Scud

I think foot plates (aka porkchops or stilettos) are aluminum. They certainly are not magnetic. Also consider powder-coating - but be careful with the fine threads for the swingarm pivots.

At least they are not asking people to join "the clan" like Moto Guzzi did a few years back. So this looks like an all-Piaggio dealership. No competing brands. I've heard that Piaggio puts a lot of pressure on current dealers to carry all the Piaggio brands - even if they were a legacy one-brand shop. I guess the emergence of new dealers who will be exclusive to Piaggio was inevitable. I wonder if Pierer Mobility will do something similar now that they have MV Agusta alongside KTM, Husqvarna, and GasGas (and Felt bicycles). Their strategy seems to be about vertical integration (making their own suspension - WP, in-house electronics, etc.). The Pierer culture is also strongly influenced by racing, so maybe we will see MV on the track again soon - and battling Aprilia.

Related article in today's New York Times. I subscribe, this is a shared link to the article, but I don't know if it will work from a forum like this: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/business/halloween-shopping-retail-costume-store-growth.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TU4.hdfJ.q9ucT19kJey5&smid=url-share

Congratulations. Ironically, I found my Nero Corsa in Canada and brought it back to the US. It was originally a US model. Yours looks to be a lovely machine in excellent condition for a very reasonable price. I noted in the ad that the seller claims it is one of 250 made. I'd be interested to know the source for that number - of if any other members could confirm it.

I'm seeing fewer homes decorated for Halloween, but among those fewer, they seem to be more extravagant. I'd say good riddance to Halloween if it does fade away. The big stores are full of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decorations, all at the same time. I wonder who has room to store all that crap. I don't. I have too many boxes of motorcycle parts. Halloween is a made-up marketing holiday. It has some fun parts, but it's a lot a sugar that the kids don't need along with a lot of plastic waste that the world doesn't need. But I am not above trick-or-teating to my neighbors' houses with an empty shot glass in hand. Maybe I'll try a wine glass this year. As far as I'm concerned, we can get rid of the other two holidays too. While I like the idea of periodically stopping to be thankful, the whole Pilgrims and Indians things is just the start of one of the biggest genocides in human history (not worth celebrating). I also like the idea of getting the family together at year end and exchanging gifts. But I'm not buying the Christmas origin story or the Santa marketing campaign. Let's go back to celebrating the solstices and equinoxes... objectively observable natural phenomena. We can have a major holiday once a quarter. That seems like a nice rhythm. But then, those holidays don't mean much to people near the equator... so to each their own.

Looks like a great trip. The day-of-the-week floor mats were funny. Bummer about the spill - and that's about what I thought would happen to the pipes on new engines. Cattle in the road... classic. Scenery... stunning. And Brazilian Pillion... well that just sounds right.

Ha... 17 year old thread has awakened. These things are like cicadas.

I followed Docc's lead on a Shindy damper for one of my past bikes and was happy with it. The stock/upgrade Ohlins unit is prettier, and fits easily. Any aftermarket unit might take a little more work, but I recall the Shindy being pretty easy to fit. I've heard nothing but positives about the Hyperpro, but not tried one myself. Unless you are really riding hard, the damper is basically there to prevent head-shake (aka tank slappers) in normal street-riding conditions. So anything that prevents large rapid movements will do that job.

Thea Scura looks to be a good value, but may come with some of typical Scura issues if not already addressed by current owner. As for the wheels on the greenie... never hear of that before. But it sounds like a 2002 or later stock rear wheel.

I suspect that the Scura is actually one of the more common V11 variants when you consider all the V11 variants available. The numbering seemed to increase demand. Similar thing happened with the Rosso Mandello. They made 300 numbered units. That was so popular that they made another 300 non-numbered units. But it's all mystery of Italian manufacturing. So welcome to the ongoing speculative inquiry. And enjoy the bike.

Hey Phil - That looks like a great adventure. I got close to Mandello once, but not close enough. I had a rented BMS GS - and chased a Moto Guzzi Stelvio up the Stelvio pass. Gearing up for a 500 mile ride across central Nevada tomorrow on my Stelvio.

Good luck with your decision. "Feelers out" may mean you sort of want to sell it and sort of want to keep it. The Red/Grey looks even better in person. Is there a bike night in Tuscon or nearby where you could pop a for sale sign on it? You just need someone to look at it and think "What the hell is that? I need it."

There are few lovely vintage Ducatis for sale now on https://classicavenue.com/

Unless, of course, someone comes along and points out that the BMW K75 and K100 "flying brick" engines had the clutch and flywheel assembly spinning in the opposite direction of the crankshaft. If someone were to mention that, then this thread might stray further off course.

Wondering what I will do when the inevitable no-more-motorcycles day arrives... I would have mocked this three-wheeler mercilessly in my younger days. But now it seems a better alternative than a convertible sports car.

This vehicle would be an excellent candidate for going "dark side" and running a car tire on the rear.

BMW Motorcycles of Escondido is now renamed Moto San Diego, and they have expanded their line-up to include Moto Guzzi and Aprilia, instead of being a one-brand shop. https://www.motosandiego.com/ At the moment, they are only showing five Moto Guzzis and five Aprilias in stock. But I think it's worth a ride over tomorrow morning on a Moto Guzzi, just to get acquainted. This shop tried carrying some Piaggio brands several years ago, but it failed. I don't know the circumstances, but I think that was at a time that a lot of people were complaining about how hard it was to work with Piaggio. Hopefully things are better now. This shop is right around the corner from Moto Forza, which carries Ducati, Husqvarna, Triumph, MV Agusta, Royal Enfield, Vespa. Previously, my closest Moto Guzzi (GP Motorcycles) was 30 miles away. Now I have one only 14 miles away. Much closer....

Forks are sold.

I went to Yosemite valley over the holiday (July 4th) weekend. We didn't get there early enough to park near the trailhead we preferred, so we had to walk 1.5 miles to the trailhead, then do the hike. The park was mobbed, but once we got to the steep part of the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls, the crowds thinned. Mass tourism happens because things are worth seeing/doing. And Yosemite has responded by instituting a reservation system, which limits the total number of cars that come into the park. I support that. I live in Carlsbad, CA. Seems like half of Arizona comes here every summer to get out the heat. Then the Tuesday after Labor is the start of "Local Summer" and the crowds get smaller.

Yes - the bolt pattern for the fender is different than the Marzocchi forks. OEM CF fenders are hard to find, but aftermarket fenders are readily available, and IMO look better than the OEM ones.

I still have them, and am responding in order of recent posts, starting with EAB's.

This pilot's lack of navigation skills and lack of technical competence with her plane proved fatal. It's unfortunate, because both of those skills are learnable and testable. Like many of you, I now avoid small planes and only fly commercial. Many years ago, I went up with a friend who was learning to fly, so I was in the back seat, listening to the conversation between my friend and the instructor. We were flying from Carlsbad to Lake Havasu. I had been looking out the window, identifying (silently) towns, roads (especially my favorite twisty ones), mountains, lakes, etc. As we crossed the mountains and the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs, etc.) came into view, the instructor asked, "Where do you think we are?" My friend says he doesn't know. Instructor: "Do you see that large body of water over there?" I saw it a long time ago, it's the Salton Sea, which is the largest lake in the entire state of California. My friend says "No, I don't see any water." At that moment I was grateful for the instructor and vowed never to fly with my friend again. Since then, we lost touch, so I hope he either learned some more or stopped flying.

I have the springs and will send you a private message. There is a lot of good info on this forum regarding shift improvement, and this is the time to do it. If you managed to get this far, you are a good enough mechanic to do the rest.

That looks like the high hangers and hardware, which are optional. You can mount that exhaust with the stock hangers/passenger pegs, which is useful if you want to have an adult passenger or mount saddlebags. If you don't care about either of those things, and you prefer the look of the high-mounted cans, then use those brackets and move your footpegs over to them. At the moment, my Scura has these cans mounted high, and my Nero Corsa has the same cans mounted low, as I only have the hangers, not the V11 adapters. I'd actually like a set of those adapters if anyone has a pair in their secret stash... or at some point I'll have a set fabricated.

I looked at the previous version, but passed. This looks better. It reminds me of using roll-charts, which show each upcoming decision, but can't give you the full context. I can see where this would be really useful in single-point city navigation, which I don't do much of. I have a Cardo PacTalk for some of my helmets, which allows me to use voice commands to my phone and ask Siri for directions while I am riding. The ability to change destinations while riding seems like it would be a limitation of the BeeLine device. I'm using the speakers in the helmet, I can still make out the directions with earplugs if I have the volume up high enough.