Summer rides

[Canuck750]

With - I have had no big rides this summer but I have gotten in a lot of short rides, 100 ~ 200km runs on my vintage bikes.

Took a nice ride through the countryside today on my Ducati 860m kept company with a 72 Norton 750 Commando and a Guzzi Quota.



Still fiddling with carb tuning the Ducati, about t give up on old sloppy slides and get a new pair of Delorto's, hard to get a steady idle with worn slides. Other than that the Duc is a great bike to ride.

[nick949]

Excellent Jim. Same here. There's plenty to be mined on the home front.

Nick

[Don G]

Its amazing what you may find in your own back yard, seen in Ruthilda Saskatchewan on the August long weekend.  DonG

[Canuck750]

Its amazing what you may find in your own back yard, seen in Ruthilda Saskatchewan on the August long weekend.  DonG

I talked to a couple guys who rode to the shortened Biggar rally, sounds like it was a good time, I should have gone!

Is the V7 or Mirage yours Don? That Laverda looks pretty nice and the V7 is a bike I would not mind owning.

[Groover]

With - I have had no big rides this summer but I have gotten in a lot of short rides, 100 ~ 200km runs on my vintage bikes.

I bet you are glad you did your big world-ride last year!

[nick949]

Shameless promo and thread hijack............b ut yes, local rides can be worthwhile.  I've been doing a lot of them as displacement activity for not being able to be riding in Newfoundland.

Nick



https://www.amazon.com/Riding-Time-Plague-motorcycle---19/dp/B08DGD8Z52

[Don G]

Jim: The V700 is mine, I built this one from junk, some of the left overs from the ones you turned me onto in Slave Lake a couple of winters ago. Thanks!  DonG

[Canuck750]

Jim: The V700 is mine, I built this one from junk, some of the left overs from the ones you turned me onto in Slave Lake a couple of winters ago. Thanks!  DonG

Nice job Don!  You have quite the stable of great looking (and running)Guzzi’s! 

Hi Groover, yep I am sure glad my wife and I did our Europe tour last year, hoping - is under control by next summer, we really want to go back and tour Scandinavia and Baltic states plus Spain and Portugal,I hear there is excellent riding in the mountains of Spain.

[nick949]

Would you fly the monster bike again Jim, or rent more locally?

Nick

[Canuck750]

Would you fly the monster bike again Jim, or rent more locally?

Nick

Depends on how much my wife wants to ride. She is not too interested in Spain or Portugal, two years ago she walked the Camino and she feels she has seen enough of Spain. In the fall there are three big vintage rally’s that each are about a week long and follow one another. I would like to fly my Ducati or Eldorado over and take in the rally’s. If Wendy wants to do the big tour I will fly the BMW over. Other option is I may just go solo and look for a cheap single in Amsterdam to ride and try and sell it when I am done or leave it at the airport parking lot I leave from with the keys in the ignition and a note explaining it’s free to the finder!

[Peter949]

Hi Jim ... I did purchase a Moto Guzzi Nevada from a dealer in the UK for a tour of France and Switzerland.
Unfortunately after months of searching I could find no insurance for the bike. You must be valid EU resident to obtain insurance for the UK registered Guzzi that I purchased. 

I eventually sold the bike at a large loss back to the dealer. Later I simply rented a scooter for the tour.

[Canuck750]

Hi Jim ... I did purchase a Moto Guzzi Nevada from a dealer in the UK for a tour of France and Switzerland.
Unfortunately after months of searching I could find no insurance for the bike. You must be valid EU resident to obtain insurance for the UK registered Guzzi that I purchased. 

I eventually sold the bike at a large loss back to the dealer. Later I simply rented a scooter for the tour.

Wow that's good to know! I had no idea one had to be a EU resident.

[Jorg66]

Wife and i finaly did the Whiteshell [twice]  and Hecla Island .for us that meant a 1500 Km Tour each time and all over Manitoba.
Ya hopefully Europe and the Rest of the World will get more safe to Travel,like to go to Bavaria,Austria,Italy,Switzerland and scratch France next Year [end of July till mid August ,but will rent ,mostlikly a 1280 KTM .
flying our Bike ,to complicated ,would have to take it to Calgary or Toronto.
Any Experience with that ???

[Canuck750]

Wife and i finaly did the Whiteshell [twice]  and Hecla Island .for us that meant a 1500 Km Tour each time and all over Manitoba.
Ya hopefully Europe and the Rest of the World will get more safe to Travel,like to go to Bavaria,Austria,Italy,Switzerland and scratch France next Year [end of July till mid August ,but will rent ,mostlikly a 1280 KTM .
flying our Bike ,to complicated ,would have to take it to Calgary or Toronto.
Any Experience with that ???

I flew my K1600 GTL last summer from Calgary to Amsterdam on Air Transat and back via Paris to Calgary on WestJet. I used a broker service, probably cost me a couple hundred more but he did help with getting the green card for insurance and most of the airlines (Air Canada, Air Transat) only have the motorbike summer shipping deal up to the end of August. We left at the end of August last year and found West Jet would keep flying bikes back to Canada up to October 22nd, so that was the day we returned. It ended up costing close to $3K CDN both ways with insurance. We were gone for almost two months so it was worth it. Years earlier I rented a K1600Gt in Scotland for two weeks and it ended up costing us over $2K in the end after all the fine print.

If you plan on doing Europe and can go for at least a month I would suggest you take your own bike and figure out your own shipping with Air Canada or WestJet, it is pretty simple, Air Canada has a great program with online info. The bike has to have no more than 1/4 of a tank of fuel, disconnect the battery and that's about all the prep needed. We were allowed to have the bikes hard luggage filled with our riding gear. The bike gets strapped to a flat aluminum aircraft pallet, shipper provides the straps and does the tie down,  bike gets placed in the belly of the plane.You have to have proof of ownership to show when the bike is dropped off at the freight terminal in Calgary airport, Bill of Sale and registration and a copy of your green card insurance. Make photo copies of your bikes bill of sale, registration, insurance and your passport, it will come in handy if you leave the EU zone. You can fly on the same flight as your bike or go later on another flight, the bike waits for you at the destination airport freight terminal.

I bought general liability insurance for Europe because for most of the countries we went to theft insurance was not available (Italy, Turkey. Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Romania, Ukraine), never had a problem anywhere, found a secure lock up every night for the bike. For non EU countries insurance has to be purchased at the border (Turkey, Ukraine, Albania, Macedonia...) In Amsterdam there was a bit of running around to get the import stamps form NL customs but it was not difficult. Coming back into Calgary there was some running around to get the import papers from the freight terminal to Canada Customs on the other side of the airport and then back to get the bike out of hock.  I would suggest a GPS with European maps, it was a godsend.

If you go I strongly recommend Turkey, fantastic country with road system to rival Germany and very friendly people.

[nick949]

These folks may be useful.  They will buy a bike for you in Ireland and do all the paperwork, and if you want to leave it there afterwards, store it for you at reasonable cost.  I haven't done it myself, but it seems they offer a work-around for Euro travel for North Americans:  https://motofeirme.com/about/.

I have rented bikes in the UK on multiple occasions. These folks are the best, and allow their bikes to go to the continent: https://www.westsussexmotorcyclehire.co.uk/.  I rented a V-Strom in February a couple of years ago. It was cold, but I got a great off-season deal. They are terrific people to deal with - real bike guys (no Guzzis though).

Nick

[Yukonica]

"Other option is I may just go solo and look for a cheap single in Amsterdam to ride and try and sell it when I am done or leave it at the airport parking lot I leave from with the keys in the ignition and a note explaining it’s free to the finder!"

Give me an hour's notice if you ever plan on doing that with a Morini 3 1/2 at the Whitehorse airport...

[Jorg66]

Hey ,Thanks a Lot ! should have clarified ,moved to MB 24 years ago,but still have my German / EU Passport,that does make things easier, 2 weeks Vacation just not enough time for shipping.
I can rent that KTM for $ 1350 CDN $ with 2250 KM for 9 days [ Navi includet ] , grew up in the North [ little south of Hamburg ] ,was thinking on buying a Bike over there and just leave it with Friends or my Brother,but that would mean we would always have to fly into Hamburg.
Will see,if ' Overseas' don't work out next year [cause of - ] might scoot over to the East cost and back .

[Canuck750]

Hey ,Thanks a Lot ! should have clarified ,moved to MB 24 years ago,but still have my German / EU Passport,that does make things easier, 2 weeks Vacation just not enough time for shipping.
I can rent that KTM for $ 1350 CDN $ with 2250 KM for 9 days [ Navi includet ] , grew up in the North [ little south of Hamburg ] ,was thinking on buying a Bike over there and just leave it with Friends or my Brother,but that would mean we would always have to fly into Hamburg.
Will see,if ' Overseas' don't work out next year [cause of - ] might scoot over to the East cost and back .

Your quoted rental rate for the KTM sounds pretty fair. We were going to ride across Canada and ferry to Newfoundland this summer but that fell through after the Atlantic provinces bubbled requiring 14 day quarantine for westerners entering the maritime provinces.  Looks like the long distance bike trips just wont happen until next summer at the soonest.

[Canuck750]

Another summer ride today, my first ride on the Moto Morini 500, this bike has fought me for two years, just one thing after another, need a full engine rebuild including re-sleeved cylinders, over size pistons, then the Ducati Electronica ignition went on the fritz, replaced with a Sasche system and dyna coils, then the kick starter gear busted a tooth, new parts from the UK followed up with the starter motor crapping out, new brass drive gear and brushes, last week the regulator died and power bled back to the stator frying the charging coils, replaced with a used stator,



I have to say after riding it around town this afternoon this is a very nice bike, it feels very light, handles nice, the rear sets make for a comfortable ride, not overly powerful but its sufficient. The triple discs work great and it is a quiet bike at idle with just a nice burble from the exhaust.



It feels very civilized, not a big heavy beast like the Laverda SF1 or the Ducati 860. just a real nice balanced bike.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Beautiful!