Skeeve

Those are for measuring CO, I think. At least, that's what they were for on the ones with which Yamaha used to equip all their streetbike exhausts.

Arctic Silver [& other heat-sink pastes for use w/ computers] are intended for thermal xfer, absolutely. But, that's only after they're determined to be (nominal) electrical insulators. Of course, that's a lot easier in the Ride on! [1] In direct proportion, mostly. Aluminum

Is Jaap out of new photos? Maybe the Guzzis that didn't make the final cut for the Squadra Guzzista calendar project can be recycled over here? Ride on!

You could write a book? Something Whitehorse Press or the Garage Company would sell in droves, I should think...

More power = more fuel. OTOH, there're places on the map where there's too little fuel (lean stumble): adding fuel here actually means less fuel will be used to make the same power [since the stumble, or "negative power cycle" goes away.] And some places on the map have too much fuel, which means a decrease from excessively rich to just slightly rich makes more power w/ less fuel. Once it's mapped to run clean throughout the power band, the only way to use less fuel is to retain control of your right wrist... [make less power!] Ride on!

Wow! Thanks for the history lesson; I really enjoy the inside story on things like this! Life's little ironies: I'm presently about 5 miles from Laguna Beach, & spent at least a couple weeks there every summer when growing up. [it was much nicer then, before Orange County's population quintupled... ] I used to ride an XS11 too: it was my first real streetbike when I got back into riding in the early 90s [having sold my Honda MT125 about 8 years previous to buy my 2nd car, a Kharmann Ghia...] Oddly enough, it had about the same performance characteristics [550lb curb wt., 80 rwhp] as a v11 out of the same displacement, but of course handles like a truck in comparison! Horst Leitner was wasting his time if he thought the XS11 would respond much to his shaft-control system: it's problems lay more in the spindly front end & incapable frame! O.K. - I know, I know: he used the XS because it was cheap, reliable & plentiful on the used market, and w/ it's poor handling, any improvements (or otherwise) would be immediately noticeable: a near ideal test-mule for his experiments! As for the weight: yes, I'm aware the torsion bar isn't particularly heavy, but a cable that has the same strength under tension as the bar does under compression will weigh much less than 1/2 the bar. That's all I'm sayin'... Bummer about him losing out on $$$ from BMW. Do you think he'll bring suit now that Piaggio's deeper pockets are now backing Guzzi?

'S too bad that Guzzi was working on getting around BMW's paralever patent when they came up w/ this system, because they could have gone w/ a bar above & below the swingarm if such wasn't the case [bMW's Paralever patent has one below the swingarm, iirc.] Kawi's latest system on the Connie 14 has them above & below, but on both sides, I think, which may be "more of the same," ie, just to get around the patents of others'. So why would above AND below be advantageous? 'Cause then Guzzi could have used simple cables (tension only), which would be lighter, and the most serious shortcoming Guzzis seem to possess in comparison to other marques is their relative, um, "gravitational enhancement." And every ounce saved is 28 grams earned! The spherical bearings are a nice touch, tho'...

An exact replacement for the Rabbit cabriolet [aka: "Cabrio"] in VW's product line then? Boring as bat-shit? Primary source for salt-petre, batshit was, back in the day. In case you miss the connection, KOH is 75% of what made gunpowder ["black powder" since the Frenchies developed smokeless a century & a quarter back, but for several centuries prior, it was the only gunpowder there was...] such a world-changing product. Bat-shit is anything but boring...

Sure, somebody's gotta be "top."

Make a "temporary" header out of copper pipe? Plenty fast enough for most purposes. Aluminum a little slower, but more?less? resistant to exhaust contents? Don't know about availability of either in the dimensions needed, I'm just sayin'...

I'm not certain you want to use the silver oxide [Arctic Silver?] paste: I believe the point of that stuff is a dielectric w/ adequate heat transfer properties, whereas the temp sensor bung in a Guzzi head can ground out thru the head if it wants w/o hurting anything, so common ol' everyday copper anti-seize will work [xfer heat] better. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong? Thanx...

75deg is the Yammie a/c 2v v-twins that used to power their 535, 750 & 920-1100cc bikes starting back in the 80s thru to about 2k1? or so. Or was that 72deg? Anyway, pretty close. Harley guys everywhere are straining at their dog-collars to string you up for missing that 45deg v-twin thing about H-D, but hey, they hate the Guzzisti (or anyone not of the fold!) anyway, right? Does anyone know why Harley's are 45 deg v-twins? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Because that was the w-i-d-e-s-t angle that would fit in the original converted bicycle frames their first models were based upon! As far as the "Twingle" term, it was originally used to describe the split (siamesed-pistons] single 2-strokes, but has also been used to describe the changing of a 360deg firing order to a 0deg firing order to get traction dynamics similar to those of a Harley for dirt-track racing...

Their too skinny to provide any muffling (or else they muffle well and are too restrictive.) I also find their "Get me some Viagra, STAT!" profile to be exceedingly unappealing. Frankly, I love the look of the stock cans, I'd just like them to weigh about 1/2 what they do and be much less restrictive, while muffling almost as well!

Hard to beat that with a stick!

Your mechanic friend wasn't using the slang properly, or didn't know what he was talking about. Roller bearings are always spinning. "Burnt a bearing" might have been appropriate; Evos were known for blowing out the stock crank bearing (left side?) at one time, when the factory bean counters subbed a less suitable part (1/2 the # of roller, rollers only 1/2 width instead of the old full-width Torrington part.) H-D, to their discredit, tried to deny there was anything wrong w/ the new sub-standard part instead of just fixing the problem [the 'fix' being firing the accountant who'd pressured the parts dept. to switch to the substandard bearing to save $1 a unit, at the cost of $1000s/failure, and switching back the to original part during construction!] Exactly. W/ plain bearings, it will be the first one; in Harley's case as outlined above, the last. The middle case tends to be sorted out in initial product development, which is why newly-minted mechanical engineers aren't put in charge of new product development, but assigned more suitable tasks like kickstand design... this gives them time to absorb "real world" engineering skills from the old guys. Au contraire: plain bearings flat out require mo' betta' production machining standards to function properly: why do you think that up until the late 60s or so, almost all motorcycles had built up cranks & roller or ball bearings? Cars didn't get shell plain bearings until what, the 50s? Model T's had plain bearings: you poured the bearings in situ, to get the correct tolerances! CNC machining really changed the engineering, since it opened up a whole new realm of possibilities available at the same product price point... This is about the most specious example I've seen on the forum yet, altho' it's an excellent example of why you should always sneak up on your torques evenly across the board... even for something with as loose of tolerances as the hole locations on valve covers!

How sharp is your pencil! or ?

Wisdom, intelligence, mental acuity. Not "book smart" but not "street smart" either; just someone who's smarter than average & has been around the block.

None whatsoever. Alexis [Agirl?] doesn't give us any clues either, the entire blog entry consisting of a few pix of (apparent) friends stopped by the side of the road helping each other to top up the oil in a sparkling new-looking Coppa Italia. New bikes use oil... Anyone on a long road trip w/ a new bike who's got 1/2 a clue will carry some spare motor oil. I'd sure like to know what the mileage on that Bike was reading... Seems like they're in good spirits & having fun w/ it, which is the key. I'm sure glad I don't just randomly bash bike brands 'cause I saw some people stopped by the side of the road once! If you know her, how about getting her to flesh out the blog entry instead of leaving it a few non-descript pictures w/ a snide slug for textual content? Ride on!

Only one small fly in the ointment w/ Cliff's MyECU, & that's MyLackOfMoney... wrt crankshaft: the later V11 mills (supposedly) have under-piston oil jets to aid in cooling; the diff. between cranks probably doesn't amount to more than a slightly larger gallery to enable greater oil flow... wrt TB: I seem to recall that the Sporti has larger dia. TB's than the later v11s: again, that focus on all-out top-end and carry-over from the development of the Daytona reveals itself. This is revealed in other ways, too: V11s are only geared for a 130mph top speed, despite having a 6-speed tranny: the 1100 Sport/i is geared for 150mph (w/ a close-ratio 5-speed, which is why taking off requires so much clutch! ) wrt combustion chamber: probably just a difference in the squish band. Mike Rich seems to favor the theory that the stock V11 pistons are not correct for the stock combustion chamber shape; his high compression pistons, which actually have a lower crown height than other hi-comp offerings, are designed to take properly take advantage of the stock chamber shape. You might want to contact him & ask for his opinion re: the 1100 Sporti. Ride on!

Spetzle!

Timkins are a type of caged roller bearing, actually. More expensive than ball bearings, but better able to absorb shock-induced loads normal to the axis of rotation. AKA "tapered roller bearings." Ride on!

Care to repeat that in English? Use small words, please, as I don't have much experience w/ routing the magic smoke... Seriously, we need to work up a "How to:" section so that people who've done it [whatever project "it" is, in any particular case] can post their pix & specifics so that the just barely competent among us [who you looking at? Oh, right... ] have an "idiot's guide" to making the upgrade themselves...

The differing RPM breakpoints are very revealing in themselves: The stock Sporti map being the earliest, is useful as a "1st approximation." It's also worthwhile to remember that Guzzi was rushing the Sporti to market after the protracted development of the Daytona Hi-Cam and 1100 "Spot" models - so the transition to EFI for the Sporti was likely very rushed and derivative of the work on EFI for the Hi-Cam engine, ergo, less emphasis on the narrow throttle openings and low rpm curve, w/ a proportionately greater emphasis on data points for larger throttle angles and higher rpms (and corresponding criticism in reviews of the Sporti at the time of the "lightswitch" low-speed throttle behavior, exacerbated by the lack of cush-drive mechanism in the 1100 Sports...) Next up, the Ti ECU map: this is a part issued for use w/ the "closed course only" performance exhaust system. While no Guzzi V11 is a true "race bike," this is as close as Guzzi gets short of the MGS-01, so again, fewer data points for the "off-idle" ignition curve would be normal, as Guzzi would not expect much time being spent there by the rider w/ the Ti pipes. Hence, the complete elimination of the 1.0 degree throttle opening line, & insertion of the 3.66 degrees of throttle line (likely for smoother throttle response on acceleration out of corners, a VGT, IMHO.) Thirdly, the stock v11 ignition map: emphasis on the off-idle response, for trickling around in traffic, etc. Also note how the advance retards in the final 8500 rpm column for a "soft" cutoff at redline [not much point playing around at those rpms if there's no additional power to be had, is there? ] What I don't understand at all is why the stock V11 & Ti maps have table entries for 700 & 900 rpm, if the idle speed needs to be significantly higher to ensure adequate oil pressure? Why not just cut off the bottom of the table at 1k rpm like on the map for the Sporti [or 900 rpm] and devote another column of entries for the mid-throttle, (again) a la' Sporti? So it seems to my inexpert self that Guzzi got some of the initial params spot on, & when Aprilia took over someone in charge of the map development got hooked on the "myth of the mechanical mule" & worked up a good map for a tractor engine! All fine & dandy for the cruiser models (maybe), w/ the emphasis on low rpm idle among that crowd [NB: at least, "that crowd" in the Harley cruiser market...], but I'm thinking a general remap of the v11 ECU w/ a more optimal choice of data points would certainly be in order! 700 rpm? WTF?.. WRT max values being different: AFAIK, the Sporti has slightly different heads & pistons from the V11s, which may lead to enough difference in combustion characteristics for the values. Also, the airbox w/ all the "ram air" paraphenalia as well as differences in the fuel map (higher emissions being permissible in the early 90s vs. 5 years later) may have led to such variations in the values for maximum advance. Ride on!

Proving yet again, that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder! The only thing I like about the Centauro is the engine: that is such of thing of beauty that it makes up considerably for the Centauro's shortfall in other criterions for attractiveness... Yes, I saw the bend around the tensioner, but other than the fact that it reverses the direction of bend vis-a-vis turning the corner round the cam sprocket, it is a much more gradual bend than that around the cam itself. No reliability issue to be expected here [altho' the actual performance of the tensioner is yet to be determined... ] Yes, running the chain up one side of the cylinder & down the other, w/ the intake shooting the slot down the middle would be an alternative, but I'm fairly certain BMW's engineers must have considered it & gone the route they did for some overriding reason, probably having to do w/ keeping the rider's toes from kicking the intake manifolds w/ every brake or shift! Not a problem on a , but a very real concern on a Bimmer's sagging ti... uh, "horizontal cylinders." Ride on!

Well, the tightest bend is around the upper camshaft sprocket, & yes, it's only an artist's impression, but counting teeth gives 5 about 1/4 section, so that would be a 20-tooth sprocket, so no worries. Moto Guzzi's new 4v uses a Hy-Vo chain, which is a better solution in terms of longevity than the bicycle chain BMW is using to drive their cams, but the Guzzi QV is a rehash of the Hi-Cam short pushrod design, instead of BMW's ohc setup, so ultimately, BMW can spin their motor faster than Guzzi can before hitting valve float, ceteris parabus. In the long run, we're all dead anyway. In the short run, I'd rather be seen riding a Goose than a Bimmer*. * - [unless it's a choice between being seen on a Centauro** vs. the HPS, then I'd go for the Bimmer!] ** - [Which I'm already down on record as considering one of the ugliest production motorcycles in modern times, only being edged out for the title by the ??? Mantis (another Marabese screw up from the same period) and Philip Starke's (sp) 'priller Moto 6.5. What was it about the late '90s that so many hideously ugly designs were being given the green light?] Ride on!