audiomick

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".

Well, congratulations on achieving your goal. Welcome to the forum.

Al, nice post. My thoughts close enough to exactly. How silly, indeed. And the blokes at the factory internal seminar at a German car factory I did the sound for around fifteen years ago were so proud of having developed the system. I could hardly believe they were serious, but they were ....

Looks like you're starting to get good weather. It's slowly warming up (a bit...) here, but it is still crappy. And there hasn't been enough rain yet to really be sure that the last dose of salt has been washed away...

Nice. I hope the "intermediate owner" didn't give it a hard time.

Thanks for all the good answers so far.

Hallo. I had a look at the fuel lines on my V11 Le Mans today, and noticed it was sweating a bit of fuel where the fuel line comes off the attachment under the tank. It looks like mine is this version, i.e. fuel pump in the tank: https://wendelmotorraeder.de/benzinleitungen-v11-02-le-mansskura-ex-30_3006_300602_30060203_3006020310_300602031016.html The link leads to a page of the parts lists at Wendel Motorcycles ( Wendel Motorräder ) in Berlin. Under the tank, instead of part #5 on the drawing, that apparently looks like this: There are hose clamps such as those that part #7 apparently are: so it would seem that someone has already been messing around with it at some point. I had already tightened up the outer clamp of the two, i,e. the one closer to the riders knee, which was loose enough to be able to turn it on the fuel line with very little effort when I took delivery of the bike. Today I noticed that it wasn't actually clamping the fuel line. I don't know for sure if I had tightened it onto the fuel line as intended, or if I missed the fuel line the first time round. The fuel line isn't pushed all the way up the "nipple" it is on, and I couldn't move it any further up today. Doesn't surprise me really, I was outside, and it was only about 3°C, so the fuel line was hard as rocks and not inclined to be moved. As far as I could tell, there was at least the width of the clamp of the nipple inside the fuel line, and maybe I have got it solved for now. I'll definitely be having another look at it though. Anyway, I have a couple of questions that I hope someone here can answer: I assume, since the fuel pump is in the tank, that the blow-off to regulate the pressure in the fuel lines is also in the tank. Going by the drawing, the two connectors are one each for the two throttle bodies. Is that correct? Edit: strike that one. I've had a look at a workshop manual. In there, it says that the "outer" line is the feed to the injectors, and the "inner" one is the return. How much pressure is in the fuel lines? Given that the fuel lines are held on by clamps, it can't be that much, can it? What is the considered opinion: should tightening the clamp (assuming that it is sitting correctly and clamping enough of the fuel line...) be sufficient to solve the sweating problem, or do I urgently need to have a closer look? I'm assuming, for the moment, that the hose is really fuel line, and not just some rubber hose that might be starting to disintegrate due to the effects of the fuel. One further question: from what I have read, the connectors that come off the bottom of the fuel pump, i.e. out the bottom of the tank, are a bit fragile, and need to be handled with care. With regard to that, I wasn't too keen on trying too hard to push the fuel line further up the nipple. Is that correct, or am I being too cautious there? Thanks in advance Mick

There have been photos posted in the German forum that confirm that. It's a bit hard to see what you're looking at on the photo, but I gather it is fairly obvious when one is actually looking at it live and in colour. Here, I know who the photo belongs to, and I don't reckon he would he has confirmed that he doesn't have a problem with posting it here:

No idea, mate. But I reckon there's a pretty good chance. I can't see Aprilia or Piaggio inventing new pegs for every new bike they release. I'd be looking for some second hand pegs, even ratty ones just to see if they fit.