Dirtybill

I can vouch for the Geordie. He was the only one at the bike show yesterday who I saw in riding gear and carrying his helmet. However, I don't think you ever really answered my question. "Is it cold, riding?" "It's dry".

If you're into Trailies or as we call them, Dualsports, check this site out.... http://www.dual-sport.co.uk/ It's Welsh based. Tell them Dirtybill sent you. If you go into the gallery on the below site you'll see some of the back country of BC Canada, and there's some pics from Baja Mexico and Africa on there as well. http://www.DualsportBC.com We just won for the 2nd consecutive year, the best bike club booth at the Vancouver bike show. Next year's show is the one we think we'll not be asked to afterwards. We're going to blow everyone into the weeds and cause some controversy..............just how I like it

It sure is like night and day how some people's attitudes and online comments change from a non specific bike forum to when they post on a Guzzi forum

Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!! Sitting on the fence moi???? I really don't care because on one hand, I remember myself at that age On the other hand, being in the position he's in, he should know better. I call it a draw and much ado about nothing, really. I think he's smart enough to know what kind of a drama it would create and did it anyway. And the swastika originally meant something entirely different than what the Nazis use it for.

And he wasn't "Quite" as insane as I thought he'd be He rides dirt too so I guess we may be crashing together later on in the year

I like that! Lend me some cash please

The Glasgow Kiss booth maybe

But 111lb ft of torque and you can get a stage 1 up to a stage 3 kit from the factory that comes with some Akropovic pipes. For a bike that's not supposed to be coming to North America, it sure is garnering a lot of interest from the mags. I figure Yamaha is sending up trial balloons to guage the interest here. The bike? MT-01, featured in this month's Motorcyclist mag. Call it ugly, call it beautiful, I don't care, but anything with that amount of torque immediately catches my interest. Just wondering if any of the Euro Guzzisti have ridden one of these and your thoughts about it?

I'll be at the DualSportBC booth at noon on Friday, the GVMC at 10am-2pm Sat. Then some more time at DSBC Sat afternoon and late Sunday.

I make friends wherever I go

I know Brian, tough for a Geordie to follow The guy who I don't get along with works at a Guzzi and other makes dealer in the UK somewhere. I asked him if he's a Mechanic but got no answer. He likes to instigate any threads where the word Guzzi appears. I guess he thinks he's getting me wound up but frankly I don't care if he likes Guzzis or not. He must be one of those Soft Southern Shandy Drinkers So this is the only known shock breakage that's been known on this site? Hardly an epidemic, is it? Then there's Suzuki, who amongst other things, got the oil holes the wrong size on some of their 1200 Bandits, resulting in massive oil consumption which they tried to deny was their fault

Looks like it's Martin's bike. The shop employee says he works about 70 miles outside of London. He mentioned the cracked header pipe also. This guy is an obnoxious twit and he and I don't get along, if you can't get on with someone on a forum? He constantly slags Guzzis and has shown his mechanical ineptitude on the Workshop part of the forum. I've never seen the eyelet/mount on a rear shock break like that before. Strange.

I don't want to cause false rumours or any panic but some guy who claims he works in a British Guzzi shop posted a pic of a lower shock mount that's broken. There's corrosion around it and it supposedly is 18 months old. He hasnt said anything about customer abuse so I assume there wasnt any. Anyone heard about or experienced this? On a V11 Sport.

If you haven't been assigned a space yet, I think you may be out of luck. Our club had a space confirmed over a month ago. Imo, the Seattle show was crap in 03. So bad, that I havent bothered to go back. A new truck in the middle of the floor? Mezzanine not even half filled and no KTM, while Vancouver had an extensive KTM booth. This year, our club will have internet access and a delayed feed of pics from some of our members who will be riding in Baja Some other surprises are in store. Next year's booth and activities are allready planned, with a good chance that we won't be asked back again The organizers may not like what we do next year but the customers who luck out will

I've decided that I don't like the food in Mongolia

I was thinking of changing my name to Vermulen. Do you think anyone would buy that?

Boo hooooooooooooo................I'm broke! I do have an excellent credit rating though http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...ssPageName=WDVW

I havent ridden one yet but a friend who is a good rider and doesnt BS about bikes took one out and was very impressed. He also went to the annual Sheet Iron dual sport run in northern California last year and said the 950s were amazing for such a big bike. Apparently a new rear knobbie is toast after one weekend if you ride as hard as these guys were. But help is on the way from Terraflex. They make a steel belted DOT approved knobby that is huge. The knobs are almost 3 inches long on it. A friend with the 640 Adventure has one on his bike and says it's squirrely on pavement but just excellent in the dirt. Actually, I wouldnt mind a slightly used 640 either. A helluva lot cheaper than a 950. I can't even find one on ebay let alone any for sale around here.

This Roper thing has been bugging the hell out of me for days now. I got him confused with this guy http://www.teamobsolete.com/ click on past events and then on Del Mar and it's Dave Roper who I was getting Pete Roper confused with. I feel better now

I will NEVER put a front 020 on any bike I own. My Triumph SprintRS came with 020s and while the rear was ok, I nearly crashed in the rain, about 2 days ride from home. The front end just washed out and it was raining so hard that I was riding under the speed limit. There was a 1 1/2 inches of scrub mark on the shoulder of the front tire from the slide. Some friends ahead of me went over the same piece of road about 15 seconds before me and none experienced even a twitch. I think the only thing that kept me from crashing is my dirt riding experience and LUCK!!

My 0.2 cents. I can feel my steering damper working depending on how I adjust it. I NEVER back it off all the way. I figure it's there for a reason and when I'm out riding I set as stiff as I feel is comfortable and then back it off for slow speed stuff like city riding. I can't help but feel you may have come across the perfect conditions for a tank slap, with bumps, new pavement (slippery) and your damper backed off. Still, the bike shouldnt have gone down. 1 other thing I'd like to address. I also own an 02 R1. It came with Dunlop 208s. There's a particular road near here where I take my bikes out after doing tire and or suspension changes just to see how it feels. A straight stretch where I can acclerate as hard as I want had caused the R1 to do a minor and very short tank slap, and I even hesitate to call it a tank slap. More like the bars moving quickly for a split second. This happened when I ran over the bots dots, they're the little reflectors they insert in the centre line. I changed tires to Pirelli Diablos and this mini tank slap disappeared. Same speed, same section of road. The Diablos dont last long on the R1 but in other respects, they are amazing tires. Just a bit of food for thought that may suggest it was a combination of things instead of just one thing that contributed to the crash. Heal quickly

Silly as it sounds, this is another reason I like Guzzis. This would never happen on a Japanese bike. Thanks for the info Skeeve

I'm sure that a 3 minute commute on any bike or car will probably produce the same results. It's my opinion that this kind of riding is the worst thing you can do to an engine. Also, way back when I worked in an Alfa Romeo dealership, the head Mechanic, a grouchy old German fellow specifically brought in Shell oil to run in the Alfas. He hated Castrol because it left a white residue on the internals. Now, no one that Iknow of has ever proven that the white stuff caused any harm, if the engine had been run properly, but this mechanic just despised the stuff. I've got no problem with Castrol and for all I know it doesnt leave the froth any more. But ya, 3 minutes running time is bad news imo. btw, is this the same Pete Roper who used to race or is there another one running around?

I have no facts or figures to back this up, but I have an uneasy feeling about the Piaggio takeover.

Scary what we once did to ourselves I wonder how much of that 50% you actually got back?