belfastguzzi

Fantastic. Lovely. If I understand right, the bike is stored, so you aren't riding it all the time. What was it like, then, to get on it and ride for over 20 days, pretty much non-stop? I mean physically. Are you thinking of heading to Scotland at the end of next week?

*Its that porridge thing again. What way do your cylinders really point? You're clearly a BM boy at heart and, ipso facto, not deserving. * not it's

Sorry JR. Grammar police required here: 'its', as used above, should not have an apostrophe. Check 'its' in your Dashboard Widget. I was going to copy the info to here, but it seems that stuff can't be copied out of Dashboard.

the ionising effect produced in the upper atmosphere will decline to a level that will allow either the earth's field to "flip" and/or the ingress of life threatening solar radiations.

Ok I've checked and there does seem to be some sort of Magnatraction device. Scalextric 1:32 Lotus 7 Roadcar Yellow (C2270) Scalextric Lotus 7 Yellow Race Car No.8 Fitted With Magnatraction I'm sure it's not all it's cracked-up to be, but still, Guzzi should look into it.

haven't you heard, Elvis is dead about the Scalectrix: are you bluffing? Since when have Scalectrix run by magnets? Have you made some sort of table top car set from cardboard and magnets, sellotaped on Scalectrix labels cut from an Argos catalogue and given it to your little kiddies at Christmas, conning them that it's the real thing? I think you have

I was losing not a little, but a lot of oil from the joint. The surface repair worked fine and is still as good as ever today. With black over the top, you wouldn't know that it's there. There is a photo of the blue instant gasket repair in the above post – maybe you can see it. With the server problem (?), I'm not getting some of the pictures or avatars & smilies, so the photo doesn't appear for me. I don't know what 'sensor safe' is but i didn't have any adhesion problems after a straight forward clean-up. There was another thread at the time, I wonder what it was called?

only to the deserving poor

got me there: we got coppers but we ain't invented choppers yet, though we're hoping Helicopter Jim will visit soon.

The essentials of the yin-yang school are as follows: the universe is run by a single selector spring, the Tao, or Great Ultimate Spring. This cyclical nature of yin (or moto) and yang (or guzzi), the opposing forces of change in the universe, mean several things. First, that all phenomena change into their opposites in an eternal motorcycle of reversal. Second, since the blah, blah... so, the upshot is, be careful when you mess with magnetism

Grief! The strange thing is that your's is a 2004 model. It will be interesting to see what the parts measurements are.

For those of you with satellite (sorry Joe, probably UK advanced civilization only ) BBC1 NI is showing a 4 part series of 1970's road-racing film footage. (In contrast to the positive, inventive, celebratory 'ordinary racing fraternity' mood, 1974 was the same time that the troubles-bombings-assasinations-Ulster Worker's Strike were bringing the Province to its knees.) Last week was excellent intro to NI road-racing developmentand the start of the legendary 'Armoy Armada' and 'Dromara Destroyers'. This week – Wednesday 10.45 – will be picking up from that, with Joey coming to the fore. The battles of Mervyn Robinson, Tony Rutter, Joey Dunlop and Ray McCullough come to a head at the 1975 Kirkistown final. Lovey stuff. Channel 943, I believe. Newspaper > "Fast and furious footage of the Armoy Armada and the Dromara Destroyers is the focus of a new BBC series on motorbikes. The Charge of the Bike Brigade will show never before broadcast film of the glory days of Ulster's motorcycling superstars. The series was shot by brothers Colin and Alwyn James and starts tomorrow night. It features coverage of the sport by turning the clock back three decades, with action showing the Armada, led by a young Joey Dunlop, going handlebar to handlebar with the Destroyers, led by Ray McCullough. The poignancy of the racing world will not be lost on the viewers, as the Destroyers are all still alive, whereas none of the legends from the Armada remain. Alwyn James explained that the project was as much of a passion for the film-makers as for biking enthusiasts of the sport: "Colin and I wanted to make a tribute, not just to Joey, but to all those amateur racers who were his friends as well as his rivals, and who raced purely for the thrills." Colin himself describes the Bike Brigade series as a portrait of the love-affair between Northern Ireland and motorbike racing: "Alwyn and I made a number of motorcycle films during the '70s, including The Title Trail and Racing Champions that were shown around local motorcycle clubs. "Charge of the Bike Brigade is the story of the leather-clad heroes, the girls who love them, the mothers who worried for them and the wives who lost them." Tomorrow night's programme features the 1974 season, when the Armoy Aramada was being established, and features the pioneering recording by the James brothers of the first-ever on-the-bike rider's view around a racing circuit. The film-makers were unique in their glimpse into the high-speed history in 1974 and 1975, according to Alwyn: "In those dark days politically, the television companies couldn't seriously cover the big race meetings because their camera crews were out covering hard news." Colin James relates that the brothers' passion for bikes was fuelled at an early age, when their father took them along to races: "Once I had the whiff of Castrol R racing oil, I, like so many others, was hooked for life - this was a sport that had everything - heroes, speed, colour, excitement, smell and noise - life could not get any better." Charge of the Bike Brigade, BBC1 NI, tomorrow at 10.35pm." NB: although I've seen this advertised in a couple of places for tomorrow, Tuesday, it is actually on at 10.45 pm on Wednesday. (It was on Tuesday last week.)

Shades of Deliverance, methinks

PS I read in the annual NewsPaper that a new-fangled moving-picture house will be coming to a big city near here in a year or two. I hope they show Easy Rider as I really want to learn about modern life in the New World.

Joe, why don't you do the sensible thing and fit a better filter in the airbox and remove or mod the lid? (Leaving aside the obvious dangers of bike being sucked upwards.) Then you still get the intake tube length as, er, 'designed', but better breathing and 'noise'.

and whatever you do, don't take the lid off the airbox – the beast'll be sucked up off the ground as soon as you open the throttle. For some reason, Guzzi attached a shaft thing to the right side of the back wheel to provide turning resistance and slow the rig down, a kind of safety feature I supppose. It's best removed in order to unleash the full power of the standard Guzzi front sucking tubes that, correctly, point forward and down, from under the petrol tank. Combined with the rearward (and gently upwards venting) push from the twin thrust tubes, or 'exhausts' as old Brits like to call them, an unfettered Guzzi takes on a new lease of life, a second wind, reminiscent of the draught that gusts over Lake Como. Don't even think of fitting a 'Cobra', unless the prevailing wind where you live is always cross-ways.

Ah ha! Were there a choice of two when you got yours? Obviously you chose the best and left the pup for me to buy, sight unseen.

Hmmm. What happens when you drive over man-hole covers?

Nature fights back, Stormy

JR – when I had the side cover off, a number of times, the oil always looked metallic. There was a metalic paste in bottom of the box. Maybe it's like this only during running-in, or maybe it's always like this? It's not flakes though, just fine 'filings'. On the other issue: Following the practice of others here, I have put a plastic pipe onto the breather and fed it up into the underseat area. If the problem actually is water being splashed into the breather, this extension will stop it.

Yes, still the same today.

I was wondering too.

Ah, so, it wasn't called *pOp!* at all. It was in the Aaaargh....??? thread.

What? Where? Post a proper link you lazy fellow.