Scud

Made it to Landeck, Austria. Luhbo - thanks for recommending this road, West of Innsbruck. I especially loved riding up along the river. More later... right now I'm kinda thirsty.

And the adventure begins with free parking for 1 K bike. This is going to be an all-BMW adventure, seems kind of appropriate since I am flying into Bavaria. I checked the Giant Loop Great Basin saddlebag - will pick it up in Munich and strap it to the rental bike. I will attempt to secure a Stelvio T-shirt so I can say: Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

While splitting lanes to LAX today, I saw a Subaru Outback, Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sedona... lots of SUVs named for special places. But Ford names them for the journey, not the destination: Expedition, Explorer, Escape... Adding to my earlier post about adventure bike names, there is the Cagiva Gran Canyon (I'm assuming they left the "d" off Grand for style-points)

I saw a thread about a Moto Guzzi Nevada (750cc cruiser) on WildGuzzi yesterday. It's possibly even uglier than that Ducati Indiana.

The BMW Paris-Dakar, then simply Dakar. Then I think BMW sold the naming rights to KTM for some 990 Adventure Dakar models - and switched the F650 from Dakar to Sertao. And, of course, we have the the Honda Africa Twin that conjures images of the Dakar Rally. Corey - your Sertao (Brazilian Desert) made me think of it.

Congratulations on a great bike. If you wait a while, somebody will be along who wants higher handlebars to replace their clip-ons. You might be able to work a trade, including the top triple clamp. Stock clip ons are hard to find - but there are some aftermarket clip-ons available.

Choose one: - Maserati Sebring - Chrysler Sebring

That section of 120 is great. I rode it 3 or 4 times on my last trip there in May. I love the giant whoops that you can't see over and then the drops that compress the suspension at the bottom. It's like a giant roller-coaster. So cool that those roads are in your back yard.

I'll be curious to hear about your experience with the Shorai. Where does 130 miles get in you in the Eastern Sierras?

Took off the front wheel, degreased the fork bottoms - one fork seal had leaked a bit. Used the Motion Pro Seal Mate to clean out the oil seals and the dust seals. Two short rides and no further evidence of a fork leak.

Moto Guzzi: LeMans, Stelvio, Rosso Mandello, California Chevrolet: Malibu, Tahoe Dodge: Dakota, Durango, Daytona GMC: Denali, Yukon

That would make a fun thread. Cars/trucks and bikes. Start one in the banter and silly remarks area. I can think of three other Moto Guzzis named after special places - and a few more cars/trucks.

This will be my first time that really counts in the Alps. I was in a corner of the Alps in Slovenia once for a couple days, but it was all business and it rained the whole time - so I didn't even see the mountain tops. I met a group who had rented motorcycles there and vowed to do it someday myself. It's taken almost 10 years... but it's coming up in a few days. I plan to ride conservatively, and will try to find interesting, less-travelled-routes. I've heard that Swiss police are both strict and vigilant in their speed-limit enforcement. I hope to ride the Stelvio Pass on Saturday. I expect that it will be crowded, so I'll get as early a start as possible. By looking at maps, I see that Stelvio is not just a road - it's a large national park in Italy. That makes me appreciate the name of the Moto Guzzi Stelvio a little more. Many US-made vehicles are named after special places. GMC Denali and Yukon, Chevy Tahoe and Malibu, Dodge Durango and Dakota, etc.

When I did the clutch on my LeMans, I had a few sets of used parts available. The pushrods were identical in dimension, but there was variation elsewhere. The depths of the cups that sit in the pressure plate were different - so were the thicknesses of throwout bearings and washers. All of those differences make it tricky to get the right total length between the clutch piston and the pressure plate. And before you ask, I don't know what the right total length is... The problem with mine was a partial release. I could tell that the surfaces were rubbing with the clutch lever pulled in. I had a little success by adjusting the screw-plunger on the clutch lever. But then I went too far and the fluid would not return to the reservoir when it heated up (clutch lever got rock solid with no free-play). Hopefully a lever adjustment, extra washer, or thicker bearing will work for you. If not, read on... Eventually, I ended up taking the engine out again and alternating 5 stiff and 5 normal clutch springs. As I mentioned above, it's possible that at least part of my problem was the springs not being seated correctly. If you are not certain that the springs are totally inside the wells of both flywheel and pressure plate, it might be worth pulling the engine again. Also, if you got 10 new stiff springs, I think that is too much for the hydraulic system.

Hatch Green Chiles and Tarmac Tenderloin. We get 20-40 pound of those Chiles every year. Roast... freeze... stay spicy all year. Great report and pics. Thanks. Looking forward to meeting and hopefully riding with you and some more Scuristi at the San Diego not-a-rally.

Yeah - a more detailed description could help - or if you've mis-stated something, you could correct it. It's not clear to me whether you have neutral or not. Can you roll the bike freely with engine off and transmission in neutral?

No risk of gas flowing down from either nipple to drip down near hot cylinders? I would like to get rid of those tubes. Make for easier going when getting the tank back on. I suppose there is a risk of that if you spill a lot of gas inside the fuel door housing. If you are concerned about that, you could pour some water over the tank and see which vent it comes out of - then run a small hose from that one.

The thread you referenced was for my LeMans, which already had a twin-plate clutch. I used a RAM single-plate in my Scura. That said, if you already have the clutch slave out, it's not too hard to put a thicker bearing or an extra spacer in there. You should be able to test for neutral easily after that. My clutch problem may have been due to using all 10 stiff clutch springs (later swapped for 5 stiff and 5 soft). But I also have to admit the possibility that I had not correctly seated all the clutch springs in the wells in the flywheel and/or pressure plate when I originally assembled it.

I would not connect the two vents, even though I think several people have done so without any problems. I think one is to drain water away from fuel door, while the other is to allow air back into the tank as fuel is used. It seems the bikes delivered to European countries came with no hoses on either vent. That's how I'm running mine - just ditched all the hoses.

Thanks. I hope to ride through Stelvio National Park on Saturday. Stelvio and Gavia passes are both in the park. As you said, there are so many possibilities. I could easily imagine a week there. I'll watch for an e-mail from Martin. I'll actually be a bit SouthEast of Nurnberg. So many possibly and interesting ways to get there from Austria too...

I rented a big GS in the Rocky Mountains once. Had a great time. I had a KTM 950 Adventure for a while. And I've been thinking about getting a smaller ADV bike. I was hoping that I could live with one for a week. But hey, as long as I've got two wheels in the Alps I'll be happy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks. I got a lot of good advice at WildGuzzi. Just confirmed an R1200GSA through Bike Travel Service and a two nights at Hotel Enzian in Austria. This hotel caters to motorcyclists in a way I've never seen before. Nice video on their website. I may have watched it more than once... I was getting a little nervous, as a few places didn't have any more bikes available. After perusing the rental options and the tight roads, I really wanted to rent a new Honda Transalp - a light V-twin that is not available in USA. But I only found one place that still had a bike, and they only had the big GS, which was a little more (bike and money) than I wanted. But heck - I'm just stoked to have a bike to ride and a couple days before work for exploring.

I just got a last-minute work thing that gives me the following riding window: Arrive Munich, Germany before noon on Friday, August 25. Get close to Nuremberg by Sunday night (for work Monday and Tuesday) Return bike to Munich Wednesday morning August 30. Not too fussy about what bike I would ride - so long as it's comfy and a little sporty. Anybody have advice about where to rent, some good ideas about where to go... or willing to be tour guide / riding partner? I was thinking about crossing the Alps into Northern Italy. A visit to Mandello del Lario is possible, but it's not the purpose. I just want to find some good riding, scenery, food, and drink. (probably in that order of occurrence and priority.) (cross-posted on WildGuzzi)

This would be a good time to consider replacing the electric petcock with a manual one. Seems the electric ones (if that's what you mean by "fuel solenoid") cause problems for some people. I just did this on my Greenie's tank. The electric I removed had a flat fiber washer, while the manual one I installed used a rubber O-ring. The tank surface is flat, so it's all about matching the recess in the petcock casting.