audiomick

And again. Probably dead, I reckon. I've no idea how old the battery is, actually. It looks pretty "new", as in clean. But the bike did practically no kilometres over 10 years before I bought it, so who knows. Most of the work it does now is very short trips, only about 5 km., which is also not the best for a battery.

Thanks for the update. I've just realised that the link in your first post is to a German company. Cool. Keeps the postage down for me.

Completely off topic, but "bridges": A bridge collapsed in Dresden about 4 weeks ago. Fortunately at about 3:00 in the morning, so no-one was hurt. It was this one https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/264360408 zoom out a bit, and you can see how critical it is to traffic in Dresden. It is (was) more or less the main bridge across the river close to the city centre. Here is what it looks like now The bit that collapsed carried a tram line and a bike path and pedestrian path. Alone the tram line will cause huge problems. And then... They will obviosly have to minutely examine the parallel span that carries the road traffic, and the river is blocked. The river is a major transport route for river-boat cargo. They're going to have problems for at least the next ten years. A new bridge doesn't just happen overnight. Getting back to the weather, same deal. Things that got destroyed in a few short hours can take years and decades to be restored.

First of all, I don't have any direct experience with the California models. Nevertheless.. I'm active in a German Guzzi forum, and read nearly everything that gets posted there. More than once, I've seen the Cali EV described as the best of them all. It is "the pinnacle" of a long line of constant developement over several decades, if you like. The motor got spruced up a bit more for the Sport 1100 and V11 models, and the CARC models were, to an extent, the start of a new chapter. The Tonti frame means that, even though it is a chopper, it has the same genes as all of those legendary sport models like the V7 Sport and the first round of Le Mans models. It is allegedly a chopper that can really go round corners, unlike most other "cruiser" brands. My impression is that it should be a little lighter on the maintenance side of things than the CARC models, but I don't think there is much in it. As far as I can tell, reliability should be good if the maintenance has all been done. You might have a few issues initially with aged rubber bits if it has been sitting around for a while, but then again, you might get lucky. That's the same for any older vehicle that has not been used much for a few years. If you think California Dreaming is the way to go for you, I'd say "go for it". The California riders in the German forum all absolutely love them.

Your garage is obviously too big. Can't you cut a bit off it and send it to me?

The trick is to keep the help going long enough. Short term water, food and shelter is really important, of course. Then there is the clean-up, and the re-build. The disaster goes on for months, even years, long after the TV news stop reporting on how tragic it all is.

Because I saw that someone (a guest) was looking at this thread just now: This gist of it is, a couple of members of this forum put rather a lot of effort into producing an alternative spring that looks like it should last pretty much forever. Jump to the later post to find out whether there are still some available.

Getting back to the relays, look at this: sorry it is a bit messy. I drew it for myself, and wasn't intending to "publish" it. The drawing is an "extraction" of the parts of the complete circuit diagramme that are relevant to the starter circuit. It is correct for my 2002 Le Mans, and I believe later models also had the same circuitry. Anyway, you can see that the ECU relay gets the power that activates it after the ignition switch, either the side-stand switch or the relay that is triggered by the neutral switch, and the kill switch. I had to think about it again myself, but the side-stand switch must be closed when the side-stand is up, and therefore pass current in that positon. If the side-stand is down (switch open), then the neutral switch must be closed (neutral selected) to activate the side-stand switch relay and pass current through there instead of the side-stand switch. So... If you can replicate your results from toggling the kill switch by putting the side stand down and then back up, or turning the ignition off and back on, it might point to the ECU relay as your culprit. Doing the same test with the neutral switch would involve putting the side stand down, and putting the gearbox into neutral. You can see the principle, I hope: switch off and back on the power that triggers the ECU relay by way of various switches, and see if that always brings it back to life. If not, the kill-switch is more likely to be the direct culprit, I think. I can easily imagine that if the ECU loses power, even for a very short interval, it just goes off, and needs a moment to re-boot before it works again. I think it is plausible that a dodgy relay might lose contact at higher engine revs (higher/faster vibrations), and regain it after being "cycled". And lose it again when the "critical conditions" re-occur. I would expect, to an extent, that this behaviour might well relate to a resonant frequency related to the internals of the relay in question. That would mean that the behaviour would consistently occur at about the same r.p.m. every time, even when slowly opening the throttle to gradually build up to the engine speed involved. Would you care to experiment a little and see if this may be the case? If so, that would probably indicate a relay as the culprit, I reckon. Coupled with the apparent relationship with the kill switch, the ECU relay seems likely to me, assuming my speculation is correct. The ECU relay is in position #4, according to my workshop manual.

I dunno (apart from the Transformers design), it looks like it isn't a great deal bulkier than the 1000 GTR, and perhaps even a little more compact than a 1400 GTR. I wont even start with Harleys and such like...

Yes. Some of the positions only need a four-contact relay, but a five-contact relay works just as well. The extra contact just doesn't have anything to do in those positions.

Without wanting to discount @docc 's reference to relay problems, after reading your update I would - Have a close look at the throttle grip (motor off, good light) and see if anything moves when you wrench open the throttle. - Whether yes or no, open the switch block (and the throttle grip) and have a good look at everything. Your discovery of the apparent connection with the kill switch makes me think that the throttle grip / switch block might be slightly loose, or something along those lines, and the "violent" movement is enough to break the contact, or perhaps cause a short, in the kill switch. Annoying for you, but a very interesting problem.

Yeah. And this is a real phenomenum...

Yep, I reckon so. I had an issue with a Kawasaki 1000 GTR. It ran well at moderate engine speeds, but exhibited all the signs of running out of fuel after a couple of minutes above 140 km/h or so (German Autobahn...). After backing off, it recovered and ran well until the next attempt at larger throttle openings. Turned out I had created a kink in the fuel line that was restricting the fuel flow to the carbies. Anyway, I reckon the first suspicion for yours would be that it is "starving" for some reason. I would investigate that first, and only when that can be definitely excluded as a cause go looking for some other reason. Don't forget to check that the tank ventilation isn't blocked up.

Looking through his portfolio, it seems that you are correct. The Breva 750 too, as well as a couple of other Guzzis from the early 2000 years. https://www.frascolidesign.com/portfolio/

That'd be talcum powder, I believe. Same as on inner tubes and such.

Have a good trip, mate. Are you going to Adelaide? Have a good time there, if you do. It's a lovely village.

My girlfriend took a few days off just last week. Four nights away, and two trips down to the car to get all the stuff in.

Going by the frame rail in front of the side-cover, I dare say it is a Tonti frame. But that could be any one of a large number of models. Could you see enough of the motor to see if it is a "round" motor or one of the newer ones with corners on the fins?

Except that it isn't really cheap. Admittedly, I haven't researched the topic myself, but from what I have read there are "hidden" costs with nuclear power. Amongst others, what do you do with waste that stays dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years? EDIT: Don't get me wrong. I'm not fundamentally opposed to nuclear power. I just don't reckon we have got enough of a grip on it yet to be using it indiscriminately.

That matches up with what I believe to know... With the erractic behaviour described, I would be inclined to have a good look at the whole wiring loom. There may be a dodgy (intermittent) connection somewhere, or it may be an accumulation of marginal connections. The bike is old, and electrics rarely get better with age.

The one at the top end of the oil filter. I gather it doesn't always come out when one removes the filter.

PPS: Paul McCartney did a fairly good job as a bass player too.

And here is some pre-meditated thread drift on the subject of "and then there was this bloke"... John Paul Jones John Entwistle and some friends of mine from Melbourne before I moved to Germany. The bass player is Leigh Underhill, who now lives in Scotland, as far as I know PS: I nearly forgot John Deacon

You'd be apologising for the fact that his guitar is not really in tune by the end of the song, right? Otherwise, it's rather good.

She's beautiful. I love that fairing.