What Have You Being Doing With Your Non-triumph Today?

I had the latest of many, fine, Sunny evening rides round the Peak last night, following a favourite route through Hope Valley and up over Strines. I was interested to see how the local reservoirs were holding up in the dry spell and they don't look low at all IMO. Ladybower is around 85-90% full and the smaller ponds of Strines, Dale Dyke and Agden reservoirs are not exceptionally low either. Underbank reservoir looks almost full to the brim!?

Has anyone noticed there seems to be a lot more flying insects around compared to recent years? Certainly not up to the levels they were in the 90's but enough to need a few wipes of the visor on a 50-60m run. A bit of a pain for us lot but good news for someone no doubt.

 

I rode past a local reservoir here and it looks full too... what is going on with all the (usual) scaremongering?

I also agree, loads of insects this year, and frequent cleaning of my visor and the flyscreen on my bike is needed. Must be all this hot weather.... I'm not complaining though!

 

Loads, some massive ones too (with bright yellow insides!).

 

I was going to say, I'd be surprised if any manufacturer would sign it off as safe as at the end of the day it means another sale.
Speak to a dealer if you have doubts, but I would've thought it quite safe to use as you didn't hit anything solid and certainly not a point loading like the curb or handlebar.

Glad you're OK

 

First up, glad you're OK Sandi and kept the bike up on 2 wheels.

I hit a Seagull at speed many years ago on my FZR1000. It hit the bike's screen first, breaking it and deflected straight into my face which cracked the visor, covering it in Seagull "juice". I changed the visor and all was OK.
When I came off the R1, some years later and was knocked unconscious, the helmet damage was obvious and changing it was a no brainer, no pun intended.

If your health and safety laws are anything like ours I reckon any helmet seller or Shoei themselves will be unwilling to sign off the helmet as OK and will recommend replacement due to the potential failure of the helmet in any future incident, God forbid!
Cost undoubtedly comes into it. If they were $50 each then a new replacement would be an easy decision but they're not! If the damage is confined to the visor itself with none to the helmet's opening and latching mechanism's, personally I'd just fit a new visor.

I also have a Neotec 2 and I've been riding around a lot in the recent hot weather with the helmet flipped and the Sun visor down, NOT a good idea. Thank heavens you had your's locked down Sandi.

 

With a bit of cropping to improve the composition



Or this one

 

Or this one

 

MOT for the Fireblade - passed with no advisories

 

Thanks for sharing your own bird strike experience, @Pegscraper, (and your R1 off) and for your thoughts on helmet / shield replacement. You're right about Shoei being unwilling to sign off. I did get a nice response email from Helmet House, Shoei's partner vendor who inspects helmets for Shoei. But, like the inspection program document on Shoei's website, that response contained a rather equivocal and noncommittal answer.

You're also right about the cost coming into it. I paid $600 (on sale) for the helmet and now that model--as you may well know--is nearly impossible to find since they've come out with the Neotec 3. That all said, if I was truly concerned I'd "retire" the helmet (to the garbage bin). But there are absolutely no signs of problems with the helmet at all...nothing visible and all mechanisms work perfectly. The strike was confined completely to the face shield as evidenced by the oval patch where the bird removed the anodization. So, like you, I'm planning to just fit a new visor, which I just received in the mail from Cycle Gear. The shield was $119 but that's a far cry from $600 plus or, worse yet, a trip to the hospital for me and/ the repair shop for the bike. So I'm counting myself quite lucky. And I definitely won't be riding around with my face shield--much less my chin bar--flipped up! That bird would have beaned me right in the eye and eye socket. Ouch! And I'll probably email Shoei to give them kudos for designing and selling such an amazing face shield!

 

Sandi most insurers cover riding gear - might want to check with your insurance company.

 

Picked this up from the dealer yesterday. It's a new Moto Guzzi V85TT. Ever since I sold the BMW R1200RT I haven't had a bike that's comfortable enough for long distance touring. With Sandi T's encouragement I thought about a Harley bagger which would have fit the bill, but for the price of a ten year old Harley I got a new Moto Guzzi. They call it a "Retro-style" adventure touring bike with its 850cc air-cooled V-twin, but with all the modern electronics and rider aids that bikes come with these days.

To make room in the garage I sold the trusty DRZ400S to a soldier stationed in El Paso, Texas, but still have the Speed Triple for when I need that sportbike fix!
v85tt by Marco Wikstrom, on Flickr

 

I must admit, I do rather like that style of Guzzi.
Will be good to see how you get on with it.

 

Bike looks awesome.

 

Now I do like that, looks - wise. VERY nice!!!

Does remind me of this chap though:

 

I think it looks better than the insectoid/transformer-toy look that we're seeing these days.

 

Good reminder, Marco. I'll have to double check but I think my coverage is $500 for riding gear. However, I also think my deductible is $500.

 

Congrats, Marco! Steve and I are looking forward to a New Mexico ride with you on your new bike in a few weeks!

 

Absolutely - it looks great!

 

After getting tenents settled into my rental house I put another couple hundred miles on the new V85TT today. So far so good!

Last night I made a slight adjustment to the handlebar; the dealer pivoted it too far back for my liking, so I tilted it forward about an inch or so. Much better.

Rode some twisties on what we call "South 14" which is the road between Tijeras and Mountainair, NM consisting of some tight corners and plenty of sweepers. I haven't ridden it on a really tight mountain road yet. Will report back once I ride the Sandia Crest road. Bike handles great for a bike of this type and size - very solid feeling and planted. Certainly not my Speed Triple, but a heck of a lot better than other adventure bikes that I've ridden. Suspension is firm, but compliant; just right for this bike and its intended use. It's a dream on smooth roads but still feels planted on the rough corners. I haven't done anything with the suspension settings except turn the rear shock out by one click thereby softening the preload. Didn't do anything with the fork, or the rebound dampening. Tires are Michelin Anakee Adventures at recommended pressure.

The bike seems impervious to wind. No funny business with side winds or gusts, but I'm used to riding in high winds.

Brakes are very good - good modulation and good feel. They're not the top shelf Brembos, but one or two notches below. They're still Brembo monoblock four-piston calipers and seem to be a good match for this bike with plenty of stopping power. This bike has lean-angle sensitive ABS and traction control, but I have not yet tested that.

Now with a little over 300 miles it's still in the break-in period, meaning that I have to avoid engine speed in excess of about 4500 RPM. Even with that limitation the bike has plenty of power and torque. Easy to pass cars and plenty of power to effortlessly push me and the bike up hills and accelerate out of corners. No flat spots in the throttle detected, but so far I've only ridden it in "Road" mode. The bike has four modes, Road, Sport, Rain, and Off-Road. I believe traction control and rear ABS are turned off (or can be turned off) in Off-Road mode. The engine character reminds me of an old BMW R100 airhead, except with more power and torque. I recently tested a few newer model Harley baggers with the Milwaukee-8 114 cubic inch engines, and by the seat of my pants I think this 853cc Guzzi has a little more power. Certainly smoother, although it does shake like a Harley at idle.

The bike is comfortable. The seat is pretty good for a stock seat, and so far I don't see any reason to go with an aftermarket seat. Almost every other bike I've owned I installed an aftermarket seat, usually a Corbin. This one probably won't need it. Foot pegs are low, reach to the bar is good - after I adjusted it I have a slight forward lean which I prefer over bolt-upright. My back felt better after today's ride than yesterday's with the handlebar too far back. Standing is easy and comfortable, the bars just high enough.

After reading countless reviews on these bikes I thought wind protection would have to be addressed. In the past I've always had a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with small to medium size windscreens because of helmet buffeting. According to most of the reviews I read it can be an issue. Well, other than a little noise the wind protection is pretty good. No buffeting. I think Moto Guzzi spent some time addressing the issue with their earlier bikes and came up with a good solution. The windscreen has a different shape than the pre-2024 models, some plastic air dams were installed on the tank where air was coming up from below (area of the gas tank with the cutouts for the fork), and a set of plastic wings are present on both sides in front of the fork attached below the headlight housing. They did a good job considering that it's still a fairly small windscreen and not a big touring fairing. The V85TT Travel model has a bigger windscreen and acrylic wings up front, but my basic V85TT does not and it's okay.

Mirrors do a very good job of showing what's behind me. Mirrors on most bikes I've owned gave me a great view of my shoulders, but not this one. And other than at idle they don't vibrate much.

The electronics are pretty good. I've read that Aprilia now makes the electronics and handlebar switch gear for these bikes. The TFT display is nice and big, easy to read with more information than I would ever need. Cruise control is excellent.

So far I can't find any faults in this bike, but time will tell. At this moment I think I made a good choice. A few months back I test rode a new BMW R1300GS and while it was nice I felt isolated from the road. Same with a Harley Pan American that I rode a few years ago. The V85 has better feedback.

I filled it up for the first time today (the dealer gave it to me with a full tank), and after filling it the bike told me that I had 298 miles of range. I'm sure that will go down once it's broken in and I start flogging it a little more. It has a 6 gallon (US) tank. Staying below break-in RPM for now.

 

@Marco Wikstrom

Thanks for the great comprehensive review, Marco! Glad you're enjoying your new bike. Hope it works well for you for touring.