Hello from Italy (MiXeR)

**MiXeR** · 12th August 2005, 01:58

Guess the time has come to finally say Hi

I'm Mike,
I live in Italy on the border with former EastBlockIronCurtain, low gas price, comparible (low) quality, ex Yugoslavian subdivision now called Slovenia.

I have a 1986 R80RT with US specs (brought it over as carryon luggage) and just bought (3 days) a 2002 R1150RT from a guy who bought it as a conversation piece (It has 13K in 3 years)

I still drive both, this morning I came to work with the R80, went home for lunch, played around with the Motronic while the missus was working the pasta, and took the R15 back.

Having two working bikes gives you the liberty of screwing one up, and then going for the parts.

Hello to everyone.

P.S. Check the Reinheitsgebot before drinking that beer

**Waylander** · 12th August 2005, 02:13

Howdy mate. Some good roads over in Italy I hear. Might have to plan a visit sometime in the distant future.

**MiXeR** · 12th August 2005, 02:20

Do so, it's a memorable experience, some roads in Tuscany and ont the Dolomite passes are out of this world.

Plus they know how to asphalt here.

LB · 12th August 2005, 03:59

.
.
Hi MiXeR. Welcome to KiwiBiker!!

In the past I've had an R80 and an R1150R. Both nice bikes, though the 4-valve 1150 engine is vastly different to the R80 engine.

One of my mates spent a couple of weeks in Italy recently, he was based in Bologna and did some touring around on a Ducati, including riding over the highest mountain pass in Europe (I can't remember the name of it sorry). He had some amazing photos of switchback road with snow on the edges! He was also over there for the Mugello MotoGP and went to that. He said the crowd went wild with four Italians in the first four places!

Of course I have an affinity to Italy with my two babies having been born there........

If anyone on this site warns you that I might want to be your friend because I might want you to buy me Ducati stuff, don't listen to them, it'll all be lies lies lies. (How far away from Bologna do you live?)
.
.

**Artifice** · 12th August 2005, 06:43

Hamish, Linda's on the ducati merchandise site again....

**feistyredhead** · 12th August 2005, 06:43

oh i hope it is nice and warm over there and fulled with tanned lovely people...lucky!

and in the mighty waikato today we are meant to get thunder and heavy rain while it is near to bloody freezing

damn roll on summer so i complain about the heat next

**zadok** · 12th August 2005, 09:57

Welcome to K.B MiXer. What, you don't ride some of those tasty Italian numbers? (bikes that is for those.....).

**DemonWolf** · 12th August 2005, 10:12

Welcome MiXeR.. =)

**bugjuice** · 12th August 2005, 10:26

welcome

Looks like we could have KBers in every corner of the globe!
Have to post some pics of your fav roads and do some ride reports for us.. just try to make us jelous

**MiXeR** · 12th August 2005, 19:20

what with the time difference...

Let's see if I remember all the postings...

Excuse me for the long answer.

_____

Thank you all for the welcome.

I live "far" from Bologna 3hr one way (at legal speed) but can always call someone there to ask how much a part is with shipping to NZ and let you know if you REALLY need it, that way at least you can save the Phonecost, and trying to comunicate in Italian with some mechaninc that only speaks Modenese dialect, just as long as it doesn't become a weekly habit (plus I don't pay for the phone calls)

I drive a German "job" because I grew up in Germany and the US (and England and Italy for that matter), and we all know how the first love thing goes... Although my VERY first bike was an Italian Lambretta 175 used by the NYCity police department, the first bike I bought was a BMW R in NewYork, but this is primarily since you can keep getting parts for them after 100 years and in that period I was in the FIY mode (and still am), you can definetely recognize them coming towards you (The Rs). Plus I'm not what you'd call an exaust scraping rider (you'd be amazed how badly some american "cage-drivers" see motorcycles), I've always gotten the impression (and once was proved true) that if you're able to keep your legs together on the bike you'll avoid getting crushed.

Yes the difference between the R80RT (mine is converted to RS), and the R1150RT is unbelievable, 20 years of geman mechanical engineering do make a difference, but I love them both (right now I love the 80 more because I know it better), the sense of security a bike gives you when you know how it handles is incommensurable, right now I'm still not sure how to ride with this ABS business on the new one. The old one would give me warning and then let me decide wether I wanted to slide around turns while contersteering or head straight into the gravel on the side of the road. Plus the 1000Km of off-road on Sardinia this year (we found a B&B that was at the end of an unpaved rut 10Km inland) made me really understand what locked wheels are good for if you know how to fishtail.

Yes the Mugello GP race was unbelievable (except for Valentino, only kid I know who started winning GP races without even having the age for a driver's license.), woe becomes he who tries to get around that area with four wheels on those days.

I'll gladly post some pictures of my road trips if you're interested, but not to cause envy as anyone can come over and rent a bike, but just to see what's around here, but let me know if I start going overboard as I'm also an Amateur photographer. On this year's trip I shot over 600 pictures with my new Nikon, before breaking it.

In any case you can all go to see what we've done so far (I'm one of the 5 founders of MotoFastidio, which literally means GrumblingMotorcyclists or FastidiousMotors) even though I've just noticed it's missing the last two years.
Sorry It's all in Italian but we're FastidiousMotocyclists, not webmasters and the pictures are international anyway.
This is the site: http://www.motofastidio.too.it
go to the tour link to see the pictures, mine are mostly the Island of Elba ones.

Let me know if you want a couple of this year's Sardegna ones.

Hope I've answered everyone.

Ciao,
Mike.

**MiXeR** · 12th August 2005, 19:39

OOps, I left a couple of people out of my reply

The weather here at the moment is rotten to tell you the truth, which is basically good biking weather for a couple of reasons:

1. There's fewer scooters on the road who don't observe basic common sense (here it's a BIG problem in the summertime)
2. There's fewer young ladies waltzing around in bikinis or in topless along the waterfront, not that I have anything against that mind you (quite the contrary) it's just that topless and heavy traffic don't mix well when they're 2 meters from each other.
3. Yes they do tan well here (especially when in topless), but I'm more for the "redneck" and forearm approach with maybe a tanline where the shorts stop, where the birkenstocks stop, where the watch stops and where the gloves do. Course that does not look good on someone in a bikini, so I avoid wearing them.
4. On a brighter note (today it's 22 deg with 60% humidity), yesterday it snowed on the alps above 1800meters, so you're average Italian August ;-)

In answer to the tasty Italian number question:
1. The tasty Italian numbers I prefer are of the female persuasion not bikes.
2. One of the primary reasons for this is that I'm really a MotoGuzzi/HarleyDevidson rider disguised as a BMW one. You can tell primarily because;
1. I never take my bikes to the dealers
2. I have self made modifications that might void a warranty if I still had one.
3. I use a motorcycle year-round in any kind of weather (except for extreme black bora above 160Km/hr in the winter but we'll talk about that another time)
4. I have wires and plugs dangling from within the fairing that only I know the use of.
5. The modifications made have been made for specific purposes (like home-made handwarmers for an Elefantentreffen) then removed.

LB · 13th August 2005, 05:35

.
.
Hi MiXeR. I was joking about the Ducati accessories as I really don't need any more. However we'll be at the Melbourne bike shops in mid-October (have I mentioned that I'm off to the MotoGP at Phillip Island????) so I can stock up there.

We're always happy to see photos of great biking roads.
.
.