p6x

@LowRyter I have considered purchasing a Beeline, but have abandoned the idea. Here's my rationale; I don't know how are roads in Oklahoma although I went there for work once. Today while coming back from Katy on the I-10, I had to avoid three palettes dropped on the asphalt. The car that I was following (at a distance) barely avoided them, and as he was obstructing my view, I had less time to react too. The other typical issue we have, are the numerous delaminated tire debris which can cause a fall. But not only that. It is my strong belief that on a motorcycle, you need to keep your eyes on the road all the time. A couple of seconds glance at the dashboard to check for warnings is safe. In my mind, keep eyes on a navigation device is a possible cause to have an accident because it requires too much attention. This is why I deliberately exclude any screen to compete for my attention. About Beeline; I read lots of reviews complaining about devices that stop working and an under par customer service in Europe. Generally speaking, customer service in the USA is a lot better than what we have in Europe. Also, Beeline requires to pair it with a phone. That makes up for some kind of redundancy. If I have to pair my phone, why do I need Beeline? Personally, I only "listen" to directions, and I found the best application to do that is Waze. My phone remains in my pocket, and I follow verbal instructions spoken through Bluetooth. My helmet is equipped with small speakers. Other advantages of Waze, you get warnings about hazards on the road, traffic issues. This is the best App for navigation for motorcyclists that don't watch the display. Google and Apple not as good with voice commands. By only listening to my navigation, my eyes keep scanning as they should. My major problem is the noise in my helmet. If I wear ear plugs, I don't hear the instructions any longer. I need to find ear plugs that lower the noise without completely cutting the Waze audio commands. For the record, I participated to the funding of the Pebble watch, which failed lamentably and was purchased by Fitbit eventually. My Pebble watches invariably failed after a few months. The display became unreadable. Pebble was a US company, they had a good customer service. They replaced the watch each time. Towards the end, they no longer did. I would think that Beeline does not have the financial means to perfect their design and make it reliable. What you are experiencing I have read about in the reviews.

Working on my head light last week.... three showers and complete change to carry out the task.... My biggest problem is vision..... I am short sighted, so I need to remove my glasses all the time to alternate near sighting and far sighting. It is only with old age that I no longer have glasses that do both. At least, I don't need so-called reading glasses. Do you have a bench with a vice?

I had the exact same problem on the Le Mans last week, when I attempted to replace the H4 lamp with a LED light in the head light. I followed the manual's instruction, requiring to remove the little "access trap" underneath the fairing, to get access to the screw that enables pivoting the assembly upwards, and removing the diffuser/reflector. What I did not know at that time, is that the clip on nut was attached to a plastic tab inside, and the plastic tab was no longer holding the nut. @Tomchri suggested to take off the entire fairing, which I did, and this is when I realized what was happening. I repaired the plastic tab with modelism plastic glue. That saved me from purchasing a replacement bucket. I did notice that a lot of the hard plastic parts become brittle with time, especially when exposed to so much UV light.

I finally installed the two Formotion instruments after a long moment of reflection. Rather than using the front fork tee, I opted to use the 6mm screws that hold the front fairing cover. It is not (yet) perfect. I have plastic bushings that I was planning to file down at an angle, so the instruments would be perfectly in line with my vision when I ride the bike. But I need a vice to do that properly. Instead, I used washers to make up for the recess, and simply installed the thermometer on the left and the clock on the right. No permanent modification of the Guzzi. That's what I prefer. Unfortunately, the Formotion instruments don't have night fluorescent pointers, at night they will be unreadable. Which is fine, since I am still not planning to ride at night. ______________________________________________________________________________________ I am considering the installation of an RTD or Thermocouple based Oil Temperature indicator. I know that the oil temperature information is unnecessary. I am simply interested in finding a way to do it. I would like to get that information on the dashboard, so the oil combined thermometer dipstick is not what I am looking for. One way to use gas flow rate, is to measure pressure, differential pressure across a known orifice, and of course temperature taken in the gas stream. Before electronics took over, we used RTD devices, which were completely mechanical. I found what I was looking for in Europe, now what I need to devise, is where to connect the temperature probe on the Guzzi. But its another thread I guess. [docc edit: agreed. Installing Oil Temperature Sensor thread created based upon @p6x's comment, italicized.]:

Lots of police prowlers on the return trip. Maybe someone decided to temper those heavy right feet and wringing out right hands?

18,000 miles on the odometer. I have doubled the amount from the day I got the bike. 8800 miles from 2004 until April 2021; although I don't know what the exact mileage was since it was disabled when I got the bike. The Tour of Texas is an easy excuse to go for a ride. I am already longing for the next excursion.

I should have, not only to protect against insects, but I also got sun burnt. Including my wrists, since I rode with short gloves, and there is a band of skin showing between the glove and the end of the sleeves. Riding Australia's back country is certainly more challenging. Can you even get gas easily? the one peace of mind you have here, is gas stations are plentiful. I think on 77, on my way back, there was a sign indicating a 60 miles drought from the last station. But I was riding the main highways.

I did it! would I do it again? no! it is not about the physical limits, it is about being on the clock. I did not take all the photos to document the trip the way I wanted to. The time lost to get to the South Padre Island stop and other incidentals put me behind schedule. Stops 24, 29. 17/50. 805.8 miles (793 miles recorded by the ITI Odometer) (approximate)1297 km in a single ride. Funny to think that in Europe, on such distance, I would have crossed multiple borders. In the USA, I could remain within a single state albeit, the second largest. Edited on June 28th, 2022: I refilled the tank and attached the detailed fuel log to the post. 19.522 Gal of premium gas exactly; which for 806 miles is quite good! (91 liters for 1300 km) Highlights: What an Incredible experience! The Le Mans managed better than expected in the sizzling heat; Riding in the night is great too! Lowlights: Stung by a (which kind?)bee while riding; Stopped for speeding Incredible traffic from Port Isabel all the way into South Padre Island. Why can't motorcyclist go through the lanes? Unpleasant moment with Customs and Border Protection coming back from South Padre Island My legs were the weakest part of the trip. The fixed curl angle is killing.... Details: Between Wharton and Victoria, I got my first police pull over ever, for going 84 mph in a 75 mph zone. This came as a surprise, because in Texas, I thought the unwritten rule was 20 mph above posted speed. The police officer was quite nice and asked me a lot of questions about the Le Mans. So many, that I am thinking he just pulled me over to discuss it. I explained him it is difficult to read 75 mph on the speedometer, because the tick is blending into the dark background of the instrument. Besides, I don't see well at a short distances so it is all a blur. He was very young, and maybe he was not expecting a senior guy speeding? Between Wharton and Victoria (again), I got stung by an insect. It got caught between the top of my jacket and my neck, and decided it was my fault, defended itself. I am not allergic, but having a large red volcano on the side of the neck ruined my otherwise casual looks. This morning, it itches very much. What makes it funny, is the first stop in Hidalgo was a Killer Bee artifact. Fate maybe? painful one too. I had been stung before, and I knew what it was right away. I let the pain ride its course, did not try to touch it, stopped at the next gas station to check it out! The ride in the Texan humid heat was not a problem at all. I was not expecting it would be, and it did not affect me. I drank water, and coffee at my refueling stops, every 150 miles even if I could have pushed to 200 given that my average fuel consumption is around 40 mpg. I would have liked to have had a co rider, to have someone else's opinion. I did not cross many other bikers. The ingress to South Padre Island was a real nightmare. Saturday of course, vacation too, but Port Isabel had road works to add more lanes for the future, reducing flow to just one lane per side. The biggest choke point is the causeway to South Padre. There is room for two lanes, a motorbike could easily go through the cars. However, this is prohibited by law in Texas. South Padre island was also packed and bursting at the seams. Flow was complicated by multiple golf cars offered everywhere on rental, because of the price of gas? The view from the South Padre Island causeway was breathtaking; Somewhere on the 69E or 77, there is an immigration check point. I should have known there was one because of the proximity of the border, I would have been better prepared. All cars and commercial vehicles were checked. I thought it would be a formality, but when you are not a US citizen, it gets complicated, especially if you do not carry anything but your state issued driver's license. The only question you are being asked is about your citizenship. If you are a denizen, you need to have a proof that you are not an illegal migrant. Problem was, I did not expect that you had to carry proof of legal residency within the US. I was planning to carry my documents for the Big Bend trip. The last part of the ride from Victoria to Houston I did in the night. Although I try to avoid riding after dark, it was pleasant to be in human temperatures. The Le Mans liked that too. The traffic jams under the scorching sun, not so much. The V11 was constantly eructing its displeasure to move at snail pace during stop and go motion. I definitively need to change the lamp to something with more lumen in the head light. The yellow spot in front of the bike does not really help. It is not a problem on highways, plenty of traffic around you to show you the way. The way back I had to alternate postures which works fine when you use the tank as a crutch for your bum. However, what cannot really change is your legs' position. Having them recoiled all the time is difficult to sustain. Reminder of the map of that trip: The times and mileage of the trip; not included are the numerous incidental stops for gas and undesirable events: The Gas refuels record. The last one is missing, since I have not yet replenished the tank: The temperature early in the morning is a clue of what it will be later after the sun cooks us down! First refuel in Victoria at "The Texan" a copy cat of Buc-ee's. They still have a long way to go, but the principle remains the same. Some sort of gas stop supermarket for the people in motion. The first Motorcycle Grand Tour of Texas stop of the day; isn't it funny that this was also the day I was stung by a bee? Temperature before I took to home: The last stop. Observe the youth playing basket ball in the shadow of the Water Tower. Even then, the temperature is brutal! Back at the Texan, I am gratified by a beautiful sunset, which is kind of the cherry on top of this outing! the colors are beautiful and the heat haze makes it looking like a halo...

Talk to you later.... This is the day for my 800 miles ride!

Some of the links no longer work, or some of the replacement bulbs are out of stock. I may have to try a few of those before I find a good one.

Can you provide me with a link for the H4 led version? the parking light with a 12volts 5 watts wedge connection could also be replaced. Is this an acceptable solution? AUXITO H4: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TQLK6SH?th=1&psc=1&geniuslink=true AOLED H4: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z4QKB33?th=1&geniuslink=true this one is for motorcycles, only one in the package. I don't really like the "blue halo".

@Tomchri My attempt to replace the H4 lamp with a LED fell flat on its face. There is no room for the driver inside the head light bucket. But it was a good experience to remove the fairing entirely.

Danilo Petrucci lives in Pennsylvania. He still commutes to Italy, but he has a base in the USA. Fun interview to watch.

I wanted to spend as little time as possible, to not get the bike immobilized. I only received the led kit in the afternoon, working in triple digits heat is really hard. I will remove the fairing completely when I come back.

I have replaced all the incandescent lamps with led ones; the flasher too, since the stock one does not work with led lights; remains the head light. I forgot to report the lenses on the turn indicators were completely brittle. Probably the UV from the sun. The plastic tab where the screw goes broke when attempting to remove. The plastic tab on the opposite side too. More money for MG Cycle... I have depleted their stock. I followed the instructions found in the owner's manual. The lower part of the fairing is held by four 5mm chc screws. The screws are held by four 5 mm nuts that your counter torque with a 8mm wrench. I removed the screw "A", which is cruciform, but the sheath does not come off. I believe there is probably another screw somewhere else underneath the top of the fairing. As I want to ride tomorrow, I have put back everything together. Can anyone with a front fairing confirm what needs to be removed to access the lamps in the head lights?

Yes. A friend of mine had one, in the early 80's. Really fun car to drive...

Did you try the GTV?

If I can, I will get myself a Citroën Méhari. This is the perfect car for Texas. 2 cylinders air cooled, 602 cc. Comes under the 25 years import law.

All the "old" cars that I used to drive back in Europe never gave me any concern. Probably because there was so little sophistication built into them. So crude, that if anything would go wrong, you could fix it yourself. Having a car requiring an ECU re-programming because of a failed battery was a discovery for me.

Why not? My motorcycle is my first mean of transportation, and I only take my car out because I have to. And I have a fun car to drive, but nothing can match the V11 feel!

This is a lot better than the matter of fact "we are sorry" that I got from Ford.... inconveniences happen all the time, even on so-called luxury brand cars. What makes the difference is how the brand own up to their issues. I seemed to have less major problems with my vintage cars which I purchased for pennies. I like the Bronco.

Agreed. It is already miraculous that he still has the will to come back. Even if people are going to give him some leniency, because he is Marc Marquez, they will still expect him to be back at the front in very little time. I hope that he will not let his environment put pressure on him.

I purchased a Ford Transit Connect short chassis with the lift rear gate. December 2016. I chose the turbo charged engine instead of the 1.8 Atmospheric. This is as ugly as it can be, has been nicked named "Toaster" because it looks like one. I had too many issues with it. Starting with a battery failure that crashed the ECU, necessitating a complete re-installation of the firmware. This happened just outside of the warranty coverage. But my worse issue was a Y connection, plastic, part of the cabin heating system, that failed. Lost the coolant and had to get the car towed to Ford. I thought that Ford would have a commercial gesture as this part is not supposed to wear out. It is just a piece of plastic. How could it even break? the service manager said that it may have been a bad part which failed after the temperature up and down excursions. As it is now the norm, they could not only replace the failed part, because it comes with all the hoses and connections as a module, and costed a little fortune. I still keep the car because it is very practical. I had a Subaru previous to the Ford, never had a single issue with it.

Honda seems to be hinting that Marc Marquez will be back before the season ends. I don't know how reliable the information is. Without Marc Marquez, Honda is just looking like Yamaha without Fabio Quartararo.

Zarco was really struggling for breath after the race. They introduced the sneaky camera to listen to what the riders say before the awards ceremony, and Miller telling Zarco that he did not look too good!!!!