Lucky Phil

Surprise surprise the electricity to charge them is almost free and I'm guessing motoring in Norway isn't a popular pastime. Phil

People need to forget the outliers like Norway who produce 88% of their electricity by Hydro and has a population of 5.5 million people and the land area of Montana. It also has extreme daylight hour fluctuation depending on the seasons. It's a unique country with unique conditions and location in regards to topics such as this. Like making arguments about power source generation with a location on top of thermal springs and using them as aspirational or solar generation in Saudi Arabia. Just distorts the real argument.

Problem with the direct to the battery style is the reg is always live and has a parasitic draw on the battery while parked. Combined with the ecu parasitic draw you def need to use a battery tender if parked for any length of time. Phil

Email Agositins and ask them about the header dia they are good to deal with. My bike uses std V11 Sport headers, a Stucchi crossover and Agostini mufflers and I have no tapered pipes at the crossover. May just be they wanted larger dia at the crossover and secondary pipes. Phil

An unhappy Tesla owner and a comment on whatever generation she belongs to. Funny and sad at the same time. I didn't go looking for this honestly. It was posted on a car forum in the Funny and laughs section.

Reminds me of the argument Harley Sportster or Indian FTR owners use for their 12 litre petrol tanks Chuck. Like a car a motorcycle ride where you are planning fuel stops is a PITA and not fun. I regularly do 900klm plus trips and the last thing I want to be even considering is where the next fuel stop is and when I do get there I'm fuelled up and out of the place asap. I fuel the car and the wife buys the coffees and pays the bill and we're gone. If we want a break it will be at a Cafe of our choice on route and not some horrid fuel stop fast food catastrophe complete with screaming kids and frustrated frazzled parents. Don't want to be there any longer than absolutely necessary. BTW it's the same everywhere in the world, Italy road stops are just as horrible. Truth is I'm not opposed to EV's per sei I'm opposed to having them forced upon me whether I like it or not under spurious claims about saving the planet and how they really are so practical. Phil

Not sure if the SD clutch comes with the same friction disk. Ask SD if it has the MIBA friction disk and if it's the latest steel flywheel version. Make sure they do a physical check on the flywheel material, you know spare parts people. They know part numbers not actual things. Phil

This is what rational people are are up against. This statement is total rubbish. Currently Solid State batteries have at best an energy density of 500-800 WH/KG while gasoline is 12,700 WH/KG and an efficient ICE engine is between 30-40 % efficiency. Same as Range claims that when tested in the real world fall not just a bit short but orders of magnitude short. Charging time? well headline charge times are to 80% battery capacity and that last bit they always leave out. It's in the fine print. It's the last 20% that takes the time and is what you need on a long trip. Phil

A mate of mine bought one about 5 years ago in mint condition from Tassie. He also has a Rickman Kawasaki he's owned from new. Why he'd want a Mk111 Kawasaki I'll never know. Why anyone would want one I'll never know. I also know someone that raced one at Bathurst in a proddy race back in mid 70"s. There are some teenage memories I don't feel the need to re visit or repeat. Phil

2023 MkV Supra 6 spd Manual. 3 Litre Turbo inline BMW 6. 2023 CX5 GT SP 2.5 turbo AWD 2023 Kia Stonic GT line. I litre turbo 7 speed DCT. All Red. Phil

Just buy a 5 speed no flywheel pickup RAM kit from MGcycles in the states They are lightweight steel flywheel these days. The genuine RAM alloy units had no failure issues and I have one fitted to my bike. SD is too expensive. You will need to use your original gearbox input drive is all and check the pushrod details in the instructions on the MG website. Forget about converting to a dual plate clutch assy. Once you have ridden a bike with a single plater you'd never want to go back to a dual plate sidecar flywheel assembly. https://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193&products_id=1698 Phil

The truth is LiPo batteries are not evolving particularly fast at all from an energy storage perspective so anyone that thinks in 10 years time electric cars will be much more efficient is on the wrong path. LiPo batteries were invented back in the 70's and the tech was fairly dormant until Sony from memory picked it up in the early to mid 90's so they have had over 30 years of intensive development already. Any further gains are going to be incrementally small, there are no tech leaps on the horizon. It's mostly about reducing manufacturing costs now and reducing the faulty count. Naturally all the environmentally concerned people that buy them don't have any idea or solutions on how to dispose of or re manufacture them, same as old solar panels which go into land fill along with wind turbine blades which have a hard life as well.

I actually had a Gpack LH Torana with a 327 Chev engine Saginaw 4 speed and a Ford 9" diff in it Mick. The car was bought as a stolen recovery and the 6 cylinder and M21 and std diff removed and the Chev engine etc installed. Full engineers certificate etc. The guy that built it was a work colleague that was a single guy of around 40 back then and did amateur drag racing for a hobby in a hotted up LJ Torana. He also drove an XU-1 to work as well as having a 4 speed split window maroon 427 Corvette in immaculate nick. I had a ride in the Corvette once. He also had a water brake dyno in his garage that was connected to his swimming pool that he never used. An old style car nut bachelor that inherited his moms house and put it to good use, lol. Anyway the Chev Gpack looked appalling in it's orange paint and blue side stripes/lettering but naturally before he sold it to me he did a street meeting in it. Can't remember the times he did in it but it was faster than an SLR5000 at the time. Phil

Hope he is is for your sakes. I've got a tip for him as "co head" of the new administrations Department of Government efficiency (Doge for short funnily enough) Start with getting rid of your "Co head". Two guys to do one job! Low hanging fruit right there. Maybe I could be a "consultant" for Elon in the new role. I could be on a massive salary paid up front then make myself redundant. Pure Genius. Phil

Don't know but it seems like you have no issue to me as long as you have owned and registered it for 12 months before immigrating. There is also an exemption to allow New Zealand citizens or NZ residents to continue to import their bikes/cars from overseas as an immigrant’s vehicle, but they will need to demonstrate that the motorcycle in question they had owned and registered for use overseas for at least 12 months prior to importation. OR Import the bike anyway and as soon as you move apply immediatly for the 100 bikes/year exemption and maybe you need to wait a year to register it. In other words get your application in early for the following year if none exist for the present year. I mean there's only about 50 people living in NZ anyways.

This would be a better image if it was parked across a railway track waiting for the next freight train to come along Phil

It's a V11 Guzzi. First thing you do when you have any electrical issue/gremlin is do a full wiring harness/fuse block/connector/ignition switch detailed inspection. Then move onto parts replacement/testing. Phil

I've done a few minor mods to the Supra of course and the latest is a new gear knob. I've never liked the std shift knob on the Supra with the leather shift boot fully integrated into the knob so I bought a heavier knob from the USA which is a nicer shape and 200gms heavier and it's also a threaded type as opposed to the std one which clips onto the shifter shaft so requires an adaptor. Problem with that though was the boot retention system was a bit bulky (you cut the knob off the std boot assy and use that) and the required collar to hide the cable tie that clamped the boot to the adaptor added 1/4 inch to the total shifter height. I finally bit the bullet and machined up a redesigned threaded adaptor with a different boot retention system and a Titanium collar to hide all that. I think it looks better and the shift action is slightly improved as well and the total shifter height is 6mm or 1/4" lower than the std shifter. From this To this Adaptor

I've been using the back brake on motorcycles for 2 things only for 30 years. Holding the bike on a hill at a stop sign or lights and applying it mid corner mainly on the track to get the bike to "finish off" the corner and hold the line better esp if I've missed the correct apex and look a bit wide on the exit. The second technique can also be used on the road if you mess up a corner and braking with the front causes the bike to stand up. Never used it to help turn in but I understand the concept of increasing the rear tyre slip angle to help the wide rear tyre turn in better. WSB and MotoGP riders use the rear heavily for turning the bike so the Ducati software has come from there obviously. Phil

Might be me. I often read things different to others. Then again all that German speaking may have scrambled you brain a little

Guzzi sound like the motorcycle manufacturers version of ADF (Australian Defence Forces). Throw lots of money at stuff that ultimately goes nowhere. Auto transmissions that are problematic, Hydraulic Valve lifters for an engine with the easiest valves in the world to adjust, front/rear linked brakes, and enough superfluous steel wasted in flywheels over the years to build a Battleship. Phil

Yes John I spent a fair amount of time about a year ago or more on this and came to the conclusion that buying a new thermistor and making a new holder was the only viable option. I bought the fuel proof wire and heat shrink and was researching fuel proof potting compounds when I got caught up in other priorities and machined up a simple blanking plug to get the bike put back together and rideable. Phil