Skeeve

Energy lost Don't forget, w/ no wastegate, *all* the gases would go thru the turbo; normally, you can't utilize all that boost [hence the wastegate, or running a turbo that's big enough to handle the volume but has too much lag, etc. etc. etc.] Obviously, the idea is to extract greater efficiency from the engine, & typically, conversion losses are antithetical to this, but since all the power from the turbo *can't* be utilized due to blowing up the engine from detonation, etc., the conversion losses become irrelevant since you can make up the difference by running the turbo at peak rpm at all times, and just tapping the batteries for juice for starting/lighting/supercharging as needed. Clearly, this approach would not have been possible before high-speed computing become so easy & cheap, but in today's world, it's a piece o' cake. Like I said, it seems to make sense to me...

Schuberths are ex$pen$ive, and their sizes are wonky: iirc, their XXL is about a Shoei Medium. [Pointed headed b@stards, those Schubes!.. ] I currently have one of the Nolan N100 helmets [w/o the fancy new visor arrangement.] It sux, btw: noisy, the modular arrangement is flat out *weird* [almost like it's spring-loaded upon opening], the ventilation is paradoxically poor [visor fogs fiercely] and the chin bar is too close to your face when closed [& no, I don't look anything like Jay Leno...] And the worst thing is, the Nolan doesn't have D-rings, so you can't use it with a helmet lock! The Zeus is cheap, & has a poor shield design such that you can't "crack" it open: the smallest 'open' setting is about 1"! But: it's more comfortable than the Nolan, isn't as noisy, and you can open the modular bit & leave it a part-way open setting [great for when noodling along at low speed facing into the sun... using it like a visor.] I haven't tried any others [yet], but the biggest complaints I've heard leveled at the Shoei are that it's pricey, heavy, and you can't put it on with the chinbar closed [bFD; that's got to be about the tiniest nit anyone could pick!...] A friend with the HJC modular complained that it was noisy, but that overall he was happy with it; unfortunately, I never got a chance to try it before he replaced it w/ something else... Best o' luck!

You clearly weren't paying attention: I stated that HID was just a fad because high output LED arrays were a better solution and would overtake that part of the market currently being occupied by HID, not that HID was inherently flawed. Ride on

1st point: That linear torque curve is that ne plus ultra that makes a vehicle easy to drive! Which brings up something that I ran across in a rag devoted to 4wd vehicles, where someone had written in about "should a buy a Jeep w/ the old straight 6 now, or wait til next year when it will come w/ the v6?" The editor's reply mentioned how the "new v6 has the same peak torque but puts out more power; the old i6 has seen it's day in the sun & needs to be retired..." Boy did he get it wrong! The v6 puts out more power because it spins to a higher rpm. If it has the same *peak* torque, it's only putting out more power because it's peak is at an higher rpm! What do you want in a truck or 4wd vehicle? Punch off the *bottom* of the power band, which is where the old i6 motor has it! So how does all this cage-talk relate to us? Well, it's like the Harley-Davidson adds that don't mention horsepower but do point out the peak torque, because *that's* what makes a vehicle fun to drive. The squids on their flashy race-rep bikes can't even begin to motorvate until they've revved their engines up to where a Harley is due to shift, at 5k rpm. The race-reps may not hit their torque peak until 11k rpm, and can be wound out to 15k rpm. But who wants to ride like that all the time on the street? 2nd point: Different dynos will produce different "scores." Heck, even the same dyno on different days will produce different readings for the same Bike! [And yes, that's even assuming the air temps & pressure are the same...] The only way to compare 2 bikes' output is by having a "shootout" event where they're all tested on the same machine back-to-back [and at about the same time.] Here's a hint for a cheap horsepower bonus: when going to such an event, get up *early* so you can be one of the first few in line, before the day heats up. Cool air = more power; the Johnny Come Latelys will get lower power readings when their bikes are tested late in the day than if they'd gotten there in the morning... Ride on,

I hear you, but of course the big appeal to turbo- vs. super-charging is the efficiency angle: turbos utilize that waste heat blowing out the exhaust to do more work, whereas super-chargers impose a load on the engine at all rpms [which detracts from their ultimate power increase.] What I'm amazed about is that nobody has gone the obvious [well, at least to me!] route of putting a non-wastegated turbo on the exhaust driving an alternator [1] , and then using an electrically-driven supercharger on the intake.[2] Like I said, it seems pretty obvious to me... [bTW, all ideas contained herein are copyright 2005 *me*; don't bother trying to patent it, I've got prior art! ] Ride on, 1: with suitable electronic controls, 'natch, so that the electrical input/load is tied to turbo rpm. 2: That is tied to logic that merely maintains some predetermined boost over ambient, say, 2psi. Nice, linear response across the rev range, no serious loads on the system, excellent efficiency all around.

Hahaha! I first read the thread title as "Guzzi Holstery" & thought: "Cool! Someone's found a good rifle scabbard for their Goose!" Not quite what I was expecting, but still a very gracious offer... Ride on,

He's writing from Wales. Cymru. I can't make head nor tails of it, but I'll tell you this much: some of the most beautiful human speech I've ever overheard was that of an elderly couple conversing in what I later learned was Welsh, after I asked them what language they were speaking. It was like listening to a couple of people singing lullabies at each other. Truly beautiful. I imagine karaoke bars go broke in Wales, since everybody is singing at each other all the time, & don't need to get drunk first to have a go!

Yet another reason to buy a My15M *now* while you can get one... [/shameless shill]

Umm... It was o.k., but certainly not one of the best-written books of the age. She's a good writer, even an excellent one, don't get me wrong: it's just the narrative is less about the motorcycle than about her own self-discovery. Basically, it has only the most tenuous relation to motorcycles at all, since it's really about her feelings. As a movie, it's a chick-flik on Lifetime, Oxygen, or WE networks... So, nothing *wrong* with it, per se, it's just vastly less interesting than it is made out to be by various (female) reviewers... But then, I never finished ZAMM, either, finding it too boring & not much about Zen or motorcycle maintenance either... My taste runs more to the last few Neal Stephenson books [altho' I'm wondering if he's figured out how to write an ending yet! I'll know as soon as I finish _System of the World_...]

I didn't think the cruisers were that popular in Europe either, until I watched some documentary [produced for Brit tv]: I don't think there was a single sport model in the show! Tons of Italians riding the cruisers tho' [it was filmed in Mandello & vicinity.] WRT "catering to the US market:" D@mn but I'm getting tired of the US being treated like some 3rd world country when it comes to motorcycles! If it wasn't for us, the Japanese never would have bothered building bikes bigger than 250cc, and Honda would still be just a moped manufacturer w/ no cars to their name! When did the US stop buying bikes? Admittedly, Europe has overtaken us as the "market maker" when it comes to motorcycles, but why is it that manufacturers decide they just don't want to ship us all the colors available or other such nonsense? It's not sensible for Guzzi to completely kill off models when they're finally starting to build them in the quantities needed to amortize the investment of developing the fixtures & tooling, but hey, that's Piaggio's choice. Whatever... just so long as they keep bringing'em over here!

Original? How is ripping off a 20 year old styling treatment from the Yo' Mama, Ho! VMax "original?" [Which btw, was ugly then & remains so in the present.] Guzzi can (& should!) do better... I've said it before elsewhere & I'll say it again: I lived thru the poor styling rampant thru much of the 80s once; I don't feel I should have to do so again just because someone thinks they can palm it off on a younger generation who can't remember it. To use a phrase that was everywhere then: Just say No!...

Why not? Honda's 2>1 on the VTXabcdefg [sorry, dunno which of their latest models it was *exactly*. Geez, they're getting as bad as H-D with the alphabet soup!..] leads to a similar almost perfectly flat torque curve. It's possible, & in Enzo's defense, he at least didn't claim to have had that end result in mind, just that he lucked into it with his pipe design [which design had been driven purely by aesthetic concerns.]

Maybe on a per flight basis, but no chance on per mile travelled. Unless the TSB is seriously doctoring stats. Of course, even on a per flight basis they're not including military flights, since I seem to hear of at least one fatal helo crash per year, usually with 6 or 7 soldiers/sailors/marines listed as casualties. Helos can go into auto-rotate [autogyro] mode when the motor conks out, *if* they have enough altitude and a pilot who doesn't panic. But it's not a certainty, & if they don't, then a helicopter is just a large, oddly shaped rock following a trajectory that invariably points *down*... So in short, the only thing that keeps a helo in the air is man-years spent in design and esp. maintenance. That & Bernoulli!

I dunno: I'm esp. fond of the 1000S looks in general, which on a naked bike, primarily revolves around the tank. But since it was an homage to the original V7 Sport, I guess we come back around to what you were saying above...

Yeah, I was that way once too. Until I learned that helicopters fall out of the sky, regularly. If you're a govt. or a big corporation, paying for all the maintenance hours needed per 1hr flying time is easy. Otherwise, they're not so attractive...

Surely the cruiser, since it's the largest sales segment in motorcycling [excluding tiddlers] at the moment. Not likely to cut off the bread & butter, no matter how much they want to focus on the Breva, et al. Sure wish they could have made the Griso in the 4v motor as originally planned, tho'.

Basically, the Army captured a couple BMW/Zundapp cycles early in the war [or were privy to captured examples via the Brits already being in N. Africa when we entered the war] and commissioned H-D & Indian to make something similar. The specifications were "cylinders out in the airstream for cooling, shaft drive for sand resistance, oil-bath air cleaners for dust resistance, etc." [1] What resulted were approx. 100? or 200? examples of each, but by that time the Army was mopping up in N. Africa and the Jeep was a better solution anyway, there were tons of WLA's on-hand for what motorcycles were needed in the European theatre, and so the models were declined? mothballed? and later sold after the war. [2] 1: From an article I remember reading once. Harley basically had access to an actual example of the BMW, since apparently their model [the XA] is a close fit [inch-sized] version of the metric Beemer. 2: Same article stated that post-war, the Harley XAs and Indian 841s were sold for pennies on the dollar. Sure wish I'd been around to pick up one of the 841s [reportedly, the better performing of the two experimental models] for the $200 or $300 they reportedly were sold for... Hmm, maybe one of each? That'd be cool! Peabody, ready the WayBack machine!

Yeah, the logic is faulty, since the carbon isn't all that abrasive. We're talking soot, which is full of Bucky balls & graphite; no diamonds. Dust, otoh, is mostly silicon dioxide, a nifty abrasive used by sandblasters everywhere...

You're thinking of the post '03 SV: the original '99-'02 is one of the prettiest bikes ever made. How do I know? I have one, & even my mom, who hates motorcycles has told me it's about the prettiest machine she's ever seen. How can you refute that? But yeah, the '03+ got hit with the BIG ugly stick! Dunno what possessed Suzuki to do that! The irony is, that they had waited that long to release the SV1k that everyone had been begging them for since the 650 came out, & they gave them both to the same idiot stylist so now there's a whole FAMILY of uglified SVs!... Such is life. Luckily, Moto Guzzi still makes some pretty bikes, altho' they've had their share of "OOPS!" moments... [Can you say something like "Half Man, Half Horse?.." ]

It's not the rubber that's cheaper (quality), it's the gas! AFAIK, the hose between the vacuum pips does enhance the low speed idle stability; that's basically what the Yamaha "YICS" system did on their mid-80s inline-4s.

The story as I read it: MGS has a ram-air looking hole in the nose, but it's a blind box that's purely cosmetic: Guzzi apparently decided that running the plumbing & sorting the EFI to support it is too much bother. Are you stating unequivocally that Guzzi got the ram-air sorted for the production versions and the plumbing is there? As far as the humidity goes, the test procedure specifically stated that the humidity is not to vary beyond a certain range, as such variation would affect paper filters' filtration & restriction, & hence, make filters tested on different dates incomparable. Ride on!

What's the x-sectional area of your 4V exhaust valves? Don't go bigger than that. [This is easier on the 2V motors, since all you have to do is measure the dia. of the exhaust valve & get the closest standard tubing size to match...] That's my understanding of the standard protocols for figuring exhaust size. Whaddaya want for nothin'?

All '00 & later Guzzis are 50-state models, iirc. For sure '03 & up are, per Dave Richardson.

[RE: the 10/04 Moto Int'l. pricelist] The mystery of "how they keep them on the floor" is: they don't! Those bikes were all pretty much spoken for by mid-October last year; Dave Richardson had waiting lists lined up for just about everything before he'd even accepted delivery of the various dealer overstocks. The story behind these bikes were that MGNA had taken them back from dealers that decided to close their Guzzi relations when the factory was on the blocks last year and MGNA then sold them in an internal auction to interested dealers at a discount since they desperately needed to get something happening So, before getting all excited about the prices, you should contact Moto Int'l. to see if they still have any left.

http://home.usadatanet.net/~jbplock/ISO5011/SPICER.htm Verrry interesting! No surprise that the paper filters outperformed either the foam or gauze filters on straight filtration, or that either of the alternative materials had lower initial restrictions than the paper units. My only concern with the test procedure is that the basis for terminating the test of "initial restriction + 10in H2O" leads to unfair comparisons between a highly restrictive filter like the AC/Delco & a gauze unit, as the latter's test could end before it reaches the *initial* restriction of the high-efficiency unit. All that aside, what the test really demonstrates is that a combination of a large enough paper filter and good airbox design will be much more effective/safer/cheaper in the long run than a set of oily pods hanging off the intake... :-)