The Ugly Duckling, or, My Life with an Old Goose

[Mookie]

Fuck yeah

[Nimh]

How are the brakes now?  You mentioned they were a little passive when you bought it, and I see new kevlar pads on your list.  Better?

Great pics, Biz.  There's just something so right about naked and all wet.  

[bizarro]

They feel about the same right now, but they haven't really beded in yet. What it really needs is a bigger master cylinder, so that'll happen at some point.

[bizarro]

Went out for a spin today despite having a nasty head cold (got my flu shot last week and I'm wondering if it lowered my resistance to the bug that's going around right now). Nothing major, just a toodle out to Alki in West Seattle and then to Lake Washington on the east side of Capital Hill/Leshai. The brakes are starting to feel quite nice and the clutch, as mentioned above, is great, but the throttle pull is herculean (I think Fred may have predicted this with the change in carb tops) and the twist grip itself seems pretty tight. I'm going to call Micha on Tuesday and see if there is anything I can do at home to mitigate that. Either way I'm going to source an extra large throttlemeister to ease things when just cruising at a steady speed.

[farmer fred]

Went out for a spin today despite having a nasty head cold (got my flu shot last week and I'm wondering if it lowered my resistance to the bug that's going around right now). Nothing major, just a toodle out to Alki in West Seattle and then to Lake Washington on the east side of Capital Hill/Leshai. The brakes are starting to feel quite nice and the clutch, as mentioned above, is great, but the throttle pull is herculean (I think Fred may have predicted this with the change in carb tops) and the twist grip itself seems pretty tight. I'm going to call Micha on Tuesday and see if there is anything I can do at home to mitigate that. Either way I'm going to source an extra large throttlemeister to ease things when just cruising at a steady speed.

Actually, the switch from the bell-crank tops to the flat tops should have made the throttle effort easier, but it will take more rotation of the throttle to achieve the same amount of slide lift at the carbs.  You might want to see if MI changed the springs in the carbs.

[bizarro]

That's right.... easier pull but less actual throttle. Hmmm..... Well, I'll find out tomorrow.

[1KPerDay]

post a sound file! STAT!

D'oh! you did! Post another one!

[bizarro]

Unfortunately, either my Olympus Camedia either doesn't have a microphone or the microphone is borked. Vid, but no sound.

[bizarro]

You now, it seems like every couple of weeks I'm up late after drinking. Maybe it's a problem but that's a subject for another thread. I'm hear to talk about the T. This whole thread is about life with my Moto Guzzi.

The Goose really is my bike. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It doesn't get particularly good gas mileage, it's loud and could be considered obnoxious, especially in the wee hours of the morning, it can be difficult, it requires special, though infrequent, care. It has a lot of miles on it, though it still isn't forty. It's only medium cool, above average, but nothing flash-bulb worthy. It's a fair bit of work to hustle and get to go quickly but man does it respond to the right touch.

When it's cold and rainy and I get up to go work I know it'll be there though. It'll start. I have to charge it up now and again, but it'll get me where I need to go. And if it won't quite give me enough juice to warm up my Gerbing I know if I just hold on and hunker down it won't leave me stranded somewhere. It's a gutsy bike, a workhorse. Not flash at all, but a little stylish. Exactly what a bike should be. There isn't anything on it that isn't useful, that doesn't need to be there.

And that's all I need. When I have the time and the money I'm going to ride this bike across this country on two lane roads and nothing but. Just my Guzzi and me and whoever I meet along the way. Maybe I'll strap my bass on the back and play where I can. Maybe not. The Goose, the road, and music. That'd be alright.

[c_galardi]

She really is a beauty in an understated way.  Clean, classy lines and that wonderful motor on display for everyone to admire.  Congrats on your Guzzi.  Someday I hope to add maybe an 850 T or the like to my garage.

[sagerat]

Sweet bike and I know what you mean about riding older naked bikes.  My '75 Slash Six doesn't have the panache of your Goose or its brakes (damn you for your twin rotors!) but it's in many ways the most fun bike I've ever ridden.

Glad to to hear life is going well.  

[Black Ice]

It doesn't get particularly good gas mileage

Odd.  What does it get?  AFAIK, it should be up around the high 50s at least.

it's loud and could be considered obnoxious, especially in the wee hours of the morning, it can be difficult, it requires special, though infrequent, care. It has a lot of miles on it, though it still isn't forty. It's only medium cool, above average, but nothing flash-bulb worthy.

While it may be considered a more-than-accurate description, I'd like to point out that I am not Biz's Guzzi, and he has never ridden me.


(Well, not that I can remember, anyway--I was chemically insane for most of my younger years, so it could have happened.    )

[ol Rocket]

Finally have had time to read through some threads I've wanted to read for some time.  This is great insight, Fritz, and I'm stoked for you.  I like my Sprint and marvel at how good it is, but I've not really bonded the way you have with the old Goose.  Perhaps I should stick a few Gootsie stickers on and mutter in Italian while drinking a glass of cheap chianti.

I just wouldn't want anyone to confuse me with Dr. Gil.

[atadaskew]

Sometimes a bike comes your way that takes you back to the beginning. Remember when you first thew your leg over a motorcycle? Maybe your dad, or your brother, or a friend showed you how to work the controls, how to turn the fuel on, how to work the choke, and sent you on your way? That initial terror and then that life-transforming joy as the motor picked up and you felt the thrust pulling your head back? The sound and the fury of that motor you were sitting on top of? The Goose has brought me back to that elemental moment. I will never forget when my brother lead me on the freeway for the first time, just maybe 1/4 of a mile on I5, from the base of Cap Hill to the 45th St exit on I5, and I looked at the speedo and I was doing 60 miles per hour, and I looked down at my foot and the pavement speeding by, and I let out a woop for joy that would have shaken Olympus. I was doing it! I was riding a motorcycle!

The Goose, my Moto Guzzi 850 T3, is that bike. I almost feel like I've never ridden a bike before, as if going around corners and laying on the throttle was some sort of innate knowledge waiting for expression, waiting for a moment to happen. I have a sense of mechanical wonder every time I ride it. What's that sound? Is that the valves tapping that I hear over the thrumble of the exhaust? When will I know they're getting too tight? Pulling up to a stop, get the the bike into second and do my best to find neutral before coming to a full stop. If I don't manage it keeping the throttle and the front brake going enough to keep the motor spinning. The satisfaction of the simple act of finding neutral and just sitting at the light, waiting for it to turn green so I can give the Goose the goose and thrumble off on my way.

I've never read a manual so avidly, never wanted spares so strongly, never wanted to know a machine so throroughly. This is a machine that inspires desire: desire for knowedge and know how, for competence. It inspires total involvement. Desire to ride and to know.

I've owned and ridden a lot of bikes in my short riding life. In all but a few cases they've given me that forehead through a locker door sense of headbanging joy, one way or another, but this bike gives me that and so much more. It's a measured mayhem. And I have to say, having ridden some of the finest sprung bikes of the last twenty fifteen or twenty years the suspension and frame on the Goose is an absolute wonder. Every time I take it out I'm gobsmacked when I remember that it was originally sold in 1976, when I was but four years old.

So this thread is about my life as an ugly duckling, a newby Guzzi rider. It's going to be ugly for a while, as I learn the ropes of daily life with a Goose, but as I learn maybe some useful information will filter through. So there you have it. Until next time.

I'm not sure what happened to this bike , but these sentiments are mine exactly.  I'm lovin' my Goot-sie..

[Orson]

in a word...engaging  

[sagerat]

Wonder if ever penning that paen, if he hawked the Goose and got a Honda?    

[atadaskew]

Wonder if ever penning that paen, if he hawked the Goose and got a Honda?    

Did he lose a bet?