On 4/22/2014 11:37 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 22 Apr 2014 10:11:25 -0400, Poquito Loco
wrote:

Moto Guzzi's do not like stop and go

Shoulda bought a Harley ;-)

It does sound like a nice ride before you got jammed up.
Maybe it would have been better to cut over and come up through
southern Md. Once you get across the bridge there are several back
road ways to get up to Oxon Hill and those are great rides. Then you
just pop over the Wilson and you are home.

Southern Md was a great place to ride a bike. You almost needed a
county road map to find all the cool roads although I guess Google has
that covered now.



The big Harleys are a pain in stop and go traffic in hot weather ... at
least the two I had were. The exhaust system design where the
crossover pipe connects causes heat to burn your right inner thigh in
hot, stop and go traffic. Had a few experiences with mine with that.
It's fine if you're moving but extremely uncomfortable in hot weather in
traffic.

I was heading to the boat on the Cape one hot summer day and weekend
traffic had the highway backed up for miles just before you cross over
the Cape Cod Canal. The state troopers take advantage of this to catch
people driving in the breakdown lane and are positioned every half mile
or so to catch you. My leg was on fire after a while and I finally
said "screw it" and started down the breakdown lane ... slowly, but at
least I was moving. Got pulled over but explained the situation.
Fortunately the trooper also rode and understood. Let me go.

On Tue, 22 Apr 2014 12:23:18 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 4/22/2014 11:37 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 22 Apr 2014 10:11:25 -0400, Poquito Loco
wrote:

Moto Guzzi's do not like stop and go

Shoulda bought a Harley ;-)

It does sound like a nice ride before you got jammed up.
Maybe it would have been better to cut over and come up through
southern Md. Once you get across the bridge there are several back
road ways to get up to Oxon Hill and those are great rides. Then you
just pop over the Wilson and you are home.

Southern Md was a great place to ride a bike. You almost needed a
county road map to find all the cool roads although I guess Google has
that covered now.



The big Harleys are a pain in stop and go traffic in hot weather ... at
least the two I had were. The exhaust system design where the
crossover pipe connects causes heat to burn your right inner thigh in
hot, stop and go traffic. Had a few experiences with mine with that.
It's fine if you're moving but extremely uncomfortable in hot weather in
traffic.

I was heading to the boat on the Cape one hot summer day and weekend
traffic had the highway backed up for miles just before you cross over
the Cape Cod Canal. The state troopers take advantage of this to catch
people driving in the breakdown lane and are positioned every half mile
or so to catch you. My leg was on fire after a while and I finally
said "screw it" and started down the breakdown lane ... slowly, but at
least I was moving. Got pulled over but explained the situation.
Fortunately the trooper also rode and understood. Let me go.


On the older Guzzi's, the clutch is one of the first things to go. The constant starting and
stopping soon has the clutch grabbing and not releasing when the clutch lever is engaged. I've done
the same thing you did, but haven't been stopped. Glad to hear they'll listen to reason.

Only thing I didn't like about my amf 1340 was that horrible air box hanging out where I had to wrap my leg around it plus the vibration and eventually blowing oil out the back jug. Otherwise it was great!

On 4/22/2014 3:41 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 22 Apr 2014 12:23:18 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

The big Harleys are a pain in stop and go traffic in hot weather ... at
least the two I had were. The exhaust system design where the
crossover pipe connects causes heat to burn your right inner thigh in
hot, stop and go traffic. Had a few experiences with mine with that.
It's fine if you're moving but extremely uncomfortable in hot weather in
traffic.

The sportster design pipes are not that bad in that regard. That is
what I had on my super glide.


Harley offered a radiation shield in their overpriced accessories shop
that clamped onto the exhaust pipe, holding it an inch or so above it.
Problem is, it was black to match and blend with the leather seat. A
black color is bad for this purpose, having a high emissivity so instead
of reflecting the heat, it absorbed it and eventually the shield became
almost as hot as the exhaust pipe. It helped, but not much.

Harley then came out with a running mode whereby the rear cylinder would
not fire when the bike was stopped, throttle at idle and clutch
disengaged. The rear cylinder would just pump air, helping cool the
engine down a bit. Once you blipped the throttle and started moving
again, it would start firing again.

Fortunately the number of times I was caught in stop and go traffic in
the summer were limited. Didn't happen that often.