pOkE the pLaNeT

I ride a Moto Guzzi. Let me ammend that last statement... I ride a Moto Guzzi when it works.

So far Ive done a couple of hundred miles on the thing and it simply refused to start this weekend. I thought it was the battery but, no, thats fine, so its either a relay or a switch or a starter motor. Heres the thing: look online and you find this fault is so common it has its own threads. Rats. When I was in Vegas I asked Pat Clark Motorcycles how many Guzzis they sold each year and I was surprised to find its was something like half a dozen, if that. Vegas is a Harley city with two of the biggest dealerships Ive ever seen and it surprised me that a region with such fantastic roads sold so few touring Guzzis. Mind you I was also told bikers with full leathers dehydrate terribly in the heat, and its no different here. Whats different here are the prices... Guzzis are comparable with U.S prices but Harleys cost a fortune.

Whats really annoying however is my cheap Indonesian Yamaha 225 which cost far less than the Guzzi keeps putting along like the energiser bunny without a single complaint. Hmm. Interestingly enough in a company with more than a few bikers I find not one rides a Harley, the closest being one guy with a Buell. It seems pilots ride BMW's, Yamahas, Suzukis and Ducatis, but not Harleys.

Bailouts. Watching whats going on in the U.S its interesting to see how Australia has handled this crisis. The government first threw out a thousand dollars spending money to every registered taxpayer (including Im told, the dead, foreign passport holders and quite possibly one or two family pets named Stanley). Now we have another burst of cash coming in the form of something like $900.00, but far from spending the money people are saving it or paying down debt. Big surprise huh? Those who are spending it are spending it on imported goods, like italian starter motors.

K