I rescued the Bella from storage and gave her a damn good thrashing for having the nerve to throw me off back in April 
She’s promised not to do it again 
Took part in a funeral cortege for a good mate of mine who lost a short battle with cancer. A very humbling and emotional experience. easily over 100 bikes there.
Life is short. enjoy it while you can.
Yep…Carpe Diem…
We took ours on a VMCC run to Cosford…along with some other old hooligans…growin old disgracefully… 
After a week’s storage at a friends house the down pipes were looking very tarnished to say the least; so a good polish and then off to enjoy the day. Liverpool, Llangollen, Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Whitchurch, Chester and home to catch up on the Olympics. Oh, and to put the Guzzi to bed in her new private garage
Still requires some work to finish the new home off, but I feel much better with it being a damn sight more secure than the deserving lady’s previous home.
A happy day.
Grand weekend at Mill Hill School in London for the Adventure Travel Film Festival.
Saw some great films and met some grand folk.
Lois Pryce, Austin Vince and their team did a grand job of organising and running the event.
One other Guzzi there; a problem stricken LMII from Brighton with a former club member.
Mongrel ran well there and back and drew some interest at the event.
All good stuff
Steve
Saturday, re assembled the front of the Bella after fitting the new ignition switch then took her for a ride.
Magic.
Saw a Fireblade rider totally relaxed in the weather. Trainers, shorts, no gloves and a Jet helmet.
However he did take his road safety seriously because he was wearing a bright pink t shirt.
Nice bimble out to Popham airfield yesterday, great weather lots to see, do and meet, got a good replacement screen with mounts for a tenner, took the mounts off and strapped it to the old screen to get home, instant double glazing!
If you go down to any of the hot places (Greece, Italy etc) shorts and flipflops are standard riding gear.
A legendary bike shop owner in Stoke-on-Trent, Frank Searle, was test riding a Vincent when he was stopped by a policeman.
The officer suggested that a brown shop coat, thin trousers and carpet slippers would offer no protection if there was an accident; the officers leather boots, trousers and sturdy jacket would he said.
“Ah” said Mr Searle in his Black Country drawl “but you see I go out to ride not to fall off” At which point he roll started the Vinnie a went back to his shop.
Have fun
Steve
Couldn’t agree more…I had a lovely cool spin yesterday to the last ‘Bugad-not Poole bike night’ on my Blackbird wearing only a tee shirt and sweatshirt on my top half and even gave it some welly on occasions. What if I fell off? Well, I’d probably cry for my mum!
Roy Green form the Forest of Dean
I don’t know with you lot.
A bunch of unthinking Devil may care reprobates the lot of you.
What would the ATKATT brigade think of you?
Or the owners of MotoLegend, the trendy riders outfitters.
I once rode down the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans in shorts. It was so hot I could not bear to put anything more on, but I felt so uncomfortable and vulnerable I didn’t go above 40 the whole way. I did have a leather jacket on but it was not zipped up.
It’s not wearing gloves I don’t get. I see people almost every day riding without gloves and not just kids on scooters. Your hand is likely one of the first things to go down, and it is so vulnerable.
When I was young I fell off loads of times off road in shorts and teeshirt and managed not to hurt myself. It was all low speed on sand though.
I told the medical profession call it ‘degloving’ when somebody puts there hands down when not wearing gloves. Sounds very nasty. I think I’m kidding myself that my thin summer gloves give me any protection at even 10mph, never mind 50+.
Roy Green from the Forest of Dean
I sometimes nip to the shops on a bike and not wearing suitable gear…but if I’m goin on a ride proper…then jacket and jeans or bike trousers…
Wearing appropriate attire, including reinforced nylon Y fronts, …
Went to a bike night at The Winking Man pub on the Leek-Buxton road.
Great to meet people I’ve known for 40 years and some on bikes that they had when I first met them.
Two observations;
Triumph, their dealers and owners have built a phenomenal community. One post on Facebook yesterday morning and twenty+ riders linked to the dealers responded. One of them was the owner of the Triumph dealership on his Hurricane X-75. Lots of other Triumphs besides. The best represented manufacturer there. Other marques KTM, Enfield, Chinese of various hues, BMW, the Japanese 4 (not so many oddly) One Italian bike there. It was a Guzzi… 
The range of bikes and riders was remarkable; commuters, tourers, mild modification to unique and heavily re-engineered. Leathers, textiles, patches, casual. Age range kids (pillion) to people a fair bit older than me. With that mix there was endless banter, comparison and a great atmosphere.
Pretty sure the weather helped too.
Happy days
Steve
Got blown into the weeds by a fella on an Exuberantly Ridden Harley on the way home from the Essex Branch meet this evening.
Ian, now that you have had these for a while, what is your view? I am still thinking of getting a pair, but given they’re a lot of dosh, I would interested to hear about the experience of people who already have some. In particular, how waterproof have they been, and does the membrane really adapt to different temperatures as claimed?
Caught a couple of hours of autumnal sun and drying roads with Clive Yates on his BMW this afternoon.
Out to Rudyard Lake for cake and coffee and a meander back on ‘short cuts’ that I used to use when I was working out in the Staffordshire Moorlands.
Spent some time yesterday and today getting the bits together to sort the NTX breather using Julian Franck’s design and excellent instructions. Will report back on results. Had a long and fairly technical conversation on breathers and how that work testerday which got me looking at the fix.
Happy days.
Steve
Just back from a Norton meeting at Applecross on my V11 which is 10 times better after setting up the throttle bodies. Asking myself now why I didn’t do it before my 4000 mile trip to Sicily last month Doh!
Avoided the faff of replacing the rear brake light switch by fitting an old school model as pictured.
Ran a pair of link wires from the originals so that I can do it ‘right’ over the winter.
Commisioned a pillar drill donated FoC by my mechanic.
Bargain buy at £5 from the local all sorts bike shop.
Went on to avoid the rain by finishing of tow bar fitting on the LanfRover and sorting out some of the Guzzi parts stored in the shed/garage.
Aiming to get out and about Sunday/Monday
Happy days
Steve