GT to the TT

ianpm77 said:
And where might you be staying?
B&b, hotel or the proper place, camping?
15 years for me going to the Manxgp classic TT. Camping at Cronkaashen farm, barns to park your bike in over night, dry your kit in there as well. Safe and secure. Kitchen area to cook in, just sleep in small tent. Lots of showers.
Lots of our Dutch friends stay there.
Inside the course as well, so able to traverse the mountain etc.
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Hotel in Douglas, due to an extreme allergy to tents.
 
Just got on the ferrry at Heysham. Left Shropshire this morning at 6am, a few stops for coffee and leg stretches.

Moments of note on the way up:
  • Wearing an open helmet and getting hit in the face by something thrown from a car, possibly an empty sandwich box or similar, stings
  • Some drivers have a remarkable capacity to crash - empty stretch of A road, no turnings or junctions, just straight road, excellent visibility, and I passed a small van that had ploughed into the back of a car
  • Be more cautious on single track over farmland with very high, blind, humps, I certainly got air, not sure if the GT did due to it weighing the same as a small house, but it felt like it. The faces of the driver and passenger just the other side of the hump were a picture
I’ve now got 4 hours to pray to the rain gods to be kind tomorrow…

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I just love those early alloy rear lamps, real nice quality item, no doubt changed due to cost. at an Amicale rally years ago I asked of Massimo about several detail changes to the 750's over time, the biggest one was why the frame change? and what was wrong with the Grimecca brakes? the answer was "cheaper to produce".
CLEM
 
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CLEMTOG said:
I just love those early alloy rear lamps, real nice quality item, no doubt changed due to cost. at an Amicale rally years ago I asked of Massimo about several dertail changes to the 750's over time, the biggest one was why the frame change? and what was wrong with the Grimecca brakes? the answer was "cheaper tp produce".
CLEM
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Interesting, Clem! Out of curiosity, did you ask why the change from the early wide frame (GT etc.) to the narrower one?
 
general_piffle said:
Interesting, Clem! Out of curiosity, did you ask why the change from the early wide frame (GT etc.) to the narrower one?
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No doubt road holding. Those early frames are pretty "loose" feeling.
Those CEV aluminium light surrounds are standard period for a load of Italian machines. Ducati singles spring to mind. The same goes for the round and then square CEV jobs that followed.
Paul
 
Paul Marx said:
No doubt road holding. Those early frames are pretty "loose" feeling.
Those CEV aluminium light surrounds are standard period for a load of Italian machines. Ducati singles spring to mind. The same goes for the round and then square CEV jobs that followed.
Paul
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I don’t mind the ‘looseness’. It changes direction (roundabouts for example) easily and predictably enough. You just have to be direct and deliberate. At least that’s what I’ve found.
 
RGS1000RGS said:
I migrated to sleeping in my van this year. Far more civilised than a tent, but less ambiance than that hotel.
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If ambience is code for decades of underinvestment, you’re 1000% correct!

It at least is dry and has a shower that I don’t have to share. Beyond that I’d happily take sleeping in a van.

To be fair I slept in a tent for the 75th in Breganze, but the occasion overrode the inconvenience.
 
"early wide frame (GT etc.) to the narrower one?"
this was quite a long discussion, Massimo was unusually cool and calm, the main group of Amicale members had left the school where we were camped for an outing somewhere, and there was time as I couldnt go, since I had crashed TOG in Basel and Oro was making repairs for me, there was also a member in trouble with his 750 at the campsite (cylinder head off) I cant remember his name but reliability wasnt his middle one as this type of scene was common at other meetings with him, he had a giant starfish on the tank if that jogs memories, Massimo was very talkative, unusualy, (Andy Wagners girlfiend , the drop dead gorgeous 1200 riding Renata nearby might have helped, you could have generated electricity by harnessing her fluttering eye lashes) we spoke about the wide and slim chassis, the drop dead straight gearbox tubes or curved, and the extra tube fabrication/welding needed at the headstock when more than four tubes were used, it was all coming back to cutting production costs without sacrifice, the brakes thing was because Moto Laverda had bought into a casting foundry (to solve cylinder head supply problems) and M said that wherever we can we should make our own castings, the Laverda brake was the last thing laid out by his father Dr Franscesco Laverda.
CLEM
 
CLEMTOG said:
"early wide frame (GT etc.) to the narrower one?"
this was quite a long discussion, Massimo was unusually cool and calm, the main group of Amicale members had left the school where we were camped for an outing somewhere, and there was time as I couldnt go, since I had crashed TOG in Basel and Oro was making repairs for me, there was also a member in trouble with his 750 at the campsite (cylinder head off) I cant remember his name but reliability wasnt his middle one as this type of scene was common at other meetings with him, he had a giant starfish on the tank if that jogs memories, Massimo was very talkative, unusualy, (Andy Wagners girlfiend , the drop dead gorgeous 1200 riding Renata nearby might have helped, you could have generated electricity by harnessing her fluttering eye lashes) we spoke about the wide and slim chassis, the drop dead straight gearbox tubes or curved, and the extra tube fabrication/welding needed at the headstock when more than four tubes were used, it was all coming back to cutting production costs without sacrifice, the brakes thing was because Moto Laverda had bought into a casting foundry (to solve cylinder head supply problems) and M said that wherever we can we should make our own castings, the Laverda brake was the last thing laid out by his father Dr Franscesco Laverda.
CLEM
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It was Pietro Clem who changed his pistons in the school yard.
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Massimo at castello von Trapp, just before showing us around the contessa's living room where she entered topless and was very surprised by the 40 or so motorcyclists she wasn't expecting.
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Clem giving useful tips to Patrick.
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Chess in Marostica
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Spent this morning at the IOM Motor Museum. A brilliant collection of cars, bikes, and other vehicles. Loads to see.

However, shockingly they only have one Laverda! An orange 500 Monty.

The forecast for tomorrow is promising. We’ll be up at Ginger Hall, Sulby. Arguably a much better viewing point than the Grandstand where we were yesterday.

Fingers crossed for fair weather tomorrow…

A few pics from this morning.

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