Visit to RML Automotive...the Alfa King in Daytona Beach!

I had the day off today (comp day) so I decided to hop in the Alfa Spider and take a drive up to Daytona Beach and visit the newly relocated shop of RML Automotive, owned by Alfa Romeo guru Ric Lovecchio and his lovely wife Rose.

The new shop, located just a couple blocks from the old one, is at least twice as big as the old one. Ric and his wife Rose are still moving in and getting the new shop set up. What a change from the old place. What was once cramped is now wide open and spacious. Ric has a good number of his collection of Alfas out on display. I am particularly enamored of the white Alfetta Sports Sedan. Man I would love to have that baby! He also had a really neat and rare little Crosley pickup truck he is going to get running someday for use as a shop truck.

After my visit with Ric I headed over the Zeno's candy shop and bought some of their famous homemade saltwater taffy. Mmmm, excellent! A nice, relaxing day off for me and the Alfa Spider :0)

CLICK THE PICS TO ENLARGE :)

Hittin' the ton, still a lot of fun!

Back in the old days, "hittin' the ton" was a big deal on a motorcycle. That is, hitting 100 mph. Nowadays it isn't a big deal, but it can still be a bit of a rush.

Let's go Breva, it's time for "hittin' the ton!"

Click to enlarge!



p.s yeah it is hot here, especially in my garage! 121 degrees! Also, the good ol' Breva has about 31k on her now. I had the whole instrument cluster replaced under warranty at 17,999 miles :)

A walk on the beach in Port Orange, FL

This afternoon I drove the Spider over to Ponce Inlet, FL for a walk on the beach and a stop at a beach bar/grill for a couple ales.

'Twas a hot day, with temps in the mid 90's and a good deal of sun. The place I stopped at to cool down is called Racing's North Turn, so named because it is considered to be where NASCAR racing started in Florida. Part of the race track used to be the beach, and the location of this bar/grill is at the north turn of that old race track location.

I enjoyed a couple ShockTop wheat ales after my walk and then headed home in the Spider. A nice way to spend a few weekend hours.

click pic to enlarge....

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

To all of the fathers out there and especially to my dad, Tom Galardi, have a happy and relaxing Father's Day!

Moto Guzzi Breva 1100 gearbox/shaft drive fluid change

My last bit of maintenance for the weekend on the Guzzi Breva was changing the gear oil in the gearbox and shaft drive.

This is a simple procedure. I have been using Redline Heavy Shockproof gear oil in my Guzzis for years and I love the stuff. Oddly it is pink in color, looking a lot like Pepto Bismol.

The Breva gearbox takes 500cc of the stuff. The drain bolt is located on the right side of the bike, near the foot brake lever. I fashion a ramp made of aluminum foil for the oil to run down into a drain pan, keeping the mess at a minimum. The fill bolt is an allen headed bolt on the side of the transmission case. Fill 'er up, 500cc please.

The CARC(shaft)drive drain plug is located on the underside of the shaft drive housing at the rear tire. Again I fashion a little ramp of aluminum foil to keep the oil from messing up the rim and such. The fill bolt is located on the back side of the shaft drive housing. DO NOT attempt to remove the mushroom shaped breather cap on top of the shaft drive housing to fill from there. There is a good likelihood it will shear and break if you do. A lesson learned a couple years ago.

The CARC takes 380cc of the pink stuff. I fashion a little funnel out of aluminum foil. As I am drizzling the gear oil into the filler hole I rotate the rear tire and it helps to suck the oil into the nooks and crannys inside the housing, making filling quicker and easier.

All in all a quick and easy job, prolly 45-60 minutes start to finish.

Replacing Guzzi Breva oil pressure sender

Today I spent a while in the garage, out of the hot Florida sun, working on my 2006 Moto Guzzi Breva 1100. I wanted to replace the oil pressure sending unit, a little device that screws into the engine block, sensing the engine oil pressure and sending that information to the computer.

It was fun and therapeutic to some degree, as I like to work with my hands. So here are a few pics. Basically this involved removing the fuel tank first. Then I removed the air box(which contains the air filter), so that I could get access to the oil pressure sender. The sender screws out with an open faced wrench (I used a 22mm but a smidge smaller would have been better).

In went the new sender and then I put everything back together and egads!!....it started :=)

Back home from PA

Well I am finally back from Pennsylvania. It was a looong week, especially the first several days when things did not go well at all. Just lotsa problems with things not working well.

Around Wednesday things seemed to be getting a lot better and Thursday was really quite swell. However, I just learned (Friday night 6 p.m.) that there were huge issues today due to some SQL server issues. Not good at all.

Anyway, there is a possibility I may have to go back. I hope not.

Here are a few pics from the trip taken with my crappy cell phone camera. I found a nice microbrewery there called Lancaster Brewing Company.