July '21 Va Guzzi Riders Lunch Report
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Ron
Jul 19, 2021, 11:10:11 AM7/19/21
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Guzzisti,
The radar showed the line of thunderstorms moving across the Midwest heading our way. But, the local weatherguess Saturday morning had the storms hitting here about 4:30 PM. OK, so we ride! I'd finally gotten around to taking my Tourmaster
"Sonora" ventilated jacket to the alterations shop & having my Guzzi patches sewn on...and of course the Grateful Dead "Shakedown Street" patch on the front. The Jacket is hi-vis day-glo yellow, so the red, green, & gold patches really "jump" It's odd but I feel safer wearing it than the black Tourmaster "Transitions" jacket. To the last 5 lunches I'd ridden the Eldo twice, the V11 twice, and last month the V7, so the V7 was "up" for Saturday's ride.
I read a post on Wildguzzi from an other V-7III owner asking about re-mapping the bike to smooth out throttle response, so I was conscious of it during the riding Saturday. He is correct, it takes a careful throttle-hand to be smooth. I have the hook-up cables, and a small ASUS tablet computer w/Guzzi-diag loaded, but I haven't had the courage/confidence to mess w/the mapping of a decent running bike. I'll watch & learn a while.
It was a beautiful morning, the bike wanted to GO, so I zipped along, arriving at A Taste of Italy a little early. Inside, on a chalkboard they had a "help wanted" sign. It had a list of desired attributes, like "Must be dependable", "Customer friendly" etc. etc., 5 or 6 items. But they'd all been crossed out, and "Must have a heart-beat" written at the bottom. They had two waitresses , and two guys in the back preparing food working a Saturday lunch. I heard a bike outside that turned out to be Lannis Selz on his classic Norton. We were catching up when Allyn & Suzie Chappell came in, they had decided to cage & enjoy the AC. The waitress kept checking on us, I told her I expected a few more. A few minutes later Mike & Laura Jones came in. I got up & looked out the window to see they had the Ambassodor/sidecar rig parked in the line. So, we had a quite eclectic mix of bikes outside. We quickly moved a second table so we could "social distance". The menu was quite reduced from what I remembered, Mike was very disappointed that they no longer had his favorite eggplant parmigiana sub. Laura was in the mood for shrimp & ordered an "appetizer" plate of fried shrimp/french fries & a side salad. When delivered her eyes opened wide, the appetizer must have been intended to share! Service was a little slow, by the time we ordered there were 4 other tables w/ small groups. The guys in the back were hustling. As usual, conversation around the table ranged like free-surfing the internet. From Allyn wishing he'd brought the Mille/sidecar, (would have been cool to have two sidecar rigs side by side outside), to a lot of interest in gardening!
When the food was served we all dug in & I didn't hears any complaints, Allyn & I both got sausage & pepper calzones w/mushrooms added....and had to get boxes to take some of it home. We were finishing up when there was a loud rumbling of thunder...UH-OH! Lannis went out to bring his helmet in off the bike, we could see the sky darkening. We got about paying our checks & getting ready to head home w/out our usual leisurely after lunch tire kicking session. I asked the waitress about their situation when I was paying, she said they were short-handed & had been forced to reduce the menu to keep operating through the pandemic....and now new-case numbers are on the rise again.
I pulled out a minute or 2 behind Lannis, & never saw a trace of him, he must have twisted that "Snortin' Norten's" tail! I headed up 29 for home....got abut a mile and the sky opened up. I ducked down behind the windshield & kept on getting it. The V7 was rock solid, no wiggle or squirm even when riding through flows of dirty water sweeping across the road. The rain let up as I was approaching my turn onto Rt 24 toward Concord. I was soaked from the knees down and both arms, so far so good.... but then it REALLY opened up as I got a couple miles up the road. By the time I got home I had the first trickles down my crotch, sigh! such fun. I undressed on the back porch & hung all the stuff on the clothes lines to drip out. It wasn't even 3:00, so the good-ole weatherguessers missed it by a little!
I'll be scheduling next month on the second Saturday (Aug 14th). As I announced at the table, if the numbers keep rising we may be back to picnicking again, nobody objected.
Ride safe, stay healthy, hope to see ya soon!
Ron
The radar showed the line of thunderstorms moving across the Midwest heading our way. But, the local weatherguess Saturday morning had the storms hitting here about 4:30 PM. OK, so we ride! I'd finally gotten around to taking my Tourmaster
"Sonora" ventilated jacket to the alterations shop & having my Guzzi patches sewn on...and of course the Grateful Dead "Shakedown Street" patch on the front. The Jacket is hi-vis day-glo yellow, so the red, green, & gold patches really "jump" It's odd but I feel safer wearing it than the black Tourmaster "Transitions" jacket. To the last 5 lunches I'd ridden the Eldo twice, the V11 twice, and last month the V7, so the V7 was "up" for Saturday's ride.
I read a post on Wildguzzi from an other V-7III owner asking about re-mapping the bike to smooth out throttle response, so I was conscious of it during the riding Saturday. He is correct, it takes a careful throttle-hand to be smooth. I have the hook-up cables, and a small ASUS tablet computer w/Guzzi-diag loaded, but I haven't had the courage/confidence to mess w/the mapping of a decent running bike. I'll watch & learn a while.
It was a beautiful morning, the bike wanted to GO, so I zipped along, arriving at A Taste of Italy a little early. Inside, on a chalkboard they had a "help wanted" sign. It had a list of desired attributes, like "Must be dependable", "Customer friendly" etc. etc., 5 or 6 items. But they'd all been crossed out, and "Must have a heart-beat" written at the bottom. They had two waitresses , and two guys in the back preparing food working a Saturday lunch. I heard a bike outside that turned out to be Lannis Selz on his classic Norton. We were catching up when Allyn & Suzie Chappell came in, they had decided to cage & enjoy the AC. The waitress kept checking on us, I told her I expected a few more. A few minutes later Mike & Laura Jones came in. I got up & looked out the window to see they had the Ambassodor/sidecar rig parked in the line. So, we had a quite eclectic mix of bikes outside. We quickly moved a second table so we could "social distance". The menu was quite reduced from what I remembered, Mike was very disappointed that they no longer had his favorite eggplant parmigiana sub. Laura was in the mood for shrimp & ordered an "appetizer" plate of fried shrimp/french fries & a side salad. When delivered her eyes opened wide, the appetizer must have been intended to share! Service was a little slow, by the time we ordered there were 4 other tables w/ small groups. The guys in the back were hustling. As usual, conversation around the table ranged like free-surfing the internet. From Allyn wishing he'd brought the Mille/sidecar, (would have been cool to have two sidecar rigs side by side outside), to a lot of interest in gardening!
When the food was served we all dug in & I didn't hears any complaints, Allyn & I both got sausage & pepper calzones w/mushrooms added....and had to get boxes to take some of it home. We were finishing up when there was a loud rumbling of thunder...UH-OH! Lannis went out to bring his helmet in off the bike, we could see the sky darkening. We got about paying our checks & getting ready to head home w/out our usual leisurely after lunch tire kicking session. I asked the waitress about their situation when I was paying, she said they were short-handed & had been forced to reduce the menu to keep operating through the pandemic....and now new-case numbers are on the rise again.
I pulled out a minute or 2 behind Lannis, & never saw a trace of him, he must have twisted that "Snortin' Norten's" tail! I headed up 29 for home....got abut a mile and the sky opened up. I ducked down behind the windshield & kept on getting it. The V7 was rock solid, no wiggle or squirm even when riding through flows of dirty water sweeping across the road. The rain let up as I was approaching my turn onto Rt 24 toward Concord. I was soaked from the knees down and both arms, so far so good.... but then it REALLY opened up as I got a couple miles up the road. By the time I got home I had the first trickles down my crotch, sigh! such fun. I undressed on the back porch & hung all the stuff on the clothes lines to drip out. It wasn't even 3:00, so the good-ole weatherguessers missed it by a little!
I'll be scheduling next month on the second Saturday (Aug 14th). As I announced at the table, if the numbers keep rising we may be back to picnicking again, nobody objected.
Ride safe, stay healthy, hope to see ya soon!
Ron
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