1st of May with the Ducatisti Östergötland
This is what it looks and sounds like when the Ducatisti Östergötland get started for their traditional 1st of May ride.
Important mail from Italy
Finally – all the lovely credentials from the Moto Guzzi World Club have arrived! Now I only need to decide what to use where.
Great to have a least the card with the 90-years anniversary stated, cos as things are I will most likely not make it down to Mandello to the big party in September… But I hope that some of you will be there and share loads of pictures on your blog or Facebook – maybe even on the fan page of the Swedish Guzzi Club :). And if you still need a place to stay, we have two great B&B recommendations for you.
Happy Easter!
Hope you have some great riding days, or days hanging out with likeminds at least should the weather be shite or your bike not season-ready yet.
Swedish spring clearout
A proper Swedish spring clearout can sometimes even contain old motorcycles.
This little one is currently standing in the yard at my workplace in Linköping. A “Rödqvarna” manufactured at Husqvarna motorcycles between 1951 and 1953, if I am not mistaken.
“Rödqvarna” means as much as “red qvarna” (qvarna from Hus-qvarna), and the name results from the typical red colour of that type of the bike.
At that time it was one of the small affordable bikes people had as a means of transport for going to work, one can imagine the gents pottering off with it, a work day at the factory ahead, a bit like you sometimes can see in old movies.
This specific bike was sitting in a restaurant on the wall, as part of their decoration, and that since the 70’s, if I understood the owner right. So now it was time for redecorating and the bike was up for sale. It will hopefully go to a good home with someone restaurating it, and not slaughtering it for parts.
As you can see it definitely needs a good amount of TLC, but it is not in such a bad shape. So maybe some day it will start like this one, probably even better.
Sounds quite nice, doesn’t it?
As you can imagine, I was tempted to buy it as a restauration object, I even made the loved one go with me for taking another look. But it is quite a job to do, and I know I won’t have the time (and money) for it in the near future. Especially not considering that my current bikes need enough TLC in order to keep them running well during the season. So I left this project for another lucky person. But it is cute…
Hugo is ready to roll!
Please meet Hugo!
You may now congratulate him on his Swedish citizenship! Means he passed his first Swedish MOT last week on Thursday. He enjoyed being test ridden by two gentlemen of the Swedish MOT station we went to. And these two clearly did as well, it seemed.
Hugo’s motorcycle life until now was in the UK, until I threw in a bid on ebay, originally only looking for parts for Elisa…. And then one day last year in March there was the message “You have won item XXX!” OK! Let’s arrange for transport then 🙂 Which I did, and thanks to Mark Jennings services all went really smooth.
The next step then was looking for a headlight suitable for European traffic, and a tachometer counting kilometers, not miles. I found both at Teo Lamers in the Netherlands.
And then it still took some time to get all this fixed, by which time Swedish winter had arrived. On the way of checking and repairing, like i.e. installing a new gel battery, I also managed to fuck up the rectifier by pure stupidity…. But luckily even that can be found on the interweb, with Carsten Tiedemann in Germany in this case. He rides an old MZ-lady. Veeery pretty as far as I could judge by the picture he sent over.
Things left to do for Hugo are now changing to new tyres, Avon Roadracer ones are already ordered with Däckstallet here in Sweden. These I already have on Elisa and the road holding is great in all weathers. I think the rear tyre on Hugo is still the original Metzler one from 1983….
Ah yes, and then today, after having taken the pictures above, the center stand decided to break… So I either get it fixed or I try to hunt down a new one. Tips on where there is one to find are greatly appreciated :)!
Well, I hope that will be all before we can really enjoy the season to the full!
Update 5th of April: A nice surprise! After having sorted out the insurance and registered him today with the authorities as an active motorcycle, I found out that I do not have to pay any road tax for Hugo! He is 30 years old this year, and mc’s from that age don’t pay road tax in Sweden! How effing great is that?! I mean, he only has just above 22.000 km on the clock…
Elisa Travels 