in, we were down to 40mph terrified we'd get shunted as visibility was almost nil. At one point the Gendarmerie were behind us with their blue lights flashing, they followed us for miles but I wasn't stopping in that weather, they eventually passed us which is when I realised they weren't tailing us but escorting a military truck, the shame, overtaken by a wide load. We stopped to get our bearings, my Interphone F5 which we use to speak to each other on the move was doing strange things and turned out to be completely beyond repair due to the rain, bugger, more stress then as we set off my oil light came on, remember I had a split breather pipe earlier in the trip, I thought "bugger that'll be the engine knackered then!" but a stop and check it seemed to be circulating oil and the level was ok so I did what any Guzzi rider would do, I pulled the wire of the switch as I was too nervous riding with a big red oil warning in front of me. We stopped that evening in a hotel to take stock and try and fix things. The Interphone was not fixable, the oil switch I only replaced 3 months ago seemed to be faulty but I was at least confident the bike was fine. We taped up Fi's waterproofs which had melted on my exhaust earlier when her hands turned white with the wet and the cold and she was trying to use the heat of the Guzzi cylinder heads to restore feeling. Not the best day we'd had and challenging for many reasons but hey ho, that's life on the road, you can take the odd bad day as long as there's no one hurt and the sun eventually returns. We pressed on through Luxembourg (Shite drivers) and camped in Belgium for a couple of nights at a nice campsite not far from Namur. The site had a high proportion of residential vans and was obviously an escape for people from Brussels. A day off on the Friday and we were horrified to see the news about the lunatic in Nice the previous night, we've been there often, it's such a nice place and not one you'd expect to be associated with this level of violence. Saturday we awoke to find out about the Coup in Turkey, we were thinking the world is going mad. Unloading the bike while I relax in the tent Dinner Al Fresco Clear sky it was going to be cold Colder Fi has been in Italy too long, speaking to our neighbour with full hand gestures We headed to a small seaside village near Ijmuiden for the Saturday night, problem was the tunnel is closed and our Dutch is non existent so at one point we were 5 miles away from our destination but after several u turns, much swearing, a couple of laps of the town, a few rides up and down the A22 we finally made it haven done over 20 miles going round in circles, Mr Garmin can be such an arse at times! Sunday we reluctantly took the DFDS ferry back to the UK, the usual shoddy treatment by DFDS, they are masters at pissing me off, they use cheap Filipino labour (unlike the ferries in Croatia and Italy which appear to be staffed with friendly and helpful locals) and you get the feeling the dour faced European staff don't really want to be there and probably spend their time off having meetings about how to make it more difficult for motorcyclists! I think in future we'll use the Chunnel more. We arrived home after a dry final leg, bikes away, washing machine filled up and a decent cup of tea. 4000 miles, 3 minor (but worrying) mishaps with the Guzzi, the Kawasaki as always never missed a beat although I did adjust the chain once, it also passed the 60,000 milestone so only another 40K before Fi retires it and buys a new one. Fantastic trip, nice people, nice food and I proved to myself you can easily tour on what many think is an impractical touring bike, just got to get my physio sorted and I'll be ready to do it again. What do you mean we're lost again? Just hanging around Watching stuff BMW Wasp outfit, Germans on tour of Scotland, now with a better route planned, an ignorant cyclist knocked a bit off his handguard as he cycled up his inside to get on the boat, I was too slow to boot him off, never stopped, never saw him on the ferry, I hope he suffers terrible saddle sores! Waiting for another crap DFDS experience

We stayed in Palermo two days and did a lot of walking exploring the old town, there are some amazing bits of Architecture and history but I’m afraid its a bit dirty and down at heel, the heat makes some of the city’s less appealing smells more pungent. From a tourist and outsiders point of view there needs to be some education or cash put into the rubbish and graffiti problem but i suppose if you’re constantly paying the mob its difficult. We left our digs for the ferry at 6pm with a hint of trepidation having watched the trffic insanity for two days, the ferry terminal less than a mile away, to say we got the run around was an understatement, i was beginning to think we were back in the Central American republics, when we eventually got to the ticket office to collect our boarding cards, the very fat, rude surly guy was as helpful as a dose of diarrhoea when there’s no toilet and your wearing a white suit! He started shouting at me then calmed down when I gave him a round of the guns with my best Italian abuse and actions. The Ferry queueing seemed and was chaotic but at the end of the day we were boarded with no drama and left the guys to tie the bikes down, we met some fellow UK travellers so that was good to realise Mr Fat smelly guy was universally rude. The Ferry was huge, clean and much better than the crap we have to put up with going to Europe, it was good to find out we arrived in Genoa at 5pm and not the 9pm i thought it was. Genoa at 5pm is a stressful place to ride a motorcycle, not good at all. We arrived in Calice Liguria around 6.30 and called our host for the next two days Steva who we met at the Elefant Rally and runs a bikers B&B. He met us in the square and warned us the road to his place was a bit steep and had gravel, no kidding batman, I’ve ridden easier trials sections, but the V11 and Kawa made it with only a couple of dabs ! Martin and Sue form the UK (also Guzzi folk) were already there so we spent the next two days partying including a night in Finale Liguria watching Steva’s band and getting seriously pissed! Saturday Martin a Sue left early to get a tyre fitted and we had a tour of the old town with Steva. When I returned to my bike there was a load of oil under it, It seemed to be coming from the breather but couldn’t see properly, we pushed on for about 50 miles and pulled into a service station to check, it was pissing oil everywhere, further checks revealed the main engine breather had split. I took the tank off but didn’t have a long enough screwdriver to get the clamp off. An Austrian guy in a car offered tools and encouragement but had to go, meanwhile two Bulgarian truck drivers on their stop came over and got stuck in, I couldn’t get near the bike and half an hour later we had nipped the bad bit off the perished hose and got it together again. Bizarrely a Chinese guy who spoke no Italian or English appeared having ridden his GS12 from China with his young son on the back. We set off to my old village I lived in when i was a bambino, stayed with my cousin Bruno in his B&B for a couple of days eating, catching up with the locals, drinking and chilling. We did get a bite freaked out I admit when we encountered the snorting wild Boar on the way walking to Bruno's house with only the phone to see the way, no harm done , I think it was more scared than we were! Today we set off and rode the route Napoleon which is outstanding normally but for now there’s mega roadworks so after a long day we quit just an hour short of Grenoble, Every time i stop i’m nervously checking the breather as it’s a very temporary repair. The plan is to make progress every day and hope it hangs out Palermo Where are we? Rubbish everywhere A wedding car, seems to be the fashion Nice though More stuff One of the gates into the old city waiting for a ferry Lets take a selfie Steva's drive, not for the faint hearted Old Guzzi's in the garden Not so old Guzzi's in the garden Steva and one of the other visitors on Friday night Good food, good crack Hear no evil, see no evil , speak no evil King of the castle Getting messy I liked this shot Steva in full flight And the girls in full dance My Bulgarian helpers The view from Bruno's house, not too shabby Guzzi looking into the village

We left Dubrovnik and Croatia on Friday night. The very efficient ferry (take note DFDS!!) deposited us in Bari, Southern Italy on Saturday morning. We had a few missed turns out of Bari, very stressful as I'm sure mot of the people have comedy driving licences although its not funny! We latched on the a GS1200 rider who was heading part of the way and said we should tag along, we did and it worked out well, turns out our temporary guide was Roberto, a lawyer from Bari, plenty business there I suspect! After about 100 miles we parted company and Fiona and I ran along the foot of Italy from East to West before getting the ferry to Sicily, it all seemed chaotic but they sure turned the boats around quickly for the 25 minute trip to the island. We stayed in Taormina, a very hilly town in the shadow of Mount Etna. We had an outstanding view from our hotel which made the challenging ride up the narrow streets worthwhile. Sunday we rode past Catania which looked incredibly busy then took the small and less crazy roads to Punta Secca, the biggest issue down here is the road surface is very slippy so its with much trepidation that you tip into bends, the locals though have God to protect them obviously so drive and ride in such a way that beggars belief. A couple of days in Punta Secca in Inspector Montalbano's house was a superb way to relax but a short trip to Ragusa to see more Montalbano set's (Italian detective series) kept our blood levels high. I haven't mentioned the heat, it varies between a cool 30 and a hot 40, excellent ! We've just arrived in Palermo following a nice ride part of the way across the sun baked centre of the Island, photos as always to give you a flavour and to save me writing more nonsense. Dubrovnik Port awaiting the ferry Bari, 8am Saturday Roberto, our Bari lawyer guide Mount Etna from our digs, not too shabby Panoramic from the restaurant Nice by night And nice by day Even the bikes had a view For you Montalbano fans, the famous balcony! Sunset, drink, food, perfect Ragusa, a well know church shown often in the series Pretty trees More Churches The ancient portal to the City (not Fiona) Blah blah Enjoying a drink on that balcony A Fisherman returns home in the sunset Meanwhile the locals dance in the street Heading over the hills Pretty dry here as you might imagine