[travelin goals]

are you still thinking that you will get to the June Midlands meet?

Yep, the plan at the moment is to ride up to Holyhead to pick up the Mrs. off the boat, and then frolic through the valleys to the meet. John O Sullivan said he might try get to it too, so we might meet up? I believe I'm to be based in Coventry, but other then that I don't know much, so all plans are a little tentative. I'll know more in about 10 days.

Where the hell is Coventry anyway?

[travelin goals]

I'll have no leave for the summer, but I will be in the UK so I think a short trip to Scotland will be in order, I'll try to make a few track days and also visit some of the more famous British biking spots, like devils bridge and the cat and fiddle run. I also want to get to a few BSB races, and hopefully the Motogp. If I do get some time off in the autumn, I want to get down to southern Italy, where I've never been, and maybe over to Sicily. I'm getting itchy feet already.

[Tekno bags]

I,ve used the bagster tank bag, which I was told by the dealer was the correct one. However the fittings don't really match, by which I mean there is not much to anchor the fastenings to( as they're too short). It's taken a bit of fiddling and some not very proffesional Knot-tying to make it work, but so long as you're not taking off the base everyday, it's fine. the tank cover does fit snugly, and the whole system in general was well worth the money.

The tekno bags are the best I've ever used. The only fault is they can limit foot-space for the pillion even more(given there isn't a lot there to begin with, but still, well worth it.

[Introduction Thread]

Well, if everyone else is doing it....

My name's Fergal, I live in Dublin( you know-the real one, in Ireland) and at 33 I'm only a young lad compared to some of the experienced guzzisti above. I live with a canadian wife from Vancouver,and 2 dogs, one Alaskan, the other Belgian.

I've been flying airplanes for a living for the last 15 years, and am in the middle of switching companies, and onto 747s.

I,ve been riding 10 years, my first bike was an xv 535 virago that I bought in New York, and then spent 3 months and 13000 miles riding across the states. It was a great experience, and a sharp learning curve-I wouldn't do it over Winter again! I covered about 30 states, but have seen another 10 since then.

We travel and tour a lot, and on a dirty weekend in Florence I happened to drag the mrs. into a bike shop to check out the Ducati st4 I thought I was going to buy, when we spotted a V11.

I live in a country where it rains 13 months a year, the roads are the worst in Europe, bikes cost more then anywhere else and there are no moto guzzi dealers.

So obviously I bought a Le Mans Tenni.

Logic doesn't really apply,does it?

[transmission problem, Pawl spring]

I bought the bike from the nice people in the Italian Moyorcycle Company in Exeter. The odometer stopped working and was fixed at the 1000 mile service, but the trip counter died not long afterwards.

The return spring was the only thing that hit me in the middle of the trip. I'm not a tech-head so had no idea what the problem was, except I couldn't get out of second. This happened literally as I was in the queue to cross the border to Slovenia. Once on the other side, realising I couldn't sort it myself, I broke a whole bunch of laws and sneaked back into Austria as I reckoned I'd be better off there.

The AA picked me up, and Brought me to Villach, a nice little town nearby ,which just happened to have a scooter dealer around the corner from the hotel I was brought to that did a (very small) sideline in Guzzis. The bike broke on Sunday and I was back on the road Tuesday, whether due to Austrian efficiency or just luck I don't know. If you ever end up there,check out the scottish pub. It has a massive Guzzi sign on the wall, and a bored scouser serving yummy local beer that goes down all too easily!

The bike was fine for the rest of the trip(7000 miles, 4 weeks, down to Croatia and back) Except for the odd "hiccup" at high revs every now and again ( like flipping the kill switch) that got worse towards the end. It was serviced again in Exeter on the return and they couldn't figure it out. We thought dirty fuel, no, the fuel injection mapping was checked, no. In the end someone noticed part of the fuelling system had come loose, and the problem went away. I have a feeling my baglux tankbag had been anchored to some thing it shouldn't have, and after a month of carrying the abus granite lock had pulled something loose, but to be honest it's a bit of a mystery.

Works fine now, though.

[Uncover the back seat?]

We've done a fair bit of 2 up through the UK and in Northern Italy. The Mrs. is just shy of 6 foot, so leg room is the biggect difficulty. She tends to rest the ball of her foot on the carbon mistrals, without any melting or overheating and the extra inch or 2 makes all the difference.(where have you heard that before). It seems good for about 5 hours, but its usually backseat boredom that limits us at that stage.

[transmission problem, Pawl spring]

Interesting, that this should come up. I ride the only Tenni in Ireland(actually the only v11 I think), And the spring broke while crossing the Austrian/slovenian border in the middle of a 7000 mile tour of Europe. The bike was 5 weeks old and hadn.t missed a beat up to that point. Luckily for me The nearest town had a scooter dealership who knew his way around guzzis, and I was on the road again in 2 days, otherwise I was hooped. There was a vague mention of the warranty covering repairs, but 15 months later ,and I've heard nothing.