PJPR01

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.

Indeed...and that's why I prefer the GT versions too in order to get maximum wear...I wish we had more real twisties here, but it takes a good days drive to get out of Texas to the fun stuff!

Hey John.... I made one small correction above digging into the memory banks here after writing above, it's been 1 set of PR3's, 4 sets of PR4's. I'm counting the tires on my Norge and Scura, and as I mentioned above I get approx 9-10K miles out of each set. I do change front and rears at the same time, and the rears wear slightly faster than the front, so I'd guess I could probably get another 1K or a bit more out of the front, but why push it. I like to run tire pressures at 40/40 cold, they heat up to 43/44 on a normal Texas day when out riding for a bit. I know others here run much lower than that, I suspect that may account for faster wear perhaps.

Nicely done on completing the tour and a cool patch too! Several of us from Houston will ride up to the open house at Texas Sidecar on March 26th, looks like a good chance to have a nice ride and pick up a post for the tour. I've posted up the event on the Facebook page of GRIT (Guzzi Riders in Texas), so we may get some other Guzzisti from around the area to join in hopefully. One year we had a Guzzi lunch in Hearne, the equidistant location between Dallas, San Antonio and Houston...I think we had about 15 riders show up for lunch that day, including a Ducati Diavel who joined me from Houston. On the way back, we'll pass thru Milano. Some of these rides thru this part of Texas are quite fun...you can go thru Athens, Carthage, Palestine, Italy, Milano, Paris all in a days ride!

Davey at MPH is a real national treasure...he does excellent work, so far has proven to be extremely thorough, and even has sent me pictures of the work he's doing at my request when he's deep into the job, so I could see before and after shots of some internal work. His work has been 100% perfect on everything I've brought him, but as a habit I also go thru my bikes after I get them back from the shop and make sure nuts and bolts are all tight, check torque settings on the wheels particularly if I've had tires replaced. I've had a few experiences over the years from prior mechanics where they failed to tighten up bolts which were glaringly obvious oversights. Luckily no accidents caused by such oversights. Mike used to work on the bikes when his brother Todd was around years earlier. I bought my Norge from him back in late 2009, and Mike was just as picky and meticulous as Davey, so I always felt very comfortable knowing he had his hands on my bike, and his guidance on how Guzzis behave when new and then at future intervals as they break in has always been spot on. The Griso was also purchased from Mike by a friend, and then I bought it from my friend when he could no longer ride, and so far has been flawless. My Scura was worked on at Mike's house up in Hempstead when for a period of time he could not use the workshop, and he did the Roper Plate, replacement of the single plate clutch, full lubrication of those bloody hard zerk fitted u-joints and several other "must do" items that Chuck had recommended at one of the Cedar Vale rallies. He did them all, and the bike has ridden like a dream since I got it back from him several years ago, no failures, no issues. Knowing that there are good Guzzi surgeons nearby is very comforting, I can do a lot of work on the bikes, but some items are beyond my knowledge, skill or toolset, and sometimes even time, and I'd rather ride another bike while having one of them on the lift with Mike or Davey, knowing they'll probably find a few other items to look at with the patient on the operating table that I wouldn't even know to look for. On the subject of tires, I'm on my 5th set of PR's, 1 PR3, 4 sets of PR4's...they have been impeccable in all kinds of weather, very very good in wet weather, and very sticky for twisties. I have them on the Norge and Scura, and a fresh set waiting to be put on the Griso when the original tires wear out. I am curious about the PR 6's, but will choose to skip the 5's based on feedback from other riders. Getting the GT version is excellent for longer wear here in the flats of Texas...my experience has been about 9-10K miles per set so far, with the rear wearing slightly faster than the front.

Ahem...Colin McRae - Scotland and Walter Rohrl - Germany... I'd take these two any day for style and substance as well. Back to Pikes peak...everyone should enjoy a ride up there at least once on a motorcycle...it's a fun ride to the North Pole, well worth the investment in time to get there.

The other item that is less of an issue, but still something to look at once item #1 is solved. If the start at 4 minutes truly is a warm start, then it should start up and idle perfectly instantly if properly tuned without having to gun the throttle at all.

Sounds like the problem that the older Land Rovers (Defenders, Series vehicles) have with the starters. Frequently solved by hitting it on the casing with a hammer to free it up and then they start right up. Quite a few folks in the HLRC (Houston Land Rover club) have experienced this regularly. Not that I'm recommending the same solution here, but is the starter an original one or does it look it's been replaced at some point? Presumably all of the battery connections have been tightened down sufficiently as well. Just another thought on this...do you by any chance have a Lithium battery on the bike. The symptoms can be exactly the same in cold weather...where the battery has to "wake up" a bit. I've seen this on my Shorai from time to time...