belfastguzzi

Oh dear. That's not actually designed...is it?

and that engine clearly has no functional connection to anything at all either

Target practise? It started out as a whole motorbike.

No, it's not about sympathy, and it's definitely not about comparing one tragedy with another. Absolutely not. I was thinking about the incredible power of special, talented characters to lift and galvanise the positive spirit of a whole country, not just for a short time but for years and generations. But maybe because of that, it's more of a local thing. The coverage and perspective in England is probably very different. At a time of great trouble and turmoil, (particularly the late sixties/seventies) the gifts of Joey Dunlop and George Best took people way beyond the grim circumstances. Again - it's not even a media thing. These guys were/are loved by many, many people for their genuine qualities – never mind, even despite, what the media have done. Only a small proportion of those many, many people who are touched and inspired and given a different sense of pride and identity are sports enthusiasts. I just though that was interesting, as football sport and motorbike sport are both regularly referred to here.

I'm no football fan, but George Best had an extraordinary, mystical genius that communicated with and delighted everyone, football enthusiast or not. Maybe a lot of you have never heard of Georgie, 'The Belfast Boy', 'The Fifth Beatle', although he did play in America for a while when he was on the long road downwards due to alcohol. Here, there's been talk of nothing else over the past week except his severe illness, protracted decline in hospital and then death at the end of last week. If you've any memory of Bestie, have a look here, a site picked randomly off Google. His funeral this Saturday will undoubtedly be even bigger than the other sporting genius who died far too young: Joey Dunlop's. There's a video compilation here. I'm still waiting for it to download as it's 16MB (be warned), so I haven't seen it – but it can't be anything other than fabulous. 1946 – 2005 [And Don Fardon (remember Indian Reservation?) is re-recording the 'Belfast Boy' single from 1972, a song originally recorded for a BBC tv film and then released due to huge interest and demand. Number One in the Christmas Charts next month?] Edit: watched the video – so should you if you've any interest in football at all. It's quite short, even though the download is so big, but well worth a look.

OK, done. You're easier to please than Ben anyway. Now what does everyone else want?

WHAT!! ANOTHER new bike! Or is it a car this time? They sure hypnotised you good and proper, Goffredo. Moto Guzzi Matrix indeed! Go and stand in the windtunnel for 3 hours. That might bring you to your senses.

pssst.. I just heard – a couple of new limited editions are in the windtunnel: Norge Viking (fairing extends on up over head like a, well, sort of like a Viking helmet; fairing also extends round the side, like, well, like a Viking shield) and the Breva Ballerina (being described as the 21st century Guzzi for the 21st century new Tennista)

I've just heard, a Performance Bikes 'journalist' escaped the crusher and he's gonna spill the beans in the next issue: "GRISO – it so doesn't exist!" Go order your copy now.

OH! Right. That's the BM cancelled then. I'll give it to someone who deseves it. Someone in the Tenni Forum should fit the bill.

Mike, the sealer suggestion is not for putting on internal mating surface along with gasket, it's for sealing externally, without removing the casing.

Pity it doesn't exist. Haven't you heard it's just a rumour? Haven't you heard of the evil mass-hypnotism experiments that Guzzi have been perfecting in their pretend 'Wind Tunnel'? over the past five years? They ship in the journalists, and people like Goffredo, hypnotise them and send them back home on old-stock CB175s. Suckers think they've got big bad Grisos under'em. If the hypnotism doesn't work, they have to kill the journalists, or so I've heard.

Right – it all makes sense now. As for Ben, he can stop dreaming: I told him, he's getting the BM and that's that.

Ok, I shouldn't really say this, but...the accident must have been worse than you said, if your crank is now lieing transversly across the bike. No wonder there's an oil leak

Ever seen a Tenni rider in his 'civvies', after he's taken his helmet off? Here's Van being taken for a nice night out by his kind fairy godmother.

Baldini has asked for numbers, and more relevantly, frame numbers. He's prob. not getting much response

Must be one of the bigger ones: He's done it on the wrong side of his body though.

All? Only you and Giovanni – and the similarity in names hasn't passed un-noticed. I suspect you're both the same person.

That's a coincidence! So does your bike!

Dear Ben I just can't keep up with you. My little helpers are in a dreadful tizzy with all the chopping and changing. Since last Christmas you have named about 156 different bikes that you say you must have! I just don't know which one to load on the sleigh for you . Please stop buying bike magazines, at least until the New Year. I'm getting you that BeeM that you want: like it or lump it. Ok, gotta go Merry Jingle Bells Santa

Watch out there Francesco. I think I saw on the news tonight that they're shooting Bison in Montana again – and those big buffalo looked very much like your bike does in that picture.

well I don't think that there's anything cheesy about doing a repair that works 100%, hasn't deteriorated in the freezing cold and damp over the previous winter of living outside or through the heat of running all day in the summer, is invisible – and cost nothing to do. But if you want to take the case off...

I don't think that you should assume the worst until you have to. Start with the assumption that it could be a leaking gasket. This is a well known 'feature' of these engines, particularly the black wrinkle paint cases. Is that weep from the joint running down into the bolt, or is the bolt area definitely leaking also? From the photo, it could be the former. This joint leak can start, as in my case, as a persistentent weep and then dramitacally progress to a huge outpouring, with oil streaming back from the bike when it's on the move. Oil leaks tend to look worse than they are though. The problem here is that a section of gasket goes missing. Sometimes a bit can be seen protruding from the joint. They seem to be prone to damage at the factory assembly, though the black paint has also been blamed for causing the damage – getting into the joint, causing the gasket to slip/mis-seat – whatever, I can't remember. You could take it apart and replace the gasket (carefully), but I recommend sealing it externally. I cleaned the leaking joint area, sealed it with blue gasket sealer / instant gasket and then rubbed a black silicone over the top. This repair works 100% and it's practically invisible. You wouldn't see it if you didn't know it was there. Search Tech Topics for oil leaks, timing chest leaks etc, etc, – as there is plenty more info on this particular type of leak, out there somewhere, including pictures.

The TenniMaster in the middle seems to be demonstrating to the two young aspiring Tennistas how he has mastered the art of countersteering. I don't really think that they believe him though.