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Bill Hagan

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Posts posted by Bill Hagan

  1.  

    Great story of the reality of the routine peaks and valleys of motorcycling. Why we keep at it is a mystery to non-riders, but we know. :bike:

    OTOH, I had to run it through my Ozian translator app to understand some of it.  :grin:

    Not quite so challenging as reading this -- A History of Wales by John Davies -- which has me mumbling and cursing just now, but several words did give me as much pause as some of those characters and placenames.  ;)

    Bill

    • Like 1
  2. 46 minutes ago, PJPR01 said:

    Coming from Houston to ride the area in the first two weeks of Sept,  If I were to show up on my Norge and not the Scura, would I be allowed to park the bike in the same building as the V11’s?

    Are there any rooms left for the Spine raid?  

     

    I've been to SSR's on my Ballabio, Norge, Griso, EV, and Stornello.  Not sure which this year, but my V7 III is a SSR virgin, so mebbe.  :bike:

    I found it humiliating at first to be made to sit outside the covered area by the fire pit for post-ride benchracing and belching, but have gotten over that.  :D

    Bill

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  3. I sent the following around a few days ago as an email to some “usual suspects."

    Decided to post it as a thread on some Guzzi websites in case I missed someone.  These “Mutton Runs” are always a highlight of my motorcycling year, and I think that anyone who has to been to one agrees.  

    Let me know if interested, though there is no effort to make it a group ride … well, except possibly on Sunday morning to the picnic itself.  I might need to alert the parish lest they think Hollister 1947 has morphed into Whitesville 2021!   :D

    Three Guzzisti have already indicated a desire to leave from here, another will meet us along the way, and several others have said they will meet us in Owensboro. 

    i-D4vbs9d-M.jpg

     
    =======

     

    Well, there are several ways to sate that mutton urge, e.g., have some delivered to your door; see https://www.moonlite.com.  We’ve done that ourselves.  Mmmmmutton. :food:

    But, a more fun way is to ride your motorcycle to Daviess County, Kentucky, and smack your lips at the biennial picnic at St. Mary of the Woods in Whitesville on Sunday, 26 September 2021.

    This will be a return to the great picnics of old after three Covid-cancelled or modified “drive-thru” events.

    Several getting this have been on previous “mutton runs” over the years.  Those lucky folks know what it’s all about.

    If, OTOH, you have no clue about this and want to know more — and, heck, if you are still reading this, you must care at some level however small :rolleyes:  — take a look at one or more of these slideshows.

    May 2016 - https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Men-Motorcycles-Mutton/n-GRNH7j/

    May 2018 - https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Mutton-Running-May-2018/n-dHftGV/

    Sep 2018 - https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Muttoning-Sept-2018/n-7HZKSL/

    May 2019 - https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Mutton-Run-2019-/n-9V3j52

    I plan to leave home on Thursday, 23 September, RON somewhere — Maysville, if doable — then RON at the Holiday Inn Riverfront in Owensboro, “in 24, out 27 September (Monday);" https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/owensboro/owbdt/hoteldetail

    Owensboro has lots of other lodging available.  See, e.g.,https://tinyurl.com/Yellow-Banks-Lodging

    The plan is to take (something like!) this route (from here, anyway), tho this may be of the “Bridge Too Far” sort of plan: 

    https://tinyurl.com/Cross-Junction-to-Mutton-Land

    The route includes a cameo on the second day at the Kentucky Guzzi rally near Frankfort.

    We usually stop only for fueling (the Guzzis and a quick snack), hydration, bladder maintenance, and occasional overlooks, compelling photo opps, and some historical markers (my personal flaw!).  In other words, no leisurely Italian lunches followed by Riposo! 

    We travel almost exclusively on tertiary back roads, and only hit major roads or the slab if WAY behind or to avoid trafficky city centers, tho places like Lees Lick and the like have little traffic unless the daily freight rolls through!

    Return routing to Cross Junction TBD.

    Questions? Ask.

    Let me know if you are interested in joining me on all, part, or meeting me along the way of this motorcycle curve-carving, culinary, and corn-sipping* trek. 

    Bill
    404.EIGHTZEROEIGHT.8486
    wrhagan-AT-earthlink-DOT-net

    * Yes, it is possible that some a-maizing liquid will be tested, tasted, & toasted!  :drink:

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  4. 8 hours ago, footgoose said:

    copperhead?

     

    Yes.  Juvenile.  See good piece about those here:  Copperhead Snake Factoids

    6 hours ago, pete roper said:

    Well you won't have to worry about mice!😆

    We get Tigers, Red-Bellied Blacks and Eastern Brown snakes in our yard Bill and the Garage is full of Redback spiders too which are pretty nasty. Any of the three common snakes will kill you, the Eastern Brown is in the top five most venomous in the world! They're generally OK though. If we leave them alone they leave us alone.

    Its my daughter that worries me. She works for the Dept of environment and conservation and one of her projects is studying Whip Snake numbers. Problem is the little whip snakes, (Which are venomous but have tiny, ineffectual little fangs.) live under the same rocks and logs as dirty great big Eastern Browns and she gaily goes around 'Counting' them by picking up their cover and annoying the shit out of them! She hasn't been bitten......Yet!

     

    Yikes re daughter.  That would make any mom & dad nervous!  

    We respect snakes, spiders, and other less lovable creatures, but, especially for our grandkids, draw the line at venomous ones in the house and curtilage.  There are various versions of black snakes on the property that prey upon all sorts of rodents and, interestingly, copperheads and rattlesnakes.  We are happy to see those constrictors, and -- no doubt in part because of them -- this is the first venomous snake we've seen here.  That small copperhead was not, of course, an "only child," but juvenile snakes have many predators and there probably aren't many left.  I am still being more careful about footgear, at least for awhile!  :o

    Bill

  5.  

    Yup.

    Wayne's the surgeon; we others, nurses. :notworthy:

    Bill

    P.S. Just realized that my wrenching skills make my reference to nurses unintentionally insulting. I am often mystified and occasionally mortified by how little I know when I listen to Wayne or, as shown in that and related pix, watch him work.  Perhaps even more impressively, he is remarkably modest about his talent.

     

    • Like 1
  6.  
    Many of you have told me how you and others have been near distraught at the delay in getting pix posted of the recently concluded Moto Grappa Tech & Tire Days, 2021 [abbreviated confusingly and saving only few letters as "MGTTD MMXXI."]  
     
    OK, OK, maybe only person has, and he was being facetious.  :P
     
    Still, I felt obligated to get those out there.  Besides, Kathi, freshly returned from Seattle, thinks “working” on the slideshow was simply yet another ploy to avoid knocking items off her “List," so I had to finish quickly.  :whistle:
     
    A word for those who — rather understandably — see my slideshows as the pictorial equivalent of TLDR: don’t open the url.  But, know that it could have been much worse; I started with 500+ photos, and now have “only” 155.   :grin:
     
    The link opens in “landscape collage,” and captions appear when hovering your cursor over a pic.  You can go to fullscreen and play the show or advance manually, but captions often “fall off” when doing that so it can be problematic.  That said, if you have any interest in viewing the three brief (a few seconds long) videos, you have to go to fullscreen to see those.
     
    Enough “legals;” I can’t help it. :huh2:
     
    Here are the pix:
     
     
    Bill
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  7. 4 hours ago, Cabernet said:

    Cresting blind faster than you can see, over in the UK you wouldn't have claim, and had you have struck said vehicle or a pedestrian you could be charged with reckless riding. Might be worth investing in an advanced riding course. I realise you might be sensitive to your riding being critised, but I'd rather upset you, than hear you made the same gaff again with more serious consequence. That could equally have been a dog or child running out. Don't travel faster than the distance you can see to be safe.

    Perhaps I misread your post, Cabernet, but it seems to me that your statement would mean that one would need to approach every crest at walking speed to ensure nothing sinister awaits.

    Surely the traveling public may rely on a reasonable supposition that the road ahead is clear in the absence of various warning signs, e.g., "Hidden Driveway," etc.

     In the OP's case, he "crested a hill to find someone attempting an (illegal) 3-point turn in front of" him. I recall some years ago Pete Roper reporting the death of aan Aussie friend and Guzzista who had a less fortunate encounter with a u-turning vehicle just over a hilltop.  :o

    It seems ludicrous to me that the late rider and the OP -- on the facts presented -- would be liable to prosecution for their riding.  [Edit: I just read Pete's post!]

    My only quibble with the OP's rendition was that he "laid the bike down."  I have no doubt that he lowsided, but having BTDT on other occasions, suspect he was not in charge of the applied-physics lesson happening to him at the time.  :whistle:

    Bill

    • Like 2
  8.  

    It really was an amazing coincidence to come out of -- I am somewhat embarrassed to admit this publicly :rolleyes: -- Denny's after breakfast and see the unidentified-until-now Nick on his Norge with a Duc riding with him.  

    Nick told me on the phone that he had left his home in the N.J. Philly burbs with the intention of meeting his Bologna buddy -- from a different part of Pa. Philly -- somewhere along the way.  Nick came off I-81 northbound onto U.S. 11 just as his Ducati friend rolled off of I-81 southbound.  That's a four-or-so hour trip meshing serendipitously at the same moment.  Add to that our own puling out of the Denny's parking lot to see a red Norge.  Not quite to Twilight Zone level, but a nice coincidence anyway.  :mg:

    Bill

    • Like 2
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  9. ^^^^^

    It was "N.J. Nick."  :bike:

     

    i-HqhjMCm-L.jpg

    i-gGrcwtW-L.jpg

    i-DJZpNPm-L.jpg

    He and buddy were en route to a beemer rally near Greenbanks, W.V.

    Nick reports that may have been more Guzzis than BMW's.  :grin:

    The man rides all the time, and everywhere. :notworthy:

    Bill

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  10. 1 hour ago, LowRyter said:

    ............. and prevalent among civil servants and gov't workers. 

    ... and, I would hope, too, among courteous and thoughtful folks of all sorts.

    I count myself as among those, and thus find no shame or "sneakiness" in that.  YMMV and, seemingly, does.  Ces't la vie, just not my vie.

    I am, BTW, done with this thread as I view the horse beaten to death, butchered, and packed for resale.  :lol:

    Best,

    Bill

     

    • Like 2
  11. 2 hours ago, LowRyter said:

    I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you but I suppose this PC stuff is relative depending on who's topic was canned and who complained?

    :whistle:

     

    I'm thinking that if we all "don't necessarily disagree" enough, maybe we'll soon all think the same.

    My way, of course.  :grin:

    As so much of what we all "think" is often less cognitive than that, all of this reminds me of ...

    What Was I Thinkin'   :D

    Bill

     

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  12.  

    ^^^^

    I understand and do not necessarily disagree.

    That said, I view all such things through a "time, manner, & place" lens.

    What I say around my supper table, fire pit, and the like to friends are not things I say in motorcycle forums outside of "BS" subtopics.  

    I loathe PC and all its fellow travelers, and, regrettably, it seems to have driven speech underground.  Sad.

    But I also don't view every venue as a soapbox for my pet rocks ... and I assure you that I have a rock garden of those.  :oldgit:

    So, if interested in any of those or in sharing yours, you and others here are welcome to come visit me in the Moto Grappa at the top of Virginia sometime, sit on the porch a spell, and sip something pleasant while we rant on about the decline and fall of western civilization.  :drink:

    1921 - 2021!

    Bill

    • Like 5
  13. 2 hours ago, Jens said:

    Thanks Bill - the McMaster-Carr homepage is awesome! 

    Will start to count fasteners and hopefully place an exhaustive order (yeah right!). I'll probably end up with too many fasteners or too many shipping fees - or both :lol:

    Will give it a try. 

    Thanks!

    /Jens

    Well, I was curious if M-C shipped to Europe.  It seems not.
     
    At least three workarounds. 
     
    1.  A possibly similar European counterpart or forwarding agent, e.g., 
     
     
    3.  I would be happy to help if those other two don’t work after you look into them.  Not sure how inexpensive that would be as you’d be paying for M-C shipping to me then me to you plus whatever the customs leeches might charge.  Still, if you can’t source something there, let me know.  Kathi and I are likely going to Poland next year — not my choice, but it's her DNA :wub: — and then visiting my family near the Boden See, so if you can’t find by then, I’ll just bring more luggage.  :D
     
    Best,
     
    Bill
     
    P.S.  Just got in set of fasteners today from M-C.  Got in a hurry and ordered the wrong size (M4 instead of M5’s in these, https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/127/3471/).  Not worth sending back, so I’ll bring those to you, too.
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  14.  

    4 hours ago, Jens said:

    Just bought a V11 beauty and ready to show it all my love :rolleyes: This forum is a gold-mine of knowledge :notworthy:

    Ti fasteners seems to be the thing. 

    Any advice on where to buy them? And do they come in kits or suitable assortments?

     

     

     

     

    Oh, boy ... a fastener thread!  I like those more than oil and tire fests.  :bike:

    And. I somehow missed this thread in its original incarnation.

    That said, having all sizes, types, etc., of all fasteners makes me -- almost certifiably OCD :grin: -- feel near normal.  :rolleyes:

    While not sure, Jens (and congratulations on your new moto-acquisition! :mg:) about their OCONUS shipping co$t$, I have yet to have a need for any fastener that McMaster-Carr  doesn't have and can't get to me ... the next day without surcharge!  :notworthy:

    Besides, what a great website.

    If I were a better planner -- maybe in my next life :whistle: -- I can bundle my orders so I don't spend more for shipping than I do for the item.

    Bill

    • Like 1
  15. 2 hours ago, Chuck said:

    Are you sure it's not just the belt slipping? I would think that anything mechanical screeching wouldn't do it for long. :o

    I suppose, but I'll confirm your suspicions about my ignorance by saying I didn't even know the expletive-deleted had a belt! :homer:

    Now, that said, I think it is a failed seal/gasket or something of that sort because the screeching begin when it hits whatever PSI that displeases it on any given day.  I'll get a sound byte somehow for your entertainment after Chris and lady leave.

    Bill

  16. It didn't take long to get the first victim ... erm ... I mean volunteer to use the new changer.  Chris B is coming over (with his girlfriend) to swap some tires on the wheels of his Honda AT.  Sure hope she's been watching the No-Mar videos! :D

    Pretty sure I am hopeful that we can R&R the tires, but way less sure that we seal the beads.

    My old and large Craftsman vertical compressor ...

    i-2bfpGwN-M.jpg

     

    i-k5bfz7k-M.jpg

    ... is hors de combat with something seriously amiss in the control valving.  It screeches like [Kathi :wub: made me delete the first three analogies I used here! :P] at relatively low pressures.  I need to find someone who can see if that is fixable.  Parts seem to be few to unobtanium, with pricing to match.  

    My smaller B&D one doesn't have the volume to push the beads home.  I did buy a Kobalt air tank last night to see if we can bridge the gap.  

    If not, Chris (or his girlfriend :whistle:) can see if a gas-station can make that happen.  At least the tires will have been mounted.

    Assuming I can get the air piece worked out, local and "furriner" Guzzisti and riders of selected Other Brands :grin:  are welcome to use it, including folks on trips who plan better than I do and want to drop-ship tires for en route swaps.  Finding shops to do this in the area is more difficult and ex$pensive than one would think.  

    Off now to watch those No-Mar vids.  :luigi:

    Bill

     

     

     

     

     

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