PJPR01

Hey John...I remember Mike well from Cedar Vale...soft spoken and very decent chap. I was afraid his medical issue may have taken a turn for the worse, I'm sorry to hear the news he passed. Look forward to seeing you guys there if you make it down!

It was a cold Saturday in San Diego last week, but nonetheless a welcome reward after a week of work conference. Although no Guzzis were available, a nice Triumph Bonneville was at Cycle Visions, and provided a decent set of wheels on a rather cool day around the area. A few pics...sadly, had to leave for home the day after and the weather had improved dramatically. I wanted to make it all the way to Julian and Lake Henshaw, but "wintry conditions" and freezing temps prevented me from getting all the way there...still plenty of other twisties to play on around Ramona (found the old Julian Highway and Highland road and rode past several of the wineries along the way...thanks for the tips earlier!) A few stops along the way from San Diego, thru Poway, Ramona, Solana Beach (always have to go by the Belly Up), Del Mar, La Jolla and a favorite stop at my old alma mater UCSD where I spent countless hours studying many years ago. Hopefully posting Triumph pics on a Guzzi forum will not be considered terribly against the rules!

Will be attending Sunday at Moto GP in Austin this year, possibly Saturday depending on other obligations. Easy 150 mile ride up from Houston. Most likely on the Scura. Who else is going? Hoping the King of COTA can get some challenge this year from the other riders and we'll see lots of great passing instead of a typical 3-6 second massive lead, and of course, hoping for good weather!

The Griso is a beast...and a lovely one at that. I think of it as a modern day Centauro. I'd concur on getting one of the newer ones just to enjoy a bit of the newer tech...but honestly both versions (4V and 8V) are enjoyable. There have been a few of them up for sale recently on the Ghetto as well, but you have to jump and be ready to commit, as they definitely don't come up that often. I certainly hope they become a collector's item (even if not financially). It does feel good to have a 2002 V11, a 2008 Norge and a 2015 Griso, now if I could get my hands on a Green 2023 V100...that would complete the fleet and would last me forever!

Most excellent!! Thanks for the additional suggestions, very Nice Video…lots of decent twisties there! Are any of those wineries along the road worth stopping at?

Thanks BB for the recommendation, I have secured a 2019 Triumph T-100 Bonneville for Saturday March 6th from Cycle Visions. I've never ridden one before, so it should be interesting to try out for a nice all day loop around the area. Scud...will shoot you a text the day before to check if you are still free to join depending on plans, I've sketched out a route from the shop up thru UCSD, up to Rancho Bernardo, Rincon, Julian and back wandering around, down to La Jolla or Solana Beach for a late afternoon lunch before returning the moto back. But I'm open to any other fun routes you could recommend! I have no idea how the Bonneville rides in the twisties, so will need to get used to it a bit before leaning it over 60 degrees (Just kidding!). Cheers and thanks to all.

Nice burgundy tank color too...not that common I should imagine.

Nice story John. 90 year old grandmas in Italy and here in the US of Italian origin are fond of putting a little grappa in their morning coffee. When I was a student at the university, I rented a room in a house, owned by the chancellor's secretary and her 90 year old mother from Sicilia (Palermo). She was an amazing cook, making gnocchi by hand, fantastic chicken and pasta dishes, and every morning started out her routine at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and some grappa. She would always offer some to me just before I headed out to class on my bicycle... Years earlier, on a long family trip trekking around Europe in 1978 in a MB 207D van my Dad had bought, we spent a lot of time in Bolzano and surrounding areas (village of Brez), Bassano del Grappa and Trieste. Needless to say, the elders of the village were also quite fond of their various types of grappa. It certainly warms the heart, and lots of great stories can be made over a favorite liquor!

Thanks P6X...I have looked at those conceptually, but I'd rather not rent a private moto for various reasons.

For those who live nearby, any recommendations on a particular shop for a moto rental in the San Diego area? Does anyone rent Guzzis? Will be out there for work next week, and would like to take a spin on Saturday and Sunday before flying back home. Thanks! Paul

The one I posted above….

Ok, maybe one not quite so well known...but equally as entertaining and smooth picking! Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins - Neck and Neck Album, Poor Boy Blues song, first song, A-side. Just got the LP from England a few days ago, and it sounds fantastic. B-side is also excellent!

Wow...for a moment there, I though that was a picture of Prescott! Good to know the Mighty Scura is in good hands Chuck!

Listening to Dennis Brain playing the Mozart Horn Concerti at the moment...what a genius he was, pure smoothness! Next up...a little Robert Cray (Strong Persuader), to be followed by Bob Marley, Live at the Rainbow, 1977, an epic recording!

Seems like a number of us, myself included have recently been bitten by the record player bug again, after a lapse of 40+ years! Gone are the long scratched, warped by the sun CSNY records of my childhood which played every day by the cool hippies in the house up front while we lived in Santa Barbara, or the bumpy and faded Bob Marley albums of the early to mid 70's that were simply worn out from so many playings! I recall these guys working on their long nose Jaguars (XKE??) while playing CSNY over and over again! My dad used to listen to the albums of the San Remo festivals as well, fun albums! https://store.acousticsounds.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAmKiQBhClARIsAKtSj-nQx_nKmnkZCvXJkqF-3HDBmD1NSY7lN6Xfs7EBk67AfbbXr_-GIYYaAt1iEALw_wcB I have been buying some vinyl from Acoustic Sounds over the last couple of months of a few of my favorite albums, don't plan to restock all my streaming and CD's, but a few special ones, with favorite glass of whiskey or tequila certainly does accompany the music nicely, especially flowing thru the exquisite B&W's & Rotel combo. The only thing I had to do was by a Cambridge audio pre-amp since my receiver was built during that 20 year period when no phono feature was incorporated.

Someone here owns a Vincent? Wow...that's been a closely guarded secret! I'm 50/50 for this year's...wanted to make last years but time off didn't work out. Of course, there is also the possibility we may be in Italy at the same time...will have to monitor and see which one pans out. I was not far from you guys over New Year's, as we went thru Birmingham (Barber museum and all), and up thru Lynchville (Jack Daniel's distillery) and then to Nashville for a few days...just a hop, skip and a jump over to Tellico from there!

Those were both excellent P6x! Now we’re going to have show our espresso makers too!! 😀😀

Ha ha! I stand corrected…fresh coffee, with a little hazelnut creamer mixed in for flavor! I do prefer Lavazza but Illy is quite delicious as well and something I discovered lately called Zenbunni… Coffee like Motos is a very particular taste…although I do frequent an Exxon not far from work that has delicious fresh brew Texas Pecan coffee and Kilimanjaro too!

I would imagine this one might be a “joint venture” with Dolly Parton…as she is from Sevierville if I remember correctly. Clean bathrooms, good coffee, ethanol free gas (todays price was $3.99 per gallon), friendly staff, decent chopped brisket sandwiches, and well organized stores. I usually sit outside on a pile of bags to enjoy my coffee, and then keep riding, inevitably someone comes up to chat about the Guzzi…. Today was exactly one of those days, with a few other stops along the way…but on the Norge instead of the Scura today for a bit more wind protection, after all it was in the low 40’s F… with beautiful blue skies and not much traffic!

The mark of a true friend, thanks for sharing here!

Any thread that includes a reference to Malbec and motorcycles is worthy of a gold star! Quite creative way to setup an indoor workshop!

Correct...the Sidecar company in Donie, they are having an open house in late March. Part of the Giro di Texas, bag a stop, have a nice lunch and hopefully a fun ride up and back with a few other folks who plan to join me. One Beemer, Yamaha and another Guzzi (Stelvio). Now the difficult decision, take the Norge, Scura or Griso...I registered them all for the Tour of Texas so depending on the day, I can pick which bike to use for getting those tour stops. I posted up on another thread in case any other Guzzisti want to join, weather permitting, should be a nice ride up. If you need any assistance on Guzzidiag, send up a flare. Could be the firewall! I've never seen Mike or Davey turn down a job based on how many $$'s it will generate, but that could be a factor in prioritizing the work for sure. However I've done some big jobs and it still took 6 weeks, so maybe there's really no method to the madness, other than FIFO.

Yes...unfortunately 6 weeks is the norm these days as you've also experienced. The price for backlog and expertise is patience, and perhaps a 2nd bike! Years earlier they were able to turn bikes around in just a couple of weeks when they had a couple of techs and Mike working on bikes as well, but as I understand it only Davey does the bikes and Mike dedicates himself to cars. I presume you are talking about getting your Guzzidiag to work? It can be a bit fiddly on recognizing the port, I usually pick COM3 on mine, but sometimes have to bounce it to Com5 and back to Com3 for it then to connect. Sometimes if your motorcycle battery is too low, it won't work, so to be sure, I also put it on a tender if it's not recognizing it right away to get the extra juice. I'm using an HP laptop, not a Mac...what device are you using? There is also as a reference a very good thread of how to use Guzzidiag on Wildguzzi that Beetle wrote up and maintained for a long time. It's a handy reference thread to keep with you when working on the bike. Were you also planning to balance your throttle bodies, or was that already done? Now Guzzidiag doesn't tell me if the injectors are spraying perfectly, it just triggers it so you can hear each one operate independently, but whether they are spraying a full pattern or not if embedded in the throttle bodies isn't visible, so you'd need to pull them out and visually inspect while triggering Guzzidiag to fire the injector. Others have suggested they are easy to clean if clogged...I've not done that service before, but if you suspect something, it would probably be worth getting them cleaned first before replacing. I am not 100% certain if Davey has a specific setup to check the injectors, but I'd guess yes since he seems to know everything else I've ever asked him to do. Worth a shot to ask him. Hope you get it back in time...let me know if you want to ride up to the Texas Sidecars open house in late March, perhaps we'd have a mini Spine raid up there!

I haven't spent a lot of time trying to figure out the science, but I have two premises, one is that the rear tire temperature is almost always 10 degrees C hotter than the front ( I use my Steelmate TPMS to monitor both pressure and temperature), and I suppose carries more weight due to panniers and rider position. I would imagine the temperature is driven off multiple factors (downstream of engine, exhaust?, weight), but I would think heat is a primary contributor. Others who are more expert can chime in...perhaps there are other factors as well.

Good suggestion, and yes, we've ridden this and all of the national forest roads hundreds of times over the last 25 years...always alert, and watch out for the boys of the FM3090 Sport bike club who like to run 100+ regularly from Navasota up to Yankee Tavern, and have unfortunately been responsible for the signs up there warning motorcyclists to watch out...several have not made it.