Leaderboard

I use a little dishwasher soap, works great, also for f.i. handlebar grips

I cleaned the heck out of them. Skinny wite brush in my drill and copious amounts of brake cleaner. Marked with a paint pen too. Cheers.

Those driveshaft yokes are nefarious for getting the bolts lined back up and torqued right. "I had a bad experience." At the very least, add witness marks (paint lines along the bolt head across the yoke) and monitor after each ride for a bolt backing out.

Sometimes, taking a ride may only be motivated by a lady running a food truck... I really enjoy the subdued, genuine authentic friendliness; I don't know you, but I get repulsed by the overly commercial fake welcoming you get a lot those days.

I did not. I bought the tool to take the core samples, but have not been back in there. I has simply cleaned it all and applied a silicone grease to the pucks. If I knew then what I know now (IIKTWIKN ) I would have use Shin Etsu grease on the rubber.

Well, did you do the swiss cheese thing? Is it still a thing? Mine is disassembled and ready, just need to decide to do it, or not. Was quite pleased with the condition of the coupler parts, no corrosion to speak of, and only had to axe murder one of the button head screws.

I hate to be ex post facto but I hope you ran a tap through those holes before putting it back together ?

So, it's all back together. The drive shaft now 'telescopes' like it should (it was solid!), the needle bearings in the right side of the bevel box actually move (they too were utterly corroded to a single mass), and everything else has had a good clean and grease. The old drive shaft bolts were munted and I think that's because the shaft wasn't moving. Could be my imagination but gear changes seemed smoother. More snick-snick rather than clunk-clunk. Thanks for your help along the way with this. Much appreciated, gents.

Ha, not at all. We love to share and be reminded where all the little hidden bits go!

Erm.... Should this chap be playing a part? It was hiding in plain sight...

PLEASE run straight gasoline (no E-15 or anything like that ! Pricey , yes . Troubles , no. If you do this you may not have to coat the interior of the tank . While you have the tank off , remove everything so the tank can breathe and get all of the vapors out and get back into it's original shape . I assume your bike has an in-tank pump ?

@docc There is a very fundamental difference with motorcycle usage, at least in Texas, from what I can tell. Here, and I am not painting the picture with a blanket statement, motorcycles are used for leisure. To do repeat commutes, people tend to use their four wheeled vehicles. When I was in Europe, I used my motorcycle for every deplacement I had to make; school, work, whatever... rain, shine, winter. Maybe the exception to that rules are biker gangs? because they can only ride on motorcycles. There is another factor; lane splitting. In Europe, motorcycles go through the cars to save time in traffic. It is an unwritten rule, but if you ride in France, you will notice that car drivers make space for motorcycles by driving close on the opposing limits of their lanes; many car drivers add a scooter to try to minimize commute time. With the exceoption of a few, scooters are usually 125cc. @audiomick Many manufacturers are producing motorcycles aimed at a new capacity segment: 400cc. Even here, Triumph brought all its line. We agree that this segment is where Guzzi propose its V7. It makes sense for those with the car driver's licences, that only do the strict necessary to be able to drive a 125cc; or to those newly licenced which have what bike they can drive restricted by the A2 license. For Guzzi, the marketing effort is more complicated, because Piaggio decides what they can do, and they need to balance the Vespa, Piaggio, Aprilia offering. For example, Vespa released a 310cc version of their best selling scooter for 2025. This is to tap the 80 mph to give it an enhanced use for those that have to commute through highways. In France, on January 1st, 2025, cars manufactured in 2005 will have restricted access to certain zones in every major cities. One of the go around is to get a small motorcycle. This is possibly the market they want to tap. In my original post, I thought too that Guzzi is unlikely to come up with an engine that would eat into their V7 line, even if I would like them to come up with a smaller "Quota" type of bike, which unfortunately, is already preempted by the Aprilia Tuareg.