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I'd like to eliminate the CANBUS based electronics and use a custom tunable ECU. No TBW, no catalyst, no SAS, no ABS, no TC, simple tank vent hose, different instruments and so on. Basically strip the bike to nothing and rebuild into a very different bike that looks the same.
Maybe think about getting a bicycle.
As Fabio Taglioni of Ducati said circa 1985 in relation to the Japanese manufacturers “I build difficult bicycles, they build easy cars”
My palms are sweating and my heart rate is up just reading that. Fight or flight response I think. Maybe think about getting a bicycle.
I think you drastically underestimate him Sir…
I already have a lot of capable older bikes and no, you can’t buy an older ‘adventure touring’ bike that has all of what a new bike has in terms of chassis stiffness and engine development, combined with the compelling simplicity of older bikes that has been largely outlawed in new bikes sold to many markets. That said if I could get a new 1988-style R100GS to replace mine for let’s say $20K I’d buy one because they were very good. Mine has done 108,000 hard miles worldwide and I love it but the V85TT has the potential to be the same and in some ways significantly more (having much more power, stable handling and big double disk brake). Nothing else on the market (new or used) has the same titanium valved performance potential while also having the practicality and autonomy potential that could come with e.g. 2V/cylinder, an air cooled twin, single throttle body, single cam/pushrod/screw valve adjustment, single rear shock with no rear shock linkage, non-jacking shaft drive, good comfort two up, factory hard bags, potentially maintainable forever without dealer visits and also reasonably good looking - no Darth Vader plastic. The networked electronics and smog gee-gaws screw all that up, but with (a lot of) effort I think it’s possible to get the best of both worlds. I see the stock bike conceptually as a wasted opportunity for my preferences and use.It’s surely correct that governmental nonsense has driven bikes in a direction I dislike, the newest of my nine bikes otherwise is a 2002 model (it’s a carburated SV650, delightful) and the next newest is the Ducati 996 Mono. Everything else is from the last century and there are no other new bikes that I would buy. I don’t think there ever will be again - I think motorcycles have gone off the rails. Listen to interviews of Miguel Galuzzi (Piaggio’s chief designer) and you’ll hear him say much the same thing, to quote him “something went wrong” but he’s stuck designing them as they are.A V85TT bought used with low mileage like mine is not valuable enough that I think of it as a significant investment that needs to be preserved as-is, especially given that as a newish bike it’ll depreciate regardless over the next few years. Mine was 10K out the door with three bags, tax included etc. It’s not a bevel drive Ducati, and is fine for me as a platform for engineered mods. I bet in 20 years the result will be more interesting to a used bike buyer than a stock V85TT that Piaggio or whoever owns Guzzi by then will be expecting you to throw away as obsolete.