Skeeve

Well, for starters, if you read the rules, it seems you'll be giving away at least 50# and a whole buncha horsepower to the competition. Hard to make that up, even when spending major dollar$.

Well, in defense of a 4v update, it has a couple of factors in its favor, regardless of any "need" by an avg. rider [no offense to you Pete; I'm actually using myself as "avg." in this context! ]: 1) We've reached an era when any open-class tourer needs to be able to claim 100hp and mean it, just for sales competitiveness. [i know, crazy ain't it! Just a generation ago, that magic figure was only known to GP machines!] 2) A 4v motor w/ the magic 100 number can still have a respectably broad powerband, vs. a 2v motor that makes that figure, but has to be tuned so peaky to make it that its not fun to ride or reliable any more. Ride on!

Before Piaggio pulled the blipvert on the website, the description indicated that it was another CIH design at the very least, if not OHC, but that instead of having a belt driving the cams running off the front of the engine & creating cooling issues, it was to have a chain running off the back of the crank [eg, around the intake tract if OHC, or off to the side if cam-in-head; the pic was quite lacking in detail, naturally, for vaporware... ] which would create all sorts of truly new & unique engine parts [something which so far in their history, Guzzi has been at great pains to avoid for the last 30 years or so to varying degrees. ] Naturally, the immediate response was "I'll hold off & buy one of the 100hp units coming soon to a dealer near me," which created a bit of a problem for the ever-shrinking dealer network, so Piaggio yanked the announcement, since just the prospect of a Guzzi that could actually claim to have some credible performance abilities was cannibalizing sales of the current generation of product. Ride on!

Looks like another case of "left turning BDC violates rider's right-of-way..." I can hardly wait until all the cages are on auto-pilot w/ radar-threat avoidance so the computer will keep the dang thing immobile when there's a rapidly approaching motorcycle...

The question wasn't whether there was "a popular name for them" yet, but whether there was a good appellation. What do I think they ought to be called? I already told you: Quotards, since they're both derivative of the Quota's semi-perimeter [or double-backbone, however you want to term it] frame. Option B: Dr. Johns, Jonnies, Junos [they're Italian, after all: Juno was the Roman name of Hera, mother of the gods, and since these bikes are responsible for a literal rebirth of the Guzzi brand, it would seem appropriate... ] - whatever you want, really. But I'll continue calling'em Quotards, since that what they are, just as the Bassa/Stone/Cali/metals are Tontis & my V11 is a spiney (or Foale, if you want to be persnickety about it.) Ride on!

That's Los Angeles, not L.A.sagna!

Utter nonsense. The Griso [at least; still haven't seen a pic of the Breva frame] is a Quotard, as in derivative of the semi-perimeter frame from the Quota 1100es. You could also call it a "Dr. John" frame, since it was his design. The spine frame he lifted from Tony Foale, so it would be correct to call all the Quotards "Dr. Johns..." a la' the way "Tontis" are used for the LM1-V models (& others.)

Ouch, you totalled your '02? That had to hurt! No wonder you say "Wear your gear!" Your info says you're in La Crescenta: did you crash on Angeles Crest, or in traffic? Morbid curiosity; don't feel compelled to offer details unless you want to do so! Congrats on the new ride!

A-HA! I wondered who won that auction on eBay! Wish I could help you, but can only offer conjecture & hints: First off, measure the diameter of the valve heads & combustion chamber; this basic info will tell you whether it's a 850 or 1000, and whether it's a big-valve or medium-valve head [safe bet it's not a small-valve! Actually, I'd give odds it's a big-valve, since I kinda doubt Raceco would have even bothered building a middy for racing, but then I'm a clueless nooB at this, so feel safe to ignore my WAGs... ] Once you know if it's an 850 or 1000, you'll pretty much know what it fits, since there weren't a huge number of models of either displacement made, and the valve sizes would give you the type of piston needed to work with them... Like I said, it's just my guess, but Cowboy Pete [he's a roper don'cha know! ] can weigh in & critique this approach. Best o' luck w/ your fancy go-fast parts!

Not to sound critical or negative in any way, but won't those dates conflict w/ GMG for those riders interested in both? Of course, since I haven't the $$ to do either, it's a moot point for me...

No, not a gentleman, but a Captain of Industry! Or a politician...

Don't be too bored by this; after all, this is the same sort of turn around Moto Guzzi needs to experience if we're still going to be riding them in 10 years time [well, new ones anyway! The old ones will still be running... ]

Greg already answered this, but to put it more simply: The FXR [1] The Evolution motor [2] The Softail [3] The Buyout [0] Ride on! [0] As Greg made pretty clear, if it wasn't for the LBO coordinated by Vaughn Beals [brought in by AMF to "fix" H-D's red ink problem before giving up completely] and the impetus it provided to fix the QC problems afflicting the company, none of the other factors would have mattered. [1] 1st of the rubber glides, & the only one that could really handle; this frame was killed off by H-D in the name of "production engineering," ie - it's faster & easier to build Dynas than the old FXR, even tho' the Dyna chassis is inferior by far. (Nothing new under the sun! ) [2] Imagine, a Harley that doesn't leak & a mileage bump from 40mpg. D@mn straight that motor saved the company! [3] The Softail frame played upon the oh-so-critical nostalgia factor, as Greg so clearly explained above. [4] [4] Hence, the "Fatboy": this model was aptly named after the "Fat Man" & "Little Boy" atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki & Hiroshima, respectively, in prediction of the effect it would have upon the Japanese "metric cruiser" market. For those who are too young to remember, it was aptly named...

Interesting. I just discovered that Google's language tools don't function for eBay auctions! Thanks (I guess...) Still, with the abseiling dollar, that 339 Euros is something like $500, let alone shipping a heavy lump o' metal overseas... Probably more cost & time effective to buy one of the complete V11 motors the one German company has, & eBay the parts off his original motor to defray the costs... [NB: I just discovered on another thread that the point is moo*; he's getting a lot of friendly mechanical assistance to rebuild it, make it better than before: stronger (chingchingchingching), faster (chingchingchingching), smarter (trumpets) - & all for a d@mnsight less than 6 million yen, let alone dollars! ] * : "The point is moo?" "Yeah, you know, like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter! It's moo..."

Something that looks like the Griso headers w/ a proper 2->1->2 utilizing the stock cans [or aftermarket slip-ons] would be a treat. [or like the unit illustrated on the Jack-All] Just doesn't make a lot of sense to me to offer something that just recreates the V11's less-than-ideal stock exhaust control. Ride on!

My experience is similarly fabulous. Just a reminder: keep those old relays for projects like wiring up horns & foglights, etc...

Not since pipes stopped being made of mild steel with a hi-temp paint finish... Of course, made that way, pipes were so much cheaper to replace that nobody much cared if they rusted away before you managed to drop the bike & ding'em, 'cause it was only about $200 in today's dollars ($100 back then) for a new set!

Cosmetic: paint it black! Plan B: chrome it! No middle ground... Frankly, I like the looks of the Quat-D less than the old colostomy bag collector on the 1100 Spot/Sporti & Daytonas. [For the Centauro, the c-bag was better than the rest of the styling, so no big deal there... ] Like you said, it's a subjective issue when it comes to aesthetics, BUT the mass centralization/ wt. loss issue has a lot going for it. Performance wise, adapting a set of the Griso's 2->1 headers [or alt., the Enzo Cobras] with some Ti cans on the back would almost certainly outperform the present Quat-D as well as be far more aesthetically pleasing than any present offering. Wish I knew if it would work... I think the next logical evolution in the realm of Guzzi exhaust design wrt something of the Quat-D box would be a hydroformed can that would truly utilize all the available space in the underbike location, be structurally superior & acoustically more effective while producing superior performance, w/ some sort of lightweight beauty covers on the sides to camouflage the fact that the underlying hydroformed box is as hideous as the MGS-01 is beautiful... Ride on!

& still others call it what it is, ie, a scythe. G0d-D@MN but that was a tedious movie! I finally broke down & watched it after all these years, & the only thing I got out of it was a huge "Huh?" over how in heck Billy Bob Thornton ever got to be a celebrity based on that? Dwight Yoakam, OTOH, needed killin'. Why is it again BB's character ended up back in the nuthouse? Also got forced to sit thru some dreadful waste of time called Changing Times with Gerard Depardieu & Cat Deneuve by my Francophile gf this week. Two, count'em, two absolute loser movies [that I'm sure were both critically acclaimed; I know for sure on Sling Blade, but not the other] in one week! What did I ever do to deserve this? Alright, let's skip the movie drivel, & get back to bikes!

Nice touch, using the name of the supposed Congo dinosaur ["M'okole M'bebe"] as the victim's name. Since lots of people would have a feeling of vague familiarity of the name from when the whole legend-chaser news hit the fan about it back in the early 90s, it lends a type of verisimilitude to the whole joke. Still, the one about the 5 blind men & the elephant is better...

Did you remember to check the label to see who OEM's it for them?

OK, well all this being that let's go 'there' now . . . Yeah, what Docc sed! All this chit-chat of wooden ships & iron men is of great fascination [to my brother!] but not exactly on-topic. Illuminate me o' Roper of the Southern Cross, as to why the oil-returns should be restored to the heads!

Well, you came to the right place for info on the big block models; I'd also suggest the wildguzzi.com/forum for additional educational material, where the focus leans considerably more toward the classic Tonti framed bikes and the more recent Cali/cruiser models rather than the spine frame models favored here. In exchange, you might want to post info about good rides/eats/camps around Baton Rouge for those Guzzisti unfamiliar with the area who may be interested in passing thru or coming to visit someday; don't forget, v11LM has readers quite literally from all over the world, and more than one have been known to come visit Stateside... Ride on! PS: Why is it called Red Stick?

Remember, the only winners in the U.S. elections just past were the politicians, who took 100% of the votes cast! The public, which overwhelmingly reaffirmed their desire to be ruled by elected officials, will nevertheless still be getting fleeced by the only ones to profit from the sad state of our representative govt. as it devolves into unworkable total democracy and the media and demogogues conspire to remove what few freedoms we have left ourselves... Long live the Republic! [Who am I kidding? It's already been gutshot, we should just put it out of its misery...]