audiomick

Thanks Joe. Given that the bloke obviously has more or less no idea about how the technology works, he is doing a surprising amount of stuff right. The "dead cat" and protection from the wind is where he is most correct. His "worst mistake" is absolutely ignoring the stereo image of the stereo microphone he is using. Not knowing, or at least not being sure, what a low cut filter does is a bit like not knowing why there is a choke on your motorbike. Basic knowledge.... Edit: ok, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-pass_filter "Low-cut" and "high-pass" are two names for the same thing. Yes, they filter off low frequencies. Given that wind noise is to a large extent low-frequency, yes, the low-cut/high-pass filter is absolutely the first thing you activate to reduce wind noise. Automatic gain control is for lazy, ignorant amateurs. Find out what the right manual setting is for the installation and the bike, and use it. Take the time, if neccessary, to do the post-production. Learn what the "normalise" function in a digital audio workstation does, and what it is good for. End of tirade... Another Edit: one more thing. There are a lot of things in this world that don't always get better in a linear relationship to the purchase price. Microphones do not fall amongst them. Of course, one has to decide what one is willing to spend, and be happy with the result that the price provides. Nevertheless.... $100,- for a microphone is cheap. No if's or but's. Cheap. Proper microphones start at more like $500,-, and if you want really, really good, it's definitely at least four figures.

Far too much money, even for that mileage.

Ok, if it is officially "just posing", I guess I can live with that. I get a bit annoyed when I see people not taking the tools of my trade seriously. As if doing sound were something that doesn't require any specialist knowledge. Ha f---ing ha.

Well, yes. But the microphone is "listening", approximately, to the right hand mirror going by the direction it is pointing.

It has nothing to do with the screen for the oil cooler, but I just have to ask: docc, what on earth is that microphone supposed to be achieving with that orientation in that position? It really makes absolutely no sense at all....

And here: https://woodburymotomedia.com/moto-guzzi-timing-gears-by-joe-caruso/ write the man an e-Mail.

Well, they kind of have to don't they? All that weight...

Things like isolation blocks (the Germans universally refer to "silent blocks"...) are most likely going to be standard parts, aren't they? I can't imagine Guzzi would have invented the wheel new for a part like that.

That rings a bell. My V35 Imola has the "Integrale" system. The hand lever operates the right hand disc on the front. The other one is on the foot pedal with the rear brake. The wheel cylinders are P08, I think. If I remember rightly, the foot brake master cylinder is PS15 or PS16, and the hand master cylinder is PS13. The hand brake has the feel of a house brick. The reccomendations that I have seen are, I believe, for a PS11 to provide a front brake that actually has some feel.

I always knew that Harleys were really farm machinery in disguise...

The police here (Germany...) are generally on BMWs. The Berlin Police had a batch of Breva 850s for a while. If you keep an eye on the second hand market, they turn up occasionally. A quick search indicates that the Police in Melbourne, Australia are using BMW. I was on Mauritius a few years back. They had an interesting collection. The President, I believe it was, a ranking Politician at least, turned up for an official Event associated with the project I was there for. The honour gaurd was on some new Yamaha modell. On the street (there were quite a lot of mounted Police...) a couple of MG Breva 750, some Enduro thingies (maybe Honda...) and even a couple of larger scooters (Korean, I believe...), and I think I saw a couple of asian soft choppers. The country is not one of the richest in the world, and I dare say that just take whatever they can get a good deal on.

As far as I understand it (which may not be 100%...) a smaller bore master cylinder should result in a lighter lever, but more travel in the lever.

Not only on the V11. In my experience, getting the bit out that sticks into the cush drive is nearly always a bit of a pain.

I've seen photos of that series of MZ before. "Unique" is a nice way to describe it....

I'm convinced they didn't. And as far as the mice go, the bloke with the glasses "took a bet" that there were mice in the airbox before the even wheeled it away from the shed they took it out of. And then he didn't have a look to see if that was true before the tried to start it. I think the boys aren't really all that bright. Edit: It looks like it had a happy ending for the bike: https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=adbcbd72268411ad01138e8e29437c64&topic=116045.msg1829928#msg1829928 In my opinion, Californias of that generation are pig ugly, but one doesn't like to see a Guzzi die a sad death. It's tragic that a bike with less than 7,000 miles on the clock was just left to rot in a shed.

That's it. Less rotating mass can make the motor snappier, more can make it easier to deal with in day-to-day riding conditions. I like "snappy", but that is just a personal choice. Reciprocationg mass is another kettle of fish, but that is not what we are talking about here.

I'm sure it could be saved. If I understood them correctly, there are less than 7.000 miles on the clock. Sure, a lot of work. But possible. And yes, I believe getting fork legs re-chromed is not at all difficult. One thing I know for sure: I wouldn't have pulled it out of the shed and tried to start it without even having had a close look at it. For instance, if there is any oil in the motor....

I didn't actively do anything to the bike, but I bought something. An apparently new set of valves, valve guides still in the plastic packaging, and valve springs, probably also new. The vendor is a well known Guzzi tuner from Austria who has been in retirement for the last couple of years and is obviously clearing out his workshop. An absolutely reliable source. I thought €150,- was ok, especially considering some of the bits are apparently no longer available.

That has come up a number of times in the German forum. I believe a vector graphic is the format of choice, but ask the service provider to be sure.

A bloke here once mentioned that 30,000 km. Ducati service. He runs a shop here specialising in the small block Guzzis, but he does everything. He said that one finds rather a lot of Ducatis with about that mileage (kilometreage is such a clumsy word....) up for sale second hand. The reason is that service: young blokes buy the things on credit, can just manage the payments, and then all of a sudden there is this monster service bill coming up. But what Al wrote is true: my last service on the Opel Astra was upwards of €600,-. Last year I had the brakes renewed, that was more like €1,500,- . What can I expect? The thing has about 160,000 km on it. Things wear out. But a thousand bucks for an ignition switch is a really big call....

I've seen that done with stickers of various types, or stick-on plastic coating. One needs to be very careful not to curl up the edges of the hole, i.e. a clean as possible cut, or it wont stick back down flat. And don't make any wrinkles when pushing the air out. If you do it carefully, and there is still enough sticky left on the back side, that can work.

I'll be on to it right away...

Chuck, for the ignorant among us, what is an NLA?

No, generally not. But some (apparently far too many....) fall for the marketing bs and think they are, it seems. As far as the sound of an exhaust goes, yes, the Kawasaki triples sounded glorious. As did my Z900 (much better than a 750 Four... ), my mate's CBX, the couple of Z1300s that I have encountered, and so on. There are, however, two things with the exhaust sound: We tend to want a particular sound, I reckon, because we associate it with highly tuned motors. Simply hollowing out the baffles on a cheap exhaust never gets there, it generally just sounds like a loud fart. The snappiness of a race-tuned motor just isn't there. At some point in the future, I am quite convinced, young blokes will be fitting gadgets to their electric scooters to produce a "high-power whine" just like the race bikes the big boys ride, because that is what the (electric) race bikes they will have seen will have sounded like. Secondly, back in the day you could really get a good bit more power out of a bike by putting an efficient exhaust on it. Expansion chambers for the two strokes, a good four into one for the '70's Japanes four cylinders, and so on. These days you can't. Full stop. If you are lucky, a good after market exhaust wont cost you power. Generally, they are just louder. I really can't see the point.

Still not completely relegated to "lifestyle", I reckon, but that word (which I detest, in it's marketing sense...) is becoming more relevant in the "customer profile". Shouldn't surprise anyone, the motorcycle market just isn't that which it was 40 years ago. Not that I mean that in a negative, or in fact any kind of valuative way. It is just a fact. Another fact is, the entire automobile and motorcycle and vehicle market in general makes a large part of its profit through the sale of optional extras on new vehicles. With vehicles like semi-trailers, the extras can be justified with things like "cost of operation" and "safety" and "efficiency" (I am practically quoting presentations that I heard as a sound technician on a job here...). For extras on a motorcycle, there is not much more to be said than "and if you add this, you'll be really, really cool".