What did you do with your GRiSO today?

Went for a ride

Due to border shutdowns it's the first real ride I've had since the start of winter.

No new roads, just a full 4.5hr circuit of Canberra.

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The bike ran great - I was quite rusty

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Was an absolutely beautiful spring day.
The reptiles were out, warming themselves up on the road.
I chose the wrong end passing a red belly
Got caught up in a traffic jam approaching Bungendore due to a stray horse being struck by a car (the horse's owners were blaming the driver )
Then some dipshit tried to take me out at the roundabout entering the main street
And to top it off, while fuelling up in town Pete Roper rolled in astride the Green Horror

What was the horse business? Where was that? Up near my place/the graveyard? There were a load of obviously rutting, (Or whatever horses do?) nags over the other side of the highway. I thought it might get a bit *Difficult* if they weren't controlled. Lots of neighing and kicking and pushing at fences. Fuck that. Horses should either be in a can with 'Pal' written on it or in a pot with a 'Glue' label....

Oh, and good to catch up!

600 mile long 2-up weekend across S England with Mrs LCJohnny & friends.
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Royster luggage worked well,
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Cathedral was optional.
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Pete Roper wrote:

What was the horse business? Where was that? Up near my place/the graveyard? There were a load of obviously rutting, (Or whatever horses do?) nags over the other side of the highway. I thought it might get a bit *Difficult* if they weren't controlled. Lots of neighing and kicking and pushing at fences. Fuck that. Horses should either be in a can with 'Pal' written on it or in a pot with a 'Glue' label....

Oh, and good to catch up!

No, the other side of town, half a km up Bungendore Road from the roundabout with Tarago Road.

Oh, and I like your fancy disco headlight

Very excited to go for a ride today. It has been a while.

Got home, and was surprised by smoke pissing off the headers. WTF?
The entire left side of the motorcycle was covered in oil. There was oil from arsehole to breakfast time. The lower left cylinder, the swing arm, starter motor, rear tyre, my boot...coated in oil.

Fucking!

The lower blow-by pipe attached to the fill port had cracked. Arse & hole!



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Oh yuck, I hate things like that, so hard to clean it properly..

I was so disheartened I had to console myself with Tennessee Cordial.

Again, Mark? I don't have (cordial that is) any up here so you might need to bring it or even purchase some.

On Friday I found out the hard way - don't go to the bottlo at 4.30 on a Friday arvo - closest thing to a traffic jam up this way. Damn, I had to park on the street! Must have been peak hour - no oil was spilled though, only the good oil. No Tooheys Old either, I warned them that there were interlopers coming and they will be THIRSTY - they promised to get some more in.

Had to make do with Stella Artois!

Stella?


Ewww!

Not today, but last week.  Wifey and I went playing in the hills of east Tennessee.  Stayed at the Lodge of Tellico, and rode the infamous Cherohalla Skyway, several times.  I now need a new front tire.

Did a little un-planned off roading while there.  Let's call it "pilot error".  I was following a car, watching an oncoming string of bikes.  Looked up and the car was STOPPED!!!!  Hit brakes, quickly realized there wasn't enough distance to stop, so headed for the grass.  No damage other than my undies.
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A good dodge!

Blew my hose again. 10km ride home with blue smoke billowing out behind me. How embarrassment!
Then rediscovered the affect of a hot exhaust on human flesh.

Arse!

Does the fitting use an olive? If so you're not re-using the old one are you?

No, it's a fracture. Presumably caused by vibes or stress. Or stupidity. I'm redesigning the whole assembly.

Farting about with the GRiSO today, I heard a rustling in the corner under the compressor. A blue tongue lizard had come a-visiting. I didn't want to leave him there, but he was reluctant to leave. Water pistol didn't faze him, and trying to herd him out with a stick proved futile. He just got hissy with me.


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There was only one option. He wasn't happy about it, but he was carefully placed outside and on his merry way.


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If you get this one wrong, there is in excess of 200 tonnes which makes a nice mess of your thumb - don't ask how I Know...

Call in the 'Snake Woman'!

Erika does lizards too!

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And no, it wasn't how she lost the end of her finger

I considered calling the local lizard guy, simply because I didn't want to hurt him.

Tony, I grabbed him close enough to his head do that he couldn't latch on. The gloves are the ones I use for magnet helium fills, so they're fairly sturdy.

Kathi's in N.C. visiting our "Army family," so I am unsupervised, a state that is fun for awhile.  Then, I realize I am cutting years off my life every night by staying up too late, watching hours of absolute drivel on y/t and the like, and sipping more bourbon than even I think is right.  Good thing she returns on Tuesday ... if I survive.

But I say all of that to say that because I slept in this morning, even with the clocks turned back for whatever semiannual time-change thing they call this.  I stumbled into the kitchen, made coffee, and thought I'd catch up on GRiSO and other Guzzi news.

I am then not only treated to looking at beetle, but at some creature from Hades that is even uglier than Mark, followed by going through pages of pix from Pete's Erika blog, replete with more evil living creatures including -- a surprise -- ticks.  Did not know you have those nasty 8-leggers.  How about chiggers?  

I am now about to go back down to the Moto Grappa -- where, somewhat astonishingly, all five of my Guzzis are ready for immediate combat operations, a rarity indeed   ...


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... to decide if the EV or Stornello gets the BikeMaster heated grips.  Just finished installing an Oxford set on the V7 III.
 

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The GRiSO -- L'ultimo, GRiSO content -- has had BikeMaster grips on for 10 years and they still work like champs.

Oh, as long as I am here and babbling about things with only tangential connection to Grisos, Kathi sent me these pix yesterday.  


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Kathi has been lukewarm to the idea of a tractor.  I, OTOH, have been lusting over one like that for several years.  

We only have <8 acres and could rent one much more cheaply when we need a FEL or backhoe.  But since when does "need" drive purchases of this sort?  Exactly.

Our s-i-l reports that she was all excited about driving this thing around their place, doing "work," e.g., using the FEL to move dirt from place to place even tho the dirt was quite happy where it was.  Nicely done, and thanks, Todd.  "Check's in the mail."  

The weather changes to delightful for a few days starting tomorrow, so I look forward to getting a chosen few out on the roads while one can still can before The.Long.Dark.Cold. settles in and VDOT douses the roads with metal-eating brine straight from the witches' cauldron in Macbeth ... some of which caustic contents were, based on beetle and Erika's pix, likely obtained in Oz, with "Fillet of a fenny snake," "Lizard's leg," and worse in there.  

Back to coffee ... ciao!  

Bill

rick pope wrote:

Not today, but last week.  Wifey and I went playing in the hills of east Tennessee.  Stayed at the Lodge of Tellico, and rode the infamous Cherohalla Skyway, several times.  I now need a new front tire.

Did a little un-planned off roading while there.  Let's call it "pilot error".  I was following a car, watching an oncoming string of bikes.  Looked up and the car was STOPPED!!!!  Hit brakes, quickly realized there wasn't enough distance to stop, so headed for the grass.  No damage other than my undies.
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Cannot tell you how impressed I am that your spousal unit rides on your GRiSO.  

Kathi, my (otherwise delightful) Perfect Pillion & Polish Princess declines.  She has many thousands of miles under her derriere on the EV and Norge, but demurs at the G12.  Sigh.

I, too, have gone dangerously off road on the GRiSO.  No, Kathi was not aboard!  As a result of "focusing on focusing" on getting a great shot with my handlebar-mounted cam, I failed to watch the road.  I was very lucky to recover with only a hummingbird's pulse rate to show for my stupidity.  I took that cam off after that ride and now only snap pix at stops.

Glad you had a fine time down there.  The new owners at Lodge at Tellico seem high end.  And, the Cherohala is a grand piece of pavement.  These days we only get there once a year for the South'n Spine Raid but when in Atlanta it was at least a once-a-month romp "in season."  Did it in the Mini in winter unless too dangerous, which it can be if one is not prudent.

Bill

Sorry if I misled anyone, but my spousal unit doesn't ride pillion.  After 50 years of piloting her own two wheelers, she's "de-rated" herself to a three wheeler.  But, a sporty beast it is:

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GRiSO muscled the other Italians out for a ride today. He does have better than 100lbs on them. Was like getting on an old friend!
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^^^^^^

Just getting that sod clump off must have brought it down a pound or two.

Bill

Washed the oil of the rear tyre by hand, then took GRiSO to the car wash and give it a hit with various squirters and foamy brushes.

The fracture prone sump blow-by fitting has been temporarily replaced by various Aeroflow fittings. I can check the oil level with a calibrated cable tie. That's a zip tie on other parts of the world. I am quite over oil, and a dry sump would be nice. I have plans afoot for a permanent solution, but the parts are coming from afar. There's simply not enough local esoteric parts suppliers.



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The headers and midpipe are foul with oil stains. I'm not too concerned about the headers, as I have spares. I may need to look into Ti cleaner.

I'm a bit over it.

Buffing wheel will probably clean the oil stains off the Ti pipes.