p6x

Corny, but nice! The final is the lighting of a cauldron which is then flown above the Louvre. The torch bearer were Carl Lewis, Rafael Nadal, Nadia Comaneci and Serena Williams. Wearing inflatable safety vests... lol!

That's the reason why the Triumph/Suzuki dealership I go to said about Piaggio. They wanted to bring in Aprilia but Piaggio said you have to also carry Moto Guzzi and Piaggio Scooters too. It is a package deal. Unfortunately, they don't want Moto Guzzi as the yearly sales number are too low, said the sales manager. Mancuso Powersports used to have Aprilia but no more. That leaves Full Throttle as the sole Moto Guzzi / Aprilia / Piaggio dealership in the Houston area. They only have three Moto Guzzi in the "new" inventory; 1 Stelvio and 2 2023 models V85TT.

Ianonne did the pole position, however he was the only rider to get a tow to achieve it. Nobody else of the first 10 did. Bagnaia was the fastest until then; times are in the 1:35.085 DiGiannantonio 3rd and Nicolo Bulega 4th. Martin did not do much, 10th. He is still the one with the fastest lap on Misano, 1:31.791 up to now. The 2025 Panigale seems to be an incredible performer!

If that interests you, the main names are going to race at Misano for the WDW 2024. It will be live on you tube. All the Ducati pilots will be there!

And it is red too.... I bet it is going to be close to 40k USD....

-"for a fraction of the price of your wife/girlfriend silicon implants" Well, they surely know how to entice their customers...

Since I posted it, I searched for Cycle Garden, and I found that it is a Moto Guzzi vintage motorcycle specialist. So, I would say that the 12k miles are not original, but most likely after a complete overhaul... http://www.cyclegarden.com/

And it is red!!!! isn't it beautiful? the add says it has the cycle garden big bore kit installed... anyone knows what that means? I would love to have this one under my roof too... at least, it is not orange... 12k miles! for a 1973 motorcycle, its almost new!

This is the last report about my experience under a biblical deluge on Monday 22nd of July 2024. This was an absolute first in my life. I had never been exposed to that kind of rain intensity and duration on a motorcycle before. I did look at the weather forecast, and while it specified overcast with chance of rain, it did not exactly paint what it really was. Up to Grande Saline, the skies were dark, but no rain at all. I left Grande Saline at 14:30 and I almost immediately encountered rain. Most of the travel was on 287 then 19, and I rejoined I-45 at Hunstville. Various roads, and while still under heavy rain, Farm to Market roads had almost no 18 wheelers, which made for better visibility. I also used some county roads, which surfaces were sometimes in very poor conditions. In the process of doing some stops for the Texas Motorcycle Tour 2024, I decided to make a loop to complete those points I had missed because of my starter problem earlier that month. Here's the map of the intended loop: 506 miles and a theoretical duration of 8:37 minutes, as per google maps. The total trip duration does not include any stop. Find below the trip log as it happened, with the real times, the mileage is computed automatically between the departure and arrival points. Note that in any case the Guzzi odometer always comes short. The Michelin Road 6 experience: How can you review tires without factual data? how can you provide an unbiased opinion? how can you describe a very personal experience and feeling? Difficult, but I am going to try; The Michelin Road 6 that equip my V11 have about 5k miles on them. As far as I understand, tires are evaluated on special closed tracks which are artificially made wet by a deluge system. My experience was under the pouring rain, different asphalt quality, asphalt not evacuating water making hydroplaning one of the hazard. Obviously, other vehicles circulating, including trucks, both ways. Poor visibility, traffic lights. The conditions were very different from that encountered on a closed track. Am I biased? I am inclined to say yes. When I was a kid in the 60's, Michelin was present on the beaches, entertained the kids with Michelin men balloons, or Lego like Michelin men to build. So I heard about Michelin early in my life. Long time before I even got my first motorcycle. However, before Guzzi, I never installed a Michelin tire on any of my 70's motorcycles! exclusively Dunlop K-81. Michelin Tires seem to be more expensive than the rest of the known brands, Bridgestone, Pirelli, Dunlop, Metzeler... I don't know the reason, either marketing or... else. Back to what I did during those four hours, I rode the bike until I could feel the hydroplaning symptoms creep. Sometimes, I would be able to get to max posted speed, 75 mph. Other times, the bike started to feel unstable at 50 mph; again depending on how intense the rain at that time, and the asphalt having a thin layer of water. I kept my distance with preceding vehicles, also because the mist coming from the back of the trucks would impair vision. As you know, from a distance, you do not even see the rear lights! I did some hard braking tests, not emergency braking, but hard enough. Conclusion; I developed a lot of trust in my tires. Since those FM roads had a lot of curves, I felt at ease and relaxed. Maybe I would have felt the same on other tire brands, maybe not. In any case, I vouch for the Road 6. Now, this experience was unique in that nobody wants to go riding a motorcycle under heavy rain for any amount of time, if it can be avoided. Today we still have the same bad weather in H'town. It seems that we can only have a pickling sun or drenching rains. Never anything in between. Those were my six cents about the Road 6...

Interesting information! I was just reading an interview of Carlos Ezpeleta in which he was saying that he was going to keep being at the helm of DORNA/Liberty as he was still in good health. The question popped up about the controversies of the current Stewards panel, and he said that Dorna had had no say in nominating Freddie Spencer, that it was the FIM and IRTA's exclusive prerogative. Which feels like a white lie since everyone knows that Dorna is always part of everything, including pilots' onboarding. In any case, there have been too much criticism of the current panel for Dorna to ignore. Frankly, some of the decisions were really without any logic or rationale. We shall see what happens... in any case, a change is much needed.

As in the i3 helmet topic, I want to do a quick report on the ride I did yesterday, from Grande Saline to Houston; This was from point E to point F, 4 hours + ride under a continuous tropical storm. I posted a photo of what it looked like, because we still have the same kind of weather today in H'town. I was wearing the Armored shirt, a pair of reinforced riding jeans, motorcycle non-impermeable boots. I rode all the way with each and every piece of garment fully water saturated, as going into a swimming pool fully clothed. I did one refueling stop on the way, in Trinity, just before Huntsville. When I was in the Gas Station minimarket, my clothes were dripping water. The only reason why I was actually able to continue my trip is because in Texas, the temperatures allow you to not freeze, even when you are water logged. Of course, without the sun, the temperatures are actually below 80 deg F. Once you are wet, then you get used to it. I am not going to say it is not unpleasant, but it does not really change much of what you are doing. The main reason why we usually use rain protection gear, or at least in Europe, is when you are wet, the wind ices you completely. My KNOX shirt has dried in one night. I left it dripping in the garage yesterday when I arrived.

You may already know, but the 8 hours of Suzuka were won by Honda, and Johann Zarco, current LCR Honda rider, was one of the three riders involved in the success. It seemed to have spawned some interest from Ducati, since Francesco Bagnaia hinted that he will be racing in the 8 hours of Suzuka next year too.... Will we see more MotoGP riders pitching in the 8 hours of Suzuka in 2025? Rossi and Colin Edwards have, and Casey Stoner too.

It seems a recurrent issue. I read, about the Quota, that the AKRON rims were failure prone, e.g. fracturing... yet, Moto Guzzi used all the stock before changing provider...

Very well. So not all the V11 are concerned with the relay less installation. One may wonder why Moto Guzzi went to making a less qualitative installation??? I did not add that my V11 also suffered from a starter motor failure, with the shield between the armature and the planetary arcing and giving the exact same symptoms as in startus interruptus. If I had not updated the starting circuit, I may have gone after the wrong symptom and not have resolved the issue.

Those of you who listened to this song from a turntable, please holler!!