Skeeve

O.K., in order: "Collectible" - the Big 5 specials like a MN for $80 (in today's deflated greenbacks), or $120 for an SMLE or lately, a K31 Swiss @ $130, are not "collectible." They were made in the millions and if all the parts are numbered the same and not too beat up, then I wholeheartedly concur. But the vast majority of the drug-thru-the-mud, used-to-stretch-barb-wire, worn-at-the-muzzle-by-poorly-trained-conscripts are FAR from collectible! "By a lightweight hunting rifle" - Sure! You gonna sell'em to me in the same quality for what I can pay for one of the surplus beaters, plus $50 for a stock, & some of my unpaid time cutting back the barrel & recrowning? No? Can stay in business you say? I thought so... "Not made anymore & never will be again." - Exactly You cannot come close to the production quality of those old surplused veterans for less than 5x the price. That's what makes them such great raw material for conversion to something with greater utility. You'll note that I already answered the "relative handful" comment earlier in the "collectible" section. "Bubba'ing it up" - Sticks & stones. If I enjoy the process of garage gunsmithing the rifle to better suit my needs, you can call me "Bubba" all you want. It won't make me your big brother (the etymology of the term "bubba," in case you were unaware; "brat" has different but similar roots), altho' you're certainly stepping on my toes by behaving like Big Brother by telling me what or what not to do w/ my own property! Let's not be coy: your mentality is the same as telling me "don't you dare put a PCIII on your Scura to try and get more performance out of it!" Bite me! "Leave it someone who appreciates it" - Oh, I will. I appreciate the heck of them! As Hatcher said: "the only interesting rifle is an accurate one." One of the neat things about shooting these old war dogs is that they respond very well to relieving or removing handguards & excess stock bearing on the barrel, cutting back the 26" barrels [on some of the turn of the century guns] to something shorter & stiffer, throwing on a scope because the issue sights were unuseable at best, etc. Heck yeah, I appreciate currying a cur that will barely group 4" at 100yds, holding at the base of the target to get on paper to something that will shoot 2moa or less w/ issue surplus ammo, holding on target! "Outdated" - As battle rifles, they're outdated. They have generally poor sights, set to 400yd zeros, low-capacity magazines, manual actions & heavy-recoiling full-power cartridges. That suits me just fine for the kind of shooting I like to do! I'm not going to convince you, any more than you're going to convince me. Different strokes for different folks. I'll modify my firearms to better suit my needs just as I modify my motorcycles, cars, or any other tool I possess. It's mine, not yours. Got it? You don't have to agree with my choices, just ignore them when they don't affect you. Ride on!

What's your definition of a "strong motor?" The advantage of the Hi-Cam design is the ability to rev the engine higher due to shorter, stiffer (tiny) push-rod & lighter reciprocating valve train components (altho' the rotational inertia of the Hi-Cam 4v is almost certainly higher than that of the regular 2v valve-train.) The higher you can rev an engine past 5252rpm, the higher the horsepower numbers it will make [ceteris parabus.] The advantage of a 4v head slapped on the old 2v engine [long, whippy push rods] is that with a 4v head, you can have a flatter combustion chamber with a centrally located spark plug hole: this equates to better combustion efficiency, & better top end breathing, better valve life (larger ratio of valve seat to valve mass for cooling of the valve), less likelihood of valve float [due to lower mass vs. spring strength), etc. etc. The twin spark head on the old 2v combustion chamber amounts to a band-aid on a sucking chest wound as far as smog certifications go; the 4v head would amount to field surgery, using the same metaphor. So, a 4v long-pushrod head on "the old ditch-pump" (as one of my favorite Roperisms describes it) would be a "strong motor" in comparison to the existing 2v motor, since with better combustion efficiency, Guzzi can run longer valve overlap & richer injection to make more power before the smog Nazis shut them down, but in comparison to an hot-rodded Hi-Cam, it will never be able to match the earlier design due to inherent limitations. Of course, properly designed CF/Ti pushrods would help close the gap!

All depends on whether you want an outdated battle rifle to carry around in the field, all 9+ lbs of it (4+ kg for our metrical friends), or a 7lb hunting rifle that you're only ever likely to fire a few shots at a time with & never plan on bayonetting a deer. Different strokes for different folks! [Yes, I realize that most hunters would benefit more from losing the 2 lbs from around their middle than from the rifle, but how likely is that gonna be?

What he said: I'm in for one (w/ a desire for a copy of the template as well), definitely would enjoy a "process update" along the lines of your other writing on "engine teardown" & the like (you've a real knack for entertaining while you're teaching ol' Tenthumbs how to do it for himself! ) - and that last bit about not doubting your sincerity & dedication, etc. well, I'm O.K. with that even tho' I know you're really out to take over the whole company, coopt V11LM as part of the advertising dept., & move the GMG down under!

In one of her early, uncredited? (extra) movie roles she supposedly went topless due to an "oversight" by the wardrobe dept. Yeah, sure, "it was an oversight!" Anyway, despite the fact that it would be in B&W, & Italian w/o subtitles, I'd sure love to get a look at an 18-something Sophia Loren topless! Hey, we've got Italian members: can any of you find a copy of Era Lui, Si Si! and digitize it for us? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaasssseee?

Relatively speaking, the K1200GT makes between 1.5x & 2x the ponies, too! Fuel the Norge and that 550# dry wt is suddenly pushing 600#, and the "sport" has mostly departed. The Norge is a tourer w/ the ability to be ridden, as opposed to merely toured, like the G'wings & H-D FLHTCUILMNOPQRSTUVW "wheeled Barcaloungers" out there. Think of it as somewhere between the above bikes & the ST13/K12/FJR13 "sports GTs" somewhat closer to the latter than the former. I hope it sells well for Guzzi, but I fear that it will not find a market given it's price/performance ratio; far cheaper and easier to pick up a Triumph ST3 and smoke the Norge in all areas [dealer/parts availability, looks, perf., cost, etc.] Not that I find the Norge hard on the eyes, but it's kinda "Plain Jane" vs. a lot of the competition. Stodgy, even. BUT it's got the Brevona beat in the looks dept. hands down, so there's still a lot of hope!

Easy: get yourself a Quota! Spineys can't use the top-mount alternator, 'cause that's where the frame goes! Quotards (Quota derivatives w/ the semi-perimeter frame) can use the top-mount alt., which is why Guzzi has gone back to it after all these years in order to move the CoM forward, closer to the front tire. While a car-type alternator is nice (rugged, cheap), it still needs to be run off the back of the clutch bell-housing instead of being run off the front of the motor... motorcycle manufacturers are supposed to innovate & show car makers how it's done [re, high efficiency small disp. 4v DOHC motors, aluminum frames, etc.], not blindly follow car practice [running the alt. off the front of the motor "because that's the way it's always been done."] Ride on!

Someone here once posted the low-price leader (U.S.) for Guzzi consumeables like, say, sump gaskets. Since the proposed "sloppage plate" will require at minimum, one extra (with the assumption that the existing one isn't too munged up to reuse; with my luck & 10 thumbs, I'd better order two... no, four, since I may as well have some on hand for future oil changes ) gasket, and most of the holes in the plate will be related to holes in same gasket, with a couple of big holes cut out of the middle for obvious things like crankshaft clearance, oil filter space, etc., I think I may have to just break down & order a gasket & take a long lunch & see what odds & ends Irvine Metals has in their sheetmetal cutoffs bin. Heck, I may just hie m'self over to WalMart or Target & see what likely looking cookie sheets are in their housewares section... I might get better pricing from them! Just what are the extreme dimensions on the Guzzi sump gasket, anyway? Too big to fit on a standard scanner?

Actually, I'd never heard of it... Thanks for bringing this item to everyone's attention! Not cheap, but then it functions as a pre-oiler too (a Very Good Thing!) They mention that it can be plumbed in via existing oil-cooler lines if available, so that would probably be the way to go on the V11s... Still, a $50 sloppage plate would be a trifle more cost effective in my book, all things considered. Maybe if I was involved w/ racing a Guzzi like Roper is then the Accusump could easily warrant the added cost & installation complexity.

Are you talking about Moto Guzzi Classics in Long Beach? Last I knew, they'd given up their dealer status w/ MGNA because they weren't getting paid for doing all the warranty support for the Geese sold by LA & OC Cycle Sports [which were going for less than Mark's dealer cost!] After Piaggio's takeover, they were supposedly trying to get "Official Service" status, but I don't think they were even trying to become a dealer for new Guzzi's again: they seem to survive on the classic roundfin clientele happily, & don't need the headaches of trying to maintain "satisfactory sales numbers." Given their business model, they'd probably celebrate if Guzzi went under, since all the V11s would instantly become "classics" & their owners would start coming to MGC for service instead of whatever local dealer they're currently paying to mess up their bikes... If you're talking about some other shop, please illuminate us! Better that the existing shops that are in it for the love get some recognition...

It may be time for your dealer to expand to multiple locations; a 'Priller storefront in the local downtown ("High Street" to you Brits), chi'-chi' trendy zone, with all maintenance & service to be conducted at the "main shop" where he already is may prove to be his way forward. Or at least, carefully written up business plans to that effect may prove to be his way to get Piaggio to sell him the Guzzi's he needs to add to stock while he stalls on getting the Aprilia side launched for the next year or so...

From what I remember from the Cooked Goose site, the present limit on top-speed for the V11 bikes is gearing (can't just "change the sprocket" on a shaftie!); but the gap from 130 to 180 is HUGE, & no way to bridge it with the present motor. Still, 180mph is a silly goal to build toward: it's not like the Eye-abusers & Kwak 1400s aren't still going to leave you in their wake, and yet there's still only a few dry lake beds available for wringing out the speeds such machines are able to achieve. What's the point? Frankly, as much as I appreciate the classic "bikeness" of the air-cooled Carcano mill, if Guzzi (Piaggio) wants to play in those leagues, it's time to move to a water-cooled mill. Once that big decision is made, it's no longer necessary to remain wedded to a longitudinal V-twin, or even a V2 of any ilk; Guzzi has made just about every engine config there is over their history, so why not move on to something new? A blown, injected transverse triple? A narrow-angle longitudinal V4 or 6 or 8? Transverse V4 a la' the Ducati Apollo? I doubt very much any of that is due, simply because Piaggio is going to demand Guzzi start showing some ROI before they sink any money into further product development. The most I would hope/expect to see is a push-rod 4v head, maybe w/ head-only water cooling so that Guzzi could honestly move a 100hp production bike out the door. But that's all I can see in this pitted, cracked & bubble-filled sno-globe I use for my crystal ball...

Hey, I thought it was pretty dang savvy of Benelli to base their "volume" parts (pistons, valves) on the proven Honda pieces; why reinvent the wheel, esp. when at the time, it was probably cheaper for Benelli to source those bits from Honda anyway? Along the same vein, I've never quite understood why Guzzi doesn't just standardize on the same bore size as one of the Chevy small block iterations, so they can buy their pistons, valves & con-rods cheaper and better than they can make them themselves. Kinda like the Hardley-clone manufacturers buying S&S mills, only with a more cost-effective & unique result... But then, I'm told I'm lazy, so that may explain why I come up with this stuff!

Don't you mean an Honda 500/4+2?

Funny, Carlo Guzzi's engine designs seemed to favor dry-sumps (which are obviously better for an engine in anything expected to wheelie! ); too bad it's a non-trivial matter to "fix" this oversight in Carcano's engine! (emphasis added) It's pretty clear from what everyone has submitted on this topic which has been tossed about on this board over the past 2? 1.5? years that I've been around that a crank scraper isn't needed, and in fact, you could probably get away with a plate that merely isolates the back 1/2 of the sump a la a box w/ the lid shifted halfway off. As Nogbad pointed out, the deep V sump is an excellent/better alternative, since you end up w/ an external oil filter as well, but I don't have a spare five Benjamins laying about unspoken for; a $50 windage plate would be much more acceptable to me. As for the 2mm stainless: I'd think 18ga mild steel would be a workable substitution: we are discussing mounting it in an oil-misted environment, so rusting is right out, and it isn't going to crack for the simple reason that it practically *won't* work harden, being very nearly pure iron [we're talking 1015 steel here folks, the stuff you can heat red hot, plunge into freezing brine, & it still won't crack or much resist being rolled up like a sheet of paper... ] W/ no "scraper" fingers jutting out waiting to get bent & contact rapidly rotating parts, it would just barely qualify as a "windage" tray: maybe we'd be better off calling it a "sloppage sheet?" I need a garage w/ a stronger set of rafters, so I can strap the V11 to the ceiling and drop the pan to work on this idea comfortably...

As one mechanic Proper-ly pointed out: "that's what you get for riding a bike w/ an engine originally designed without one!" That's about the only reason I even look at those deep-vee sumps twice: having 1st started riding in the dirt, I consider willingly giving up ground clearance to be a "very bad thing!" Ride on!

Actually, the American MCN [Motorcycle Consumer News; B&W printing only, not a "slick"] is not the sort to make up stuff; quite the opposite! Hard hitting, serious reportage only. Complete reverse of the Brit MCN [glossy, lots of pics, short words used for their fictional reportage] I assure you! It's nice to see Ducati is finally bringing the Apollo to market, even tho' its 30 years later than originally forecast, it seems to have improved with age! Unfortunately, the price has also been "enhanced!" Ride on,

Molto grazie! [i hope I spelled that correctly... ] Good luck finding that other code. Mod: should this info be made a sticky? Ciao!

Don't waste your time/risk your life, Enz ol' boy: the Tomahawks are retreads! What's barely acceptable in terms of safety for a big-rig w/ a dozen tires on the road is an ABSOLUTE non-starter for anyone riding a motorcycle who values their bike/skin/life [not necessarily in that order!] FWIW, I think your colour scheme is unfortunate in the extreme, but applaud your unabashed fearlessness in making this "your bike!" And of course, still lovin' the Cobras, even in that hideous shade o' blue! You go, Enzo!

Eh, what's that you say? Wha'? Dagnabbit, Speak up, sonny! [At least you have the satisfaction of saying "I told you so!"] Ride on,

The idea is that they touch down first, before any non-yielding hard parts (which could lever up a wheel & lead to crashing) do so. Yessss, they do look extra funky!

ATF is a synthetic analogue to sperm oil (oleo spermaceti?); automatic car trannys were designed to operate using that fluid prior to WWII; what with the war & all the research funded by defense concerns during that period, more cost effective solutions were devised by the time the war ended and civilian production got around to pushing the automatic slushbox transmission. Sperm oil comes from the huge bag of oil in the head of sperm whales that they use for their sonar transducer, [not rendered whale blubber [whether that of sperm whales or others is irrelevant.] So, if you're driving a classic car w/ a slushbox drivetrain that was built sometime before, oh, 1946, then maybe sperm oil would outperform Dexron III. But I doubt it...

'Cause the poor, politically incorrect schlubs had parents who loved'em enough to beat them when they did wrong as children, inculcating the facts that life is filled with pain, so laugh when you can. The Politically Correct, however, had passive, uncaring parents who relied upon the school systems to raise their kids for them, so got lots of timeouts & never learned that sometime living life is worth the licking you'll get later... Anyway, that's my philosophy & I'm sticking with it!

An Husqvarna is a "small ring" Mauser bolt-action rifle built under license, chambered for the 6.5mm Swedish cartridge. Slick shooters, and more accurate at 1000yds w/ 139gr SP than an M1a/M14 shooting 308Win 150gr ball [due to the 6.5Swede still being supersonic at that range, while the 308 bobo* has fallen to transsonic speeds...] Any other questions? * - technical term used by all the top-notch ballisticians. Really. You can trust me, I'm not like the rest! We're from the government & we're here to help...

The irony being, that Yamaha could easily build a world-beater sporting V2: can you imagine a 1000+cc V2 engine w/ a stacked shaft tranny like in the R1, w/ a pair of their 5-valve OHC heads & some fancy EXUP plumbing? And you know it would handle. Heck, if they'd just give me a pair of their current gen XT660 engines & a CNC machining center & a couple of 1 cubic foot blocks of aluminum, I'd figure out how to make my own cases & build the durn thing myself! Hmm, Yamaha USA is just up the road in Brea? Tustin? [dang it, now I'm going to have to go look that up! Moo dammit! Moo, I say! Blasted mad cow disease... ] Anyway, maybe I should just trip up the road & stuff their suggestion box, camp out on the doorstep of the Product Research team and otherwise make a nuisance of myself? Nah. It's all wasted effort, & why would I want to waste my time doing that when I could be out riding a machine that already exceeds my (very limited!) capabilities?