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My worst-coffee-ever story happened just recently . . . Faced with an eight hour non-stop drive (an act of desperation and duty), I fueled at a remote location in the rural Ohio countryside and took on tarmac-grade provisions: an "American Hoagie " (that "looked like" ham&cheese) and a large (LARGE) coffee poured over a chemical-creamer-like-substance squished out of tiny plastic dispensers. Having to choose between two coffee pots, one half-empty and the other half-full, I chose to pour from the Half Full pot. Out of pure optimism. Headed into the city traffic, the "coffee-like-substance" proved to be an exercise in POR (Press On Regardless ), an old rallye cry. I was committed for the duration of this forced-march event. Once I thought I was hungry enough to take the risk, the "Hoagie-like-tarmac-food" package was deployed. As a sensory organism, my neurologic input attempted to process the texture (no detectable flavor) of the thick bread-like-substance surrounding a baloney!-like-substance pasted with a cheese-like-substance. None of this should be confused with "food", only a function of the act of desperation to carry on. Caught in a traffic slow-down on our US Interstate system provided an opportunity to pour out the remainder of the coffee-like-substance. Amazing how that spatters, held out the window from a moving vehicle, even at a "draggy" 50 mph . . . Coffee matters. Yet, sometimes the mission-at-hand overrides the privilege of selectivity.

I had scoured the interwebs to try and find some photos of the finish of currently manufactured Mistral exhaust mufflers with no luck. Mistral recently updated their website but the images are still poor. I was interested in how well finished they were, what the laser etched logo looked like and how the satin finish looked close up. The guys at MG Cycle were great to deal with so I purchased a set recently. They were very well packed. Each was wrapped in a layer of clear plastic sheet, then wrapped in bubble wrap and then wrapped in heavy corrugated cardboard...... there was plenty of protection. I was pleased with the finish and so I thought it might be of interest to others to see what they look like close up, if anyone is considering them for their V11. The laser logo has replaced the old red logo and it is a lot more subtle. I also purchased the hangers for them because they are the high mount ovals. I can't say these are well done.... welding is poor and they look like they were wrapped up before the paint had time to dry. I will have to redo them myself.

In my continuing journey to improve my machining skills I decided to make replacement Titanium bolts and washers that mount the rear bevel box torque arm bracket to the bevel box. One bolt and two washers done one bolt to go. I've also got enough Ti stock to make a replacement bevel box torque arm bolt as well. Phil

Well. Consider this an admonishment. Half-full gas station pots? Danger will robinson. Remember what they told you in High School chemistry; whiff, don't sniff. Secondly, perhaps I'm a snob, but I would *never* consider an 8 hour trip without either sourcing known good coffee or making my own travel mix before leaving. Nothing 8 hours away can be *that* desperate.

Noisy pipe doesn't make it faster. Less said about the 'Tune' the better. Snake oil salesmen gotta sell snake oil....

After a few cheaper machines, eventually ended up with a lever unit, which was obscenely expensive and stupidly simple in construction. Its just a boiler, or pressure vessel if you prefer the technical jargon, with tubing to the group head, the group head has a large lever and a take off to the steam wand. You raise the lever to charge the group head with water then a slow steady downward pull forces the water through the basket (and coffee) and into the cup. The boiler runs between 1-1.5 bar and it can only really make one cup at a time and using it takes a bit of practice. The most important point, in my experience, is getting the grinder settings right. I also weigh the beans, for a weaker cup use 12 grams and 15 for a stronger one. When steaming the boiler pressure will drop to around 0.5 bar but for even a larger cup it will happily steam sufficient milk straight out the fridge (4C or so) to 60-65C very quickly and when finished be back up to full pressure in 15-30 seconds. From what I've seen water temp has to be around 85C or thereabouts and extraction pressure of 9bar, although it varies from roast to roast. The reason it can be a bit hit and miss, is you only know the boiler pressure and not the group head, although the machine can be modified to install one. I like a strong cup and dilute it with milk something between a machiato and a cappuchino, makes a cup as good or better than many commercial cafes around here Coffee I currently enjoy is Ueshima, a Japanese brand, my wife likes the lighter roasts from Africa both of which we get from our local supermarket. I spent around 2 years frequently travelling to Italy, both in north and south and can't remember ever having a bad cup of coffee, even though many of them were made on small home sized machines. In every other country I went to, including the UK it was usually the opposite.

As far as sound goes, A V11 with titaniums is the finest sounding motorbike in the world. Case closed. I had a serious case of seller's remorse listening to Rosie leaving the driveway.

You kind of stand out in the snow with a black helmet, don't you?

Well, I enjoyed mine without the smoky aftertaste this morning..... Cheers

Yes, well, I had to get myself from a graveside memorial service to a Mother's Day thing. So, yes: pertinent, at the very least. I could have done it without the bad coffee and awful baloney. Probably should have "fasted" . . .

I am no expert, but as I understand it the original V11 sport (the 1999 - 2001 years that docc alludes to) came with 40mm forks that the upper tubes are silver. That is what the wife's V11 sport has. Those forks have very limited dampening stock but can be modified easily to add better dampening. The next gen of V11 has 40mm forks with black upper tubes. The third gen of V11 has 43mm forks. Then there are the various V11 versions with Ohlins forks, but they aren't a factor in this. The ones the Andreani cartridges work for are the second gen 40mm forks with black upper tubes. In answer to the question @Meinolf asked, yes. The Andreani cartridges should fit a 2001 V11 with 40mm forks with black upper tubes. And that should be the part number for those forks. 105/G08E. That is probably the only set they sell that fits a V11, and that is the only version of forks on a V11 you can get an Andreani cartridge set for. As luck would have it.

I have no use for coffee, but my wife is pretty deep into it. At one point she worked in a coffee shop because she wanted the experience. She avoids the big brands, and prefers local specialty shops. I believe she also uses a French Press most of the time to make her coffee. It is funny how strong peoples opinions can be on the subject of coffee. It is worse then the subject of oil. No doubt where you had a given cup of coffee and the overall experience of it would surely influence your judgement of how good said cup of coffee was. For me the same can be true of alcohol.

Good coffee is difficult to find nowadays, like a lot of other things, such as real honey or real chocolate. Fortunately, when it comes to personal taste, everybody has his own appreciation. Without wanting to offend anybody here or there, I never thought the USA were interested in consuming the best coffee. Most people and not circumvented to the USA seem to be satisfied with that big chain's beverage that taste awful to me. Nestle introduced Nespresso in the early 90's. One has to understand that even with a Nespresso machine, you don't get the real thing. The capsule system is simply a way to make it easy and quick. I learned about coffee when I got transferred to Italy, in 1981. Back then, I thought French knew all there was to know about coffee. I discovered that I was wrong. In these days, no matter where you were in Italy, no matter how small the bar, the village, how remote, you would get good coffee. Simply because in Italy, coffee, or the Italian espresso, is a religion. If you owned a bar, and did not have good coffee, your bar would be empty. Good coffee is expensive, and coffee machines are extremely expensives! getting a tasty espresso or black coffee at home may not come cheap if you purchase the necessary equipment. If you walked into a bar in the 80's, you would invariably find a La Cimbali espresso machine. In those days, there were nothing automatic, and making coffee, required a little bit of practice and understanding. But in any case required good coffee. Wherever I go, I purchase the second-best solution to acceptable coffee: the Bialetti stove top brewer. You could literally go to every house in Italy, and be certain they have one. Even using the Bialetti the proper way requires knowledge.... and good coffee. Personally, I always go (for my BialettI) with Illy coffee. It comes in tins, ground as it should be, under vacuum and outrageously expensive! If you really want to get into making fantastic coffee, I recommend you purchase a La Cimbali M21 Junior. It is not cheap, but you will become an artist. With it, you will need a equally expensive grinder, and again, good coffee! by the way, La Cimbali has competition, and you could find a similar espresso machine to the M21 for less with other brands. If you are not interested in learning how to make coffee or cappuccino, then La Cimbali has automated espresso machines too. If you want another alternative, you may also want to check out Turkish Coffee. The equipment is a lot cheaper, and you need to find good Turkish coffee too. Time for me to make myself a coffee! and don't even try to Folgers me!!!!!

I bought a Seal Doctor at RevZilla. After commute to work this morning, my left fork does not appear to be weeping, so fingers crossed. I did bite on the Ali seals. I may or may not use them, but for $5 bucks for two seals and covers, with free shipping from mainland China, worth further evaluation. I share Phil's skepticism. Will be interested in hearing how well LaGrasta's set works out.

I decided to fine tune the fuel mapping on the Daytona engine. The bike ran very nicely but at town speeds the initial crack of the throttle needed some refinement. It didn't jerk around or anything like that but I could here from the exhaust it wasn't perfectly clean although as I said it didn't present any rideability issues. I'm being super fussy here but I also now have access to original .bin files for the Daytona and Centy engines and my original map was quite a bit different so I decided to make up 5 new maps and load them and evaluate by the old seat of the pants methodology. Once I got to the second of my new maps I stopped there because the bike was running as close to perfect as you could ever want. Anyway here are the Delta main and offset maps to show the differences between my original maps and the new map I came up with and decided to stick with.

What an entertaining thread! With the Aussies on this forum, things could really go off the rails when it comes to good espresso talk. Oz, and dare i say the US(?), have really done some beautiful work with espresso in recent years, surpassing the old country originators of our favorite motor-oil like morning beverage. Some of the barista threads I watch can get real entertaining, going well beyond even a motor oil thread on a moto forum, and often have Aussies deep in the mix. In a twisted way i relish the travel coffee, the brutal brown water served at most hotels and travel stops, as a way to embrace what Forest Gump said, “the sweet just ain’t as sweet without the sour”. That said, had an excellent couple of espresso shots this morning at Steam Dot espresso in Anchorage AK….great roasts, great grinders (key), the Slayer espresso machine, and a good barista. Making me look forward to tomorrow morning! pressureangles quote: “nothing 8hrs away can be that desperate”…. Amen!

The original can actually works well but it is very heavy. With the 8V motor pipe length is very important, a short pipe, like a wide open one, will gut the bottom end and midrange. It's a result of the head design and camming.

Well not actually *New* new but new to me. For years I've been wanting a Mana GT. This is the model with the full touring fairing as opposed to my 'Plain Jane' NA model. Well a couple of weeks ago one with a blown motor came up in Sydney for $950 so I bought it on a punt. Went and collected it last Wednesday and sadly, it's a shitter. Not worth me swapping the motor out of my NA into but only useful for spares. Not really a worry though as it came with a set of brand spanking new Sport Corsa tyres on it. They must of been put on the day the motor blew they're that new! That's half what I paid for the bike right there! Anyway I decided it was time to stop shilly-shallying around and found this on Gumtree Super clean, 40,000km and owned by an ex-customer of mine. Problem is it's in Perth so I have to get it shipped. My Givi luggage off my NA will bolt straight on and I'll be set for my touring steed for the rest of my days! It also means I can sell my Red Griso which was going to be set up as a tourer but the Mana makes far more sense.

Black 40mm Marzocchi forks without a separate axle nut ( the axle threads into the l/h fork leg) then yes they will fit. They will not fit the early silver 40mm forks because the fork bracket is different internally and the later black 43mm forks because the fork cap thread pitch and Diameter is different. Phil

yes, all correct.

@LaGrasta, IIRC your 2003 V11 is a 2002 "carryover?" In such case, it has all the specifications of a 2002 including the forks. The later V11 forks are 43mm and the early 40mm Marzocchi (1999-2001) differ from the '02 40mm.

Yes, skeptic here as well. After some research, you'll be disappointed to find many of the items we purchase, originate from China. In the case of the seals, there are some that are not, but many are the exact same ones as these. At any rate, mine have been good thus far. I did however keep the original dust seals. I like the spring it had on it.

That's a real pity, I'll bet it was beautifully made. Perhaps me getting older, but I just find machines nowadays not nearly so well made

Sad anecdote; my backyard neighbor moved in from Colorado, had a cafe. She brought with her an old brass hand lever espresso machine from Italy, said it didn't work anymore so she gave it to her neighbor. He made a hydrogen separator or some such out of it. Pity.

My understanding is the 105/G08E fits my 2002 LeMans. I am not clear about fork sizes. Is someone here able to post a chart with year and model vs fork size?

Best cup of coffee I ever had, never since come close, was a couple years ago in Rome; just a cafe with a partial view of the Coloseum. Perhaps it was the history, the scene, the fact that my son misread our midnight transfer as noon and we weren't supposed to be there at all. Cappucino served by a beautiful waitress in a beautiful place. I remember wondering how it could taste so much better than anything else. I still don't quite understand. I have 3 Bialetti of different sizes. I typically use Bustelo, having been introduced to Cuban coffee in the '90s- but since giving up sugar it's much less frequent, and Bustelo is pretty brutal otherwise. I'll pick up some Illy today, coffee was on my grocery list. If only I had a steamer...

Thinking more about @thumper's stumble, it seems GuzziDiag is a great way to watch sensor values as the bike warms up. It would be telling if one of the sensor outputs suddenly goes open at operating temperature . . .

My Griso makes a wonderful racket when I ‘Give it the berries’! Thing is it’s wonderful for me. The intake honk and exhaust note are just fine, and I ride with earplugs in every single ride because I’m half deaf from a youth of working on noisy motorbikes because everybody knew that noise=power! Really, pipe noise is simply a way of pissing other people off. They don’t want to hear your f*cking noisy motorbike! Now there are some machines that sound sublime, even if un-muffled. A V11 or Honda VTR with a full set of Staintunes are a couple of examples, but even then their use should be considered. Gunning it away from the lights in a built up area is, simply, antisocial. Any of the CARC bikes with a 2 into 1 system sound like shit anyway, the 8V’s particularly, if they are unmuffled, to the general public. Why piss people off? Especially as it will do absolutely nothing in terms of increasing performance??!!

Hi, excellent discussion on the topic. Can anyone confirm if 105/G08E is the correct Andreani article number for the 40mm black Marzocchi forks on a 2001 V11? Thanks Meinolf

I catch your drift Pete, but you gotta admit that stock can is a lot of metallic mumbo jumbo. Something had to be done.

Haha, formerly known as " cow paths!"

Did ride to my Duc dealer, 320 km r/t to try an AGV carbon, last year. No didn't fit. Ended up with a Caberg, very good fit and reasonable and Italian. Yes black. Prefer to be invisible. Cheers Tom.

You will be pleased with the Viair...I've had almost 19 years of faithful service from the one I bought back in Nov 2005 when I got the first Land Rover...the only thing I added to it was a higher quality inflator that attaches to the airhose, will have to take a pic/share the brand. The air compressor is excellent, can easily air up from quite low 4 large tires, it will get hot, but never fails.

Yeah, just forgot. Been in El Paso for the duration, discovered a traditional Mexican style called 'Cafe de Ollo'. Pretty fantastic, but I've only found one shop that makes it. Probably I'd have better luck knocking on some stranger's house where Tia Maria makes it ever morning.

Meanwhile clowns with the attention span of a gnat on gear nod off at the wheel.....!