S-Westerly

I had to get my boat lifted at Portavedie once due to a leaking stern seal.

47 minutes ago, Simon Davey said:

I have to admit, I do have an ongoing daydream of living in the USA and living the dream. 

Currently dating a red haired Texan called Mary-Lou, who loves cruising mountain roads on a HD. 

I'd love to ride some of their mountain roads but not on an HD!

Have to disagree about the real ale - there's loads of micro breweries in the US and some of them make truly excellent beers. Had one of my best beers ever from a small brewery in Southern California. Also I've had some truly great breakfasts but the key to that is finding somewhere with real bacon not what they regularly call bacon. It does exist but you've got to get off the usual tourist route.

Well there was a spectacular implosion on the American forum. The end result was the new irritating to the Americans Brit getting banned. To be fair he was over the top but the bitch fight was entertaining to follow.  He's now turned up on the British Guzzi site so it'll be interesting to see how he goes. Meanwhile the Yanks are getting their knickers in a twist about the way most Brits pronounce Guzzi.  Apparently we are wrong but tbh who gives a shit?

36 minutes ago, RideWithStyles said:

down? shouldnt that be up in?

Hosing it down as in pissing down I think. Even in Scotland it doesn't usually rain up. Horizontal perhaps but not up.

Road 4's are Road 4's and a lot of people opt for them not just because the bike comes with them. Not all standard OEM tyres are naff and Road 4's certainly aren't.  If you've got money burning a hole in your pocket then change them to what you want. Also remember that Neevesy / MCN are making a living by plugging certain stuff. 

2 hours ago, Joe85 said:

What a day for a ride. Sunshine, 17deg.

 

Perfect.

Envy, envy. Can beat you hands down on the weather but not a bike to be seen.

The bike looks very tidy indeed. Well done you. 

Another trans Atlantic import we could do without. If our roads were American sized fine but they're not. There's roads around me that I'll ride on the bike with caution but never take a normal car on let alone a monster.

Reckon I can see how if you are pulling out from a junction with a brand new tyre you could lose it. Combination of tyre with less grip than expected, a bit of a lean and even a relatively gentle tweak of the throttle the tyre could just slide out from underneath particularly if there were road markings or a damp road or gravel. Ouch.

Pretty sure it's a scam a variation of that has been going around for a while. I'd follow Husoi's advice.

When I got my new bike I was  restricted by the rpm but the only squirrelly behaviour I noticed was a couple of times on white road markings. Modern tyres don't tend to be particularly shiny from the off. A bit of caution maybe but you don't have to go overboard about it.

There was a big discussion about these very tyres just recently on another forum and the consensus was the Dunlop was a good tyre. Metzlers have the rep but like Pirelli they are now Chinese owned and apparently a lot of their tyres are made there. I had Metzler Roadtec on my last bike and they were pretty good until they weren't.  They'd go from ok to down to the wear strips in about 400 miles. Whatever you're happy with.

Ya wot?

34 minutes ago, husoi said:

Bless....

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4SZ4i4sFnD/?igsh=MXJlNmV1ajJvc2hvYQ==

Darwinism in action.

In my case it maybe because having returned to biking in the internet/ forum era both my bikes have been Italian albeit modern iterations of the brands. Many of the long term aficionados are rooted in the past when let's face it Italian bikes were very idiosyncratic and challenging to own. Their default setting is massively defensive towards the brand and any criticism is heresy and the flaming torches and pitchforks come out. I put up with it because there are useful nuggets to pick out even for a new model like mine. 

I quite like their version of a scone (biscuit)  with bacon. In parts of New England they actually do some really good scones like ours too. 

That is a disgraceful GP practice. The so called nurse should be out of a job.

I'm hoping for the same as last weekend - as little as possible!

The only tyre you don't apparently need to scrub in are Continentals due to them having some clever compounds and manufacturing process. At least according to their website. I'm thinking of their Road Attack 4's for my next set. 

Actually one of the guys who is worth listening to and has been the receiving end of a lot of crap from this Brit is now retired but ran a Custom Bike shop for 20 years and specialised in Guzzis so knows his stuff even if he is a rather sensitive soul. The guy who runs and owns the website also owns a company which specialises in Guzzis so there's a lot of decent knowledge there in between the sound and fury. Most folks much like here just want to get along but my word the Americans are so very serious. Never talk about biscuits although there was a thread about espresso machines so they aren't totally lost.

On the American Guzzi site which to be fair is considerably better than the UK one which unless you've been riding Guzzis for at least 25 years your not worth spit, they are in the throes of a monumental spat with a lot of flouncing going on. The instigator of a lot of this emotional trauma is a Brit who to be fair comes across as a monumental pita as the Americans would have it. Pedantic doesn't even begin to describe him. Meanwhile I'm a fascinated spectator.

Yes, seems to be a fairly universal opinion that they are generally a bunch of ( insert expletive of your choice).

Fowlers in Bristol and Riders both have cafes in house and in the summer folks sit outside and gawp at each others bikes. Wouldn't go there just for the craic but if you're passing...

Some of the more obnoxious posters have been Brits even on the US forum. Its the dogmatic "I know I'm right" merchants which make me laugh. If you have an opinion and you are sure of it why post asking for validation and then get enraged when people disagree.? Some serious dummy spits result and for no good reason.