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Post by milehighguzzi on Nov 20, 2011 18:35:32 GMT -5
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Post by Steve Swan on Nov 20, 2011 19:47:31 GMT -5
Thanks for your post, Mark !
What are your favorite rides and destinations ?
Steve
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Post by Jerry Writebol on Nov 21, 2011 11:27:34 GMT -5
I sure wish this was something that had been up and running a long time ago.
I have been a Guzzi member for a long time. The first guzzi was a 1972 850 Eldo, that we bought in 1978. After that was a 1976 1000 Convert, than 1981, 1000 G5, than the last of the 1990 Calif 3. Have traveled with the guzzi about 250,000 over the years.
Sold the Calif as Guzzi did make any full dresser then and went to 2005 BMW K1200LT and still enjoying the riding.
Long time member in several clubs also.
Hope to meet some of you over the years.
Yes I do ride when it is cold also.
Jerry (Slowpokegrw)
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Post by franksnively on Nov 21, 2011 12:44:53 GMT -5
Hello, folks:
I hope I have straightened out the password imbroglio. (Seems the computer at that end of the message board and my computer never see eye-to-eye.)
Anyhow, I kind of doubt that anyone here can claim to have owned a Moto Guzzi before me - unless they rode a Falcone as a teenager. My first was a (used) V7, purchased from the BSA dealer in Lawndale, CA in 1967. No, kiddies it was NOT a V7 Sport, which several of you have tried to tell me I mean. It was a plain V7, and it had Del'Orto side float carburetors. The hypothetical Falcone rider will immediately recognize the carburetor; the rest of you will not.
Being a resident of southern California, I was taken aback on my first long ride, over the Sierra Nevada just south of Yosemite over Thanksgiving weekend. It was sunset, and about freezing as I rode south past Mammoth Mountain ski resort; the ride down to Bishop was miserable, but no frostbite, thank goodness! I put one hand, then the other, on the valve covers, which probably is what saved me - it was very awkward to use my left hand on the buckhorn bars, but desperate measures were necessary. I was really shivering when I pulled into the first motel in Bishop.
The V7, bless its heart, did not skip a beat.
I now ride a California EV (2002 or 2003 - I can't recall which), which has electric heat for frosty rides here in Colorado. I have been as far east as New York, and as far west as John Day, OR (the M-G National) and also Lake Elsinore, CA. I plan to attend the National Rally at the OTHER Buena Vista (the one in Virginia) this summer.
Between Guzzi motorcycles, I have ridden a good many other ones, especially a Suzuki GSX1100G, on which I put 130,000 miles, and a BMW R1100GS with 110,000 miles. Since my new (to me) Guzzi has a metric odometer, it will be trivial to get the same number, and I hope I can ride the same distance (200,000+ kM) on my California.
Frank
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Post by healeyblue on Nov 21, 2011 15:00:13 GMT -5
Well Frank, it seems that you and I are probably going to have to compare notes on our V7s one day. I got mine, new, in Naples, Italy in the spring of 1967. I was stationed at the NATO base there in the US Navy and traded a 1966 BSA Spitfire for it. I thought it was the most wonderfully smooth motorcycle I had ever experienced. It was red with the partially chromed tank and had silver colored fenders.
Over the years I have owned many, many, different bikes. Enough that they were a major contributor to a divorce in the early 80s. Only three Guzzis though. In addition to the V7, a 1976 T3 in that cowpie brown with guaranteed to peel and flake gold tape stripes on the tank, and my current Norge.
I enjoy short rides but prefer touring with my SO.
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Post by franksnively on Nov 21, 2011 21:37:48 GMT -5
Did your V7 have concentric carbs? The later V7's I saw here in the US had abandoned the remote float carbs - good riddance!
In my case, I kludged up a manifold which fed both cylinders from a pair of Kiehen carburetors (they were used on the Honda 450). Since they were CV type, I had no trouble with bogging down - the carbs fed the engine what it wanted, no more. And the next serious bike - a Suzuki GSX1100 - also had CV carburetors.
But my later machines, including the California, have all been fuel injected, which is a huge improvement! No more wear of throttle slides and needle jets. CV carbs were much better than the original types, but they DO have needle jets and throttle slides, which wear.
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