Gmc28

Any kiwi's (or travelers) have a good place they like near Auckland? might be swinging through in a week or two. Far as a contribution to the thread, for the home state of Oregon, the ride over one of the several "lesser traveled" routes across the coast range is a great way to make your way to Coos Bay, and tramp into Restaurant O, owned by a good friend who was a michelin star chef in France then moved to the boondocks for a woman (a very good woman... maybe thats the making of a good country song?), and now runs an out-of-place bistro with a menu that ranges from street-fare through Foie-gros, and a solid beer and wine menu.

Wow. Guess i better take my shoes off and walk back to work from lunch. Maybe Allah will speak.

For tips, given the flavor of the thread title, just looking for wisdom on how/where to buy the race tickets. May just be as simple as going to the official website source, but I know a couple folks on this forum have been as recently as this year to a GP race in Italy, so thought I’d check in to see if there are any hot tips. for the rest, yes, “wine country”….just a place in Europe, any one of many, but I purposely didn’t get into details on a MotoGP thread :->. For you inquiring minds though, in this case probably Epernay, then a stop at Au Fil du Zinc in Chablis, then down to Sancerre. Usually avoid the crowded streets of Beaune, Bordeaux, and Barolo. EasyJet or some other no frills flight to Florence from Lyon, or maybe TGV/eurostar (for 4x the cost & time). And don’t twist the knife on the coach thing! I spend money on motorcycles, shotguns, wine, espresso, and the rest is just wasted (old joke, but a good one). Got a crazy deal on the flight, so I just fold up my legs, put in the earbuds with a history podcast, slug a glass of wine, and sleep. Recover later.

Speaking of the atmosphere, and this may be the wrong place to ask this (travel, or motogp, or?), but I’m considering trying to get tickets to Misano/Rimini next September. anyone have any tips or thoughts beyond the basic “log on to GP site, buy tickets, go there for race”? I got some ridiculously cheap coach seats to London in September, to overlap with a friend for his birthday in wine country for a bit, but then i think I’d like to shoot over to Rimini before I escape Europe.

They sell reverse osmosis setups that then also re-mineralize the water, and they are arguably affordable ($250-500), not hard to install, and assure water will at least be “good” in most cases. Seems to be as close to a “plug and play” solution as I’ve seen, for well or city water. I’ve thought about it, but bit of a hassle to probably yield something barely measurable in improvement in my own case.

the water quality rabbit hole gives me a headache. very real, but man it gets complicated. you do of course want good or great quality water, but exactly what that means can get convoluted pretty quick, and the espresso snob community gets way, way into that (another "motor oil" type discussion). certainly a level of diminishing returns there as a good solution is pursued, but where the sweet spot is between "its not perfect" and "its good enough", can be hard to find. My well water comes out hard and with lots of "stuff" (ppm) in it. it's then softened, and comes out slightly acidic and low ppm. It then goes through what most consider a good quality in-line filter, just for the espresso machine (plumbed in), and it comes out with a higher ph and higher ppm. it actually ends up about where it should be on ph and ppm, but how I don't yet understand. All stuff I never wanted to know...

well, “great” espresso machines can cost several thousand dollars, but you can spend a lot loss on the machine and be fine, so i wouldn’t say $10k is an entry price to the boojie espresso world… a person could spend a few grand total and do just fine. although that’s even a chunk compared to what most are used to :-> for probably $7k (USD) a guy could have a true “cadillac” setup, with the grinder being the larger part of that. Either way, it’s way too much money, unless you choose to make it your “thing”. Sadly, i have. but this group knows how possible it is to justify buying stuff we want…. agreed on all. and tip-of-hat to the additional Aussies on thread! i agree that as a group, they’ve collectively raised the bar well over where the italians placed it a long, long time ago. Flat whites came to US via Starbucks some years ago, and they were a fun twist, though as you say they usually get butchered by the barista’s, and starbucks over-roasted beans make all their stuff just in the “drinkable, but not good” category.. Unless you want a milkshake. But yes, you do NOT want a super spendy burr grinder for the bialetti, in my humble opinion. That kind of coffee benefits from more fines, like from a conical burr grinder, or most other ones, including hand grinders.. The cost hurdle for non-espresso drinkers is far lower, so a budgetary blessing if you don’t prefer espresso. Portland has some great ones! but they move around, as the barista is a key part of the process. lots of places dropping huge amounts of cash into super expensive machines, like the Slayer with all its wild functionality and crazy price tag, but then some yahoo that runs it like he’s working an automated starbucks push-button machine. hurts to watch. Coava used to a real nice job, and Public Domain downtown was great but i think Covid killed it. i’ve heard Cathedral and Futura do nice work too. We used to say if the barista didnt have multiple piercings, tattoos, and wasn’t properly annoyed when you asked them for a drink, then you were at the wrong coffee bar. So many great stories of out-of-town visiting friends who were shocked at how arrogant the good baristas could be. i loved it… sort of a “soup nazi” thing. unfortunately, most of them are getting nicer now, so i can’t be as entertained by the arrogance! great looking grinder! looks like the eureka mignon series, based on form factor and burr size, and I have a few friends with those and they’re real happy.

gotta have the extra juice to keep a guy warm in Norway this time of year! I visited Tim Wendelboe's place in Olso this summer... that was a real treat.

love the lever machine activepop! a good lever machine along with an HG-2 Weber grinder would seem the ultimate combo for someone who wanted the enjoyable work and "ritual" but also wanted excellent espresso. just requires real committment. love it.

Oh my, did we really get into an espresso thread with an Australian on V11lemans.com? It’s about damn time! phil clearly likes finer and/or vintage things (he has a V11!), and he’s Australian, a land full of wonderfully finicky espresso drinkers, so it’s probably safe to say he has no problem with model T’s, but that if you really love to drink espresso, then the model T is going to produce a whole different product than a what a proper modern machine & grinder will do. Less-so for the espresso machine, which is an easier target to hit than a good grinder. (Almost) no matter how skilled you are, pulling a perfect shot using a “model T” grinder is damn near impossible, and at the least requires a lot of work, and some luck. of course it all depends on what you consider the perfect shot, the question which overwhelmingly colors the whole conversation. I’ve owned and used wonderful vintage espresso machines, which looked the part, and with considerable effort could produce a fantastic shot, but never without the right (modern, bloody expensive) grinder. The temp control, plus pressure & flow control of Phil’s new machine is very difficult or impossible to replicate on an old machine. if you like drip, or have taste for old-world coffee, then no big deal….. life is much easier for you! for those who like both old world simplicity and the benefits of modern geek-driven (beautiful) madness, are not worried about budget, the Weber HG-2 is spot-on. And it's not made from wood, for those inclined that way :-> No room in my kitchen for that (lovely) monstrosity, plus for espresso I prefer a flat burr. For the flat burr fans, spend double the already large price and get the EG-1, a fantastic unit, that I’ve only used at a friends house. Fantastic, and consistent. Just imagine, for only $4000 you can get a nice grinder for your counter that your friends will think is a NASA telescope! sad that in Italy, where I learned to love espresso so many years ago (as an eye opener compared the Folgers at home back then), where even the little hole-in-wall places did decent espresso, is now largely overrun with the disgusting automatic machines. Undrinkable, except for medicinal purposes…

Lots of good info offered. surely seems like the early input from audiomick on your charging system would be a smoking gun. but exactly what/where in the system you have failure would be the question. assuming you love your V11 and plan to keep it, and/or just want to cover your bases as you tick off possible causes for this current problem, just going through the charging system from end to end isn’t that painful of a process, and I’d say advisable for about any older italian. As stewgnu noted, solder/connections on the front end, the wire and connectors back to the VR, the VR itself, and then the grounding connections, are all things that can cause headaches. I’d say inlikely that the VR itself is failed, but could be, and even if not, on my “keepers” i just replace it anyway with a MOSFET unit, including of course the connectors with upgraded pieces (probably more important), check and/or replace original connectors in that run from the alternator, and really clean up and/or upgrade the main ground to frame. Whack all those moles at once, and just remove all or most the hassles that can come from that bundle of electrics, and probably solve your actual problem as well. As chuck noted, a battery going to zero volts would normally be unlikely to want to come back to life, but hard to imagine that it actually went all the way to zero (though anywhere close to zero is usually pretty lethal to a batt). if you’ve got it back to normal or near-normal voltage, then roll with it, but keep your eyes on it. i’ve had lead-acids come back to life quite nicely, semi surprisingly, but my last Li-Ion to go down to under 2V was “killed deader than hell”. damn shame, as that was a spendy one, on a Duc that had a mis-behaving relay and sat for a few months without “adult supervision” (Duc service bulletin came out for that known issue, but i hadn’t seen that till it was too late… sigh). but you can check that battery health within reason.

“Cats and dogs….”, 70’s Steve martin quote? Ive been reading about your pain, that NC and TN have swarms of people moving into those fair states, finally taking a proper share of the masses!😎

touche. don't rub it in! been my list for a long time to get down that way and tour a bit. dinner last night with friends who just rode 2.5 weeks in 12 countries starting in Budapest, hitting all these little scenic places with no crowds and low prices. They've also toured NZ on bikes some years ago and loved it, saying they had 2 straight weeks of sunshine, which i think might be not quite the norm?

agreed. root causation. that said, seems to me as a “professional tourist” (paid to fly places full time) that notwithstanding the eye popping and unsupportable population change, there was however the most dramatic change after the Covid isolation. That surge in tourism was (is) of epic proportions. But the press says it’s now shifting again, as folks like all us complaining about it on this thread are now looking elsewhere, sick of the crowds. so those of you with hidden gems, be careful, the hordes are coming for your gems! (or so i’m reading) I agree with the several of you that said that despite the masses in italy in the popular places, that there are still plenty of fantastic places to go there and not worry a wit about crowds. Shhhhhh…… Did a family reunion event in Norway in august, and Oslo was a bit crowded, as expected, but not bad. and then the fantastic solitude and scenery when leaving Oslo and heading to the “pretty” parts of norway (most of the country)…. awesome. hope that area doesn’t catch-on with the tourist hordes searching for less-traveled gems, as those roads and areas would not handle it well, and would be a damn shame. There were certainly more sheep than cars or people in the beautiful places we traveled with the (extended) family, which seems a proper ratio for me. Riding there, something i’ve always wanted to do, requires avoiding too much caffeine, given the low speed limits, long stretches of single-lane but 2-way roads, scenery, and loads of sheep. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

for what its worth, and other smart/experienced folks may differ, but i’ve never had a no-spark issue be a bad coil. bad coil connection, or other oddball causes, but never the coil itself on these “middle-aged” italian bikes (MG and Duc). have seen more than once where a coil is shotgun-replaced due to no-spark, the problem is solved, but then putting the old coil back in resulted in good spark again (so, connections….)

yessir. And good clarification!… thanks, as it’s both back of relay attach and fuse block thats of interest, but only the fuse block has that type of access.

I didn’t read in this thread where you pulled/cleaned the back side of the relay attach receptacle, like Docc advised? You probably did it, but don’t think I saw that confirmed. Just spraying deoxit back there isn’t usually adequate, gotta pull the connections, inspect, clean, spray, re-assemble. Sure sounds like a semi-crappy connection.

That is indeed strange… I would have guessed the v11 a lot lower. But that’s another element of the seat width

interesting… I don’t recall the new Stelvio being that tall, at least compared to the V85. I popped off my V85 at the John Day gathering and took the new Stelvio for a spin, and was giggling happy with it, despite an assumption I wouldn’t like it. i think the tank is higher, but don’t recall the seat height being any taller, fwiw. it certainly is a whole different machine than our beloved v11’s. the “involvement” of the slipper clutch when approaching twisties on decel was impressive for me on that brief ride, but not necessarily desirable….i’m just not used to it, and it would add to the existing need to remember you’re on a V11 if hopping between bikes, to avoid bad results on the V11 entering a corner. but she was lovely.

wondering what the newer versions have in the way of changes. mine is quite old, and there are a handful of things i’ve notated in the margins that I prefer different (valve lash) or to clarify, and wondering if those are the kind of things that changed. not that it matters for me, but curious if there are “summary of change” pages in the updates over the years.

thats a great view. thats one of the several great things about the lake, the norway-like views, but combined with much better food, wine, and moto guzzi 😎 not to get carried away with recommendations, but one more: if you are out touring a bit, a great dinner spot is just north of varenna and up the hill (perhaps 15 mins from Mandello?), in an area that the vast majority of tourists haven’t figured out, a little restaurant called Semi di Grano. finding it is half the fun, even though its really close ..… be patient, leave yourself a little extra time to figure out the map guidance (can’t necessarily just follow the google map prompts), and you’ll end up parking in a tight little town square of the town nestled into the steep hillside, then walking up cobblestone alleys wondering if youre in the right place, but its a jewel. see if this google map link will paste: https://maps.app.goo.gl/NRhp44ofC4BuvMEo9?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy ciao!

We’re jealous Phil! hopefully the post-covid “revenge travel” crowds are receding for your visit. the masses of people over there have been maddening the last couple years (a topic i think elsewhere on this forum). That east side of Lake Como has for many years been one of my favorite places to visit, just hated to see such crowds jamming up everything. we usually stay in Perledo, close to Mandello, and high up the hill for the outstanding views, while the masses of people were confining themselves mostly to the towns of varenna and bellagio. the moto-touring to the east (or northeast of Mandello) to Esino and Passo Agueglio is truly enjoyable… no cars, great scenery, enjoyable roads. If up there, I recommend a great little cafe in Esino, Locanda Montefiori (sp?). and can’t remember the name of the guy upstairs at agostinis… he’s been there for years, doing parts sales and guzzi rentals. nice guy, and good to put a face with a name for if you ever order parts/gear from Ago’s.

sounds like you’re trying too hard… just watch the races, and the pre-race commentary, with the sound on 😎

Agreed that it sounds like a typical v11 with that mid range. I have 2 v11’s with crossovers, and I’d say adding that it was an improvement for both, though not dramatic. Both are tuned the same, both have crossovers, but one is like a big 2-stroke in that it explodes above 5000rpm, while other has a smoother, more consistent pull through the rpm range, though still with the noticeable (grin inducing) change at 5000rpm. mapping would would probably be the hot ticket for mid range, however you chose to go about it.