audiomick

Well, you've got plenty to do this winter.... Good score.

Nobody has answered fotoguzzi's question yet, and we're getting a long way away from it...

Depends on the police officer who pulls you over. Some really have no idea, but there are some who know bikes. That's only a part of the problem, though. Perhaps more serious is what can happen if you have an accident. Assume you get cleaned up by a bloke in a Porsche / Ferrari / Maserati, whatever. Some rich prick in an expensive car who can afford a smart-arse laywer. We're assuming the rich prick was 100% at fault. And his car is broken. His fault, but never mind, and never mind what your bike looks like and what injuries you might have. He gets his lawyer on the plan, and the lawyer and rich prick's insurance decide that an insurance appraiser needs to look at your (broken) bike to "protect their interest" and assess the damage that rich prick has done to your bike. The appraiser knows what he's looking at. Always. If he can establish that the handlebar is not original and not legal, suddenly the whole accident is your fault because you were on a bike on the street that wasn't street legal and therefore shouldn't have been on the street, and you get to pay for the damage to rich prick's Porsche/ Ferrari/ whatever, not to mention your own damages, even though the accident was entirely rich prick's fault. The reasons that it is so strict here: The insurance companies in Germany have far too much to say. Very unfortunate, but that's life. Live with it, or live somewhere else. More importantly, and regarding why everything that you bolt on to your bike has to have a piece of paper attached: that is the other side of the coin of being able to drive as fast as the vehicle can possibly go on a very large percentage of the Autobahn. If you're going to hammer your vehicle for what it is worth, it has to be in good order. The strict regulations are the government's way of keeping the lemmings alive.

I am always pleased to find a clearly identifiable cause for a problem. Makes it easier to fix, and one knows for sure that the fix really is a fix.

No, I'm really curious. In Germany you need an ABE or a Teilegutachten for after-market pegs. In fact, just about the only thing you can bolt on to a motorcycle without one or the other of those is luggage or a luggage-rack. I'm currently trying to find out if there is a way to get different handlebars registered on my Breva 750. There are lots of clip-ons available with adequate paperwork, but there is not much space between the fork leg and the headlight bracket, so they mostly, or all, wont work. The V7 Racer had clip-ons. Not particularly exciting clip-ons: non-adjustable and steel, but they would get my hands where I want to have them, and they should fit. The V7 has the same diameter forks, and the same headlight bracket. I.e., must fit. The V7 is also generally close to identical to the Breva apart from the bodywork and tank. The information that I currently have is that using the V7 OEM clip-ons on the Breva is effectively impossible because as an OEM part they don't have the appropriate papers that an "accessory part" needs. I'm working on it, but the absurdity of the situation is annoying the crap out of me. I know that Victoria at least used to be very relaxed about that sort of business. I swapped around exhaust pipes and bars on the Z900 without thinking twice about it, and fitted whatever tyres in approximately the right size that the shop happened to have in stock. Germany doesn't work that way. I don't expect that the USA are anywhere near as strict as Germany, but I'm curious to know how strict.

Just out of curiosity, does one need some kind of official "certificate of suitability" for that sort of thing in the USA?

That's supposed to be more like 8 mm or so, isn't it?

Yep. The GPx 250 was good, if I remember rightly. I think I might have been on the Z900 by the time that came out, though.

I'd quite like to have one of them. The idea of such a small four cylinder appeals to me. I would have liked to have a Suzuki Across back in the day too...

Yes, that turned up a week or so ago on the german forum. The consensus, after much discussion, is that it may well be the result of some business arrangement between Piaggio and Changjiang. If it isn't, I dare say Piaggio is currently disscussing legal action with their lawyers. Incidentally, that article seem to be poorly researched. Firstly, the thing is called "Deffender", double-f for whatever reason. In the film at the top of the article behind Rany's link on can see the double-f very breifly on the wall behind the bike. Secondly, the quoted power figures don't correspond to other reports that I've seen. For instance: from here https://www.motorradonline.de/enduro/changjiang-v-750-deffender-gespann-guzzi/ and Motorradonline is generally very well researched. Given the similarity of those figures to the "old" V7 motor with the heron heads, I could imagine it really is a licensed copy of that motor. Moto Guzzi has retired it, after all.

Hi Tom. I don't know anything for sure, but... In the German forum I found a number of references to the temp. sensor in the valve cover. It seems the Quota and some Californias had that as well, and it seems to be for motor temperature, perhaps one of two temperature sensors. The pressure valve has "100 kPa" written on it. That is "only" one Bar. Where is it exactly? With that value, it can hardly be fuel pressure. As far as I know, that should be more like 3 or 4 Bar, shouldn't it? EDIT: I think I've found the pressure thing. It looks like it is not a valve but rather a pressure sensor. Part #14 here: https://www.stein-dinse.biz/etkataloge/etkataloge.php?l=de&m=227&t=5671&c=W The disturbing news: https://www.stein-dinse.com/de/search.html?grp=&searchStr=29727061 and the good news, the alternative part: https://www.stein-dinse.com/de/search.html?grp=&searchStr=200516001 Slight price difference....

I've already had stress getting my V35 Imola registered after fixing it up. It was from Italy, and had been taken off the road there. The rego office reckoned I would have to get new papers from Italy, or permission from Italy for the German office to issue new papers. The easy way was to buy an empty frame with German papers and swap the rest into that frame. Not going down that road again...

Too bloody right, mate.

I heard a rumour that Marlin company reps have been reading along here, and they are now working on an after-market Roo detector. Anyway, the mounting for the Marlin devices does indeed look better than that on the Formotions. That the temperature gauge has a problem doesn't have to be an indication of generally poor quality. If the replacement has problems, then that is another story. I'm interested to hear how they bear up, particularly the clock. I miss that on the V11 (compared to the GTR...). Temperatur is not so critical, but could be useful in winter when it is really cold.

I can relate to that. Mine wasn't even in the dark. The last time I was in Australia I had a Falcon ute to drive around in. (2016, it was. The ute actually belonged to my father, but lived at my sister's place. Anyway...). I was heading for Beechworth, where my mother lives, from Wodonga. On the way, I decided to detour from the main road into the bush a bit. Dirt road, but good. No worries in the ute, it can deal with it. I'm tooling along at a fairly relaxed speed enjoying the bush, and all of a sudden there were 4 roos RIGHT THERE !!!. They came from the right at an angle, about 4 o'clock. I didn't see them until they were right in front of me. They would have been Eastern Grey Kangaroos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_grey_kangaroo , and they just blend into the bush background perfectly. I didn't see them coming, and lost them very quickly after they headed back into the bush. I fairly shi was quite shocked by the experience.

I think a forum is a bit old fashioned. You need old farts to keep one running. In the context of the V7, the old farts that have them are already in established Guzzi forums and just continue there with the V7. The one I'm on in Germany has it's own subsection for the V7 models, and there is regular activity there. The young folk that get a V7 go to facebook and what have you, or just stick with Moto Guzzi's Clan. Forums are too "old school" for hipsters, although they take great pains to affect an old-school style. I think I'm getting nasty and cynical in my old age....

Very nice. Did you do it yourself?

I wouldn't have called it "club" racing, as it is organised by Guzzi directly, but there is this: https://www.motoguzzi.com/en_EN/fast-endurance/ I'm not aware of a dedicated V7 forum.

Yeah, I'd have it for that if it wasn't so far away from me.

Yes, indeed. A mate of mine collected one (or it might have been "only" a wallaby) somewhere out near Kinglake years ago. The thing landed on his front wheel. He was lucky: scratched up the bike and broke his collar-bone. Could have been lots worse. @docc : the comparison with deer is appropriate in another sense as well: deer come bounding out of the bush, the don't just wander on to the road with four feet on the ground (at least the little ones here do...). Kangaroos are even better: they come out of the trees about a meter in the air and hit the ground in the middle of the road. It can be a little difficult to see them coming... But, as Guzzler has already mentioned, they are indeed grill-compatible.

Incidentally (or perhaps additionally...) I reckon the difficulty with the white faced Marlin's instruments in p6x's photos is less the size than the fact the they are white faced, and the speedo and tacho are black faced. There is a "mental switch" involved in looking from one to the other that slows down the "quick glance". Regardless of aesthetics, I would keep all the clocks in the same schema, i.e. all white-faced or all black-faced.

Wow, that's a lot of dead 'roos. I don't reckon I can remeber ever having seen one on the Hume, or maybe one or perhaps two. And wombats too. On the one hand it is good that the native wildlife is apparently flourishing. On the other, it would be better if they didn't flourish on the freeway. Regarding this: indeed it is. My benchmark is being able to read the clocks at about 150 km/h on an Autobahn with a bit of traffic on it. That really does have to be "at a glance", even in a car.

Hmmm, I reckon that is an eminently debatable question. An analogue clock, for instance, with clearly differentiated hands, is very easy to read. An analogue temperature gauge, as long as the quick glance is only to see if you are in the "normal" range and not the precise temperature, is also very easy to read. If I remember rightly, the one in the Monaro didn't even have numbers on it, just a blue end and a red end.

"Alles richtig gemacht" is a saying here. Literally: "Everything right made", and so that it makes sense: "Goodonya, mate, ya done well". PS: I think it must be "Vyrus", without the "e". Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyrus

That bloke is a true artist.