Skeeve

Electric motors are much cheaper to make & more reliable than any kind of mechanically-powered engine: it's the batteries that are screwin' you up! Electricity has to get produced somehow: PE (pure electric) cars aren't as green as the Greenies make them out to be. [Not that they're intentionally misleading anyone, they're just not good at thinking things through...] I've got a site bookmarked somewhere about how to make your own dyno. That's the real bugbear in this experimentation: most of the changes require instrumentation to be able to track their results, and dyno time is ridiculously ex$pen$ive for what is for the most part, an old barrel, a laptop, & some cheap transducers. It would make more sense for a club to buy their own dyno & rent time on it to a shop than the current method of everyone having to pay a shop for a mechanic's time whether they want it or not. Timing at part throttle is going to be a function of rpm, volumetric efficiency & charge turbulence. Did you ever read The High Speed Internal Combustion Engine by Sir Harry Ricardo like I suggested? I'm working on a couple of OOPs by P.E. Irving right now, too; on p. 49 of _Automobile Engine Tuning_ he states: "the ignition timing is very critical at high compression ratios, but varies considerably from engine to engine, even if of the same make, after considerable modifications have been made. As a general rule, around 20-24deg will be correct for ratios of 12:1 or higher; the best schem is to start off with too little advance and increase it a degree at a time if the engine feels "flat". Too much advance will inevitably mean a damaged piston; relevant detail of various systems are given in Ch. 13." Seems he never got around to editing, 'cause Ch13 is about balancing... In Ch.10 on tuning, in the "1st stage" section he writes only that "two or three degrees less advance will be required, depending upon the increase in c.r. and effectiveness of porting." Here we go! Chapter 9 has this on p.101: "Most car timings are quoted in so many degrees before t.d.c. w/ the ignition fully retarded, which has the merit of simplicity but is almost meaningless form the competition P.O.V. What matters for maximum power is the timing at full advance, and though this may be deduce by adding to the quoted angle the amount of advance built into the distributor, it is at best a chancy system and likely to introduce errors because the advance range may not be precisely what you think. [emphasis added] How Much Advance? The answer to this question is that it all depends upon the type of engine, the c.r. and the fuel, and in the last resort the correct figure can only be determined by testing under full load. The maker's standard recommendation will be a good jumping-off place for any engine which has had little modification beyond cleaning up the ports, but greater mods may demand quite large differences.... Broadly speaking, anything which increases the compression pressure (such as increasing c.r., improving porting or using a hotter cam), or gives a cleaner mixture (such as improving the exhaust system) will decrease the advance, though a change from low- to high-octane petrol may offset this a trifle. Alcohol fuels, however, have a slower flame-rate than petrol and therefore need more advance." He goes on to warn about air-cooled engines running beyond their max advance being prone to meltdown, etc., but the upshot is that "final test under power is the only reliable guide." [Please note, these quotes aren't verbatim, I saved myself typing by extensive editing & abbreviations...] Ride on!

My sentiments exactly!

Net result of all the VATs propagating down the supply chain is that the final consumer pays a huge chunk more for their product as each step in the chain passes the costs of the VAT they paid to their upstream down the line. You left out that you bought the raw steel for 10, had to pay 2 VAT so your cost was 12; you sell it downstream for 24 [typical 50% margin], and so on. The price increases faster w/ VAT than w/o the VAT, even when the only nominal "added value" is distributor markup. It's related to the multiple creation of money when banks can hold fractional reserves... Up until just a little over 100 years ago, all of the U.S. Federal govt's. expenses were met from import duties & excise taxes. Then the income tax was initiated: at first, it was only 2% [that's right two percent!] on incomes of $100,000 or more [that would be equivalent to those making more than $5,000,000/yr today if I recall the conversion correctly; I don't want to take the time to look it up, but it's a huge difference due to inflation.] Now it ranges up to 35%, and those in the middle [making less than the original $100,000/yr, not to mention the equivalent $5,000,000!] pay the brunt of it. Heck, medieval serfs only paid 20% [10% tithe to the Church, 10% to their lord]! And someone wants us to pay VAT on top of this? Screw'em, lets go down and throw their tea in the ocean!

Someone else already responded w/ the acronym explanation, "Value Added Tax" and the %age in the U.K., but that's only part of the story. V.A.T. is like a sales tax on the national level, but it gets worse: because it's calculated & collected at every stage of the product cycle, it has an arithmetically magnified effect in suppression of trade, ie: raw iron ore is shipped to the refiner [VAT collected], pig iron is sold to the foundry [VAT collected], raw castings are supplied to the machine shop [VAT collected], finished parts sold to distributor [VAT collected], shipped to storefront [VAT collected], sold to end user [VAT collected.] So the cost of an item under a 5% VAT can easily be raised more than 30% over that sold in a normal economy. IIRC, the institution of VAT was one overwhelming factor that led to the U.K. economy going into a slump throughout the 70s & 80s, & only after changes were made in how it was collected (ie, reducing it substantially) did the U.K. economy start up again. A national sales tax is one thing, but a true V.A.T. is a recipe for economic demise, since it so favors large, vertically integrated conglomerates. Naturally it is the favored form of taxation by socialists & communists everywhere. Every so often we get some congresscritter proposing instituting a national sales tax/VAT scheme here in the States. Fortunately so far, these idiots generally lose their seat at the next election. O.K., today's econ lesson is over, run off & ride [if you can: it's even raining in So.Cal. today, so I can relate to our friends living in even less hospitable climates...]

That sounds more reasonable: I knew my scale was suspect! I should try my zippy new "digital" scale to see what it says. But as for the "hard to justify the expense," it's worth remembering that most people are expecting power gains from swapping out the cans in addition to the "rapid wt. loss plan." So if you got a 1hp across the board boost from new pipes and lost 7 lbs. of wt. [& let's not forget, it's from off the rear of the bike], it would be like getting a 2 hp boost across the board & dropping the forks in the triple clamps a tad due to the better wt. distribution! Of course, some people just want new pipes 'cause they think the stockers sound "strangled" & want their Geese to honk! Ride on,

Did you use the correct basecoat? Metalcast 100 iirc, vs. the Metalcast 104? 105? for the can of red you've got in the picture? I imagine the basecoat would be unnecessary if starting w/ a set of polished valve covers from a Jackal/Cali/Stone etc., but on the dark grey/black valve covers it will probably be needed to get the correct "shade" upon dry down... I have no idea how starting w/ red ones will affect the final result! Looking forward to pics of your (re)finished covers!

Well, I actually do think they look pretty good, but you're right: they're absolutely boat anchors! When I was doing the dissection pix I tried weighing them on the [woefully inaccurate] bathroom scale & they came out to something close to 20 pounds each! The stock collector is no lightweight either. If it wasn't for how heavy the stock cans are, I think Guzzi would have sold far fewer of their ex$pen$ive Ti "race" pipe kit... Ride on!

FWIW the muriatic acid sold in pool supply houses, etc. is HCL. Easiest & cheapest way to get it if you need it; it's used for cleaning concrete.

Is a goat a slang term for something? Or are we talking one of the ornery, less hairy, eats anything cousins to all the sheep you lot have cluttering up the landscape down under? If the latter, why would the average Oz working family want one, unless you have a society-wide need for home-made cheese? Sorry I'm going to miss your shop demos; I've gotta work tomorrow. Those darn slackers down at the Lotto board keeps messing up my winning numbers...

Simply gorgeous! A signed statement of provenance will do a lot to help ensure nobody after you thinks "this old thing is worthless," but from your description it would be almost impossible to get from the seller; it might appear too much "looking a gift horse in the mouth." Maybe you can get some info on it from Guzzi direct? Production date, anything like that. Congrats on a great addition to your garage!

Not cheap at first glance, but the description states they come w/ the handlebars & other bits & pieces, not just the clamps alone, which makes them much more attractive price-wise. What we really need is for some sort of y2k update to Guzzi's own old gooseneck clip ons: excellent flexibility and good looking too. And of course, at an attractive price point doesn't hurt either...

I think that's due to the increasing complexity of the vehicles combined w/ the ever-rising shop rates, so that it has become cheaper to just replace a whole assembly w/ new from factory kit than it is to repair the still usable original. I've only heard of two bearing or seal factors in the greater L.A. area: I'm certain they're huge & spend a lot of time shipping stuff all across the U.S., but it makes it hard to run over, hand them a shagged bearing & say "Can you find a match to this?" And of course motorcycles, being such a tiny little fraction of the overall automotive market, really suffers from this change in supply...

Snake oil. Some of the Chinese scooters come w/ this or something similar as stock; the scooterists posting to the web about these bikes all say "scrap it & have functional brakes." IIRC, MCN [American version, reputable; not the less-than-trustworthy Brit rag MCN] tested one of these style units many moons ago. Result was "save yourself the money & just don't bleed your brakes completely for the same f/x." Run, do not walk, run away from this bit of ridiculous snake oil.

We're on the same page my friend. The key w/ the flywheels is that they're only part of the solution; as you state, in an of themselves, they can't store enough energy. And like you say, the 800# gorillas in the greenhouse gas issue are China & India. Think about all the methane emitted by the sacred cows alone! Wind power is very economical, but does require plugging into the grid to make it effective. Unfortunately, massive wind farms [which the utilities like] kind of work against themselves: when they're big enough to suit the desires of the energy utilities, they start to affect the local microclimate. Not ideal. The reason France has gone so heavily nuclear is that they're using a reactor design dreamed up here in the States that the utilities have turned their back(s) on because it's unsuited to massive central generation & distribution. The reactor design is inherently safe, but not effectively scalable beyond 2MW iirc. France is a country of open countryside w/ lots of small villages, which is ideally suited to this small, mass-produced reactor design, 1 per village. Plus, as a socialist country, it takes a long-term infrastructure POV to such an energy policy, that just doesn't happen here in the U.S. w/ it's competing regulated-monopoly utilities. But we've wandered FAR off-topic, so until further notice, I'm suggesting that the best solution for modifying the V11 ECU still isn't available, but if I could afford it, I'd be going for a My15M, just because of the flexibility it offers. I'd really prefer a system doesn't require any of the lame-o hardware or software keys. Quite frankly, the vendors are on the far side of the Laffer curve: if they'd lower the price of additional keys to say 10-20% of the original system cost, they'd sell a few less complete systems, but mountains more of the additional keys, as right now many owners balk at the price of entry to dialing in their EFI. I'm really looking forward to Todd Eagan's news on the updated PCIV? or whatever: if Dynojet finally supplies the ignition module they've said was forthcoming for so long, then that might finally be worth the $300+ cost to join in. Personally, I'm kinda surprised that no hacker on the car side has instructions for how to do a data dump of the WM15 and reflash using the diagnostic port. Wasn't that same EFI system used in some Fiats & others? It sure would be more satisfying to just buy a $15 cable, hook it up to the laptop, and go to town w/ hex offsets & bit twiddling. Oh well, I guess as the systems get more & more complicated, there's just less & less the individual can do to improve the running of their engine. Thus passes the great American tinkering way...

Such are the journalists' claims, but I'm unaware of any reliable 1st hand reports. Best thing might be to tell the dealer that you want some test fitted before you'll buy...

That would be counting all the pollution of the production of the vehicle along with the pollution caused by running it, and the costs of cleaning it up [recycling it] at the end of its useful lifespan [economic lifecycle.] Electric vehicles are HUGE polluters because of the significantly greater energy costs in production, the huge inefficiencies in daily use, and the gigantic cleanup costs at the end of the day. Batteries suck, that's why so many people are working on the fuel cell approach [which has its problems too, as in "no real net change in carbon footprint" but let's shelve that for now...] Solar cells aren't an improvement, since they typically require more energy to manufacture than you get out of them [ie, they're an energy sink.] They're special purpose energy answers, not a panacea. [This bit of news really hit me hard when I 1st learned about it: I had always thought solar cells were the Final Solution myself... :-( ] Believe or not, the one hybrid vehicle concept which seems to have almost nobody working on it [flywheel energy storage] is the only serious short-term pollution-reduction solution we've got. Oh well, wouldn't be the 1st time everyone ignored the obvious & went off to tilt at windmills... I've been a pretty avid alternative energy supporter since I was a kid, and have literally spent a lifetime examining the options. The only things that really work are windpower, geothermal, & solar thermal generation[1]. There are other potential big hits, but they require such a large infrastructure investment to reach sustainability that they really only fit as govt. projects, which in turn means that they'll never happen because of lobbying by vested interests & the inability of the govt. to run a show that big w/o screwing up the details. C'est la vie... [1] And of course, these all have pretty severe geographic limitations.

Smallblock. I wasn't thinking about s/b, only the big blocks in my "post '05" comment. My bad. Just a guess based upon past company behaviour: because the non-catalysed muffler parts cost less? Because there were already a gaggle of pre-Euro smog rule changes parts sitting around? Because the U.S. is a big or sensitive enough market that running a special production run was deemed worthwhile? Who knows.... Yes, I'm aware that I live in the land of Fruits & Nuts. If there was another state in the Union that enabled me to ride good motorcycle roads year-round & still have great scuba diving within easy driving distance without CA's astoundling stupid attempts at firearms regulation, I'd be there. Florida has potential, except for the poor riding [long flat straight roads infested w/ bluehairs, dinosaurs & bugs]; Oregon would be ideal except for the sketchy job climate. [sigh] Sometimes I just want to chuck it all & found my own country, based upon the sound principles of "an armed society is a polite society" and "pave the planet, my street bike needs more tarmac!" [The Greenies outside the grocery stores trying to get me to sign their latest idiot legislative effort really get snooty when I tell'em that... wonder why? ] Anyway, CARB has outlasted their original charter, & like any other bureaucratic dept. created wishes to propagate their own continued existence [paychecks.] Ergo, the continued insistence on ever more draconian regulations, so that they have a reason to be kept around to enforce them. Vicious cycle. Heck, CARB was behind the "zero emission vehicle" rating for electric cars, despite the fact that they're worse lifetime polluters than a 2-cycle motorbike!

The Lario was a 4v head on the same cam/block as the regular small-blocks (long push-rod design.) The new quattro-valvole (QV) engine is a cam-in-head, (very!) short push-rod a la' the HiCam, but w/ (yay!) chain-driven cams, drive behind the heads (so no blockage for cooling air flow!) & a whole host of CAD bonuses that flat out didn't exist back in the early 80s when the Lario heads were being engineered. Having been on the bleeding-edge of computer technology before, I can completely understand & stand with you on the "wait for the cannon fodder^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H "early adopters" to soak up the damage before rushing to join in," but I suspect that Piaggio really crossed their T's & dotted their I's on this engine. Frankly, I'm more concerned about the changes to the crank support that make some past "bad news, gotta rebuild the bottom end" scenarios into much worse "bad news, you need new cases before you can rebuild the engine" drama. But I don't really know anything for certain on that, I'm just taking some things Pete Roper posted at pessimistic face value. If what he posted is correct, it's really only going to affect the "30 years down the line" market, where there won't be many old QVs sold on eBay, unlike the thriving Ambo/Eldo market of today. Planned obsolescence is such an ugly thing...

This comes up periodically; I think there's a sticky on it somewhere? Anyway, one solution has been to imprison it in on old 35mm plastic film can (suitably ventilated, to keep the majority of weather & grime & cr@p off the sensor) and just zip tie it out of harms way.

Sorry, no help from me! I just don't care for the styling. Don't get me wrong: it's a comfortable bike, & if you ride 2-up often the pillion perch isn't bad[1], but I just find it too bland styling wise, & I absolutely hate the faux chrome tank antlers. I'd say get the 1200 Sport: all the Breva accessories fit, according to reports, but you start off w/ a slightly higher spec & have the "factory performance kit" available. Of course, if it were *my* money, I'd just wait a year or two for the new QV engine to propagate throughout the line... and the Forex rates to improve! [1] per my gf's test-sit on the Breva 1100 @ the moto show a couple years back; no actual "in use" opinion.

What, have you been hiding under a rock? The new 8v Griso! Ultimately, all the bikes will get it, I'm certain, as the factory will have to equip them all with a more powerful mill to make up for how progressively more strangled the motor will become by emissions regulations...

Doesn't apply to the spineys, but an interesting anecdote for Tontis is that to get any of them (after the factory started fashionably "updating" the stock fitment to whatever width was then fashionable) to handle, just approximate the original tire sizes from the LMI. Of course, if the rims are wider, you can only go so small, but isn't it funny that the same is proving true for Dr. John's Guzzi lineage?

Those are all post-'05, non-V11 models. "World" bikes. Why make special models for the U.S. when the Euro smog regs have finally surpassed our restrictions?

Au contraire mon frere! Far more expert & clueful folk than myself have stated fairly clearly that there is no difference [as in, no parts# changes] between the later "claimed" 9.8cr vs. the 9.5cr bikes. And that "extra exhaust volume" you mention is static, & a relatively insignificant %age of the overall exhaust system volume. Since the only purpose of the front balance tube is to help deal w/ the 4k rpm powerband dip, wouldn't it merit some changes to the map in just the relevant rpm ranges affected, vs. a change to the TPS setting [which would affect fueling everywhere?] Methinks its all another factory miscommunication... I'm far more trusting of empirical data collected from those Guzzista more technically advanced than myself than I am of factory claims that have been shown over a number of years to be, shall we say, "over enthusiastic" [if not outright BS... Don't get me wrong, I'm not running down Guzzi, I'm just pointing out what is a widely acknowledged fact of life: Moto Guzzi isn't one of the J4, and has been known to release machines & info that's just "not ready for primetime." It's part of the "exotic Italian flair."