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We had a southern jet stream driven heat wave role into the Bluegrass country, temps got up to 77 by afternoon. Took the opportunity to pick up my bike and air out any carbon buildup. About halfway home noticed the rear brake was sticking, heated up the rear disc. So we pulled over and pried open the pads with a pocket knife, looks like a rear master cylinder rebuild kit and brake pads are the next items on the parts list. It was a nice ride on curvy roads, bike ran brilliantly besides the brake hiccup.

Totally differently focused bikes I’ve had 3 big Triumph triples in recent years, including the previous generation 1050 Speed Triple. Loved it, no issues with reliability or build quality with any; the 1050 triple motor was a peach, smooth & torquey with the characteristic triple howl helped by an Arrow titanium system. Great hooligan bike, felt I wanted to ride it everywhere at 100+ mph, just couldn’t gently bimble around on it. Sold it because I was spending more time on the Griso and V11 Sport just riding less aggressively, and in its place I bought a MT01. Whilst I love the look of the new Speed 1200 RR I don’t think I’d now be able to get on with the ergos

Best to your son and your family. Stay in touch more often too. We miss your wit and knowledge. And if you're cooped up in isolation and want to vent, this is the place. (I can't say that abut WG)

Easy to agree. I have a difficult time with relevance. Anyone remember US TransAm road racing? Drivers like Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, and AJ Foyt flogging "regular" iron on the weekend that I would be driving (something similarly recognizable) to school on Monday. Yeah, those black marks leaving the school parking lot were mine . . .

So far as Desmo service as mentioned above, the adjustment interval is 15k miles on the V2 and 18k miles for the 11 Degree engine. If you're a DIY guy, there is a service that leases a Desmo maintenance kit, you can keep the kit for a few weeks, use that tools, purchase the consumables and get video instructions. I'll also share that the Duc branded parts, like timing belts and spark plugs are exorbitant but generic and discount parts are available- so shop around and you may find that a Duc isn't much more difficult than any 4 cyl sportbike to maintain with the same labor hours. I was told the biggest trick is making sure not drop the valve into the engine when making the adjustment. And each valve has two shim, closing & opening. So a Duc twin was the same number of adjustments as 4 cyl conventional bike In my case, Don's shop did the 18k service. Besides being a Guzzi dealer, he used to be the head wrench at the Duc shop here. Next time, I'll work with him for the service and get some hands-on training, just another 14k miles to go. The labor bill was something like $600, which was all the 18k mile maintenance list, including desmo, servicing the forks and additionally replacing the drive chain.

Thanks! Since I got the 911, I used the Swiss Garage in West Alabama Street. Last year, I noticed an oil drip, brought the car to them, they kept it several days and told me they could not identify the origin of the problem. This was disappointing. I took it for what it was. MPH Cycle suggested Rennsport in Sealy. The garage is owned by the widow of an all time 911 enthusiast. I went there as a nobody, they put my 911 on the elevator and diagnosed the issue in what... 5 minutes?! We convened on a day, brought the car early morning and they fix the easy part of the problem on the spot while I had a long conversation with the widow, who told me the owners life story and hers since. Anyway, thanks for the tip, I will check Einar's and M.A.C.

Get the rear wheel off the ground and apply the brake & release . If the rear wheel does not release and it is stuck , loosen the caliper bleed screw and see what happens . Do this a couple of times to see what happens . If it does not release , the problem IS the caliper & go to step 1 If the caliper releases go to step 2 . #1 . Pull the caliper off the wheel and push each piston out (w/the master cyl. pressure) to see which piston is sticking . If you feel capable remove all pistons and inspect . while you are doing all brake work , use Brake-Kleen only . No petroleum products. When you go back together , go to an old style auto parts store for some brake assy. fluid and reassemble. #2 Rebuild brake master cyl. Be deliberate in all steps and tests .

Maybe you should try just cleaning the pistons on the rear caliper first.

Oh I'm not too fussed, I'm triple vaxxed and even with the bad lungs and dickie heart I'm not at deaths door quite yet. Im more concerned about the possibility of passing it on to Michael due to his disability. My mate Mark had it and he only has one kidney and several other shitty body issues and it really knocked the stuffing out of him. I'm not going to be taking any risks, believe me! I even put my cage fighting championship bout on hold!

I'm in for a red one, if you please. In the meantime, I can start looking for a headlight brow and curbfinders.....

Spoke with Davey of MPH Cycle yesterday. I asked him if he would maintain a Panigale V2 if I was to jump the gun for it, and he politely declined. He said that valve adjustment on a Ducati Desmo is really no picnic, and should be left to those mechanics that do it on a regular basis. I remember back in 2011, I was at a Motorcycle exhibition and Ducati had an cut out engine exposed, which I took photographs of. It really looks like a beautiful piece of machinery, and the Desmodromic system is part of it. So, no Ducati V2 then....

I realize this is a bit of thread drift, but there are 2 Porsche garages of extremely high quality a lot closer to you, both of which have stellar reputations in the Lone Star Porsche community. I don't know if you've tried their services in the past...but for convenience, would be a lot easier! Einar's garage (10 miles) and Modern Air Cooled (5 miles)...

I think it's the common std 1x1 weave. I'll let you know in a few days time. Ciao

Great pics! If you want to understand what is involved, check out L T Snyder’s books on DIY Desmo maintenance. I think he runs the Desmotimes site. Before you give up on the idea perhaps talk to AMS in Dallas. I have heard good things about them. Too bad you’re not looking for an adventure bike: the V4 Multistrada makes 170hp and is a valve spring motor, not a Desmo, and has something like 35,000 miles between valve checks. That’s a lot of trips to the bakery!

Looking forward to everyone’s reports back. Especially Scud’s (btw 4 rellies all pure-bloods Pete, triple vaxxed - bit like drinking Feral’s Hop Hog.. 3 pints are better just to make sure!) 🍺😆

Today I talked story about my V11. You see, I rent my TWee200 on RidersShare and had a renter today. He asked about all the cool bikes in the garage (which are not for rent). He's in from Ontario, Canada for a workshop on dental implants. He's a dentist. So of course I tell him the Scura's frame was invented by a dentist. "You should read up about it and get yourself a spine-framed Moto Guzzi." I say. We need more dentists to get into Moto Guzzis. Good things could happen. Maybe an electric Gambalunga. FYI, Gambalunga means "long legged" in Italian. Gambe lunghe e facile da convivere.

Here, where we endeavor to blend torque values with LocTite applications with "I love you, man!"

Very nice, all of the good wishes for each other's health. Thank you for not drifting this Technical Topic too far afield. Joe Caruso dropped my gears at a Royal Post Office in central England a week ago. The tracking could have them in my hands tomorrow. If that window is missed, it will be next week. Amazing, really. With no pressing need, my Sport will not likely shed its timing chest before the Eighteenth South'n Spine Raid come September.

Good luck with the Covid Pete. Ciao

Being the prayerful type, I will send some prayers for your #2 son.

I'm kinda diggen the spokes over factory casts on this one. And from my vantage point it looks pretty nice and again for the money a lot of machine and they look 10 times better in the flesh IMHO. ( As it has been said before.......... their not making any more ) Proper photos as well. Ciao

Good luck with that, Pete..

When I was running steel gears in my old roundfin engine I blocked the drain holes to the sump in the bottom of the chest and drilled a couple in the back wall of the chest so the pump gear ran in a bath and fed oil up the train. Was it needed? I have no idea but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Not being as familiar as many here I didn't know that the V11 and early Hi-Cam motors used revised drainage from the timing chest. Earlier Tonti squarefin engines still used the drains at the bottom of the chest though. With the Nuovo 8V's I also can't remember what the drainage set up is but I have a block on the bench so I can check when I next go in to the old workshop. That may be a few days off though as we went down to Melbourne to visit #2 son on Monday and spent Tuesday evening with him. This morning he was feeling shithouse so he tested himself and sure enough he's stuffed full of Covid! Now we were outside for most of the time we were with him but we'll isolate for a few days to avoid the risk of infecting anyone else if we are carrying so block inspection may take a a bit longer than it normally would....

Lucky Phil I agree that the heat cycles would make this a bad idea. To be honest I didn't think it was even possible thus why I originally thought it was some sort of carbon fiber tape wrapped over the OEM valve covers. While this bike is def on the higher end on price, its rare and has a lot of farkles added, very nice example of a V11.

Someone has spent some money on that bike. The carbon rocker covers are silly idea as the carbon resin isn't heat tolerant enough for the purpose. Note on the high res image of the l/h cylinder head over the exhaust port the carbon cover is starting to take on a Copper colour, that's the resin becoming heat affected. I had carbon heat shields on my race Ducati's headers and currently have carbon muffler end caps on my Titanium Akra system on the 1198. They eventually go brittle and fail. On race bike exhausts it's weight over practicality but road bike rocker covers, no. Add to that the difficulty in keeping aluminium ones sealed and it's a classic style over function scenario. Ciao

Having absolutely no idea when the original factory gears were swapped for chain, I'd suggest that the oil level was raised to add lubrication to the chain that the gears didn't need. Consider, in 3 gears there are only 2 points of contact. In a chain, there are... a LOT. Both within the chain and upon the sprockets.

Well reading Joes email and what Peter mentioned it seemed to be the other way around. I'm not familiar with the round engines crankcases docc. BTW the "sludge" issue is another overblow thing as well. Just because areas of the engine hide a bit of oil that eventually ends up black is of no immediate concern. If you can wipe away the oil with your finger and see the crankcase metal this isn't sludge. Sludge is stuff you need to scrape off with mechanical means. It may eventually get there one day if you're slack with your oil changes but black stained oil isn't sludge. I've seen a bit of this sludge silliness on youtube lately by supposed experts. Ciao

I get it that the gears might be "overkill." Yet, they are not that much more money than addressing my aged cam timing chain/tensioner with an elegant and enthusiast derived solution. I tend to support these efforts whole-heartedly. The query Joe brings up appears to be about changes to the draining of the timing chest between the earlier round fin/barrel motors and the later square fin/ cylinder motors. I know nothing about this. If I read his correspondence correctly, the earlier BigBlocks drained the oil from the timing chest at a lower level and the later (square fin) motors trapped more oil in the chest? He looks to be inquiring if this greater "sumping" in the timing chest manifests in more "sludge" trapped there. I recall a report of sludge in the bottom of a V11 timing chest.

Ok docc. I think for steel gears and this is an overkill personally and probably even alloy gears. Daytona alloy gears shit as they are dont exactly wear out at the drop of a hat. The other thing to bear in mind is oil levels that high promote a lot of "churning" of the oil and frothing and heating AND drag. It's one of those things from a backyard mechanics perspective seems a good idea but in engineering terms probably doesn't hold up. The oil pump drive gear will distribute more than enough oil to the other gears for lubrication. You can have too much oil around the gears. Think about your gearbox gears. They dont have the gearbox half full of oil do they because it's counter productive and not needed. Pratt and Whitney experimented with a "geared fan" on their jet engines years ago, so it had a reduction gear assy to drive the fan on the front of the engine. They had big issues with overheating oil and gear failure as the gears were half submerged in oil. All this churning did was overheat the oil. The cure? get ride of the gears swimming in oil and provide a limited amount of oil directed to the gear faces where it's needed. It's a bit like oil pressure requirements. You only need sufficient pressure and any more is not only a waste of power but also has other compromises you don't need. Ciao

^^^^^ Those look to be very high-maintenance items. Bill

Doesn't this represent child abuse of some sort? I mean an EV first bike, are you trying to turn him off motorcycling or something? What next, a Fender Stratocaster with rubber strings to protect your hearing. What's the world coming to. Ciao

MySport's been parked for over a month leaking fork oil into a catch pan while my "other bike" is on the lift. Pretty sure the fussy Italian girl just had to pitch her hissy-fit. I have the seals in the pile, just need the lift. But the little Honda is waiting on a NOS cam. From Israel. Gonna be a minute . . . So, I decide there is nothing to be lost by using the SealMate® that @Mikkosent me a couple years ago. Without any real hopes, the left fork went 118 miles today and stayed dry! Shocked! So, I cleaned the right and feel like we're back on the road. Thanks @Mikko ! !

Heh, well, my parts catalog says "plug block." I'm sure that sounds better in Italian...