Pedro

Bob being creepy:

Woke up after a night of hard noisy rain expecting to be in for the day, but the sun was shinning so thought it was a good day to take Maria's bike for it periodic warm up run, got my cool leather jacket and went for a ride. For legal reasons decided it was best to keep out of tarmac even though I didn't feel like getting the bike dirty, I haven't got the heart to get this bike dirty but the dirt was moist and ideal for traction and not getting either dust nor mud up. Short 10 or 20km run and got back home to park it back up in it's spot, after a quick cuddle. Taking this bike out for it's run in a thing of love. Wasn´t intending to, but the quick ride up the dirt road made me feel like going for a blast in the XR, so after the 230 was parked I changed clothes, the cool leather jacket for the summer jacket and motocross boots. Took some farm access roads: And then some medium to high speed dirt roads over some of my favorite local landscapes: I have the XR running on well setup suspension, but I have almost new Michelin AC10 on, and it's a tire that I don't rate at all. I chose them for being street legal but regret it whenever I use them at over 80kmh on dirt, they give poor feedback on the front wheel, you never know when it's about to wash out from under you, next time it's going back on motocross rubber. Anyway had a great ride and the only worry was when coming out of a fast corner almost running into a pile of manure someone left parked on the middle of a dirt road. On the way back too a picture of the coolest bridge I know, while waiting for the traffic to switch back my way, the bridge Rainha D.ª Amélia crosses the Tejo river: Made it back but before coming home decided to give the bike and my boots a hose down to get rid of the farm track mud on this service station right at the end of the dirt road. It's really convenient to have a service station at the end of the dirt road: Getting back home just before some heavy showers, in time to aply some silicone spray on the plastics and make it ready for parking for a few more weeks next to it's little sister, the 230.

If the objective is to lower the temperature you need to get rid of the cat, there is no way around it. If you're replacing a cat with something that creates the same amount of back pressure you might as well keep it stock. Find somewhere that can remap the bike, and change the exhaust or just replace the cat with a straight pipe if that is an option on your bike, there's no way around it.

This thread is like arguing if the best pizza is made in Brazil or Argentina. AC/DC!

Hell, I love the show as a grown up, good stuff!

Agreed. But sometime his nasal sound comes across as special and sure enough nobody can quite imitate him.

true, still insane, though

Let get this straight, you feel like you have a blown front tire, so instead of stopping and having a look you simply ride back home? Tomorrow, I might go for a little ride on Maria's bike, it hasn't gotten a warm up in a little time, maybe 5 or 6 months, maybe more. Might even post a video of how a bike starts ....

I would go with Montesa or Bultaco, but the badge doesn't look right to me.

We're later down the line than Spain, though, Pete. Lots of people on the train come here to work on these places, daily, and that never stopped until now, so there you go.

I wouldn't do it without a remap. It might run ok but there is a change it will run too lean. There must have modern offroad teams and shops willing to help, you will probably find a capable alternative to a dealer.

On another note, I made it home yesterday, after a nice ride. Had a nice meal all by myself, of a little cheese and peas with chorizo, was half way to getting a little drunk on my favorite local whine when my folks called to ask if I had been allowed in as my area has exploded with hundreds of infected cases overnight. This is worry for Portugal as all the big distribution centers for the major supermarkets are here, and if they shut down it would get tricky to distribute food and stuff. I'm not too worried myself, as I am alone anyway. It's raining, though, so I am home.

Oh my, has Yamaha's announcement of a possible new XT250 got all you english guys's panties in a twist? Man up, get a 600...

Getting back out...

I care about them, an old BMW is a cozy place to be, specially in the winter. Maria's treasured E30 that I now use to go grocery shopping when it's not raining: And my brother's beasty, only 30% of it is still E30, though ?

Once or twice a year I attend a meeting with sales guys from all over Spain, around 12 guys from different areas. You can imagine the conversations at dinner, and these are educated guys that do like each other, but even then their rivalry shows in the most interesting things, like who makes the best olive oil, the best sardines, the best whatever... One of them told me, a couple years ago, that kids from the same grade from all over Spain learnt history from 31 or 41 different history manuals. Each one deleting Spain's feats as a country and finding a way to make their own area more important.

Seems a problematic place to have a chain and a spinning compressor, right inside your core when you're in full tuck ...

Agreed, but it's your choice to keep a nice moped on the boat, or a moped disguised as Travis Pastrana's super cross bike : Normal guy with a cool moped vs annoying hipster

Scotland fans come to Porto for soccer, huge amounts of beer and singing England fans come to Porto for soccer, huge amounts of been and police escorts back to catch an early flight home

How do you like them, mechanically, Bob? To me, they look great but aren't the kind of thing I'd want to ride except to look cool going for a coffee.

Humanity is doomed, hipsters ran out of Harley 883, BMW K75 and modern Triumph twins?

A nice E30 is a quality thing. Word!

I'm not one for bike meetings or social stuff, but given our different backgrounds it would be cool to meet for a proper meal and a drink or two. Obviously we are not in the ideal climate for planning get togethers but still, I'd be up for a meet in Pete's area. Ideally something like meeting in the morning, a snack, a short ride around, clean up and dinner. I suggest Pete's area because if this is game Pete's wife's presence is mandatory in my book, she's a great lady although not present on the internets. So, have at it.

Nice think with carburated thumpers or twins is that when they are set up and valves put to spec and carbs synchronized you can really tell the difference and it seems everything in the world is right! That's how it felt in my Hondas and BMWs, don't know about KLRs ?

I expect Spain to be similar, in Portugal there are 4 or 5 bikes that hold value well: XT600E or XT660R, DTR125, any version of CBR600, any version BMW GS, Suzuki GSX750R, Hornet 600, any Africa Twin . These, except the Suzuki, were the top sellers of their generation, in a country where minimum wage would be (and is) less than half of the UK, buying a CRB600 was seen as buying a quality item that would last, like buying an oldschool Mercedes of sorts*. *Except the DTR125, all those guys wanted was to put a motocross exhaust and wheelie to high heaven in front of high schools ?