Skeeve

"Brown shoes don't get it." Thank you Frank Z! I used to work in a gas station (1st job; this was back at the beginning of the "self serve" revolution: guys had to pump their own at our discretion, but we still filled up for the ladies...) One night, some loser in a brown Porsche pulled in. Mechanic's groupie [you know, one of the crowd who typically hung out bending the mechanics' ears while they were working] comes over & all agog goes "You know who that is? It's Eddie van Halen!" Me, being not much of a fan of VH back then [hey, they were just some local guys I didn't care about who were beginning to hit the big time, not like they were Yes, or Led Zeppelin or The Who or somebody important, you know] I look over & say: "O.K., I've heard of him. VH is an o.k. band. Pity about the car." "What do you mean?" shoots back the other guy. "Well, you'd think that with all that money he should be pulling in as a rock star, he could afford a new car." "What do you mean?!? That car looks like it just rolled off the lot!" "Nobody buys a brown sports car new..." "Why not?" "Because who wants to spend all that money to be seen driving a turd!?!" Anyway, that's my "almost famous" brush w/ celebrity. Eddie van Halen may have had poor taste in choosing the color of his car, but he did o.k. when he married Valerie Bertinelli afaic... of course, that was a long time ago, when she was young & smokin' hot, & I had a huge letch for her!

Was ordering some parts is parts, and tho' not needed now, thought I'd pick up some plugs for the V11 since the zippy iridium plugs aren't carried in motorcycle sizes by the local car parts vendors [Kragen, Peps, etc.] and the additional cost of shipping plugs w/ my order of RLS Heavy would be $0.00 vs. shipping cost of the plugs being a serious %age of the purchase price if ordered at some later date... So, I check the spec & discover the plug is an NGK 6 heat range! Isn't that a tad on the warm side for an a/c engine? [bPR6E or something like that, I can't recall just now, looked it up on sparkplugs.com; great resource btw...] I remember the old VW Beetle used B8ES, and that never suffered from cold starting issues, altho' the heat sure could pose some problems! Anyway, for here in sunny SoCal, I figured I'd be safe dropping one heat range colder to 7 [bPR7EIX] & put my order in for that, but even at 7 I suspect that the plug is warmer than it needs be. I know that the J4 manufacturers were all chronically notorious for spec'ing plugs at least one heat range too warm for good hot weather running on all their street bikes, but that was probably due to concerns about the EPA-mandated lean carbeuration not allowing the bikes to warm up fast enough more than anything else. Anyone else care to comment? Anyone w/ hot weather riding experience tried a similar adjustment already? Any cold-clime riders have complaints about the stock plugs running too cool for them? Just random curiosity on the topic poking up; I doubt very much that I'll run into any reliability problems with that one range cooler plugs, much less concerned about going cooler on plugs vs. warmer, esp. on an a/c engine...

Mercy buckets, Ratchemeister! For some of us literacy-challenged sorts, a picture is worth 10^^(x>3) words!

Well worth your time, altho' most schools just teach the use of pre-preg these days, from what I've uncovered. Faster/easier for the class atmosphere, but somewhat limited to whatever industry offers at x price point. And fwiw, CF isn't always the best choice, or even 2nd best. There's still a lot of life in plain old E-glass!

Uh, does that translate to "pointy bits up" [toward bolt head or nut?] Just 'cause I don't have any triplets [or even singlets!] of Belleville handy...

I suspect that much of this discussion is of the hypothetical, purely-for-the-Bonneville-LSR-group sort. So in that regard, you're entirely correct, & I don't plan on changing anything either!

Just call me "Rip van Skeevenkle..."

No canisters, "gas generators" as in gunpowder-type materials. Actually, it's more akin to the primer compounds, from my understanding of the speed of conflagration, but as usual, I'm probably wrong... Anyway, they take up much less space than a CO2 bottle, & inflate faster [the latter being the more critical feature.] Ride on!

Given the broad sumps' inherent spacer, and the primary purpose of the sloppage sheet being to keep the oil from running away from the pickup, wouldn't it be easier to add a second, vastly simpler sheet below the spacer (w/ necessary gasketry) that only had a couple of big holes near the front for oil to get into it, leaving the Roper plate to do the majority of the flow control and windage duties? Kind of a belt & suspenders approach, but it could be much thinner material than the Roper plate [since it wouldn't have to sustain the pressure differences of the latter, being almost always completely immersed.] That sheet could be made by the expedient of cutting the perimeter to size, gasket-sealing a gasket to one side to use as a template, drilling the perimeter by hand and using a couple of hole saws in the middle [probably need a 3" hole for the filter location, w/ a couple or three 1" holes in a line down the left side... ] This is just all from the top of my head, & I don't have a clear mental picture of what the inside of the sump below the spacer is like. What say you, Pete?

Isn't that the reverse of what he was looking for? The lower the final drive ratio, the taller the gearing, right? So the 9/34 gear pair is significantly taller than the usual 7/33? 8/35? 6/32?(sidecar) pairs. [Question marks added 'cause I'm not certain about the correct #s for any of the Guzzi final drive ratios offered over the years, but seem to remember numbers vaguely like these being mentioned here & elsewhere.] None of which has any relevance, of course, given the huge departure from tradition that the v11 6-speed encompassed. But just came across this thread again after so long & thought that some clarification was called for.

No New World nightshades? Man, your cuisine is like turning back the clock 500 years! No chilis, no 'taters, no tomato? Ouch! Still, at least you can get that cookbook on "Roman cooking" or whatever it was called, that eliminates all the New World foods so you can taste life the way the ancient Mediterranean lived it. Sorry for your condition, good luck w/ that. Giving up fries w/ ketchup would be a terrible agony for me!

Those are designed to keep water out of your ears, not noise. You can get foam earplugs w/ NRR up to 33, and even "sleep aid" silicone goo type earplugs [the ultimate in comfort, trust me] have an NRR of about 18-20, which is more than you'll get from Doc's Proplugs, which have a .02" hole right thru them! [per the ad copy above.] Just remember: "sound" is pressure, so something designed to allow pressure to equalize is not going to "stop" sound... Not that these are a bad product, just not intended for the use you're thinking of putting them to...

I've used the previous gen ContiForce tires on my SV, and they were very good as long as they stayed dry & weren't asked to cross paint. In increasing levels of confidence & handling, my experience has been: MEZ4 ContiForce MEZ6 In longevity, it ran MEZ4 So the RoadAttacks have promise, if only on that basis. But I have to admit to *some* bias, since my favorite push-bike tires have been Contis [which aren't as price competitive as their moto tires are, but worth it.]

Not cheap, not easy to get, and not easy to switch to: you have to replace all your brake lines & seals from stem to stern if they've ever seen DOT3, DOT4 or DOT 5.1? [DOT5 was the silicone, iirc. DOT 5.1 is the non-silicone higher spec of the poly-glycol stuff, if memory serves.] At any rate, if your system has ever seen the regular glycol-based fluids, making the switch to silicone requires switching a replacement of any of the rubber components and complete cleaning of the system before installation of the silicone, as it reacts w/ the glycol to make some horrible sludge that tends to make your brakes not work when you suddenly need them most. Hence the introduction of the 5.1? fluid, which is just as hygroscopic as the older stuff, but at least is compatible.

Oddly enough, the vehicle code. I remember thinking "that's stupid" when I read it, but it required headlamps to be fit in pairs [so 2, 4 or 6 headlamps are fine] & the only exception for motorcycles was that they can have only 1 headlamp [but no exemption on higher odd numbers was listed or could be inferred.] Got me to thinking "when did *this* law come into being?.." Gotta love those legislators, sticking their greedy little fingers into everything!

Looks fun, brought to you by the same folks who did Layer Cake [another movie that looked good but which I unfortunately haven't yet seen... ] Freebird

Yes, thanks, "Tucker"! I knew at the time I was getting it wrong, but I didn't want to take the time to look it up. My bad! Thanks for the correction, & the pic. BTW - The way the Harley guys get away w/ the lightbars w/ a light to either side of the headlight is: A: the side lights are significantly smaller than the headlight B: they're aimed down [nominally] &C: they much lower wattage [iirc, 35w vs. the normal 55w "low" main beam.] But a dual-headlight bike or the 3 lights in a triangle concept bike Guzzi did a while back would have significantly enhanced awareness [as opposed to visibility] for the oncoming drivers. & as far as headlight modulators go, yes "they're fucking irritating," that's the fucking point! [shaking head] Some people just don't get it...

Undoubtedly, too bad it's illegal Stateside [byproduct of the Detroit Big 4 pulling political strings 50 years ago to shut down Turner & his "steered center headlight" attempt at car manufacture...]

You know, people keep putting that picture in their posts like it was good to look at. Very purposeful and much lighter looking than your average v11, but capital Ugly, as in, "Ow! That hurts my eyes!.."

From the MGNOC website The rear brake on the V11 series are prone to early wear; toward the bottom of the "Tips" column found at the above link, this is identified & resolved. Something to keep in mind during maintenance & initial prep...

Something like '98 iirc. Dr. John was still at Guzzi, working on the revamped Quota, but soon to leave due to the Aprilia takeover/housecleaning.

Don't have my copy of Moto Guzzi Big Twins (by our very own Greg Field!) handy but iirc, the v11 Sport resulted from a desire to correct the perceived "flaws" voiced by owners & the press in the 1100 Sport, its immediate preceding model. It received an updated transmission (6 speed vs. 5 speed) & changes to overall ratio spread, revamped fuel injection with a newer computer, a more comfortable riding position and of course, revised styling, while retaining the tried & true Moto Guzzi big block 2v pushrod engine. The 1100 Sport from which it evolved, was in turn developed to make up for delays in bringing the 4v Daytona project to market, basically by utilizing the frame and running gear developed for the Daytona with the proven 2v engine. The Daytona project developed out of Dr. John Wittner's endurance racers of the 80s, utilizing a frame design he had seen elsewhere and adapted to suit the Guzzi big block [similar frame designs were used as far back as the 50s on privateer racers], combined with a 4v engine concurrently under development by lifetime Guzzi engineer Umberto Todero. Good luck at the show!

Yep! Dang, Laing, good pull! Very impressive... Ride on!

Here's the scoop [i had pretty much your same questions about 6 mos? or more ago...] The fuel lines: hold the 90deg plastic elbows to prevent stressing them, & push the fuel lines toward the elbow. Take a pair of needle nose pliers and gently use the jaws to pry the quick-release fittings away from the elbow. [sorry, it's hard to describe, but remember that you won't actually be putting any pressure into the grips of the pliers, you're just using the jaws as levers against the flat ring on the elbows to push the spring-loaded ends of the fuel lines back & POP! there goes a bunch of fuel all over everything. You did remember to put some shop towels below the lines to catch the dribbles of fuel, right? ] The various other rubber lines will be CUT where they're conveniently accessed and straight brass hose barbs will be used to reconnect them. Sorry, I forgot the sizes I used. Take some sandpaper to one end of the hose barbs & round off the barb tips a little before putting them in, to make it easier to remove that side the next time you need to remove the tank: otherwise, they'll be a huge PITA to get undone again [DAMHIK.] The first time you remove the tank, it's going to take about 3 hours, what with proceeding gingerly, running to the hardware store to get the right sized hose barbs, etc. The next time you do it, it's a 5 minute job. And you'll still not have enough shop towels for all the fuel dribbles! (How annoying!.. ) Best o' luck, & thanks to all the wonderful people here in v11LM.com who helped me out w/ my questions on this topic way back!

Definitely NOT an expert here, but I remember reading about how the 6-speed in the V11 was a bit of a radical departure from industry "norms," being a 4-shaft transmission [vs. the more normal 3-shaft], with the intent being that with the different layout, the gears could be wider (to handle torque loads) yet still shift quickly, etc. Wish I could remember where I read that, it was very likely on-line, since so few moto-rags ever even had articles on Moto Guzzis up until the Piaggio buyout of Aprilia [which likely only got the press it did because Ducati was in the hunt as well...] Ride on!