ScuRoo

Ah ha ha ha ha haaaaa! The 'force' of the Guzzi muse is certainaly with you - love it! However, maybe the faster you go you'll be creating more demand in getting that fast moving air to do a 180 degree turn to travel 24 inches back to the cylinder. Might get a bit lean at speed? Kill two birds with one stone, just bore LARGER holes where the green stickers were & mount a couple of forward facing ram-air scoops whilst gaining even longer runners to smooth & shoot the airflow into Raptor's lungs!!! My link See, even more performance - & gets the frogeyes dumped!

Have those Ohlin's dialled in perfectly on your V11 & she'll reward you with a mingin' ride Mjingen! Cheers!

Fu-uck man! Whaddya doing? Quickly, DUMP those Kermit frog eyes! You have just diverted any focus away from that muffler - they truly suck mate! Every Artiste needs to resist the temptation of just one more brushstroke. Quit while you're ahead before it turns into an abomination! Hurry, there's still time...

No broken bones, relaxed & happy with great mates as company, heading back to our non-basic European lives once more. Phew, & to think this was just the shortened version - 'Au revoir Maroc'!

Long day's in the saddle up until midnight for last 3 day's & just had to have some of Morocco's best food just one more time, so we pulled into where we had lunch before by Volubilius & they received us with another cracking meal at midnight, shower, bed & with brekky in morning before strapping bloody panniers down again for the race to the ferry.

So we turned round & headed for Marrakesh where we stayed overnight & next day had a well deserved Hamman 'man-love' body scrub, got a few henna scorpions of an old Berber lady, walked past the restaurant that got bombed later & headed as the crow fly's North.

She was Spanish, would'nt wanna mess with her - I'd rather have the nubian desert princess. But then again, any women looks good when you've been out in the desert...

Dang!

After tossing down 3 Fanta's followed by 3 Cokes & interspersed with mouthfuls of water we sat bemused as a blue helicopter flew in & landed over the road. About 10 mins later a group of Can-Am riders turned up - 5 mins later 2 bloody great big support vehicles appeared before another larger group of 20 or so Can-Am'ers! How to do the desert in money-no-object style!

So, we came outta the desert to some dusty mud buildings onto a solitary tarmac road & a nice newish petrol station literally 100 metres away. Check out all the stickers of various tours over the years. Shame we did'nt have one of our own to stick on.

Our first sign, pointing the way back to civilization! Ah, the beast! Still looking remarkably clean & fresh looking.

Being an Aussie, I'd realized at some point earlier on we didn't have enough water - we had no margin for error - if one of us had hurt ourselves & needed someone to stay with them whilst the other went for help - we would have been in a bit of trouble I reckon. As it was the bikes did'nt break down (irreparably) & we did'nt break any bones. Lucky this time!

By now, we just wanted to get the hell outta the desert.

Being low on water we had restricted ourselves to 2 mouthfuls every time we stopped & so when we saw this in the distance we headed for this well. Hoping. Bugger... dry as a mummified camel toe!

'You little prick'

'Bloody hell Jay, my leg's trapped under it - watcha doing? Don't be an arsehole, this is no time for taking photo's'! Er... yes it is.

Strewth, what now Andy? Try & keep up fella's - just get ya legs up on the pegs & gun the fu-uck out of it!!!

Until 10 miles later or so the boy's needed another couple of emergency adjustments & tied down with a freakin' big tow-rope as the brackets had shat themselves completely on Glens TDM by now. Meanwhile, the big black reliable Ortleib mockingly waited patiently in the barren sun-ravaged moonscape...

So, refreshed the morning after the night before... we prepare to set off with the assistance of a bungey or two holding down bloodied & battered panniers!

The boy's slept here & as they had earlier banned me from sleeping within earshot of 'em 'cos of me snoring, I dossed down in the big tent with dreams of tasting dark flawless skin under her flowing robes...

Love a bit of bullshit Baldini but I try to hit my balls with a straight bat! Anyhow, at sunfall we get stuck out in the desert without anywhere appealing to camp, so as it was a lot cooler riding at night I suggested we keep riding unti we got tired... Mile after mile until eventually we pulled into a walled compound around midnight and a gorgeous nubian girl came out of the darkness & said (in French) we could sleep there, & would we like her to prepare any food? All 3 of us were enjoying our own fantasies & then Andy asked her, 'Do you have any beer'? 'Yes' was her reply... I think we all deeply fell in love immediately. We showered under a dripping faucet but it felt like a power shower to us - clean clothes & then sat with her father who came out & he drank beers with us. Abbas was his name. This is what the compound looked like when we awoke the next morning.

Hey Robo Can't help you directly with an answer but when you say piggy back shocks I'm assuming you mean shocks with an hydraulic reserviour. On Monday I had my suspension professionally set-up by former 6 times British motocross champ Perry Leask who now sets up suspensions since 1999 for many racers including past champs: John Barnett 2006 New Era sound of thunder champion George Clemence 2006 Southern supermoto champion Mark George 2005 British supermono champion Mark Lawes 2nd place 2005 British supermono championship Bruce Dunn 3rd place 2005 British supermono championship John Barnett 2002 Bemsee Nationwide 600 supersport champion Mark Lawes 2002 British and European supermono champion 2003 AHRMA supermono winner Daytona Raceway FL Clinton Wood 2002 Bemsee Southern powerbike and 1300 champion I've pasted all that guff in so you can see the man knows a thing or two about suspension set-ups. Now, while he was jiggery-pokering around with my Ohlins rear shock I asked him if I could get a hydraulic reserviour retro-fitted to make it easier to get to in adjusting. His comment was, 'Not really, because those units take up a little more of the spring length than those without and as there's not a whole lotta room for the length of the shock in total it would mean having a shorter spring than what is on it'. Or similar words to that effect. So, draw your own conclusion on this, but I'm guessing if you wanna go down that route you'd better be looking for a very short-spring shock unit to fit into the space available, but is that a comprimise worth having? I'm lucky as my bike is already equipped with Ohlins all round but I pass this snippet on, for what it's worth... A little off topic now, but my bikes handling has truly been transformed. S-S-W-E-E-E... E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-T as a nut! I did'nt pay the man to click 'em around a bit, anyone could do that - I paid him for his experience & knowledge! Best money I've spent so far... He also took it out for a 15/20 minute ride to see how it was & when he came back he said he was surprised at how neutral & well it handled. Got the feeling he does'nt get many/any V11's in!

O'kay my lovely little baby, let's remove the panniers again before the boy's heave you out! Now, don't get me wrong, I truly did feel sorry for him. A bit of friendly merriment never goes astray though...

O'kay, bogged down, notice the sand on Andy's seat where it's been spewing out, going... NO...WHERE

Hiding behind the bushes are we? 'Found you', say's Glen.