Raw footage.

Filmed during this year's second attempt at touring the Majella park. This is the ascent to the Majelletta pass on the northern edge of the park (full day report here).

Customize your BMW!

I went to a local custom bike show last week, a lot of very fashionable, very now kinda stuff, but there was something worth the price of admission; the highlight was seeing Uncle Fester, under his sobriquet of "Mistic Motors", presenting his BMW specials. Knowing what it takes to make even just one of these, I think it's impressive that he brought along FOUR of them.

He has now developed a fully reversible kit to suit 1980s and later bikes from the R series (though he can adapt parts to suit other years and models) and the result is a very high quality set of parts that fit with precise alignment and finish. Overall, the result is a superbly hand-crafted bike that stands above the rest of the many, many sloppily executed BMWs seen around these days.

If you have a BMW and are thinking of customizing it, I strongly recommend you give him a call:
 https://www.facebook.com/MysticMotorcycles/

He made a couple of compact roadsters and two scramblers, one based on an R100GS with Paralever rear suspension, the other on a rare and very versatile R80ST, definitely my favorite out of the lot.

Notice the vintage Rolex Submariner with yellowed tritium indices. Nice.

Honorable mention to this Ducati, that managed to make me think "hey, nice bike" for just a second.

But of course the real winner was Witold, who has gone completely bonkers and showed up on his Honda Spazio kitted out with LED lighting under the fuselage. This thing is bright. Well done man.

the Campotosto Mystic Trip - what happened?

It was clear from the beginning that what we have stumbled upon with the Campotosto Mystic Trip, in our search for the expansion of consciousness, is not just a deep well of knowldge, but a living force; and while I humbly carry the mantel of its emissary, I do not control it.

To remind me of this, Karma has delivered a swift kick up the ass and thus our yearly trip did not happen this time.

While we're still enjoying excellent weather, everyone (myself included) seems to have already shifted their mindset to one of dread and anticipation of the horrible winter that is inevitably upon us. To quote a famous show, winter is coming.
This state of mind is not conducive to the CMT, and so we are better off planning maintenance and repairs for the coming months. I don't know what, if anything, I'll be able to do or when, but I don't anticipate much happening at all.

There is plenty to be done, I'd like to get the Triumph back on the road, repair the Sportster's gearbox, upgrade the Fastback's Isolastics, etc. I just don't know if I'll be able to go anywhere near the Monolith at all. It could be many, many months before I can.

So, I think this is where I'll sign off; don't expect any news before next spring.

And to those who will say that I've been on PLENTY of outings this year and that I should just shut up and be content with my lot, here's a handy list for them to consider as they make their way to buggering off:

Pathfinder 2: 2 days
Almost Majella: 3 days
Old Irons: 2 days
The wet one: 2 days
Majella 2½: 3 days

That all comes to a grand total of 12 days. Now, stay with me as this is where we rehash that most useful of basic math skills: proportions!
A year is 365 days, give or take. So, if 365 days is 100%, 12 days are...? That's easy, look:
365:100=12:x
x= 12⋅100÷365 which give us just shy of 3.3% of the time. That's how much of my time I've spent riding, and this was a very good year.

“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.”
― Lao Tzu

Majella tour 2½. - focus: Fastback

I have no words to adequately describe how cool this motorcycle looks, or how astonishingly it performs.

Look at those lines!! Can you feel the speed? And to answer your question yes, the bike tastes like high-octane raspberry jam, tart, with a hint of  20w50. Yum.

Majella tour 2½. - focus: Sportster

No nonsense this time, but with so many photos left on the cutting room floor, I wanted to showcase just the bikes, one at a time.