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Show off. No make that "cheap" show off Ciao

I think Little Feat was the best band ever. I was reading the bio on those guys ("Willin") and they were pretty volatile. The band was about to throw in the towel before they recorded "Waiting for Columbus", the best Live album of all time. They had the Tower of Power and Mick Taylor. Stories of drug fueled all nighters, playing mad at each other on stage, Richie throwing his drumsticks at Lowell when he was singing. Lowell mixed the record, the band was ready to quit and they listed to the first song, "Playing in the Band" and wow. WOW. So after reading that, here is Mick Taylor + Little Feat. "Apolitical Blues" Lowell's next gig was producing The Dead's "Shakedown Street". After an all night coke binge with Mickey Hart, Lowell said his drum solo was crap and Mickey beat him good. Lowell left, the album was recorded but not quite finished. Great story.

Hey up Knumbnutz, one truly excellent source of information is Richardsons ‘Guzziology’. I was flicking through it only today and was interested to note that the 1100 Sports, and Daytonas, don’t have the rubber cush drives that the V11 do. Highly recommend it mate.

19 hours ago, Gmc28 said: situational awareness at a glance. Yup, back in the day, I've done a lot of wilderness travelling, so I'm very comfortable with topographical maps or google map print outs, I have a natural mistrust of anything digital so have never jumped into the GPS game; but there have been many times on a back country ride that I really missed the "situational awareness" you're describing. Many times I'm not lost, but I really don't know where I am, I take a bearing from the sun and head in the general right direction, it works for me. One ride in particular, it was a cloudy overcast day with no sun and a thunderstorm was blowing in hard, I made the first mistake of not stopping and verifying my exact location on the map, and went with my gut feeling that if I made a couple of right hand turns, I'd be headed east in the general direction of home; but with no sun to give me a bearing, I didn't realize that I had ridden around and come out on the opposite side of a mountain; I caught my mistake about 100 miles from home, ended up riding though the eye of a very nasty storm with lightening strikes all around me; a GPS would've been nice to have

@docc, thank you for the kind appraisal.

Well, the mind can wander. Perhaps that’s even the goal sometimes? :-> last fall was cruising down through Lava Beds National Monument in southern Oregon/NorCal, on a beautiful morning. Between covid, the season, the day of the week, and whatever else there was literally not a single other vehicle on the road, the sun was out, and the scenery was great. Just had to make one right turn in the next hour... an obvious Y in the road, per the map. Happily just taking it all in, i glance down at one point at the moving map, and the little blue dot is showing I’m past the Y and down the wrong fork. How’s that possible... i didn’t pass any “Y” of any kind, just the occasional dirt ATV path here and there. Hmm. Looking ahead on the track I’m now on looks like it would be a large deviation from the days time-plan, so i u-turn, and back a few miles is my road, labelled a US “route”, and looking on the map like the same caliber of other paved road “US routes” that I’ve been on, but which was actually a 2-track/single lane dirt road straight from mad max, very deep in silt, and with no markings of any kind. One of the rare cases where an ADV bike actually came in handy, and where it would have been a different outcome had i been on my beloved V11. Anyway, not that cursing is always an all bad thing (maybe its good for us? 😉), but i would have cursed a lot more that day without the quick situational awareness from my blue dot...

The “always on” element of the zumo I like. I have it on my bike in Alaska where I almost never need to figure out which road to take, as there are so few, but it provides that nice situational awareness at a glance.

No docc, bigger is better with me. I don't want no stinkin, skinny arsed 4.5" rear wheel:) Ciao

In 2007-08, the "revolutionary" Garmin zūmo 550 took up Navigational duties on my Sport and soldiered on until just last year . . . The tankbag window was relegated to Wiring Diagrams and Electrical Flow Charts. (While the BMW and KTM guys laughed it up in the background) . . .

GM- My local wrench that did my Greenie gearbox was the head mechanic at the old Duc store here. I talked to him before I purchased my Duc and he gave me some reasonable labor hours for the desmo service. Of course I did not consider timing belts and computer flash. I have a couple thousand miles to stew on it. Hell, getting a rear sprocket is turning into a European scavenger hunt. Really. Having said that, the bike's been totally reliable, easy to work on and the best ride ever. I'll just have to take 18k mile blue pill and hope that Don treats me right. You guys will know in a few months whether I'm singing or cussing. You know I won't hold back.

https://theclan.motoguzzi.com/eventi/calendario/gmg-centenario-moto-guzzi-save-the-date#comment-4731 https://37rdh3754wjnwbrvk46m3ocv44-adwhj77lcyoafdy-theclan-motoguzzi.translate.goog/eventi/calendario/gmg-centenario-moto-guzzi-save-the-date#comment-4731

I suppose it is correct to store a bike with no spark plugs if it is to sit twenty years?

Boring as it is I just use my phone. By the way, LOVE the Motogadget clocks..

p6x- I would recommend that you get the Gas Buddy app on your phone. That'll show the gas stations and prices along your route. I think the Beeline App will show miles remaining on your phone. But you could also plot out the gas stations on your route as waypoints so they will countdown on the Beeline. And if you are riding a Spine Frame, I'd make sure that I had a gas station within 140 miles of my last fillup. Or for 125 miles for a pee break.

It's advisable.

My tank is off on my Naked now (2003: no petcock, and internal fuel pump, and I capped off one of the tank breather nipples), but my local mechanic has the bike right now getting the front forks re-done. He said since I kind of busted one the grey snap plugs on one of the gas lines, that I should get two new sets of red nipples and new mating grey snap connectors. I've never seen these for sale on any Guzzi parts web site? I am fairly certain that the original connectors are going to snap on securly and be fine, but if I did replace them, where in the heck am I going to find them? Can you actually replace the red 90 deg nipples anyways? (although they seem fine)? What are our options on better quick disconnects for these V11s? Those quick connects really suck to figure out the first time! Make sure to depressurize, and don't be tempted to use any tools to mangle them! I got my Norge one off in seconds, kind of a pushing and pulling action at the same time...