Pexi's Moto Guzzi Weblog

Bonne Année

It's time to look back and remember the best achievements of 2004 and then eagerly wait for the prosperous new year. The picture on the left is taken this morning while riding to the office. It shows two of my achievements from 2004: da Guzzi and in the horizon the snow covered mountain of Cheiron, which I conquered last April.

I wish you all a very happy year 2005!

Valve adjustment

I have written instructions about valve adjustment, something that I think should have been printed on owners manual but is not. You can download the "Checking and Adjusting Valve Clearances Maintenance Leaflet", revision 1, here (1 MB .pdf file).

Comments and corrections welcome!

Saint Maxime

Today's strong wind made riding a bit unsteady, but nevertheless the coastal road from Cannes to Saint Maxime was crowded with bikes. 16 degrees Celsius on the coast and no humidity in the air - the high mountains of Mercantour were clearly visible. Look carefully at the picture on the left: the white stuff in the horizon is not clouds, but the border of Italy and France, more than 60 kilometers away from the coast.

The pictures below are taken from the port of Saint Maxime where I somehow lost my riding gloves. The wind had probably blown them away, while I was taking the photos. Otherwise not a big deal but it was Sunday, all shops closed. 90 kms ride back to home, bare handed. Luckily the temperature didn't fall down too quickly, it was still 11 degrees Celsius when I rode the Guzzi through home gates. A glass of "vin chaud" tasted quite good after this ride!

Icy roads

I tried to go riding to the mountains last Sunday but had to turn back twice as there started to be too much ice and frost beside the road. When Breva's thermometer dropped down to 2 degrees Celsius I decided there's no point of going any further. So I rode backwards until I could take a smaller road to Gilette. The images below are taken on the bridge going over the river Var and towards Gilette.

 

Gilette is a small idyllic village only half an hour ride from Nice. I warmed up my cold hands there, on the bright sunshine drinking hot espresso and studying the map. It was like time had stopped - an ultimate medication against stress.

Riding further to north-east there was lot of blocks of falling rock (see the picture), which kept my speed down in the corners and finally the frost and frozen water pods turned me back again. The white stuff you can see in the picture on the left, down in the valley, on front of the Guzzi's headlight, is ice.

I made my U-turn on a very small road, on the edge of a frost-covered ancient bridge. While I was carefully maneuvering the bike (being afraid of the slippery surface below my feet), a white Renault Clio stopped beside me, window went down and an old man (about the same age as the bridge) spoke: "belle machine". Incredible, that was something that I didn't anticipate! Where else in the world this would happen? The man thought that I could well continue, no need to turn back. "Just look where you ride and be careful". I didn't continue, but still, I think I had one of the most memorable rides I'll ever have.

Independence day

6th of December is Independence Day in Finland. My son is visiting us here in France and of course I took a half day off from work to celebrate the occasion. We went riding to the mountains, took some photos and had some nice espressos in St-Vallier-de-Thiey. December weather could hardly have been better. Some of the photos turned out to be quite good, but who am I to say, judge for yourself.

The photos above are courtesy of my son - monsieur le photographer himself below:

Alarm installed

When I subscribed the insurance for my Breva, the insurance company required an electronic antitheft system. And today, more than two months later I finally got the alarm installed.

I rode the Breva to Aigle Motos yesterday evening and today (Saturday), in the afternoon they called and said that the bike is ready. Fine, missus dropped me in Nice and I rode the Guzzi back home, just before the sunset. On the road back home I was more than pleased to encounter a very nicely built Alfa 2000 GTV race car in Villeneuve Loubet. I've been driving Alfas since 1987 and for me these things are simply the most beautiful 4 wheel creatures ever created, and... this one was a brilliant example, not 100% original but showing truly good workmanship and good taste:

November site statistics

  It's cold and rainy here, so the Guzzi stays inside and there's nothing much to write about. Anyway, here are November visitor statistics according to Nedstat (from 6th to 30th November actually):

- visitors from 28 different countries
- total number of visits 1230
- busiest day was 25th Nov, 189 separate visitors

I hope you all continue visiting the site - I'll keep on riding and I hope I'm able to add some more technical and more useful stuff here in near future -not just riding reports and photos.

And a BIG thanks for the comments!