Kevin_T

Thanks for the picture. I'm surprise at how sharp the valve cutouts are. I'd imagine setting up squish would be very important. The dome is very flat, flatter then the Oem piston got to help with flame spread. Hemi heads are legendary for being able to fill a cylinder. They're also legendary for not being able to burn everything they take in. My Oem piston is lighter @ 457.2 grams the wrist pin was heavier @ 106.9. If you install those pistons do yourself a favor and put some money in the budget for a balance job.

That's a beautiful bike. Tom has the original poster ever tried to contact you? Certainly better looking then picture he posted.

I spoke with Mike Rich right after covid he told me he wasn't interested in modifying bikes any more. His passion or pay check is for cars. So I was wondering if you could post a picture of a Mike Rich piston? It would be interesting to see the difference between his piston and a Fast by Ferracci piston. Kind of curious if they skirt coating on them to. When you mention the pistons are 579 grams is that the entire piston assembly? Does that include piston, pin, ring pack and clips because my 2002 weighted in at 598.6. I don't know Guzzi was able drop 20 grams per piston assembly between 2002 and 2004 but 40 grams off balance would be a no go in my book. Lot of things could make Mike's pistons lighter narrower ring pack, tapered wrist pin. Just asking.

I haven't worn my leather jacket about 10 years. I still dig it to oil it with some mink oil every couple years. It's important to keep it from drying out.

When I first got my R100 RS it suffered from two common alignments. The fairing is really designed for someone with a 30 inch inseam. I'm a 34 inch inseam. I had to remove the knee armor in my Roadcrafter suit. Other wise it would rub up against the edge of the fairing and slice into my suit. Then there was the windscreen that was made to look cool and super sporty. The Lemans fairing suffers from that as well, as you ride down the road you create a low pressure area where the rider is. The air then tumbles off the lip of the windscreen into the chest of the rider. Added a Parabellum windscreen to mine and it became one of the best fairings of all time. Better than my K1600 GT which is saying a lot. Charly Perethian designed the Parabellum windscreen. He has one of his bikes in Smithsonian Museum for its aerodynamic achievements. Also he was involved in a few projects like Vetter fairings and Rifle fairings. Any way the man couldn't say enough good things about BMW's R100 RS fairing so take that with a grain of salt. Buy a BMW R100 RS? A BMW /7 is pretty ancient. I rode mine all over the country it even went to Alaska before me. That was many years ago.

Not sure if the original poster is still here or if he moved to www.centauro-owners.com. Mods? What are plans for the bike and how many miles might you put on her? You might want to check if the previous owner did a ground strap from the voltage regulator to the frame. Speaking of voltage regulators a Shindengen might be a good idea. My Ducati regulator failed on me.

Phil, what kind of pressure do you use? I'm afraid of blowing the hose off with the remote reservoir. A reservoir cast into the master cylinder no problem. Brake fluid sprayed under pressure is a thing for nightmares. Once you introduce air into the system it really takes pressure bleeding to restore that firm action again. I looked at pressure bleeders that work from the bottom up but were way overpriced.

I think that's about sums it up. There is a post about running lean at the end of the post did the AFR of his Lemans and went from crazy lean at idle to about 2500 rpm. After it was fat rich Guzzi didn't want you just wasting gas at idle for emissions. They did fatten your fuel ratio when you need some grunt. So Guzzi probably never wanted you to just lug around below 2500 rpm.

When that bike was on ebay I put in a bid. Went too rich for my blood. The fairing is not original to the Coppa.

Using ethanol is not a government conspiracy, it's very good at killing detonation. Today's engines really benefit from it's use. I think Guzzi wrote their standards before modern fuels. I don't venture too far from what they recommended. Just because you can't detonation doesn't it's not there. Might take microscope to bits of aluminum on your spark plug.

A digital read out is the best investment you can make to a machine tool. I can't tell if you have power feeds if not that would be next on my list. So, is Santa going to bring you a surface grinder for Christmas? Probably no limit to D.I.Y. projects you could do. How'd you come by the Centauro crank? Not to have the correct radius is a testimony that should find another business. I mean if they put too big of a radius in the crank you could at least reduce the width of the big end shells. Now too small is just dangerous.

Phil, I'm surprised not a single person commented about your vertical mill. I remember you mentioned on a post that you wanted one, but you defiantly went large. That doesn't look like some hobbyist mill. Three phase? Nice and shiny, not used and abused. That precision vise and rotary table your in deep. I can't wait to hear of all the great things that come from that.

Quite a weight savings from a single component. All unsprung weight as well. Phil, you have lots of titanium nuts in your builds is galling ever a problem?

Someone mentioned using a newer O2 sensor for improver drivability. They said the reaction time was so much quicker then the old model. Not sure if you go with tweaking your map by using trim. The computer might just override it with the O2 sensor. Meinolf's map might be necessary that the computer is going to have a correct base value. My bike doesn't have an O2 so I might not know what I'am talking about.

Beautifull! What can I say I sweet spot for these honey's. Is that one of Cycle Garden's paint jobs? Also are those police bars?

The motor isn't externally balanced but I would put it back together the way it came apart. Meaning flywheel in correct spot. Least you don't have to worry about intermediate plates.

I don't mean to mess with your head it's just the phrase, "I think it's running lean". My problems are not yours I only shared it to keep you from doing something drastic. A good flow chart would look like: Grooming your exhaust making sure there isn't any leaks and the engagement on the joints are good. Follow yours doctors advise and do what he prescribed with a good tune up. Check your electrical connections and relays reducing voltage drops and spikes. Do another good tune up. Clean throttle bodies, and injectors. Do another good tune up. Then start with fuel trim and possibly maps. The fact that something has changed with the Mistral modification is good. If it didn't change the fuel mixture in some way would mean they're nothing more than 900 dollars worth of cosmetic jewelry.

Please don't just blindly think that you need more fuel to solve all your problems. I'm a victim of such a previous owner. Running too rich a mixture is destructive to your engine as well. Those nikasil cylinders are sensitive to having the oil washed off the walls. Setting trim a little here or there is fine but if you want to go far it's going to require data logging. I mean the previous owner of my bike was just Bat Sh*t Crazy. I should have never bought the bike. After riding it a while I could smell the fuel in the oil. Many many Problems.

Has anyone degreed the cam with the chain and then the gear set? Just wonder if there is any difference at all.

The clutch is probably put together wrong. If it wasn't lined up correctly the amount engagement would mean you'd have about 35mm instead of 2mm. Lay a straight edge over the mating face of the trans the input hub should be about 20mm in the bellhousing with the single plate clutch. A twin plate is going to be flush.

I wrote that about 5 hours earlier, but when I tried to submit the website kicked me out and I thought I lost the post.

The push rod for the clutch on a 6-speed trans is 8 mm its 6 mm for a 5-speed. So, you Will need the thrust cup from a 6-speed trans (they fit right in). Also, you'll need the right input hub. The length of the splines on the ram clutch are .6900 inches the normal 6 speed is .9040 and for the 5 speed the splines are .9675. The 5-speed hub sits a little proud but looking at the wear pattern there is more than enough room for the plates to work freely. You asked the question should I reuse the old flywheel. Did you check for cracks? The pictures looked awfully good. If you're going to revisit your clutch in about 15,000 miles, I might put it back in. If its 40,000 before you return NO WAY, would I reuse it. The cush drive is all the way downstream. The clutch on these bikes takes a quite the beating. Aluminum just isn't up to the task this kind of dynamic loading. If you went with the 5-speed Ram clutch the push rod will have to be reworked. If you go with centauro clutch you're going to need more force to pull in the clutch, and you'll give up a little of the engine snappiness. The trade off it might feel a little smoother.

I deleted the post as to not mislead anyone. I just seen this post and it met me were I'm at. I spoke without knowledge, before doing the homework. It's just how my bike was and I think I shall now call the bike the Caveat Emptor Express because this machine has some really funny stuff going on.

Happy Thanksgiving, I've been so Blessed and to give Thanks is just the appropriate response.

At that age you can persevere through just about anything. Not sure if the cramp buster is the best way to go but taking some of that stress off your shoulders and arms can go a long way. It's just when doing trips like this driving day after day things you normally would ignore have a way of manifesting themselves. Clothing that rubs you the wrong way can become a boil. Pressure points in your helmet can become hot spots.