Skeeve

I don't think it's an issue in countries where there's not enough land to grow food as it is, and the fine upstanding citizens are already clear that it's better to drink ethanol than adulterate your fuel with it!

Congrats on de-lurking & making your 1st post! Hopefully the 1st of many... You'd be better off making a tank that fills the airbox location & converting the old tank to an airbox: this would have 2 advantages: lowering the ctr. of gravity by carrying the weight of the fuel lower, and increasing the airbox volume for better performance [one of the V11s impediments to free breathing is inadequate airbox volume.] [0] While I long ago wondered if it would be possible to recreate the sexy curves of the stock tank in steel, it wasn't because of any premonition about the problems w/ alcohol in the fuel affecting the nylon from which the tanks are made, it was simply out of a desire for convenience of use w/ magnetic tank bags. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to resort to maintaining a "pretreated" fuel supply, where the pretreatment consists of buying my fuel in a gas can, taking it back to my workspace, adding 10% of the volume of fuel in distilled water, shaking vigorously to have the water pull the alcohol out of the fuel, then allowing the water/alcohol mix to settle out & drain it off the bottom for use in water injection system I'll add on my truck. Meanwhile, I'll have a supply of real gas [spiked with fuel stabilizer and 100LL avgas while that vanishing species is still around] for use in my bike. Long trips will require dilution w/ pump swill, but once returned home, the tank can be topped up w/ the good stuff [& hopefully, I'll be able to time the fill ups nicely so that when I get home I'll be [0] One of the technological achievements of the MGS-01 that led to it having as much power as it did was the expansion of airbox volume over the Daytona RS: while working on development, Ghezzi & Brian discovered that no matter how much bigger they made the airbox, there wasn't any point at which the power gains plateaued [eg: stopped increasing] - so the final size was arrived at by deciding how much volume they could stand losing from the fuel capacity. If you've ever seen the fuel tank lifted on an MGS-01, you'd see that virtually all of what looks like fuel tank is actually just a shell covering the airbox. Sorry, I don't have a link to the photo I saw on the web years ago, but it was really quite startling...

Sorry, you're at the wrong end of the country from me! The Buell Ulysses pegs look OK, I actually like the looks of the massive Buell castings much better than the dimunitive pegs that come stock: they seem to fit the overall "burly" look of the V11's better, but not everyone would agree. The key is, I wear a size 11 shoe, and prefer to ride w/ my toes off to the side of the control pedals vs. on them [which tends to lead to things like overheated rear brakes, and spontaneous downshifting when hitting bumps, in my case.] It's too bad the Buell pegs aren't a direct swap, or you could find someone w/ a Uly and ask to try them on: the permanent mods aren't difficult, but they're visible and not likely to be looked upon with favor once the pegs are back on the donor... I've been happy w/ the Buell pegs, altho' they do make paddling the bike around in the garage or a parking lot more difficult because not only do they stick out further than the stock pegs, but the built in "curb feelers" stick out even further and can gouge you if you're not careful.

What did I tell ya? The computer must have been programmed by a man...

Local drugstore. Go to the nail polish aisle w/ pork chop in hand (did I forget to mention, this may take a little work? ) Color options abound. Get a girl to help, they can see colors that men can't (ie, ecru, taupe & khaki are different colors to them. Huh? )

Schuberth really thinks highly of their product, as reflected in the prices tending to be quite beyond most folks' means, but they are the top of the line when it comes to FF helmets. They have a couple of different lines [none inexpensive], that use different lasts, ie: a Schuberth S1 =/= a Schuberth C1 [hope I remember the designations correctly.] Anyway, if you're tempted to go that route, DEFINITELY go to a stocking dealer to try them on, since their sizes are smaller than anyone elses, iirc [i seem to remember a friend who normally took a L Shoei finding the Schuberth XXL a little tight.]

Don't mess around buying octane booster: you'll spend, what, $8 for a little pint bottle of mostly methanol [ie, alcohol, which you've just gone out of your way to buy pure gas to avoid?] You're in the U.S., so your Guzzi doesn't have a cat in the exhaust. Go to an airport, buy some 100LL, clearly mark the jerry can so that you won't get it mixed in your car fuel by mistake & kill your cat [as an aside, Honda wanted ~$2k to replace the cat on a 2000 Accord when someone stole it from my vehicle parked on the street. Needless to say, my ins. co. refused to replace w/ stock components...] 100LL has way more tetraethyl lead in it than any hi-octane pump gas we used to buy back in the 70s: diminishing returns means that getting that last 4 octane points from the 80 octane base stock that had already been pumped up to 96 w/ TEL required more TEL than was used to get it to 96. Accordingly, adding this stuff to your lead-free mogas is going to be synergistic w/ the octane boosters already in it, so a little will go a loooong way. Start w/ about 2 oz per tankful to start, ride it a little, and if you still get pinging, add another 2oz. Rinse, lather, repeat. I expect you'll end up using less per tankful than the pint bottle of lead-free octane booster, and you'll be buying it for less $ by the gallon vs. the pint of booster. Get it while you can: a group calling itself Friends of the Earth filed suit a couple years ago to force the EPA to eliminate TEL from airplane fuel ['cause, you know, you can't have anyone flying old classic planes anymore that were designed around the stuff] so we won't have 100LL for too much longer. C'est la vie.

I tried a flip-up some years ago & after about a week decided I'd never go back, unless required to do so [track day regs, for example.] Here's why: as an eyeglass wearer, I can put on/ take off a flip-front w/o having to remove the glasses: can't do that w/ any FF helmet [well, you could try but the helmet will remove them for you!..] Downsides: flip fronts are noisier than FF helmets; it's the extra seams that the air rushes over/leaks thru. They tend to be colder than a regular FF [no chin skirt], yet paradoxically, fog up worse [poorer airflow control.] So far, I have yet to find a modular that has decent shield control [ie, the smallest cracked position is too open, or positioned poorly so that you get an eyeful of cold air when you have to run w/ the shield cracked to prevent fogging.] These are all just poor design problems that eventually, somebody w/ half a brain who actually wants to make a great helmet will overcome: most FF helmets have the same or similar shortcomings. The biggest stumbling block for the m/c helmet industry is each manufacturer keeps reinventing the wheel w/ proprietary shield fastening systems instead of all of them getting together & settling on a standard shield that everyone who wants to can use, so that face shields are a $10 item that you can afford to change monthly if you desired, instead of costing 1/4 the price of the entire lid! Anyway, despite the extra weight and noise, for anyone who wears glasses or expects to transact w/ the rest of the world w/o having to take their helmet off every time they stop to buy gas/pick up a carton of milk/pay a toll, a modular is ab-fab. Wear ear plugs and carry a scarf for when it gets cold.

You should have seen the original proposal, with the shuttle strapped on the back of the big mother ship: that really had legs. Better reusability, lower fuel costs, better launch capability. C'est la vie...

Just because they don't offer one in MPH, and it states KPH at the bottom of the dial, if you get a pulse-input type, is there any reason you couldn't calibrate it in MPH? Seems silly they don't offer an option for MPH... It appears you have to create an account first, before they'll let you upload a logo to use.

Pork chops. Lamb chop is a sock puppet!

Two actually, both 12"x36". One in the truck was a HF [China] special, the other on the trailer is an old Sears Craftsman [nee Atlas] hobby lathe [ Much lighter duty, & to be sold; had it 1st, then got the HF unit on a end of stock floor model closeout @ 1/2 price. Haven't had anywhere to set the big one up since I got it, but that's changing now! :-) ]

Saw a burgundy/grey LeMans yesterday [sunday, 24Feb13] in Fountain Valley, CA [uSA] near the Euclid on-ramp of the 405 fwy at around 3:15pm. Was that anyone from here on v11lm.com? [NB: you wouldn't have noticed me, I was just some dumb pickup pulling a trailer w/ a lathe & cherry picker [engine hoist] on it...] I always get so excited when I see a V11 model in the wild, they're so uncommon. Or any Guzzi for that matter!..

AND that wt. is high up where losing it helps lower the c.g. & benefit handling more than say, a carbon fiber exhaust can ever do!

The problem was that Aprilia was in the midst of going T.U. at the time, having overspent on their MotoGP development right as the EU suddenly changed the rules for scooter licensing, which pretty much stopped scooter sales dead, devastating the bottom line & ultimately leading Aprilia to be sold to Piaggio for pennies on the lire. Since Moto Guzzi was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aprilia, that Aprilia had never really absorbed, it left Guzzi up in the air as to whether they would continue to exist or not. Between a poor dealer network [not the dealers themselves, per se, but just the spotty nature of where to find one here in the good ol' USofA] and the general lack of awareness on the part of the motorcycle buying public, it led to a fire sale on a bunch of "repo'd" unsold inventory when several marginal dealerships decided to cut & run. Once Piaggio picked up the ball, the deals were pretty much all gone, but it had really done a number on the existing dealer network because not only had a few long-time dealers gone away, but the bulk of the "fire sale" bikes had been moved thru a few newer dealerships that didn't do good warranty work, so not only had the low-priced new bikes undercut the existing dealers ability to sell their own, higher-priced old inventory, but the better old dealers wound up carrying the warranty work on the new bikes that the new, "stack'em deep & sell'em cheap" dealers were unable or unwilling to do. [NB: Guzzi N.A. already had a rep for taking a long time to pay on warranty claims, so a lot of dealers were naturally skeptical of doing work for which they may not have ever been compensated if Guzzi had gone the way of the dodo...] It was all a very bleak time for fans of the marque, and when Piaggio took over & promptly shut down the factory, Guzzisti the world over were justifiably alarmed. Seems like it was all for the best now, barring the fact that there won't be any more new models actually developed by Guzzi, they'll all be engineered in Pontedera as part of Piaggio's operations. But at least they're still being built in Mandello and the factory's been rehabbed so can be expected to stay with us for awhile! But to answer your question, the Ballabio was definitely a good seller at the time, as V11 models went.

From Colin Chapman, of Lotus cars, "Simplify, then add lightness." Thank you for citing the reference for me! A great man, Mr. Chapman...

The only bike that doesn't look dwarfed next to the Trumpy R3 is the Victory Vision full boat tourer. That longitudinal I3 in the Rocket is bigger than most car motors! Muench [sorry, this keyboard doesn't do umlauts] would be so proud!

[sorry for the gratuitous spelling flame, but I can't resist] Piqued your interest. Sounds spiffy! Looking forward to pics!

Actually, the parts are to bias fluid away from the front disc, or more correctly, a delay valve, so that you can apply the rear brake partially before the front starts kicking in: this is so you can still use the rear brake usefully to settle the bike w/o affecting the handling by having the front brake kick in when you don't want it to as you're leaned over in a turn. Not decrying your decision, or deriding Guzzi's implementation of linked brakes [seeing as how they invented'em], but I'd look to a later Honda Goldwing for a better implementation, where the rear cylinder actuates the middle pucks of both the front discs along w/ the rear brake and the front cylinder does the outer two on both discs. I had on older Honda GL1200 where the rear cyl does the left front brake and the rear, and the lever did the rt. front brake, and you couldn't get max. braking out of it, since the hand lever didn't have enough control of the front and you'd skid the rear wheel before you could get anywhere close to the limit on the other front disc. Bleah! I longed to de-link the brakes on that bike, since w/ a lead sled like that you need to have max. braking when you want it ["I need full reverse warp NOW, Scottie!" "She'll no take the strain, Cap'n, there's a horde o' tribbles in the wiring for the antimatter converters!.."] If you're talking about converting all your braking to the foot lever, then you'd better get a full ABS setup off one of the BMW models & see if you can retrofit that. Not that I'd recommend it, it's just the only way you can get adequate control of the brakes out of the foot lever to prevent a crash.

Supposedly the front wheel off the 1100 Breva/Griso/B.Sport are a lighter design. Probably have to do some searching of the site for the exact thread where it's spelled out, but you might want to keep that in mind if you're interested in spending that much money to fix it up: adding lightness is always good for performance, right?

Wouldn't he need to bore out the cylinders to 1225cc to support that map? I thought the MGS01 was punched out vs. the V10 QV motors? Nevertheless, I'm excited about the news on the diagnostics thread, thanks for all your work there, Paul! At least now we know why you haven't been hanging out here in V11LM land, you've had bigger fish to fry!

Ferguzzi sed: Its because the military aircraft aren't built to a budget in the sense of being economical to operate: they are built to flat out excel, ie: right up to the bleeding edge of the available technology [& sometimes beyond!] Can't really compare the civvy aircraft w/ that, where so many compromises are accepted willingly to make the thing economically viable [which none of the military aircraft post-WW1 ever took into consideration.*] * - I say "post WW1" because some of the military aircraft in that conflict were built w/ the long view of being the best they possibly could be with the expectation that the design would continue to be built after the war for the civilian market, leading to things like the Liberty engine, airmail in the '20s, etc.

I think it probably has to be injector duration, altho' it may not be in microsecs, maybe an arbitrary time-slice, ie: 195 [out of a possible 200] or somesuch. Good question tho', I'm sure Paul will reply in due course... This is really awesome news, I dl'd. the early ducdiag software last year? back when it was only in French: now that I can get it in English, maybe I can start to make some headway on understanding how to use it!

Who said that was what I wanted? I'm just talking about modifying the existing setup in a logical manner, not that I think it's better than a proper cartridge set-up like Gold Valves which have been shown to work well. Don't be putting words in my mouth, when there's never enough room for pie to begin with!

Paul something, I'm thinking his surname began with an "M?" I only remember his first name because it's the same as my brother's, so hard for me to forget...