Skeeve

Well, there is a difference, since titanium is stronger & lighter than aluminum, & more importantly for exhaust cans, less reactive with hot exhaust gases. This last feature would be rather irrelevant for (stock) cans with built-in cats, since any nitric oxides [acid precursors] would have already been reacted away. But since no manufacturer is likely to risk having their exhaust cans rot out from the inside & be forced to mount a recall, I think we can safely look forward to continued oem use of heavy, boring stainless steel...

The $AUS isn't worth what the $US is against the [insert funny looking E here...] Also, Australia has some substantial import duties "to encourage a healthy trade balance" from what I've heard. For instance: some years ago, I sold a $65 Wilson tennis racket to a customer visiting from Oz; he said down under it retailed for about $210 AUS. Nice to see Guzzi getting some good press, despite the high price tag in Oz!

Yep. If'n you wanna see where they met, rent/buy/beg/borrow/steal To Have And Have Not. Now you know how to whistle! Regrettably, their marriage didn't last very long; iirc, Bogey died of cancer only about 11? years in... Ride on!

Is ForwardAir still in business? I seem to recall hearing that name when this subject came up on another list, a long time ago & far away...

It's usually spelled "doddle;" roughly translates to "nice" or "easy." Dunno the etymology; probably something related to mangling the invader's slang of 1000 years ago, then mangling it further with each succeeding generation, regional dialects, etc. until the start of the Industrial Age when the common man finally started traveling enough that regional idioms stopped diverging radically over time.

That's what you get for being the ones to invent having pastry at breakfast time instead of just for dessert!

G&B doesn't do sports-tourers! There's no way that by adding metal that my proposed engine change can be lighter than what Guzzi has now, and the weight is a big part of the issue Guzzi faces on the sport-bike front, less so than power (altho' they sorta go hand-in-hand...) But sport-tourers can be a little porky & still sell; power & fuel economy are market breakers for that segment, both of which my idea would have some bearing on... That said, does anybody here know what the mild-steel spine frame alone weighs? I'm kinda surprised Guzzi hasn't gone to an aluminium spine frame before now, since the construction is so simple ["Take 2 round tubes & one rectangular. Weld, drill, you're done! ], and with how easy it would be to set up a MIG machine for aluminum vs. the present steel. Even tho' aluminum weighs 1/2 steel, you can only save in the vicinity of 35%-40% of the weight, since you have to use more aluminum (thicker sections) for the same strength. But if the standard spine frame weighs 30lbs alone, you could save 10lbs easy, just by converting it to aluminum. But since I don't know what the spine frame by itself weighs, I'll just have to keep wondering how much weight could be saved. But at a power/wt. ratio of 500#/75ponies for the present V11 Sport derived models, that's under 7#/hp: if you could manage to save 14#, it would be like getting 2 free ponies all across the powerband! Converting the Tonti frame to aluminum wouldn't be financially attractive, since there's so much more labor time involved in the welding, & the cruiser market overall isn't as focused upon performance figures. Whee! This is fun; too bad it's all just pissin' in the wind...

Buy some CF-pattern tape. It's inexpensive, quicker to install, and cheaper to replace if it gets scratched!

Actually, I was thinking about what Guzzi could do as far as providing updated engine options [mental exercise: "What if *you* were suddenly installed as new chief at your favorite motorsickle company w/ orders to turn it around?"] and the quick & painless [o.k., "relatively pain-free"] route was a V-4 using essentially the current everything, water-cooled heads, air cooled cylinders, dry sumped so you can drop the engine in the frame & use some of the wasted space of the spine frame by using it as the oil tank. Ipso facto, quid pro quo, a "new bike" with a development time measured in months, if not weeks. How so fast, you say? Simple, do an Honda NR750 routine with "paired" cylinders running off a single con-rod. Thus, only new cylinder, pistons & heads required, the cases can remain unchanged... This is fun, but regrettably, gets us nowhere. [sigh] Ride on!

Please!

Word!

Eldo & Ambo for sale

Easy: practice! The Evo Sposta mill is going on what, 20 years old now? [Last iron-head Sportster was '85, iirc, concurrent w/ the XR1000 engine: *that's* the deal if you want serious HP from a classic Harley; the XR1k motor was the basis for Buell's original BOT racebike, only oversquare motor Harley has made since the '20s...] With that kind of development time & more importantly, sales #s, the capabilities of that motor are known factors. Let's see Buell's engine development process: 1st, take a head developed by Jerry Branch for the 883 under H-D contract and slap it on the 1200. Compression is up, flow is up. Add big valves; flow is now way up. There, you're done! Seriously, for MG to produce a comparable engine as delivered stock, they'd need to purchase some Mick Rich heads and then base their head casting molds on those. Switching to roller cams, lifters & rockers would put the finishing touches on the improved flow by reducing internal frictional losses. But it still won't put out as much power as the Buell, since Erik started with a better *combustion chamber* [bathtub] shape for more efficient combustion to start with. Plus the Buell has a 100cc advantage...

The 60deg V2 doesn't have the vibes of the 45deg V2, plus the water cooling acts as a high-freq. damper; net result, they don't need to rubber mount it like the a/c mill. That frees up some space. Also, the Buells have a perimeter type frame already, so that will give freer access to the top end for valve servicing! The radiator can fit under the seat in the rear wheel well with forced-air cooling or it can be mounted in the fairing at the nose of the bike. [i'm banking on option 2, since it's easier, but wouldn't be suprised if Buell went with Plan A since he's already shown a propensity for traveling the technologically adventurous route...] What I don't get is why everyone seems to think the VR mill is that much more massive than the Twin Cam/ Evo mills? Once you add in their external gearbox w/ the huge primary cover, that's not a small/light starting point either... I'm glad H-D finally woke up & gave Buell the go-ahead, altho' I truly was expecting them to put the VR engine in one of their baggers before finally loosing "the hounds of war."

From what I've gleaned from this & other Guzzi boards, the only significant further HP improvement is going to come from having the heads ported/flowed. Since the stock valves/guides seem to exhibit problematic wear patterns, doing it all [premium oversize (if you can call .5mm oversize! ) valves, K-lined guides, porting] all at once would be the ticket. Since the stock valves/guides seem to be good for 30k miles at least, then having the porting done once that service issue rears its head would seem to be the protocol to follow. But this is just accumulated hearsay, not 1st hand experience. Whether or not I'll have the money/time/patience to do all this when the time comes is a different story!

Top 5? That's an awful small sample size to come up with a reasonable "50 greatest bikes" list! O.K., here goes: 1: 1914 Thor. Why? It's a V-twin, it kicked Harley & Indian ass, & it's named after a comic-book hero! What more could you ask for? 2: 1915 Militaire. Why? Shaft drive in-line 4 & hub-center steering, bayBEE! 3: 1915 Scot Flying Squirrel. Why? Lightweight, water-cooled 2-stroke twin POWER, bayBEE! 4: 1967 Honda CB750 K0. Why? 'Cause it changed the motorcycling WORLD, baby! 5: 1974 Ducati 750 bevel-drive desmo roadster. Why? 'Cause I got to see Cook Nielson smoking an entire field of Superbike Kawi Z-1s only to have them all overhaul him by the end of the front straight at Ontario Speedway back in the days before they shut down the track & put up a f@#$%#@ shopping mall! Sorry, due to the enforced limit of 5 choices, I have to say that nothing important in the field of motorcycles occurred between the early 1920s and mid 1960s...

Yes, you're right! I think the article I had in mind mentioned that Wooler was the design guy behind the last Douglas & continued on his own after the company folded up its tent. But with a memory like mine ["He has a mind like a steel trap. You know, like for a sink?... ] Good call!

Sure, why not? You can pack'em tighter that way. Tough getting those corners to seal tho'...

Dunno if somebody already posted this or not, but: P175 listing [be certain to scroll to the bottom of the listing for the pix]

Sad thing is, it doesn't even have to be bigger... :\ Que sera sera!

Dunno: an early Sunbeam? Looks like their classic vertical in-line twin configuration, but it sure doesn't look like the S7!

I *do* know that picture, I remember reading about that bike! I can't recall if it is the last of Douglases or what. Arrrgh! Thou art a torturer and cruel to your fellow motorcyclists!

I hear you, & concur. But there are those out there for whom the WBM [wanna be Mercedes! ] roundel has great significance: they'll pay extra for the factory stonewalling on fixing widely known design flaws! But if Aprilia just inks a deal to produce the engines for BMW, that still spells lower unit costs on the Aprilia model. Yum.

I'll wager it has something to do with bringing Aprilia's middle-wt. v-twin to market under a BMW badge. I wonder if it'll be an enduro or street-only model? This could be interesting...

"60mm mortars for deer hunting?" "Yeah, I like to soften up an area before I go in..." Funny that a commie like G.B. Trudeau could capture the essense of a libertarian (libertine?) like Thompson so succinctly! Rolling Stone would be just another industry freebie rag if they hadn't hired him in their early days: Hunter's gonzo journalism [a term invented to describe his particular type of writing] put them on the map! Sorry that the lifetime of alcoholism & drugs finally exacted their due, but did you expect him to go out on any other terms than his own? I sure didn't. That's the Curse of Lono, I guess. No matter. He's gone, but remains an icon. Him & Tim Leary made quite a pair of horizon-expanders; who's in the wings to replace'em? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Let's strap on our helmets & a little Uncle Duke in our hearts & go for a fast, fast ride!