Greetings from Taunton

[Ba1100]

Hi folks, I'm Barry aka Baz aka Ba (since I came to the west country) and I live in Taunton.

I've never been off the road, but have been reduced to little 2-strokes during the breeding years! As the kids grew so did my bikes again, and I recently retired from a life in science and education, and consequently now getting back into biking in a big way.

I bought a 1996 California 1100i about 18 months ago from a nice guy in Torquay, and I've been lurking on this forum and pestering club members on Faceache ever since, so I've finally come clean and coughed up the £25!

With the Guzzi new and unproven last year I mainly stuck to my faithful 2009 BMW R1200R for touring in 2016, which indeed took me to Ireland, Wales, the Borders and then the Mosel fuss-free as usual. But I did get many local rides in on the Guzzi too. It took me ages to track down an intermittent misfire (getting worse when warm) to a duff crank sensor, but since then no problems. It has a Lanfranconi full stainless system, which sounds gorgeous, and the seller told me it had had the crank balanced and lightened and it had been chipped. The airbox is full of holes! I've had a split seat re-covered by a wizard in Tiverton. The paint looks a bit tired and has rust bubbles in places but I'm reluctant to lose the original patina.

The more I ride it the more I like it. I had a lazy comfy T3 back in the 70s which I kept for years (until the gearbox return spring broke AGAIN grrr) but this is even better. So for this year's main run - across France, into Germany and across Switzerland to Lake Como - I of course would like to use the Guzzi. I shall be picking member's brains on how to prepare the bike for such a trip. I've just bought the oil, filter and gasket for an oil change, and I can manage plugs and tappets I think, but do I need to balance the injectors? How do I check how far gone the clutch is? What exactly should I put into the shaft drive? Will worn-out chrome on the fork stanchions matter if they're not leaking? Etc!

For my sins I'm also an IAM member (my local group: Somerset Advanced Motorcyclists) and passed my Advanced test last year, highly recommended. My local everyday mixed club is the Quantock and Exmoor riders (see FB), and I'm also a member of Ulysses GB, an international bike club for old fogies, and it is they who are organising the Italy trip, amongst others.

One of my oldest friends - Steve Gilbert - has been an MGC member for years. Looking forward to legitimately getting to know you the rest of you...

Ba