p6x

The unsurprising outcome has happened. Hopefully, the races are going to be not as predictable as the qualifying. I was not 100% certain it was going to happen like this, but I am not surprised at all. There is a strong message there, contradicting all the pre GP discussions. Tonight is going to be different, but maybe not that much.

@PJPR01 I went to MPH's new workshop this morning! It is almost one hour from where I live, really in the sticks. It is a completely different setup, nothing like the old workshop. The address is actually Mike's house, the shop is one entrance further. There is a dirt incline to get to the structure, not very bike friendly. It looks to me, and I may be wrong, they are sizing down. Maybe they will only take the jobs they want, but at present, they are probably not ready to take a lot of work. Besides, if you are going to drop your bike there, you will need someone to pick you up. There won't be any share ride service.

I agree that the Qatar track is particularly dirty given the lack of activity outside the F1 and MotoGP. But there are still 6 Ducati in the 7 top riders. I am not taking anything for granted, but I will not be surprised by who will make pole position tomorrow.

When we went to Bandera TX to pickup our flags for the Motorcycle Grand Tour of Texas, there were a few trikes, but the vast majority of riders were on two wheels, and the main brand was HD. Independently of this particular snapshot, which is certainly not representative, there was something common to all the riders, with the exception of a few: mostly "senior" citizens. This is something I have noticed since I do the Texas tour. Very few youngsters. When I was 16, all my friends were into motorcycling. We just have to admit it; the younger generations have different interests.

It makes me wonder why Piaggio is even keeping Aprilia in MotoGP, if they are not "All in!"? The kind of errors they have committed make them look like a "B" stock team, and defeats the purpose of racing to win the championship. Besides, they probably have invested a lot of money on Jorge Martin, so what is the point to have a capable pilot if you are going to cut his legs with miscellaneous issues? Anyway; Guess who is at the top of FP1 this morning? and we are not going to take it as an indication for the next practice, because as we know, FP1 means nothing...

Indian seems to have at least a few models which are accessible. The Indian Scout is not cheap, but it is affordable. They have one model shown at 10k, but all their bikes are water cooled since 2025...

This morning, there was a video about the CEO leaving after 5 years, wishing to retire and staying until a new CEO is named. I think HD motorcycle prices are outside the reach of the younger generations, if there was any interest in the first place. Now, most of the bikes I see on the Texas Tour are HD, but older riders.

@Woody V11 Here's my sale's video; I think it provides a solid foundation about the bike's current status; I purchased it on February 2nd, 2024 from a lot seller in Peoria AZ; I could not ride it because the rear tire was flat. The seller assured it only happened as he was trying to inflate it to nominal pressure for my testing. Which led me to believe he purchased it and never rode it himself. Nevertheless, I liked it and I had already pre-ordered new tires to fit it with at a local Guzzi dealer in Peoria (amazing, they had one!) I drove the Quota back from Peoria to Houston, and surrendered it to the good people at MPH Houston. MPH is one of the few Moto Guzzi haven in the USA. They used to be a Moto Guzzi dealership until Piaggio took over. They have a lot of experience and skilled (old) mechanics. During the ride from Arizona, I noticed the tachometer being unreadable as the pointer was oscillating continuously. I learned from Quota people that this is actually a known issue for those Veglia Tachometers. As I am meticulous with my things, I sent both instruments for a complete check to a specialized outfit in Germany. The Tachometer was fixed, both instruments were rejuvenated (faded pointer repainted) and calibrated. (Invoice is in the video) MPH kept the motorcycle about two months and as requested fully inspected the vitals and did a complete maintenance on it. That meant changing all the fluids. The bike was found in good working order, no major defect, nothing out of place. They installed a new EFI map, changed the collapsed turn indicators (another known problem). I then went ahead and put 5000 miles on it, making stops for the Motorcycle Grand Tour of Texas 2024 and also 2025. The bike rides like the wind. I had a little taste of trail riding last year at a fundraising drive for pediatric cancer support association. I rode in the Conroe forest with modern dualsport bikes, KTM, Sherpa and others. The Quota held her own! It is a fantastic motorcycle, odd, but rugged. On my long trips, I do 45 mpg easy, so I get 200 miles out of a 5 Gal tank. It only has five gears, and the spacing is such that the fifth is an overdrive. The gearbox is crude, but works fine. I blip the throttle for gear changes. I would never sell it if I could, but I have to be realistic. I already have two bikes behind my car. Each time I need to move it, it takes some doing. A third bike would complicate matters even more. So this is the sole reason why I have to part with it.

As ever, in this situation, the promotion is never applicable for the tires you really want... Not specific to Bridgestone, all manufacturers do that. You seem to only get a rebate for tires that don't sell well? I recently looked at tire prices for the Quota, when replacing the rear tube; 90/90-21 and 130/80-17; not that I don't like the Dunlop Trailmax, but I wanted something more road than terrain. The Michelin Anakee cost twice as much in the USA as in Europe. They are made in Thailand. With the "De minimis" 800 USD exemption on imports, you can actually get your set of tires cheaper as mail order from Europe, including shipping! The set of tire at Cyclegear/Revzilla is about 400+ USD. In Europe, the same tires total 185 EUR. Even with shipping, you are still better off. If you can get them shipped to the USA.

The obvious difference is that an unskilled, unfocused diver may cause harm to himself only. An unskilled, unfocused driver may cause harm to himself and others.

I am not certain, and I may be wrong, but Piaggio is probably very strong financially. Probably not as strong as Ducati, but at least KTM? but the mistakes they keep making are sort of beginners'... surely, they must have check lists?

When I started my job, my first assignment was in Gabon, and I got to meet a bunch of divers from COMEX. All saturation dives. As I was already into diving, I got tempted, but quickly realized it was not all what I thought it was. I remember a time when one of the divers was sick, and they did not want to bring all the divers up, so they were simply telling him to take it. I was not impressed! I trained all the way to Rescue Diver with the objective to become Dive Master, but my job got in the way, as ever. Diving is just as invigorating as motorcycle riding, with a lot less danger from the distracted drivers.

I must say that I am disappointed that Jorge Martin self shot himself in the foot before the season started. I can accept that he got some bad luck during the opening tests, but he did not have to make matters worse by injuring himself even more. He is also penciled to race in Qatar, which may be another mistake, even if he is announcing that he may not finish the races, the intent being getting back in the saddle. I am looking at Piaggio as a bunch of amateurs, owing to their mistake in COTA, when Bezzechi's electronics put the bike in engine preservation mode; twice! it seems their team is plagued by this kind of errors which obviously aren't compatible with winning a championship. Even the root cause of Jorge Martin crashes was fishy when they outwardly accused the tires, and Michelin seemed to show them they weren't at the correct temperature. Martin was the only one who crashed twice like that. If we believe the media, the KTM have not resolved any of the issues they knew they had, that leaves us with nothing but yet, still Ducati above, below and beyond... The only positive is Honda and Yamaha seem to be making some progress.

I do not disagree with your statement. He may have wanted to hammer in a statement to Bagnaia, he has had lots of experience when he was battling with Rossi, psychological warfare is unfortunately very important too, whether you think you are immune to it, or not. This is where the Valentino mentoring will help Francesco Bagnaia. While Bagnaia is possibly not as strong as Marquez in this department, he has the "Italian family" around him, which is something you have to live to understand. It is a bit patriarchal, but once you get it, you appreciate it. I lived for months with a Sicilian family, and felt adopted. Not anything I ever experienced with my own family. Anyway, Qatar is being built up in the same manner as the three first GPs, by putting Marquez at a disadvantage. He finished fourth last year, on a GP23 which was said to be really inferior to the GP24. We will know soon enough.

Have done cold water diving? I mean, dry suit? this one is the real ordeal! I trained to see the whales in Puerto Madryn; you know, no alcohol, healthy diet and the like. I was already a bit old for the effort. Then my company sent me to Kazakhstan with very short notice, I lost that opportunity. But if you are really game for it, this is probably one of the most memorable dive you could do. There are plenty of diving companies that propose it.

Remember good old Archimedes? If you displace a large volume of water, which unfortunately is the case for some of us , combined with sea water buoyancy, a few weights may help you to stay down where you want to be... I remember my dives in the red sea, where the water is extremely warm and salty, it was always a pain to stay level at shallow depths. I had to keep my lungs as empty as possible to avoid surfacing... the problem is less accute when you start getting down. I did a lot of snorkelling in Egypt, because you really did not need to go down to be in exctasy with the beauty and the fishes literally eating from your hand. I wish I had the Airbuddy system then..

Its working as it should again.

Besides riding a motorcycle, diving was one of my favorite hobby. I did a lot of diving in the Red Sea, Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian ocean... Renting the tanks, filling the tanks, depending where you dive, can quickly become expensive. My "deep dives" are now behind me, and there are plenty of places where you don't need to go dark to enjoy the dives. If you like diving, I found this company, based in Australia, that proposes equipment that avoid the tanks; https://airbuddy.com/

I really have a hard time believing that he was pushing. There wasn't any reason to justify that he had to. One of the (plausible?) explanation was that he lost the bike by going over the curb, which (according to pundits) in the USA are not coated with anti-skid paint. Now, I completely trust that he is quite the astute man, on top of being an incredible pilot. The way he did a 180 degrees with his career, by leaving mighty Honda (including an even higher salary to stay) for a second fiddle team. this was a very bold move. I am not underevaluating Francesco Bagnaia, but when it comes to being a snake, Marc Marquez will prevail. It is being whispered that Valentino Rossi is 100% mentoring Francesco on what traps may lie ahead of him.

I checked that it was not split, it did not appear to be. I thought about that too. As said above, it was probably not screwed properly when it came back.

I am hoping it came off because it had been removed and loosely screwed back. That being said, these hose clamps maybe an indication they are prone to unscrewing themselves.

But you can't check if it moves unless you take apart the dashboard support, which is neither quick or easy.

As you see in the first photo, this is how it was sent. Disconnected item 9 from the angle gear 8. The angle gear was left connected to the instrument. But this was my fault as I did not check how tight it was when I got it back. There is no visual access to the actual angle gear/instrument connection. You need to remove dashboard plate item 1 on the drawing to be able to access or examine the connection. Only the item 9 connector is accessible and visible. The hose clamp were tightened around the screwable caps. Since those caps are made of plastic, the hose clamp would put pressure on the cap preventing it from turning. Those clamps were there already. I do not know if one of the previous owner experienced a similar issue. Something else; Noticed on the drawing item 3 and 4? Item 4 is a nilstop nut; Item 3 is not properly represented. There are 3 rubber washers, one spacer. I installed two of the rubber washers above and below the spacer, and one directly between the fairing and the fairing mount which is not shown in this drawing. There is no detail of how it should be installed.

I reinstalled it, and I tightened it by hand. Its a very fine thread, not sure how it could come loose in the first place. But I did not check it when the instruments came back from Germany.