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Howdy from the Moto Grappa at the top of Virginia. This is about my first Guzzi, my HDM ’98 EV, which was, oddly, been BOM here some years ago! Sadly, however, It has been hors de combat with unspecified “don’t run right” issues for almost a year. The right cylinder ran when it felt like and it didn’t feel like it much. The left ran, but was hardly perfect. This, despite a recent VA, TB balance, R&R of spark plugs, fresh fuel, and fiddling with plug cables to the coil. As it’s a favorite of Kathi’s for two-up riding, we haven’t done much of that while the EV’s been on the lift and after I sold my Norge last summer. As SSR alums know, Kathi’s a talented pillion who enjoys spirited riding — too bad I’m so old and unskilled — and I enjoy her company on rides. So, I finally Tom Sawyered two great Guzzi wrenches into coming down and setting things right this past week. The Capo Meccanico was Scott Mastrocinque, who lives, farms, and wrenches Guzzis in Lima Ohio. His able assistant was Bob Wegman, a longtime Guzzista, who drove down from Rochester, N.Y. Bob was an early Guzzi dealer under the Berliners, so, as the saying goes, this wasn't his first Italian rodeo. I had (most) everything ready for the two surgeons, as my job was primarily to have tools and beer ready when the skilled labor grunted meaningfully. Ahead of the adventure, Scott had me have new injectors, along with new plugs, and air and fuel filters waiting. The injectors were pricier at $360 than I had expected, but after 107K miles, fuel erosion of the OEM innards — that’s a tech term; RTFM! — had done its erosive thing, so new ones were needed. Aside from learning lots by watching and listening, I had a great time, and think the pros did, too. Some pix are in the link, below, but for those who are impatient for the bottom line, the EV now runs GREAT. In fact, as some of the last pix in that slideshow convey, Kathi and I took advantage of the 60ºF temps on Saturday after our guests left, to do a 200-mile loop that included the top third of Skyline Drive. Then, although I detest the slab, I dislike riding in the dark more, so we jumped on I-81 to race sunset. Two-up, we ran at 80 mph — GPS, not Veglia — for about 45 miles. The EV was rock solid and had more to give when I occasionally put spurs to it to get around a tractor-trailer convoy. The cause of the problem that led to the fix? Well, even tho we R&R’d injectors, air and fuel filters, and plugs, Scott speculated correctly that there was “old hose” debris in a fuel line south of the filter and north of the injectors. Bob also found that the right-side plug cable needed "more wire, less cable." When we cleaned out that fuel line and exposed more wire ... VAROOM! So, here are the culled pix (but, yes, still lots) in a slideshow with captions. In my defense, I started with about 150 and cut out more than 100! As with my other slideshows, the link opens in “landscape collage” format, so you can see all at a glance without slogging through one by one unless you want to do that. Hover your curser over any pic to see the caption. [And, again, as with my other slideshows, for maddening reasons I do not completely understand, the captions “disappear” if one enlarges the pix and goes through them. On “pure” slideshow, i.e., automatic switching to next slide, the captions continue to appear, but the pace is quick. Keeping the cursor in the “caption area” seems to help if going through manually. As I said, maddening. If anyone knows the code to make it more seamless, please tell me.] The pix? Go here: https://bill-and-kathi.smugmug.com/Scott-Bob-Revive-the-EV-Nov-23/n-ngSPNK/ Bill

When you own a Guzzi you need a good workshop. You'll be spending a lot of time there. Phil

Only slightly jealous about that workshop.

Hmmmmm...Thats a fairly dubious looking trio....I'd keep an eye on them Kathy...

NO ONE thinks of the fact : after the fuel filter . I was working on a Jeep Wagoneer , 360 V8 w/a factory Motorcraft 4BBL carb. It was constantly flooding from rust getting under the needle/seat. I replaced the fuel filter so often I could do it "goin' down the road". After about 3 mos. of this nonsense , I found the metal fuel line from the filter to carb was rusted inside causing ALL the trouble. Some things are never forgotten !

The Mike Rich pistons are designed to be the same weight as the original pistons, despite a higher dome. Since they are the same weight, they are drop in with no rebalancing required.

Bill, Tks for taking the time to post & share the fine details,on the little garage gremlins,that need solving & fixing sometimes to get our rides running in top form. As gstallons says,some things are never forgotten. With 3 in diapers,no garage,skills,tools or cash; I had an 80's Subaru GL station wagon,that threw a few mechanical hissy fits my way. During the coldest winter ever known to mankind;there was so much rust from the gas tank & lines,the only way to keep it running,was every 5-6 weeks,slide underneath the right passenger side floorboards,flat on my back,with rust,dirt,salty snow dripping down on me,as I attempted to swap in a new fuel filter BEFORE my hands froze But I digress,,,sorry for the thread drift Back to the op's EV; Tonti's of that vintage & style are finally being recognized for what good solid do it all bikes they are. The first time I saw the Hot Dog Mustard color combo, I almost gagged,,,, but it's grown on me over the years,,, it's now one of my favorite paint schemes.

I painted my dash screws black, and a few other items. They don't get taken out often enough to worry about the paint peeling...so by all means take them out and paint them. On the Ohlins reservoir, those screws holding the bracket must be gold in color....it's in the manual as a requirement or the bike just won't run properly!

Super, Bill! Thanks for sharing the experience! As usual, I always have a few select, favorite images . . .

I've seen flow rate comparisons between Chinese injectors of the same type and design to check consistency. It wasn't impressive. I'd spend the money getting originals cleaned if possible or if using Chinese injectors I'd buy twice as many as you need and get them flow tested and best matched. There's a reason they are dirt cheap. Phil

Congrats are getting your girl back, both of them, lol! I know people are skeptical, but at $360 dollars, my AliExpress injectors are still performing fantastic, thousands of miles later.

For future needs, check RaceTi for titanium, and RaceBoltUK in England for aluminum, stainless and Ti fasteners. Great people to deal with.

The last of the Tonti frame motor bikes.

I don't know how many miles the OP's engine has on it, but the valves and valve guides seem to be made of some sort of hard cheese, maybe Parmesan. If you are replacing the pistons I would also makes sure the valves and valve guides are good. It would be a good time to have the port work cleaned up as well. You don't need the ports hogged out or anything, but cleaned up and matched well would be nice. The heads have to come off to do the pistons, so you might as well have the heads done.

Right off topic, but I had to grin at that. The reason is advice that someone gave about these measurement mics: https://www.thomann.de/de/behringer_ecm_8000.htm The advice was "you can use them. The best thing to do is buy ten, test them all to find the best one, and flog the rest off on e-bay". To put the price into perspective: I have one of these, a very solid and affordable mic that has been on the market for a long time, i.e. the developement costs have been recovered several times over https://www.thomann.de/de/beyerdynamic_mm_1_2023.htm and here one from the class of mic I can't afford... https://www.thomann.de/de/earthworks_audio_m50.htm Heading back towards "on topic", Phil hit the nail on the head: there is a reason the Behringer is so cheap. The design is, as with a lot of Behringer products, quite ok. The production tolerances are lousy.

Personally I buy my Ti fasteners from Chinese manufacturers off ebay. The manufacturers you mentioned have massive markups on their stuff. Previous to that I bought from Toronto Cycles whose prices were far more realistic than the specialist names. Phil

If I need a motorcycle and there is an electric one that fits the bill, I would certainly consider it. If my experience with electric cars is anything to go by it could be serious fun. There is a basic attraction to motorcycles with internal combustion engines. But electric motors do have their advantages. They tend to be fast and very responsive without all the noise.

1/4 mile is still the standard. The two top fuel classes have switched to 1,000 feet, but all the other 1/4 mile classes still run a 1/4 mile. There are a number of 1/8 mile tracks out there, but around me it is still 1/4 mile is the standard. 0.035 is a nice reaction time. Good job @fotoguzzi

That is pretty interesting ... and annoying.

Getting the throttle bodies cleaned up did wonders for my '98 bike. At 72k miles it runs better now than when I bought 15 years ago with 20k miles on it. OTOH, riding it wears me out anymore and I'd like to sell it. I purchased it have a two up bike, and now my wife doesn't ride anymore. It was the gateway bike that got me into Italian motorcycles.

Not that I remember..

About two months ago I gave her a service, including solving the wheep from the gearbox exit shaft seal. Discovered the seal was not installed all the way, so instead of replacing it, I tapped it a bit deeper. Then the wheep turned into a leak. So I went in again and disassembled the rear AGAIN, this time to replace the seal. Oh well....

Well, lets' face it. They are all just air pumps. The Mighty Scura had Mike Rich flowed heads, which IHMO was the main thing. He told me they were the best Guzzi heads he'd ever done..still had records.

There is a Brembo part # (110436292) and a MG part # (GU28659378) . . . it shouldn't be too hard. For the sake of clarity and to alleviate confusion for current and future readers looking for references, maybe we could all try to refrain from posting multiple unproven links to replacement parts.

I believe that the Scura owned by myself and subsequently Chuck which has now been passed on to another person had Mike Rich pistons. It is certainly a beast but the pistons were only part of a raft of modifications to it so I really have no idea exactly how much influence they had on its blistering performance. Certainly if I was going to go to the trouble of installing them I'd probably combine it with other work and at 80+,000 kms it could probably do with a top end freshen up as has been suggested. Chances are it will need remapping to get the best out of any mods.

You probably know this already, but for the sake of having said it: Whilst it is apart, it would most likely be prudent to have the heads done (valve seats freshened up etc. ) It would be wise to weigh the new pistons and the old pistons. If there is any significant weight difference, perhaps an engine balance should be considered.

If I had a set of them I would install them when I had the engine apart for anything. It is a fair amount of work to install them, so taking the engine apart to install them for no other reason might not be the cheapest idea. Still a good idea, but better if the engine is having work done already. As I recall, the Mike Rich pistons improve the shape of the combustion chamber (the space between the cylinder head and the piston), improving the squish area, as well as increasing the compression ratio for faster and more complete combustion. I would not expect a massive difference, but on bikes I have done similar mods to I have experienced better throttle response and a small increase in torque. No earth shaking power, they aren't going to turn your V11 into a top fuel dragster, but an improvement none the less.

This is magnificent. So touching and deeply well performed. I keep listening to it over-and-over . . .