Pressureangle

Though at first it seems so, my '85 LeMans went through tires at the same pace- and I put so many more miles on the 'Guzzis than I did on anything else I ever owned, changing tires happens much more frequently so maybe it only *seems* like they wear out faster. I don't remember ever owning another motorcycle that I put a third set of tires on before owning a Goose.

In prep for my 'long tour' I started with the Bridgestone T31's. They lasted 5k miles, the last half of which was from Yellowstone NP through Montana, Idaho, the Cascade range and down the coast to San Jose where I got them changed. I say 5k miles, but I didn't actually get them off until pretty near 7k- and it was scary how worn they were. The point is that they never gave any indication while riding them hard in the canyons that they lost any grip. I replaced them with Pirelli Angel GTs before hitting the Southern California canyons and back to Florida. The meaningful distinctions; The Bridgestones lasted longer, were extremely stable at high speeds (not to say the Pirelli's are not, but less) and though they were both 160/60 rears the Bridgestone was significantly taller. The Pirelli's are more agile and confident in hard tight turns. My next fitup will be a Bridgestone T31 160/60 rear and Pirelli Angel GT Front though I may try a different front just for comparison.

There's no obvious defect in the photos. Consider the possibility that the threads in the upper portion have a crack or porosity. I'd have to find the root for peace of mind, but even if that's the case (no pun intended) I'd just use a high quality thread sealer like Gasoila, and let it ride. There is no pressure to speak of down there, and as mentioned above oil level can be a contributor. While the bottom is off, check your dipstick against the Roper Plate to see if you actually have oil standing on the joint at rest. On my '97 Sport, the high mark on the dipstick is actually just at the top of the plate, so I run at about halfway between the low and high marks.

Let's have a photo of the gasket surface. If you have a good straightedge, or a good flat piece of glass, or even a surface plate to check flatness that would be good too. Your photo isn't clear enough after posting to see details, but I see what could be a crack. If it's flat and the gasket surface doesn't have any defects, you have to verify the crack- you'll need a magnaflux or dam it up enough to make a puddle and leave it sit with acetone in it to see if it creeps through. Not an easy task.

Thanks guys, It's been more rewarding than I expected to be able to keep these plates available and keep the cost down. As for the leaky bolt, if it's one of the plate bolts it can only be as Lucky Phil says, I think all of the wide joint bolts are blind holes or outside the oil box. I wouldn't think warpage is a problem, but I just had the sump off my '89 Mille GT and the gasket surface was hammered by somebody who must not have known there were the 4 hidden bolts inside the perimeter. It took some time with a large mill file to get it flat enough to make me feel good about it sealing. Then I forgot to tighten those 4 inner bolts, and discovered so by finding one of them laying under the bike after the test ride.

Let me throw some kindling around the conversation. 1. These are motorcycles. In no universe can either electric or ICE be construed as "Good for the environment". It's an argument of degree and scale, not + or -. 2. ICE and electric are not mutually exclusive. They both exist to serve your leisure. So does your pool, and your pool table, and lawn mower. There is no philosophical difference. 3. The debate about the origins of the electricity do not encompass any place in the positive end of 'good for the environment'. Only the degree of the negative end. That said, I would not trade any one of my ICE bikes for any electric, regardless of the economic stupidity of that statement. But given the right circumstances, I'd absolutely add one to the stable.

It seems unlikely, but has anyone ever seen a broken spring or trash holding the pressure regulator open? I've seen it in automotive before, if rarely. As long as we've opened the 'unlikely scenario' can of worms, has anyone ever seen a sheared oil pump key, where the sprocket remained in place but loose from the pump?

I test rode the HD Livewire. Had the factory not screwed the pooch, I'd have one in the garage already. Even in the state of tune appropriate for 5'2" second-year Susie to ride, it was quite obviously a restrained beast. This "Age of Ultron" behind the scenes has some serious tire-smoking displays of brutality by the Livewire, unfortunately cut from the movie. The Studio asked HD to take the governors off for their stunt people. It shows.

Ain't dead, but ain't happy. Unless that plug has 3 8k mile oil changes on it.

There is no profit in any shortcut. You can verify the issue to 99% with your eyes and fingers. Check the filter. If you change it, fill it before installation. See that the regulator is in place. Pull the spark plugs and pressure switch, roll the motor to prove oil flow. You'll know very quickly. I'd have a new switch in hand and just replace it anyway while I'm there. I did note that as I replaced my own switch a hundred miles ago, that my original had a round post and the replacement had a spade, so I had to fix a new terminal to the sensor wire.

I looked for shims and they weren't easy to find, although I admit that I didn't do a 'seach and destroy' mission for them. Gotlinks?

If I could just have my 2005 Joe Rocket silver mesh jacket back.

My standard black suit is two-piece. The gray one I had last year is one-piece. I much prefer the two piece. I use the two-piece as one piece most of the time, it's a pain to zip and unzip, nearly impossible while wearing it.

I actually did some research on this recently. If I understand correctly, as long as the bike is 25+ years old it qualifies as collectible, and exempt from USA homologation. The Department of State has all the information on their website.

A couple years ago, I started from S. Florida on a 10k tour around the Country. After much consideration and forum study, I rode in temps from 99*F to 46*F with only my 2-piece Roadcrafter, long sleeved and legged Underarmor, and Thorlo boot socks. Boots are Gasolina perforated leather. I had one pair of jeans, 2 t-shirts, and a thin patagonia hoody. The key is the Underarmor; it transports the sweat from where it's still to where it's breezy, so you don't need to be totally 'in the wind' to cool adequately. The worst was day 1, 670 miles from S. Fla through Georgia to meet the South'n spine raid in early September. 95*+ and 90% humidity. I hadn't learned all the cooling secrets of the Roadcrafter yet, but still made it ok.

Mine has two faces, to me; 50mph + or -. Below 50, increasingly as the speed diminishes, it rewards weighted pegs and a light touch on the bars. The handling is typically Italian, very neutral with little inclination to either fall into or stand up out of a turn. For these conditions, such as the South'n Spine Raids, I keep 30psi front and 35psi rear. I drive the front pretty hard into the turns, but truly it does like to be on the throttle better. Even in my roadracing days, I've always been a bit timid in very low speed corners compared to others. Above 50, everybody knows they're the steadiest thing on two wheels. I like the suspension a bit looser for faster work, and I tend to stay centered on the bike- because going fast enough to require hanging off is really a fool's game on public highways. For 'casual play riding' I do shift my weight a bit for psychological comfort and out of habit. I don't think my '97 Sport is a short frame, but I'm not certain. FWIW if anyone has a weave in the wind or at high speed, check yourself to see if you are actually 'pulling' on the bars to counteract the wind. If you are, lean into it and get some weight back on the bars, see if that weave doesn't go away.

I'm 99% in accord with this, *but* there is that 1%. I've attached a photo of a Camshaft for illustration. On a big block Guzzi, all four cam lobes are on the same side of the cam. A compressed valve spring returns all of the energy input on the opening ramp back into the rotation of the camshaft on the closing ramp, minus heat losses through friction; on the ramps where a valve is closing at the same time another begins to open, the opening ramp 'catches' the closing rotational forces and *probably* cancels them. On the other side of the cam, though, there are two closing ramps with no opposing opening ramps to prevent them rotating the camshaft into whatever slack there may be in the chain, or perhaps overcoming the weak stock tensioner. Worse, they close at the same time doubling the effect. I believe that's the source of the spark scatter at idle, and I won't assert but remain open to the possibility that the ~3k rpm dip may be some function of chain slack and resonant property stack in the components.

Fort Stockton. Oh, the memories. The bathrooms in the Shell station are so bad I just use the dumpster out back. The receptionist at the LaQuinta was the sweetest girl you could imagine. She had two nice shiners. I keep my hand on my pistol.

The gears will actually give you a bigger wet spot.

The signpost is a rusty Star Picket.

...and I entirely missed the part about the ignition sensing cam position, you cannot bring the ignition timing back where it belongs in any case. Ignition retards with the cam and the chain stretch. So now I am 100% pro-gear on injected motors.

I sort of wish I hadn't seen that. I know you're a huge fan of gears, and so am I. Now even moreso. How did that bit get past the screen into the pump?

I built a '85 LM1000 a few years ago, using a Web 86b cam and conical beehive valve springs with about 110# seat pressure and ~280# (?) over the nose of the cam. I used a Valtec tensioner in that, and it clocks over at 1000 rpm just fine, in fact the timing shows no fluctuation and I have to say I have no inclination to change it to gears. Just yesterday I started and timed my '89 Mille GT after having replaced the stock manual tensioner with a Valtec, again although with all stock valve gear and cam the timing is extremely steady. By appearances, the good tensioner does everything you need to cure the idle glitches. That said; This Mille GT appears to have been a fairly well-loved and well-kept bike most of it's life, if not perfectly maintained. The cam chain had about 3/8" slack on the manual adjuster, and contributed to crap idle and valve noise to the point I looked for a broken piston skirt. Now it ticks at 700rpm if I want it to. Here's the rub-the distributor bolts were stiff enough to make me think it's not been moved since the factory timed it, and after installing the tensioner I moved the timing somewhere between 5º and 10º to bring it up. That's a huge amount, and assuming it was ever where it belonged means these chains stretch a lot more than I would expect. Even if you bring the ignition timing back, the cam timing remains retarded to whatever extent the chain is stretched. On an engine with a 'big' cam (any of these Guzzi 'sporting' models) the idle quality and low-speed drivability hangs precariously on that timing to the extent that 4º is a very significant change. So you see there are two primary issues to consider, spark scatter and spark/cam timing. With a tonewheel and sensor, scatter apparently becomes a much larger problem, possibly due to simple ECU confusion. D'oh. I do love a succinct answer, which this is not.

I've installed one in my Sport-i of course, even though it's acknowledged that 5-speeds don't have the low gear acceleration enough to create a problem. I never saw my oil lamp flicker; but hey, it's a known issue with this engine configuration, and they're cheap insurance. What if one lives on a steep grade? Besides, all the cool kids have them.

If it costs nothing, it hurts nothing. It was dealership gravy in the RV industry, and I got rather disenchanted with the unethical propaganda they used to sell it. They charged something like $25/tire 15 years ago. If it's free and convenient, I'd use it myself. There is no downside.