More progress

I pulled the rear wheel off the Stelvio tonight in order to get at the speedometer sensor. That little guy had a propensity to start misbehaving in heavy rain, causing the digital speedometer to start acting goofy. SO I pulled the wheel, pulled the sensor and sealed the sensor with some silicone sealant. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Next I affixed the two tubes which will hold the 1 liter spare fuel bottles to the bike. I think the location is going to work out fine.

Fitting the spare fuel tubes

Since my Moto Guzzi Stelvio has a fuel tank that is on the smallish side (4.8 gallons) I decided to try to carry a bit more fuel on board during my trip to Florida just in case I need some at some point.

So I recently bought a couple 1 liter fuel containers(bottles) and today I received what I hope to store these containers in.

I ordered a couple "tool tubes" from an agricultural supply company. These are often attached to tractors to carry tools or paperwork. Luckily the 1 liter fuel containers fit perfectly inside these tubes.

Tonight I went about trying to "rough fit" these tubes to the bike. Right now they are just held on by some little zip ties but these pics will give you an idea of how I plan to attach them. They will be hidden behind the right side pannier (saddlebag).

Ahoy matey!

I found this lil beauty laying flat in the parking lot at work and I knew I had to make it mine.

A thing of beauty

Speeding about on the Guzzi LeMans

Perfect Nebraska weather today spurred me to take the 2002 Moto Guzzi LeMans out for a breath of fresh air. I can't stress enough what a magnificent bike this is.

The thing just pulls like a freight train and runs on rail around the curves. The power is so smooth as well and the sound of the air sucking into the airbox is awesome.

I rediscovered a few good roads I used to ride a lot with my friend DT a few years ago. Just a few pics as I was having too much fun to stop much.

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Planning the Guzzi trip

Just a few maps showing planned routes for Days 1-3 of my 12 day trip from Omaha to Florida and on to Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, etc.

Day 1 is my longest day - Omaha to Memphis (~715 miles)

Day 2 in the morning I am going to go to Graceland, Elvis' home in Memphis, for the morning, to see where the King lived. The afternoon of Day 2 I will ride down to Leeds, Alabama (~250 miles) and spend the night there.

Day 3 in the a.m. I plan to go to the Barber Motorcycle Museum during the Vintage Motorcycle Festival. After visiting there I plan to ride south. Depending on how I feel I will either make it all the way to Deland, FL (~520 miles) or stop somewhere short of that and get to Deland the morning of Day 4.

Here are maps of my intended routes Days 1-3.

Uncle Chris visits the rascals

I had a nice visit with my sister Mara, her husband Robert and my lil nephews Aidan and Roman today. Lotsa fun!

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An American Trilogy

Great song performed by Elvis

V7 Racer

Noggin protector

After several years of excellent service I am retiring my Nolan N100 helmet.

I received the replacement in the mail today, a Nolan N103. I took a little chance with mail ordering it without being able to try it on but it fits just right.

Here are a few pics of my new noggin protector.

I'm going to Graceland

As part of my upcoming motorcycle trip to Florida and Georgia I have decided that I am going to fulfill a long time dream of visiting Graceland, home of the late Elvis Presley. After that i will also pass through Tupelo, Mississippi, birthplace of Elvis.

Camping with Mr. Chris

I don't camp very often, but sometimes the situation presents itself where I must and I do.

This upcoming weekend is the MO-KAN (Missouri/Kansas) Moto Guzzi rally near St Joseph, Mo. It's held at a campground where we all pitch a tent, commiserate over frosty beverages and ride around the scenic roads of NW Missouri and such.

In preparation for this event I have dragged my camping gear out of the box where it has been stowed for a few years in the garage.

I have set it up in my living room and intend to sleep in it this week indoors to acclimate myself with the camping experience.

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Guzzitech GT-Sx silencer

Bound for the Southeast

Well I am getting pretty excited about taking the Moto Guzzi Stelvio on it's first "real" journey in October. I guess you could say it had a nice journey when I bought it in Steubenville, Ohio September of last year and rode it back home to Deland, FL...that was around 1,000 miles I guess over two days, but this upcoming trip will be much more than that.

I figure I will travel somewhere around 4000 miles on this trip, heading down to Memphis then onto Leeds, Alabama where I plan to visit the Barber Motorsports Museum. From there I will continue on to Florida.

I'll then spend a few days in Florida, working and seeing friends over an ale or two, before I head north to Georgia with my friend Andrew (and maybe Bob) to meet up with Rob and a couple other folks.

Using Rob's house in the Atlanta, GA area as our base, we plan to ride the Georgia Mountains, the famous Dragon in North Carolina, the Cherohala Skyway and whatever other great roads Rob has in the plans. We also plan to stay at a neat motel that caters to motorcycles called the Two Wheel Inn in Robbinsville, NC.

From there I will finally return home.

I really want to try to stay away from interstate highway travel as much as I can on this trip and take state highways and more obscure roads where possible. It makes for such a more interesting trip that way.

So anyway here are a few maps which kinda show the possible routes I will ride. I borrowed a couple of these from Andrew's website...I hope he doesn't mind.

The Adventures of K-Dub and the Stallion - Episode 1

This morning Kid Wunnerful (aka K-Dub) and the Stallion (Mike "Italian Stallion" Caniglia) met up for a ride on our Guzzis through Iowa's Loess Hills.

We covered ~100 miles in the Loess Hills on a lot of fun roads, well at least as fun as you can get out here in the Great Plains.

Stal was on his 2006 Breva 1100 and I was aboard the 2009 Stelvio 1200. We both refueled in Crescent, Iowa before starting the ride. When we stopped back at the same fuel station after we were done, both of our odometers showed EXACTLY 117.0 miles. I found is amazing that both bikes tracked the exact same mileage. Stal's Breva got an unbelievable 50.4 mpg while my Stelvio got a good 39.0 mpg. I suppose I was a little happier with the throttle hand than Stal was but I am pretty happy with that mpg.

The roads in the Loess Hills are generally low on traffic and have some really decent curves and elevation changes. We stopped along the way for a photo opp at the Old Home Fill 'er Up and Keep on Trucking Cafe, made famous in the CW McCall song from the 70's.

We also pulled off the road and hiked up to the Murray Hill Scenic Overlook, which has great views of farmland and the Loess Hills and surroundings. When you get the top there is quite a drop-off which didn't seem to bother Stal but I kept my distance from the edge.

It was a great ride, with near perfect weather. Until we ride again Stallion...adios!

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Stelvio in the Loess Hills

I got up early this a.m. and took a ride over to Iowa's Loess Hills on the Guzzi Stelvio. Kind of a multipurpose mission.

First I needed to scrub in the new Pirelli Scorpion Trail tires I recently put on the Stelvio. New tires are somewhat "slick" and care needs to be taken for a while to get them scuffed up before going to crazy on them.

Secondly I recently put a new fueling map on my Power Commander so I wanted to test that out further and let the Autotune module make adjustments where needed.

Finally I just love to ride my Guzzis and it was a tremendous morning for that with sunny, clear skies and perfect temps.

Folks who regularly ride the Loess Hills will be happy to know that all of the frost heave pavement bumps from about Missouri Valley to Honey Creek have been ground out and repaved. Much nicer now along that stretch. From Honey Creek to Crescent though there are still quite a few bumps.

While I was rolling along I think it was L23 past farms and field after field of corn and soybean from about 75 yards off I spotted a big farm dog on the porch. I saw him get up and start running for the road to try to intercept me, so I gunned the Guzzi. Man I was happy for the good throttle response and pull from the engine as I got by the house as the dog was approaching the street. For a minute I thought my Goose might be cooked.

Anyway, here are some pics.

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