Gmc28

(Smile) ha! When I first saw a greenie many years ago, I wondered who would pay for such a color. But then I developed a “taste” for them.... gonna definitely keep her green. Must have been an Irishman in Mandello at some point, leaving Ireland to sneak in for the wine, pasta, sunshine, and “meccanica”.... I would.

Bought a greenie. Or almost did... seller forgot the title, so bike is in our hangar, and we’ll do a money and title swap next week to finish things up. Very low miles, runs decent, but needs lots of little stuff, and the big thing (that I know of) is the clear coat coming off the tank. Right side valve cover leaking oil. He converted to pods. Lots of light surface corrosion. Etc. any wise words on things I should know about the red frame, vs my (2) longer frame Lemans? I think it’s mostly all laid out well enough in the pinned topic that compares the models... under the seat are two black cylinders with fuel lines. Are those of charcoal cannisters? Just noticed them and didn’t take the time to trace the lines to confirm. will likely make this a project for next winter, to thoroughly go through the greenie.

Appreciate that Phil. But wait, you have an ST2? I knew you had the 1000SS, but just saw the ST2 noted there.

Agreed. Common in the story of my life, I often don’t see the best stuff where I live until I move away. Had to leave Oregon for 15 yrs before I recognized a lot of the great things in Oregon, and left Santa Clarita before I realized how great those LP national forest roads were. Like an old country song about needing to get away from home... Red is up on the lift at home, waiting patiently for me to get back there to grease/lube/service her up. And maybe she’s hearing rumor of a greenie coming into the harem.

Excellent. That’s more or less what I figured, that it’s a matter of either minor touch up, or full repaint. Have done the Caswell (sp?) lining on other tanks in the past, so assuming that’s a fine way to go. And know a couple decent sources for bead blasting. But what remains is the question of whether I’d spray it myself. Comfortable enough spraying, but usually with a couple coats of same paint then some clear coats. If it’s that ER4 paint noted, then I may do it, but if it’s layered colors I’d be hesitant. Have a new HVLP sprayer to in theory replace my trusty but very old traditional Devilbis spray gun, but don’t have experience with that HVLP gun yet.

Helicopter crew for FS.... fire crew? I’ll be at Lancaster for our spring training for LAT crews late March, and that’s my excuse to be down there. Lived in Santa Clarita for a short while about 25yrs ago, so based on your advice maybe it’ll shoot over from Lancaster, do a fast cruise down memory lane of where we lived, then out 126 and up 33 from ojai. hate to bypass that Frazier park and pine mountain area coming out from Gorman/Lebec.... but a change would be good.

I haven’t seen the tank in person yet, but are we asserting here that the bubbling may be from an issue that’s more “evil” than just some surface issues, like maybe ethanol or something along those lines that could be compromising the tank from the inside? In short, should I be more deeply concerned about paint issues on one of these tanks? the machine has a lot of surface corrosion, mostly cosmetic from the pics, but it’s very low miles and price seems attractive, so am leaning toward taking the chance with it.

Some beautiful, great riding over there (los Padres NF). Hoping to swing through that area in early april on my way north, but not sure yet.

Anyone used the newer pro version of rever? Combo of offline maps, butler map views, easier saved routes, and then some things which may or may not prove to be of value (3D views, etc), seems it might stand out from the crowd of not-so-great map apps. I hate recurring charges, but $4/mo can be palatable for the right thing... I’ll probably try this pro version on the free trial.

Hmm. Sounds slightly less precise with some of the techniques and adjectives used, but given that it’s to match a 20+ yr old faded color, this could be good. since the tank is the overwhelming majority of the visible paint color that’s seen, I should have a little more leeway, vs trying to find something for touch up. But of course if the touch up happens to be really dialed in, I could avoid the repaint, which would be a home run, but I’m not holding my breath. My personal spray technique and skills would be fine for any typical white paint, and maybe an “ER4” single color, but multi layered paints mean I’d likely want to farm-out the work to someone more gifted and/or experienced. But damn good intel... thank u!

Looks like the ER4 may be well close enough to where I could paint the whole tank and end up with a winner.

My issue is just that I’m looking at buying a greenie from a guy locally, through a strange fluke of fate, but it’s got bubbling paint on the tank. Guessing it’s from ethanol, but don’t know, just know that it will need attention. So, if I repaint the whole tank, will I be chasing the wind to try and find a good green match, or will I need to repaint all the green stuff to achieve decent match?

Docc, you note the green paint color match here.... I’m still poking around searching the forum, but is there knowledge on a good paint code option to match the green? Trying to figure out how hard it will be to repaint just the tank on a greenie.

I find that either running the glow plug cycle a couple times first, or praying the rosary 3 times, works better for rebooting the Zumo GPS.

many thanks Phil. then will grab the oil, find my special grease gun fitting, and get that italian tail end ready for summer.

Was perusing some of this before heading out to shop one of these days soon to do the rear drive fluid on Red, as i'm thinking its time. no one seems to mention Richardsons notation that you raise the rear of the bike (block of wood) so the swingarm is level, as in horizontal to the ground, in addition the bike being level/upright. pretty sure thats what i did a few years ago on Goldie, but don't trust my memory. between my fuzzy memory, and then maybe some common sense, it does seem like the way to go, to get that middle rear plug at the right level (bike vertical, and swing arm horizontal), but help me stay on the straight & narrow path.....

The set shown is for just the front, so yes, but they are the mirror & signal combined setup. Very true that a very acceptable upgrade can be done for way cheaper, so that’s certainly part of the consideration. I’ve used the relatively common wedge shaped LED’s on multiple other bikes, purchased off Amazon or some other source for cheap (I think i still have another set in the shop somewhere), with wiring and other parts obtained separately, and those all turned out great for a fraction of the cost. But not quite as nice, and to Footgooses point, the correct resistor setup doesn’t seem as straightforward on the V11. That said, maybe this “plug and play” option from moto science, with the correct resistors, isn’t as sorted as they imply.

I think someone in the group here has used the moto science signals and/or mirrors? If so, any comments? Thinking of messing with “upgrading” the stock signals. I’ve seen a few good options on this forum, including some very cool setups that I’ve been thinking about, but just saw these as being semi-targeted at the V11, so was eye-balling them too: https://moto-science.com/collections/moto-guzzi-moto-morini/products/moto-guzzi-v11-lemans-corsa-led-turn-signal-mirrors-kit-pair-531819 It’s all vanity, as what i have works fine. I’ve just never loved the large, plastic stock units, and since this winter i have less “normal” work to do on the bike, i may indulge myself with something like a signal and mirror upgrade/change. This particular set seems to stay within the general look of the stock pieces, but arguably cleans it up a bit. I used this company for mirror upgrades on my son’s Gran Canyon, and was very pleased with the results of that simple project (easy thrills... insert money into process, receive parts, bolt-on, smile)

The left vs right turn dominance is amusingly interesting... lots of evidence of it everywhere. While I’d want to think the issue here is swingarm or something like that, the wear seems too far off center to be from some kind of misalignment. Could certainly be totally wrong, but I’d think the kind of misalignment one might have from a wonky swingarm or bearing would result in a wear line just slightly off center. Anything else you’d think would be noticeable when riding straight down the freeway. And I’d imagine that if the rear was that far out of whack, you might see something up on front tire as well, as the body-in-motion would need to compensate to keep things tracking straight? Maybe not... gotta think on that. Maybe since the front has the lateral pivot (steering head) that may not be true. But who knows.... none of the theories are easy pills to swallow. I guess just buy another tire, check alignment and basic swingarm “plumb & square”, then ride on!

Good man Dave. I just don’t have the heart to do the 1/2 mile of gravel road between me and the tarmac with the goose, since the gravel/dirt/lignan mix they use for less dust in summer turns into super-glue mud in winter.... don’t want to be trying to scrub that off the MG. I used to ride year-round on my old oil head, and when i sold it a few years ago it had baked-in “stuff” from the winter road here in many crevasses that made it hard to really clean up for selling. Need to get out to the shop soon and do the winter mx on the MG, as spring is coming! Do the oils, and then working out why (what little part is missing or messed up) the red V11 has a goofy, loose attach point for the fairing, though it looks all in order with just a quick inspection.

and most of us are jealous of more than just the bike... Phil's reaping the benefits of residing in a great part of the southern Hemisphere in February: Melbourne, sunny and 91 tomorrow, and saturday around 70 and sunny. My house for thursday shows high of 34 in snow, low of 23. Then cold rain next week.

Well said .... good tech plus philosophy talk :-> I favor the idea of being able to not worry about the maps and gadgetry, but even as i try and slow down a bit and “smell the roses”, life is still too full of all the things that make my goofy world go round, to where losing a day or half day to a wrong turn, even if it involves some discovery, might be a hassle I’d rather avoid under the circumstances. Recognizing that later in life presumably things will change and more time will be available. For instance, I might have 2 days to get somewhere for a pop-up opportunity ... 3 would be best given the distance, whereas 1 day would mean grinding straight through, and of course I have the option to just park the bike and fly there. So if reasonably planned, i can make a 2 day window a good, if not ideal, chance to get out on the machine. I’ll take that 2 day run, but pretty much need to utilize reasonable nav tools to assure its not a “gilligans island 3 hour tour...” When i do have time to plan a trip, i mentioned my fondness of the nearly ubiquitous Google maps option. Mostly the maps can be downloaded for offline use (some areas don’t allow it, like japan, which seems odd to me), and route building is so easy, on the laptop, iPhone, or iPad. Then i email the routes to myself, so they are there in an email inbox folder, or I might save the hyperlinks for the route on a cloud folder, again so they are easily accessed at about any time, except when off-line. If i know I’ll be off-line a lot (Alaska, etc), I’ll make the extra effort to convert the tracks into .GPX tracks, so i can import them into whichever app I’m using that year, like MotionX (apple) or Locus Pro (android), etc. converting to GPX has been the worst part of google maps, as the option to do so keeps shifting, from hard, to easy, to nearly impossible, and so on, based on that years developments. Key there though is that it’s usually less about the specific route and more about just having the downloaded map and blue-dot location. Pretty much just the higher-resolution and “self finding” version of a paper road map. Still provides that mental element that lets you get to know the area you’re traveling in, but with less hassle. each winter i still mess with some of the latest options, keeping an old android phone operational (no sim chip) for LocusPro, Osmand, and of course google maps. And i keep my daily iphone up to speed with MotionX and some others (more recently have gone back to Avenza and Pocket Earth again), just to see what cool new developments may look desirable (vs just being more layers of hassle). And then i keep an old iPad mini (model 2?) just barely alive so it can display the map i want while actually traveling. Can airdrop a route from the iphone, or use wifi to upload a map or route, and it provides for good visibility and "pinch" zoom, in a format thats big enough for my eyeballs. had a monstrous GPS that came already mounted on my used Duc Multi enduro a few years ago. i think it's meant for a boat... seriously. was sort of cool, but again, the interface (software) is so clunky. You've got a weather-proof moving map in front of you, but god knows what the hell you're looking at, as the database's that were supported were not at all friendly for eyes that want to glance down for guidance but not stare at a complicated map for long periods. that issue i find to be fairly common with map apps, where they may have the good data, but displayed in a way that you have to stop and stare at it too much to figure out what you're looking at.... too much staring, not enough riding.

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.

Touché. U have a water cooled, 8v duc motor? I did my own personal cost/benefit analysis of that valve job, and the “take it to the duc dealer” option handily won, despite the fact that I still do the duc valves on my air cooled models. And I gave up on my duc LCD display long ago. I figured it’s not a feature I care about enough to fight with anymore. But back to Docc’s nav topic.... I’m a map geek, and know that’s not a unique thing. But my recollection of the “good ‘ol days” of map usage needs to include the copious amounts of cursing I did when realizing I’d gone the wrong way. I’ve messed with a score of impressive electronic/gps map app options, and dove deep into a few, but in the end for my on-road nav I’ve learned to deal with the vagueries of google maps to good effect, and for myself deciding that it was a shorter learning curve, and more importantly was a learning curve that doesn’t need to be repeated nearly as much to stay competent. I was always needing to re-learn the powerful but complicated options on the best map apps. Building routes is simple in google, it’s on every smart phone and computer, and importantly it’s easy to link my iPhone to drop a route onto an old iPad mini I will use for long trips, due to eyes getting older and needing that bigger screen. And the “pinch” zooming is so simple, along with option to work online or offline. Mostly I just use the blue-dot-on-a-map view option, which is more akin to a paper map but with the “you are here” built in, but occasionally use the turn-by-turn guidance in larger, complicated settings in foreign cities. Was super handy in Japan and Italy in the big cities. I use other apps for off-road.