belfastguzzi

I haven't read all this thread, but it seems to be repeating what was said in the previous threads on same topic. I agree with G.rider that the trip should be admired and enjoyed. Why be damningly critical about such a venture? The fact is that they got out and did it – in whatever way made sense in their circumstances. Of course it was going to be different than 'the average trip', for all sports of reasons. One reason being that there was not much time for planning and preparation. In that case, it makes sense to set-up a project office and get people to help with the planning and prep. It got them out there and they've done the thing. Even better, they took along people to film it, which among other things means that we can vicariously enjoy and understand a bit more about such a venture.

The wider/bigger your tyre contact area is, the greater will be the floating effect. If you were driving across a beach or a soft muddy field then you would benefit from lower pressure & a bigger/wider footprint. With a hard, stable surface (tarmac road) under rainwater, then you benefit from a smaller section tyre footprint for the same weight of machine, as you want to cut through the surface water as much as possible and float as little as possible. In the muddy field example, if the ground under the mud was hard stone, then you would probably benefit from a narrower tyre as it would cut through to the hard ground under the muck. Better to drive on the hard rather than floating/spinning on the surface mud. I think you don't want to pump the tyre up as hard as possible because you still want a decent length of contact area. For a given contact area, I guess that if it is long/narrow there will be more rubber on dry road than if the section is wider/shorter. Don't know how 'scientific' that is.

""When you get that BMW, you take it right? Right. But when you get that break, and your reach the top, savor it, take it all in. And let 'em suck your KTMs! while you tell them how wrong they were for not believing you in the first place. Then get out. Quit. Exit. Be sure to leave them wondering" --McGewen McGregor (You have to have seen/read The Long Way Round to get that.)

Do I get a(nother) quiz point if I give the correct answer?

Today (actually yesterday by about 10 minutes) I got a new old motorbike

I'm sure you mean Johnny Depp

don't know what made you think that – ahem

Is a ram air effect really going to be achieved anyway? I cut the back half of the airbox lid off (which gives the less restrictive intake that you are after, by way of destroying MG's carefully designed aerodynamics) but left the front half with the full intake snorkels, for the purpose Skeeve mentions – to assist the passage of cool air to the underseat area and intake system.

1) It was up at the top! 2) The whale gets it. 3) Cheap Rusky sites 4) Ointment. It's an American thing.

Candy Floss or Big Harley – never heard of 'em. Yeah, I considered Barry Sheene's part in Siver Dream Racer. Badmotogirly: that role's alredy been taken by a fellow forum member. As for the penguin, I wondered who would be first to mention that, though I had a pretty good idea

(memo to self – don't change avatar pic. again in the next few days)

I've considered Tarka the Otter, but moved on now. To be honest, I'm thinking of writing one of my own.

That's the link I gave you above – didn't you read the post, thoroughly? Those Russian dowloads seem to be very cheap? ?? ?? A whole album seems to be less than a dollar and a single track is nothing at all really? Am I reading that American money right?

I've been asked by the newspaper to do the next "if I could star in a movie..." section in their weekend 'lifestyle' supplement. While I thought of Bob Dylan in Renaldo and Clara, or Jimi Hendrix in Woodstock – I don't think that they are the sort of movies that the paper is wanting. I've just watched Easy Rider again, after 35 years or so and to be honest, it's slightly on the diabolical side of whimsy. Anyway, I wouldn't want Jack Nicholson riding pillion. Motorcycle Diaries – Ché and picturesque landscape – no, there must be something else. Trouble is, I'm no movie buff. What would be a good film to star in? Help! - ahh, yes maybe that's it!

yes, yees, yeees. Of course of course

JR is a Moderator. Be careful what you call him.

I wouldn't touch your leg, 'cause I know it would probably come off in my hands, officer. But hey – good grief – that Pandora ain't even heard of David Ackles – so not much hope of 'er knowing David Surkamp and his pooch. You gotta find this vinyl, JR. I did a bit of searching, but it's hard to find any mp3s. There's a bit on here, though you can't tell much from the short samples. The great albums that time forgot Typical. You form a band around two Mellotron players and a chap who sings in a strange, quavery falsetto and .. almost nobody notices. What's wrong with people? Pavlov's Dog - At the Sound of the Bell (CBS 81163) Tracks: She Came Shining / Standing Here With You / Mersey / Valkerie / Try To Hang On / Gold Nuggets / She Breaks Like A Morning Sky / Early Morning On / Did You See Him Cry Currently Available: Tricky-to-get German import available through specialists such as CTFT Singles extracted: None Recorded: Record Plant, New York Producers: Sandy Pearlman with Murray Krugman Released: April 1976 Chart Peak: None Personnel: David Surkamp (vocals, guitar), Douglas Rayburn (mellotron, bass), Steve Scorfina (lead guitar), David Hamilton (keyboards), Richard Stockton (bass), Thomas Nickerson (guitar, harmonies). Also: Bill Bruford (drums), Andy Mackay, Michael Brecker (sax), Mike Abene, George Gerich (organ), Les Nicol, Elliot Randall (guitar), Gavyn Wright (violin), Paul Prestopino (mandolin), High Wycombe Boy's Choir In 1973 in St Louis, Missouri - birthplace of Chuck Berry - something strange was occurring. Amid the blues'n'boogie bands of the Midwest an altogether different noise was erupting. This band had a Mellotron, a crazed violinist and a vocalist who sang at a pitch previously charted only by Tiny Tim in excitable moments. But this was no freakshow. Underpinned by the songwriting craft of the singer - one David Surkamp - and a storming live show, Pavlov's Dog were the most innovative act to come out of St Louis since, well, Chuck Berry. Word about them reached industry ears and ABC duly shelled out $600,000, the highest advance of 1974. This for musicians who, save for the guitarist, formerly of REO Speedwagon, had no track record. "Basically we were very good", says Surkamp today. "If a band had us supporting and they weren't up to the mark, they had a problem. Someone like the Jefferson Starship were fine, but if you were Steppenwolf, a bit iffy, we were very hard to follow." In their home town, Pavlov's Dog could headline to 10,000. The first album, Pampered Menial, produced by Sandy Pearlman of Blue Oyster Cult fame, was a startling debut. While Surkamp's keening vocals alarmed some, the intensity of his delivery, the passion of the playing and the uniqueness of the sound marked them out. Today it's their best remembered record, still widely available through Sony. But the Dog were a volatile bunch and frictions were mounting amid the ceaseless touring. "The rehearsals for the second album began disastrously and we took the decision to sack the drummer, Mike Safron," says Surkamp. With him went his ally, violinist Siegfried Carver. The band carried on rehearsing at Surkamp's parents' home. For the vacant drum stool, Surkamp tracked down the best percussionist he could think of - Bill Bruford. Then a veteran of Yes and King Crimson, Bruford was in his brief sessions phase when he played for Gong, Roy Harper and Annette Peacock. "I'd never heard of them," says Bruford today of the Dog, "but I got the call and American sessions tended to pay better. I did four day's recording. It was a positive experience. David seemed to be on the case and knew what he wanted." Surkamp remembers Bruford as a useful ally amid the conflicting ambitions of the band. The album they created missed the soaring fiddle of Carver but improved on the debut by being almost entirely written by Surkamp; Pampered Menial had dipped where others tried their hand and side two featured some rather stiff playing. At The Sound Of The Bell has two elements: there are carefully crafted pop-rock songs such as the opener, She Came Shining, or the fragile Standing Here With You. There are also some splendid full-on prog rock epics where producer Pearlman lobs in strings, sleigh-bells and overdriven keyboards. In England, Pearlman overdubbed the High Wycombe Boy's Choir on to a couple of tracks after Surkamp had been unable to find a suitable choir in the US. Elsewhere Andy Mackay of Roxy Music delivers an immediately recognisable sax solo - and Michael Brecker an atypical one (Surkamp had wanted David Sanborn for the gig). At 33 minutes, the album is a little too short - Surkamp blames the pressure of touring. The record's only weak moment is the humdrum MOR of Scorfina's Mersey. "I had to put one on to keep him happy", says Surkamp. Critics have assumed that the band, with its two Mellotrons, were influenced by the English prog outfits of the day - Genesis or Yes - but the singer's affections lay elsewhere. "I listened to English music, but my roots are in folk. I thought Fairport Convention were brilliant. I also liked Robert Wyatt and Family a lot". The band went out gigging again with a new drummer but Surkamp was losing heart. The album did not take off. "I suppose we were just too strange. It was a time when everything was a real formula, which I can't stand, people like Foreigner and Boston doing a very normal rock thing." In Britain, the dawn of punk would render the heart-on-sleeve romanticism of Surkamp's writing terminally unhip. A third contractual-obligation album eventually slipped out - never released here. Surkamp disowned it. He moved to Seattle for most of a decade before returning to St. Louis. He has worked as a journalist, made a reunion album and enjoyed a long collaboration with Iain Matthews of the Fairports. Today he gigs locally with a band including his wife Sarah and is thinking about another record. But the promise of At The Sound Of The Bell has never been fully realised. "Maybe I didn't want to be a rock star enough." he says. "I guess you really have to want to be one." John Bungey (MOJO #56 - July 1998)

A while ago I refilled the Land Rover swivel housings with the thick moly grease that's recommended as an option, instead of the normal oil, as a better job and to cut down on leaks from the swivel ball seal. I guess that this is the same sort of high moly content grease that's being talked about for the splines. Could be yet another Land Rover part to add to the Guzzi replacements list.

oh yeah, another thing – a present for John O'Sullivan, 'cos he owns Co. Kerry (and half of Cork).

Your campfire songbook. And a cricket bat. Don't you listen to fine Scotish Folk Singers? Erin go bragh hoots mon the noo

Looks like I could be on the way to another QP. You do get a Big P if no-one gives the answer, don't you? What are the rules around here anyway??

I say – there seem to be attractive discounts on Aimee Mann CDs! Don't know about the quality of her Moth track, but the Pavlov's Bell track caught my eye – as I immediately thought of Pavlov's Dog. I'm sure that a man like yourself must have at least one Pavlov's Dog in your LP collection? Hopefully Pampered Menial with lovely Julia on it. Mind you, you couldn't go too far wrong with At The Sound Of The Bell, either. Of course, the Belfast Cowboy has his long delayed country album out now. Nice Question: Why hasn't the V.11 board got a Music Forum on it?? (Gotta keep this post on the right subject for Moth Forum – no idle chit-chat here.)

But, but... I've been complaining about it for years now. It has seemed that I have been the victim of great injustice and obstructionism in the awarding of Points. However, right prevails, in the end.

That's the point – I think.

Brilliant. I'd take one, but without the motorbike attached to it. That messes it up, big-time.