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Italians, plugs
and Valkyries
Sunday shed wrap
The exercise yard goes a little haywire and we're planning a Winter run with the Valk
June 19, 2026, by Guy 'Guido' Allen
We may have mentioned
once or twice the concept of which bikes are in the
exercise yard that day. With 25-ish in the fleet, the mission is
to keep them running and that means we put aside
afternoons to get a gaggle out for a gallop.
Not so long ago Muggins attacked the
Italian end of the shed, which included the Ducati
916 at top, the MV Agusta F4 Nero above and Moto
Guzzi Daytona 1000 below. (The Ducati Hailwood
Mille was away that day, getting a new starter
motor.)
It all went fine, except the Guzzi was grumpy by the time we returned home and flamed out at idle in the driveway. No huge cause for concern, but something to get on top of as soon as possible. It's very quick and easy for minor problems to become bigger. My first suspect was the fuel had timed out – which happens easily with a fleet that gets minimal exercise.
The usual approach is to ride them
regularly and top up the fuel as we go, often with
a dose of methylated spirits to minimise water in
the tank. However I reckon we need to go a step
further and use a fuel stabiliser across the
fleet. A product called Sta-Bil is what has been
recommended by a couple of workshop people who
should know. I'll give it a run.
While I suspected the Guzzi might need
the tank drained and the plugs cleaned or
replaced, it was okay with the latter. It seemed
happy enough with the Suzuki-branded plugs (I made
sure it didn't see the wrapping...) and fired and
idled. However the 8-rated units (in NGK-speak)
are probably too cold for my casual use and a set
of 7s will most likely work better.
I was alerted to this too-cold plugs
phenomenon by the legendary shop owner, race team
manager and rider-at-large Mick Hone when I
dropped into his emporium for a set of plugs for a
1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing. Muggins asked for 8s.
"What do you need them for," he asked. "Are you
racing it?" No, that's what the owner manual
suggested. I was firmly assured that 7s were the
correct choice and, of course, he was proved
right. Which is both satisfying and annoying.
So I'm looking forward to leaning on his
parts counter and asking, "Please, Sir, can I have
some more for the Guzzi?"
Meanwhile I've been planning a trip from
Melbourne to Brisbane via the Newell Highway and
return via the New England. It's not exactly
crossing the Andes by bicycle on the hardship
scale and nevertheless requires a bit of planning.
How far? About 3400km (2100 miles).
I'll confess to no longer being 20 or even 30 years of age and, in some places such as Australia, Muggins now qualifies as a senior citizen. They even sent me a public transport voucher. Very kind if a little insulting. Please, a bottle of claret would be better.
Anyway, back to the trip. I was
agonising over which giant tourer to take.
Option 1: the recently-refreshed 1999 BMW K1200LT that is an incredibly capable mount with cruise control, ABS, electric adjustment for the windscreen, heated seats and handgrips, and fuel consumption of around 20km/lt. It starred on the Perth Run a few years ago;
Option 2: the 2001 Honda
Valkryrie Interstate (my second) which has
aftermarket cruise control and fuel consumption of
about 12km/lt.
Guess what I'm taking?
Yep, arguably the worst choice which is the Valkyrie.
Why? In part it's because I've done a lot of miles on
the Bimm and a change of pace would be nice.
Also, the Valkyrie
hasn't been far since I rode it home from NSW as a
then-'new' purchase almost exactly four years ago.
This is my second Valk and I'd like to revisit this
story, written about 25 years ago: Hopping
through Texas.
Given we're talking
long-ish days in the saddle, in mid-Winter, up and
down the Newell and New England highways, I'm
expecting some mornings to be sodding freezing. Blame
it on age or being a sook, I'm not going to tolerate
early mornings without some outside
heating when I know I'm knocking
frost off the bike or its cover.
So here's the thing. The
Valk is sans heat and has distinctive and original
handgrips that I'm not prepared to ditch for
aftermarket items. Plan B is heated gloves.
There was a brief period
when these were doing well in the market with two
major options: 1 hard-wired to the bike with a plug; 2
powered by mini lithium-ion batteries in the glove
itself.
I say brief, as heated
handgrips have became widely adopted as OEM across the
motorcycle industry, while aftermarket kits are cheap
and easy to fit.
This week I managed to
get a battery-powered set of gloves, marketed by
DriRider in Australia for a discounted Au$305. They
are substantial and would qualify as serious Winter
gear without the heating. We'll let you know how they
perform on the road. (Above is the user advice.)
The gist is they're
using mini lithium-ion batteries that are charged via
USB and claim a life of up to eight hours.
Frankly, I'm far more
interested in re-engaging with a Valkyrie Interstate
on a longer ride – it's been years since that
happened. Back in the 1990s, when Valkyries emerged on
the market, they rated as seriously quick cruisers
that would happily wipe the floor with most if not all
the competition – particularly from Milwaukee. However
things have since changed.
Nevertheless this
variant was conceived and assembled in the USA and
sold as a performance cruiser before the term was
invented. Which to me makes it an interesting bit of
gear.
We'll keep you posted...
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