wildly bracing temperatures , and a wee frolic in the snow up past Lake Mountain . It was a pretty good exploration of the Mandello ’ s integrity . I rode it on roads strewn with leaf-litter , bark , snow , ice , and a whole heap of those awful “ Surprise , dickhead !” potholes which are everywhere these days . I also rode it on sweet , fast sweepers and even managed some mindless highway time for the transport stages . As always , I ’ d made an idiot ’ s attempt to keep Cam Donald in sight for more than a corner-anda-half , almost died , then went about my business as normal . This taught me the Mandello can be ridden several orders of magnitude faster than I could ride it . And that is valuable information . I don ’ t always have to do things to know they can be done . This is how aspiration is nurtured .
STILL GOT ‘ CHARACTER ’ But it ’ s not without some peccadillos . Firstly , the heated grips seem better suited to the warmer climes of southern Italy than the it ’ s-a-bullshitthree-degrees-and-I ’ m riding-in-snow crap Victoria served up . Even dialled up to three ( the max ) they seemed half-hearted . BMW has five heated-grip settings . On number five you can boil water and watch your hands burn . Then there ’ s the whole accessing the stuff thing . Moto Guzzi , like Aprilia , is owned by Piaggio . And , probably because “ Shut-up , it ’ s Italy !”, access to , and navigation through , the menus and submenus where the heated grips and electronic screen controls are , is more stressful than it needs to be . I ’ m sure owners can get used it . I ’ m not sure why they have to .
KIWI RIDER 67