Martin Barrett

I then come across signs "Unsuitable for motorvehicles" "Ford" I think I've been the other way up this "Road" 25 years ago on my Mobelette along with a friend. At that time the river ran down the road. I thought I'd have a closer look. It's dry, the bed is large stones. I make my way gingerly. squeeze past some fly tipping. the bed is becoming mud and deritus and wet. I decide enough is enough and turn around. The pictures are as I'm about to rejoin the road. and the signs where I emerged as took a different fork away I did eventualy work my way around to the other end and went the other way up the unsiutable road. I think I was only a100m short of making it all the way through.

But I find a nice mile stone.

Then head out again. Make it to the Obelisk. It is too far from the road to make a good landmark.

My next stop was a post windmill. I continued on my meandering route and became aware that all was not well under my rear. A stop revealed that the rear was quite flat. I new there was a service station not top far and I was able to limp there before it went totaly flat. The air lines at Garages have a 6 - 8 inch metal end with the double headed connector at the end but angled about 30 degrees. It's very difficult to get it on to the valve. The rim is too wide to use the connector facing back down the handle and the wheel hub makes it difficult to get it on square. I eventually was able to get some air in. I found the likely hole and it wasn't bubbling through a good layer of spittle I decided to try and limp home rather than call the RAC. I reinflated at the next service station about 7 miles, and then limped back to my home town and called in on my local workshop. This is the tyre I had fitted a great expense last month and has done about 500 miles. Normally I've changed punctured tyres but that's relatively easy when tyres reach the end of their life. This time it was filled with pink goo. I took it for a quick blast between the two junctions either end of the motorway as it runs past my town and then home for a spot of lunch.

I then found an ornate village name post and it had the legend of "Jack O'legs" on it. A local giant who had taken to robbing the local bakers to feed the poor. The bakers took exception to this, put out his eyes and before putting him to death granted his last wish to be burried where his arrow fell. It hit the village church tower a distance of about 4 miles and is burried there. I then went and found his grave.

Debs suggested that I go out for the day on the Guzzi as I haven't done so quite a while and have some time to myself. She seems to have forgotten that I'm going to the Alexander Palace show on Tuesday. I didn't have anything specific to go or do so I thought I'd have a local bimble and see ifI could find any landmarks that could be used for future rallys/treasure hunts. Today didn't seem to be overly cold and was dry with only a few wet patches on the roads. I had seen an obelisk marked on a map so I thought I'd head out that way and see what else I could find on the ground. The first stop was a derelict church.

Ryan, where you one of the smokers?

My take on your dates April 10-14 is week before Easter so kids will be on Holiday It could be tight taking leave for March. As it stands I should be able to get mon-wed off but the thursday looks like it's fully booked. I can get back in time for work as i'm due on nights so thats not too much of a problem so provisonal as it stands my preference would be overnight tues or wed. I'm not sure how cold and wet it will be in March. I'm not doing that Scottish rally, and there still appears to be leave opportunities,

It's all about risk management. A sudden stop against an immovable object or any other sudden absorption of energy will really mess your day up. There's the chance that the chin bar will dig in and rotate twisting the neck and now transfer force directly. I've not used an open face for road riding since I progressed from my Yamaha RS100 nearly 25 years ago. Hail at 50mph used to sting and rain from a little bit faster. It's not bothered me since. Well not facially I did find that hail stung at 80 on the arms through my fabric jacket when only wearing a T shirt underneath. I can't say I noticed a loss of peripheral vision or hearing from the switch to full face. You could argue that the edge presented by the open part of an open face is more likely to catch and dig in. I crash really well. I learned to relax from falling off my trials bikes. I've been able to put this to good use when falling off road bikes and even end over ending a car, but not for more than 12 years now. But it's always been me and mostly the ground and never any other traffic or roadside fixtures until the speed has been greatly scrubbed off. I wouldn't go back to an open face helmet.

The badger pokers have taken all the tea spoons from the kitchen draw at work.

GPS will warn you of sites. Some "Road Safety Partnerships" publish on their websites the same information and even their time table when the vans will be there. Radar detectors will detect radar splatter. Hand held radar is pretty much obsolete now. They were being passed down the line but I'm not sure if it still are used. But radar is used in GATSO type fixed camera. The vans and hand held is now laser. I don't think there's much you can do about detecting these unless you're going wild weasel. The Traffic Police Officers have "approved" laser sites that are selected because of a perceived problem identified in part by the number of injury accidents that have occurred they have to visit these sites at a determined frequency. They can either use it coupled with a camera or stand alone in which case they will clock your speed and then stop you, the later method is what they would use away from "approved" sites. There are SPECS cameras that use the time distance formula over a stretch of road. I don't know the specifics. Last summer I went along the A76? in Scotland were they were being installed. Several sets I don't know if they'd time you between a&b; a&c: a&d; b&c; b&c; b&d; c&d ....etc but it wouldn't be difficult. The good news for motorcycles is that they're forward facing. I went to the National Traffic Control Centre and our guide enthused about out rolling ANPR system and who it would read and track millions of vehicles. They liked it for traffic flow purposes. I can see the use of it in crime investigation and intelligence. It's not to big a step to then use it for speed enforcement and road pricing. Just need enough computer processing power. I can see smaller bikes becoming back in vogue along with back lane blasting. Back to topic - additional warning is nice but you can't beat good observation and appropriate use of speed. Unless the sneaky so and so has parked up behind something to hide and is taking rear shots. But I believe they want front shots to aid with driver identification.

In this thread GuzziHutch confirms that the teknos work with Tis if fitted with standard hangers not the Ti hangers. I'm not being a "use search" moaner but just wanted to credit the right people. and there's useful comment on the old threads. Too much using search will eventually cause the forum to dry up and die IMHO Anyway there's always new an innovative ideas to problems that have had solutions already posted.

In this thread gallo-se gave hope to the teknoless by finding the link to bags and bikes who make the Blir which appear to be the same if not actually the same

This very question was asked here and the consensus was that they're a bit fragile but if the mods have been done can be okay but the parts are difficult to find/expensive if not already done. I have no personal experience.

The V11 has had some niggles with the side stand/clutch/gear position cut out system. A lot of it can be traced to the bullet connectors under the tank and a few dodgy components. Gill's sidestand cut out switch had been disconected and bypassed by its previous owner. So he was able to set off on a righthand sweep and get a good head of speed before leaning slightly left and then pole vaulting down the road. the rest is history

I went down the Coke can route last year - my bodging thread - it failed. I tried to use it as a bandage and the clamps got in the way. I also tried improvised gaskets using wire wool and plumpers putty. I wonder if I would have had better results with a Pepsi can ?

want to borrow my piece of STRING?

In the Uk a "Belly Pan" is the fairing that goes under the engine sump. Motomecca do one - can't find picture at the moment £198.58 EDIT - Possibly an old PDF but has a picture

Met behulp van freetranslation com zijn wij niet uitgesloten. U krijgt, verliest een ruw idee slechts sommige van de gramatical nuances. Ik moet een laptop en satellietschakel kopen als de Duitser leren heel goed ga niet. With the help of freetranslation.com we aren't excluded. You get a rough idea just lose some of the gramatical nuances. I must buy a laptop and satellite link as the German learning isn't going very well. How close was that?

Ignition normally . you're going to want to take the key out anyway. Though I (unintentionally) use the kill switch if on full lock with my tank bag and I have used the side stand also when parking up on a step slope and wanting to leave it in gear. I don't know if frequent use of the kill switch would cause wear that would be likely to cause it to trip or short there has been a couple of reported failures and I've seen it flagged as a weakness on one of the Aprilias. Conversely should you test it every so often to make sure it works and stop it from sticking. I'm contemplating to changing mine to an earlier on the top rocker as opposed to the push button it currently has. To avoid tank bag - kill switch - Issac Newton - leg - ferry deck moments

Robin, Sorry to hear of your anguish, especially as she rekindled your hopes. Think long and hard before giving it a third go with her if she reappears. She obviously had second thoughts but then changed her mind, she is always likely to do it again. Don't seek too much solace with your corkscrew. It spoils the Guzzi experience amongst other things. Concentrate on the good things you've got the 3 Guzzis and your "layhound". I'm sure you'll come out of this and perhaps find someone more deserving of your affection. Martin

Glad to see that we'll meet again. I've allready booked my channel crossing. When England qualified for the football world cup, in order to make sure I could get across. My local crossing Harwich - Hook just arrived to late in the day Friday to get to the site comfortably. So I'm not away from the family for too long I've gone for an earlyish chunnel crossing as opposed to an overnight or Thursday ferry crossing. The train gets into calais 0933 CET (you're an hour ahead so don't want to be earlier than this) Michelin route planer puts the site 6h 20m and 400miles. If I go via Varsseveld it's only 1h 30m and 70miles further(thes are obviosly motorway times). Unfortuneatly it says 4h and 250miles to Varsseveld So if I try and join you I wouldn't be there untill 1-2pm which might be too late to join you for the ride down. So see you at the meet and perhaps on the way back

Jaap, You seem to be double booked http://www.mgcn.nl/dameijer/evenementen/view_detail-5

Thank you for sharing. Some fine bikes there. Weather wise we're just cold and damp and greasy and wet. I seem to be living my charmed life and missing the worse of the rain. It always seems to have a slight break when it's Guzzi time (commute to and fro work) I don't mind so much getting wet on the way home, but it's not so much fun on the way to work.

They're a shy lot these Tenni owners I PM'd him yesterday asking him to make Van's day by posting