Traveling across the USA on a motorcycle is exploring at it's finest form. I chose to ride on an old, classic, comfortable bike with lots of horsepower and easy on the wallet.
Contrary to popular belief, Christopher Columbus was born Italian, but set out to discover America under Spanish Flags and monetary backing. He did, in fact, discover the island in the southern Caribbean we now call Dominican Republic as well as other islands.
The mainland of America, was named by Martin Waldseemüller, in honor of the Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer, Amerigo Vespucci. Amerigo aided in the mapping of South America on several voyages.
How appropriate to have an Italian motorcycle as my navigator and travel companion.
About the bike:
The 1970 Moto Guzzi 750 Ambassador is a touring bike with a "V" shaped two cylinder engine, 60 horse power at 6500 RPMs, which allows easy entry onto the busiest highways and climbing steep mountain passes. The "V" configuration of the cylinders is an efficient layout with the crankshaft running from front to back of the engine, which allows for a driveshaft, rather than a chain. Chains can be a bit louder and more fragile than a driveshaft. This bike weighs in at around 500 pounds and handles really well. These bikes were widely used by several police departments during the late '60s and early '70s, due to their dependability and top speeds in excess of 115MPH. They were the envy of Harley owners, alike!
My bike is currently a clean, dual-seater without saddlebags or fairing. I am shopping for traditional saddlebags with locks and gaskets to keep things inside dry and safe. In a past career, I worked in fiberglass plants, building everything from high-speed boats to car parts out of fiberglass reinforced polyester resin. If I can't find an original pair of bags, I may mold my own as close as possible to the basic shapes. Carbon fiber and Kevlar will be the fabric of choice for the maximum strength and light weight.
A fairing ( the windshield and formed body in front ) is a nice piece of protection, when it comes to 50-80mph speeds and the elements coming at you on the road. Various fairings have clear plexiglass windshields which may or may not extend above your line of sight. Typically, the top of the clear windshield can be lower than your line of sight and will still deflect the wind over your helmet, and anything contained in the wind, such as rain, snow, bugs, the cigarette butt that was just thrown out of the window of that semi tractor-trailer you have been following for the past 10 miles.
"Why are you following a semi?" Not--a good place to be, because of the turbulant wind conditions caused by the extreme size of the truck cab and trailer.
The fairing also will extend out on either side to hide and protect your hands and arms from flying debris. Gravel flying up from the tires of the vehicle you are passing or following is really just rising pretty much straight up and not moving forward or backwards. However, your fingers, which are wrapped around the throttle and opposite handlebar are now traveling at 50-80mph and will really hurt they slam into that floating chunk of gravel.
I posted some earlier ads and pictures of the 1970 Moto Guzzi near the bottom of my blog. Take a look and see what similar chariots look like. I will begin posting pictures and videos of my bike, once I complete cleaning it and repairing the paint and chrome.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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