Badclassicist

What they're all actually riding as far as I can see is scooters - and they're having a blast doing it, the traffic's very scooter-friendly. Italian public transport is *paradise* compared to the crap we've got back home - and still very, very cheap. But yes, the price of petrol here makes my eyes sting.

That nails it for me, too - I'm sure the 1200 is nice to ride and all but it's not really *trying*.

What a result - good one, hope the damage isn't too bad. /-)

This plus leather harness could get me in a lot of trouble

My Strange Moto Guzzi Dream My name's Gideon, I live in Birmingham (the UK one: home of the people of Beorm); my wife and I both teach at the university there, although we're both in Rome for the Autumn. As you can imagine, this last bit hasn't helped banish my Guzzi cravings at all. I currently ride a yellow Suzuki TLR, which my wife has named 'Buttercup', but there is a black Guzzi V11 in Scotland that is calling to me (hi Mark!) and that I'm hoping to pick up in January once I'm back. Last night I had the strangest dream. In my dream, I was looking again at the particulars the seller had posted when I saw I'd missed an important detail first time round. The Guzzi came with the official Guzzi accessory of a leather mule harness (a very nicely made piece of kit - recommend it), and a mule to tow it. It wasn't the original mule - that had died after a year - but the replacement was still going strong. I'm aware that Guzzis come with issues character, but I admit this gave me second thoughts. How was I going to get it home? Ayr to Birmingham is quite a haul, and the obvious route is by the motorway, but at mule speed that wasn't an option. Would I have to rent a special trailer? And what about when I got it home? Where was I going to keep the mule? We don't have the kind of garden you could keep one in (a hedgehog maybe) and I couldn't just leave it on the street. My parents have a vegetable allotment, but they don't live locally, and an eighty-mile round trip to pick up the mule would kind of negate the whole point of better fuel economy. Anyway, I've given a firm 'yes' to the bike, but I still don't know what I'm going to do about that mule.

That's pretty. That's very, very pretty. Yum. I yearn for it. I'm in Rome till New Year (where prolonged Guzzi exposure has tipped me from 'fancy one' to 'need one') but if you didn't mind it sitting in your kitchen till then... Looks like it's got plenty of kibble to keep it happy for a while. :-) Price you're thinking of is very fair. Mad thought: if you have speed cravings, fancy p/x-ing for a TLR?

Any chance of some pretty pictures? :-)