Skeeve

Harley-Davidson faced the same problem: their corporate headquarters & identity are still in Milwaukee, WI while their production lines are in York, PA & iirc Sportster production has been moved to a new facility in Kansas? or Kansas City, MO? Anyway, it would not make much sense for Moto Guzzi to move their production anywhere else since they presently aren't operating anywhere near capacity of their existing plant. If the desire is to build a new plant from the ground up in order to modernize, roboticize, or ostracize production, there is no reason for the corporate headquarters for design, prototyping, or anything else to move. Moto Guzzi is a product of Mandello, and should never consider moving their corporate identity from there, whether or not they might have to consider moving production, in whole or part, in order to stay competitive. But unless their sales skyrocket, I doubt they could justify the costs of moving; the only reason Harley-Davidson moved production out of Milwaukee was because of the need to increase production which couldn't be met by their physical plant at that time.

Almost certainly the cruisers; industry-wide they're outselling the sportbikes 2:1 & have been for years. I imagine for Guzzi they outsell sport models between 3:1 & 5:1. Personally, I cannot imagine why, but that's reality for ya! Well, the original LeMans was just a Sport w/ a bikini fairing thrown on it: whaddaya want fer nuthin - a rubber biscuit? Oh yes, the LeMans should come kitted for higher output than the other models as it did historically, but that's just not possible now that "bigger valves & carbs" are a thing of the past due to smog-certification issues. So no mocking the current LeMans, y'hear?

Sorry, don't know Termignione (T-virus?) adapter... I presume that this is an aftermarket header, with a larger I.D. than the stock header? Seems like you hold Termignione in high regard but not high enough not to question their decisions... "Roof" or "ceiling" of the port(s) are upper interior surface, as situated with head installed for use on engine. In OHV engines, it's the surface with the valve guide; in the pictures you supplied which appear to have been taken with head placed upside-down on bench, the "roof" of the port is actually at the bottom of the picture. "Floor" of the port is the side with the valve seat (again, in an OHV engine.) Hey, at least you're willing to try! That takes some guts; replacement heads aren't cheap if you mess it up! I hope your attempt proves more than satisfactory! Ride on!

Dr. John no longer works for Guzzi, and Ingeniere U. Todero who made the Hi-Cam is retired. From what I've read, they're likely the only individuals who have an idea what special alloy it was they finally wound up using to keep the heads from melting... [1] Why then is it that all the talk about the Centauro states that it's an incredibly gutsy motor that just doesn't run out of steam on top the way the 2v engines do? And the 2v "nips right at the heels" of the 4v only in the sense that the 2v that has been taken as far as that design can go is almost at the 4v levels in its most basic level of tune. Somebody else in this thread commented that the 4v was eliminated because of emissions concerns over it being air-cooled: this is ridiculous, given that the 4v with it's pentroof combustion chamber is far & away more emissions friendly than the (also air-cooled) 2v can be, due to greater resistance to pinging. [1] Guzzi's claim that they're "out of 4v engines" is odd, to say the least. Moto Guzzi, as a company, is (in)famous for doing everything in-house; they even made their own forks up until the early 90s, iirc. [NB: isn't it ironic that the whole world seems to have gone over to inverted forks, a 50+ year old Guzzi development?!? ] How does a company with it's own museum lose the molds to their only hope for ongoing sales? As much as Aprilia may have wanted to force Guzzi into using their own engines, I very much doubt Beggio would have been foolish enough to discard the means of production for an existing, proven engine design that could be used immediately to good effect. Personally, I favor the theory that the special alloy used is the fly in the ointment: either Todero didn't keep good records on that final solution of composition & heat-treating, or the current management doesn't want to go to him (was he forced out like Carcano?), or else it's a beryllium alloy[2] and the new management doesn't want to deal with the health/environmental hazards involved in using it in volume production would entail. [2] And if it isn't a beryllium alloy, then someone who wanted to take an air-cooled 4v design to higher power levels still has room to maneuver... if they're willing to be scrupulous in their attention to details

HID can't "start" quickly; kinda like sodium vapor streetlights, that take some time to "kick on." Since few people drive w/ their highs on for any length of time, but rather use it temporarily to flash a signal to another driver, it doesn't make sense to have that HID. That said, HID is just a fad. The future is high-output LED arrays with faceted reflectors for a truly even & bright lit field of view. It's coming, just give it time. The neat thing is that it'll be a drop-in replacement for existing sealed-beam form factors. [/futurist mode]

"In the exhaust channels I smoothed down the step between the head and the Termignoni exhaust adapter even if not removing it completely. ." Doh! Sure wish you'd asked here before going this route: I'm certain you would have heard from several people that there's a reason for a step in the exhaust port, as it helps prevent reversion of the exhaust flow. So you might see a serious flat spot in some portion of the powerband that wasn't there before. Altho', I may be wrong: from the picture, it looks as if the step was in the roof of the exhaust port, which is counter to the normal? location of the floor of the exhaust port. So maybe you're going to come out o.k. with this change? Definitely let us know your results! Very cool stuff, love your site!

??? [Ram-air is not dependent upon a velocity stack extending from the carb- or throttlebody mouth to the airstream...] With the exception of the Cannondale, I can't think of any motorcycle with a front-facing carb that uses ram-air or not... Pinging is directly related to exhaust-valve temps. Running higher compression = more power, greater tendency to ping. Cooling of air-cooled engines is always the limiting factor on their power output. Let's put it this way: if your head temps are high, they heat the incoming fuel/air mixture, decreasing volumetric efficiency. Cooler is generally better... Yep, I know all this. That's why I brought up the topic of "since the headlight is out of the way, the defects with the stock ram-air setup might have been corrected." Pardon me for derailing the "let's mock the ebay listing" thread... So I've read. Made me wonder why they didn't just put restrictors on the float-bowl bleed tubes, just like you do w/ mercury manometers [carbstix?] Could it be they [Guzzi & Dr. John] were too caught up in the problem of getting the Sport to market with the (then) current gee-whiz-gizmo of ram-air induction to see the direct solution? Makes me wish I knew somebody w/ a carb Sport who hadn't yanked his airbox to try it out. The problems with harmonics might also be the reason MG didn't seal the airbox sufficiently to get much benefit from the ram-air... Who knows... All *I* know is that a 2v engine has breathing problems in a world of 4v engines and needs all the help it can get at over 100 per...

WRT UNI filters: K&N's are very free-flowing because they don't filter the microscopic dust that actually eats an engine very well. You want your engine to last? Paper filters work best, but of course have a real problem with "packing" and degraded performance. K&N's [or other identical screen&oiled cotton gauze filters] flow very well & catch the big bits of dirt that spell instant doom for an engine. UNIs or similar oiled-foam filters flow almost as well as the K&N derivatives, filter virtually the same as paper elements, and don't suffer the packing problem to the same degree as paper [ie, their performance is sustained like the K&N type.] I'm not bad-mouthing K&Ns: if you're after all-out performance with a nod to real-world conditions [ie, want some filtration in lieu of running open velocity stacks], then they're the way to go. On a street machine that you want to last longer than K&N's 100k mile warranty, then oiled-foam filters are a better choice. Since most non-Guzzi, non-BMW & non-Harley motorcycles are at the breakers' before that 100k mile benchmark [with the exception of some G'wings, VFRs & at least one VTR1000], then I'd expect the Guzzisti to be more in favor of making their motors last... If you're determined to run K&Ns and live anywhere that you encounter any minor amount of dust on a regular basis [esp. anywhere in the southwestern U.S!], you need to be using the ventilated-polyester overcoat "prechargers" that even K&N admits their filters must have to effectively block any amount of fine dust. Personally, I'm certain that these things work as electrostatic separators, since they'd pretty much shut down the intake if the holes in them were small enough to block the dust [ie, they'd get clogged just like a paper element.] Given their synthetic fabric composition, I suspect that the air flowing thru/across them creates a substantial static charge, and hence traps a lot of the fine mica & similar silicate dust like a magnet does iron filings. But that's just my theory based upon how my polyester clothes crackle & stick to me in dry weather... Come to think of it, I've been toying with the idea of getting one of the units they sell to replace the top of an ATV airbox and using it on my LeMans; even with the paper element, it would have superior flow to the un-opened cover but better longevity than running topless. Hmmmm...

Actually, it's a concatenation of the names of the two bombs dropped on Japan that ended WWII; "Fat Man" & "Little Boy" [iirc, Fat Man was the plutonium bomb with an imploded sphere design; Little Boy was the linear accelerated-core design using virtually the entire world supply at that time of enriched uranium...] Given that the Fat Boy was intended to have the same devastating impact upon the Japanese stranglehold of the world motorcycle market as the atomic bombs had upon their desire to prolong the inevitable end to WWII [and indeed, did so!], the choice of names was both prophetic & appropriate. "Poor taste" is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

Here's the other picture from the ad: Which really illustrates the irony of the Sport fairing w/ a blocked up headlight hole: he coulda/woulda/shoulda used the opening from the removed headlight to feed his ram-air system, and redirected the "scoops" on the side of the fairing to blow air on his heads (for sustained high-speed running reliability.) Ah well, lost opportunities & all that...

Well, if we had a list of the relevant K&N filters [ie, pertinent dimensions enumerated: length, width, profile, diameter of the sleeve/flange for fitting, etc.] then we would try to match them up to their better performing UNI filter counterparts.

IOW, you're going by the transmission driven odometer, vs. a proper front-wheel driven one, so that the inflated mileage recorded by your much-spun rear-wheel is the tread-life you think you're getting, vs. the real mileage you're getting out of your tires which at this time is unknown. Get yourself a bicycle computer & mount it up, and record the starting mileage on your odo. When the tire is finally toast & you're due to replace it, subtract the starting mileage from the current odo reading, & then compare the result with the odometer on the bicycle computer. There will be a discrepancy; how large a one is the question that remains unanswered... With your claims of consistent power-sliding, I'd imagine it'll be pretty big.[0] Ride on! [0] An acquaintance from the LABikers likes to steer with the rear wheel; his self-reported tire mileage runs about 2-3K on a Bike with an uncorrected oem front-wheel driven odo...

Well, in an ideal world Guzzi would have upgraded the stock machines to roller lifters a long time ago! But if you want to stay w/ solid lifters, why would you need a new cam? We're not talking about producing a Hi-Cam repro, just some 4v pushrod heads. To do this, the rocker arms wind up looking pretty much like the ones in the Hi-Cam motor, but the pushrods just go all the way down to the existing cam location for the V11 motor. Yes, you're not going to end up with a 135hp fire-breather running at 10k rpms like the tuned & tweaked Hi-Cams, but a solid 100hp a/c motor running at the existing 8k red-line ain't nothin to sneeze at, and should be doable within the design limits of an upgraded V11 like we're talking about. But you're right about what the final cost to get there is likely to be; I was just considering the actual pricing for 4v heads as assembled units, not incidentals that most purchasers would want to consider intalling at the same time such as roller cam & lifters, Ti pushrods, the required new headers, new pistons, etc. In "all at once" fashion, yes, this would easily push $5K, and would be what's required to get to that reliable 100hp output. The beauty is, it's something that could be "pieced" together as finances permit, if the parts were out there...

Too bad Jim Fueling died: he was able to produce pushrod 4-valve heads for the Sposta, so I doubt he'd have had much trouble adapting the design for a Goose. IIRC, the Sposta heads ran to about $2000, installed. That's certainly sustainable for someone who's looking for a serious performance upgrade to the V11 motor, since it's real stumbling block is breathing. At $1000/head, it's certainly justifiable, given that just porting the 2-valve heads to get them to breath as well as an assembled 4v casting should do runs to a significant percentage of that price. At $5000? That price/performance figure is harder to justify; essentially, you're looking at the far side of the Laffer curve there; by achieving a lower price, the number of units sold will more than offset the lower profits/unit. While it would be nice if the factory could figure out how to make the Hi-Cam motor again, I can't say that doing so is their only hope for the future: making reliable 4-valve push-rod heads that can just be slapped onto the current engine design will buy them time to do research into a water-cooled engine, while rejuvenating the existing model line by making the old air-cooled mill more comparable to competing models in the all-important hp spec. And if this was a factory solution, owners of current V11 models could shell out the ducats to retrofit with no compunctions about warrantee issues, vendor sustainability, etc. Keep talking, I'm all ears!

Heh! Funny you should say that: I continually joke w/ my friends when they say "you have all the answers, you should run for office" that "You're right! I hereby announce my candidacy for the next vice-president of the United States!.." a job everyone knows isn't worth a bucket of warm spit. But yes, I'd have few qualms about becoming a career crim... er, "politician" if by doing so I wouldn't have to forfeit my personal beliefs. But that would pretty much prevent me from getting elected, since I'm pro-Abortion & anti-Socialist [ ie, a Libertarian, altho' before I'd heard of'em my own political self-description was "radical reactionary." ] So, can I count on your vote? Ride on...

Certainly you can't be referring to the stylistic monstrosity known as the Centauro? I know it's a personal thing, beauty is in the eye of the beholder & all that, but let me just say that if Guzzi hadn't put so much time & money into designing a Bike with styling suited solely for low-budget sci-fi flix, they'd have been able to spend more time sorting the FI issues that plagued that model and consequently have sold a bunch of them. This is also a chicken & egg thing: if it hadn't been such a roccoco blend of muscle bike & chopperesque styling, they'd have sold so many that they'd have been forced to deal with the driveability complaints in a more timely fashion so they could sell even more. In short, the only pretty part about the Centauro is what's left when you pull off the plastic. I will never understand the lapse of good taste that led Guzzi to leave behind decades of good styling for that mess. Heck, they even had some of the most beautiful motorcycles ever made [sportI & DaytonaRS] for sale at the same time as the Centauro! And FWIW, I may have strange taste in food [hash browns w/ Tobasco, maple syrup & over easy eggs in'em, don't knock it 'til you've tried it... yum!] but I've got a good eye for the classic & tasteful. The Centauro is neither. Would I like to have one? You betcha! It'll be a collector bike sooner rather than later, moreso now that Guzzi has apparently lost the ability to make more of the Hi-Cam motors. And with people like me who'd rip all the plastic off & sell it just so we could fit more tasteful aftermarket body parts and have our own ersatz Daytona, you can bet that the Centauro will only become more collectable as time goes on. But like the woman who reproached Winston Churchill for being drunk, "...in the morning, they'll still be ugly." Don't bother flaming me if you happen to like the looks of the Centauro, we'll just leave it at "you have a love for the avant garde" & part amicably.

PS: The Perfect Vehicle (sorry, I don't have the book handy right now for page count, author, etc. info...] This isn't really a book about Moto Guzzi, other than as a catalyst for the author's voyage of self-discovery and the driving force behind some of her life-changing choices. The moto press made a big deal about the title referring to the author's Moto Guzzi [small block], but other than a framework upon which to hang a tale, there's really not much of interest to the Guzzisti here. I can get enough feminine angst from other sources. It's well-written, but other than that I can't recommend it.

I've been having some fun lately, reading some books on Guzzi history. To keep this short & sweet, I'll provide capsule reviews using the following short hand: OG: "Old Guzzi" - basically, this is history of the company before the V7 in more detail than highlights of the racing "firsts" like the TT wins and the 1956 V8 V2: History of our favorite engine (Carcano motor) in full detail. S2: History of the small-block twins (Tonti motor) as more than an "oh yeah..." MMM: Promotes the Myth of the Mechanical Mule as being the precursor to the V7 line. MOTO GUZZI - Forza in Movimiento, David G. Styles 160pp, pbk. V2 I really like the title; I think it translates to "Moto Guzzi, power in motion" but that's just a guess. Despite this being physically the smallest of the books reviewed here, it is hands down the best written, with enough detail on the company history & OG material to provide a good foundation but clearly focuses on the descendants of the Carcano designed/Tonti improved V2 line. If you're only going to read one book on Guzzi & don't have much time to do it in, this is the one to pick. Moto Guzzi Big Twins, Greg Field 128pp, pbk. V2 As the title implies, this book is very focused on the V7 & its descendants, up to the 4-valve Hi-Cam motor. Copyright is 1998, so it's timeline ends with the Centauro. It goes into more detail than the others on the development of the spine frame Guzzis, with some great 1st-person narrative by Dr. John incorporated in the text. MOTO GUZZI V-Twins, Mick Walker 192pp, hbk. V2, S2, MMM The production quality of this book is excellent, with some of the best photographs and the only one in hardcover. The author provides a lot of information particular to the U.K. market, as he was the importer or worked with the importer for that market for many years. Unfortunately, it seems like he keeps bringing up that detail, as if he needs to prove his authority? I don't know, maybe it's just perceptual. The book is a bit of a dry read, as it provides too much technical detail on each model it covers by including a page of tech specs on each model variant; this just uses space, altho' it is undoubtedly useful for someone doing a restoration to make certain they get the right carbs, color, etc. It is also written in an almost "textbook" fashion, with a lot of sidebars that actually contain the most interesting bits of data kept apart from the flow of the text. Where this book shines is in its coverage of the Tonti small twins, which get relatively short shrift in the other books. 80 years of MOTO GUZZI motorcycles, Mario Colombo, translated by A. McEwen & W. McManus 446pp, pbk. V2, S2, OG, MMM This is a large format coffee-table book, covering the entire history of the company in almost exhaustive detail. If you need an encyclopedia of Guzzi, this is it. However, be warned that it makes several technical errors repeatedly throughout: I don't know if it was the original writer (who was clearly an historian) who didn't grasp the difference or the translators, but it constantly confuses "over-square" and "under-square" engine designs, and is inconsistent in the notation of the associated bore & stroke dimensions. To illustrate: the original prototype GP with a bore & stroke of 88x82 millimeters is refered to as "undersquare," and in other places in the text when dealing with changes to the stroke it will list the change occuring in the first figure (ie, the bore dimension.) If it did so consistently, then the reader could work around the incorrect nomenclature (provided they even care & don't just blip over the data), but since the text can't decide whether it wants to list the dimensions as bore x stroke or stroke x bore, it just makes the reader confused. But that's all just back seat to the photos: this is really a photo history, primarily black & white, but with a wonderful section of color plates featuring some of the milestone models placed in the middle of the book. Anyway, that's my take on these books, and if you're going to read them all in succession, do them in the opposite order than I did! By saving the biggest for last, I wound up reading the same facts I'd already gotten from the smaller books but in a dry, detailed, historical timeline format, making it hard to wade through that behemoth book. Ride on!

Sorry, I can't identify the maker, altho' you could probably do a roundup of who makes CF cans for the V11 and just see which ones look the same? As for the plaque, the lawyers make'em do that: it relieves the company of liability for the ticket you get for "defeating a pollution control device" by running aftermarket cans on the street! Seriously, there's a lot of that sort of citation going around; it's a nice "add on" for any other kind of stop, in addition to being a pull-over in it's own right. You be extra careful riding the last week of the month esp., as the rolling revenuers are out in force trying to make their monthly quota at that time [altho' they're really in force locally right now: anyone in So.Cal. should keep their copdar on when driving the 605 in O.C.; enforcement has been WAY up lately... ] Ride on!

I imagine this stems from the fact that MG was one of the first manufacturers to fit a cat to their products [1991, Quota] and claims that they have cats on their current model range. I'm as guilty as anyone else for promoting this notion, since the design of the stock crossover doesn't suit much else... My bad!

Well, I heard from a source who'd met him before he got famous that he's as dumb as a box of rocks. Which fits w/ my perception that Nicole saw his picture, came to America and got what she wanted. 8? 10? years later when they couldn't have kids of their own the bloom was off the rose & she decided it was time to cut her losses & get back to being a great actress. Mr. Cruise has never impressed me: he sure is pretty, if your tastes run that way. His acting doesn't suck, mostly. I have to admire his tenacity tho'; he's dyslexic ["slyDexics of the world untie!"] and consequently has to have his scripts read to him for memorization. Ouch! Ms. Kidman is smart & talented & not too bad on the eyes, when it comes down to it. And she has real acting chops. He's always been much more of a liability to her than she has to him! They made a cute enough couple, but now that they're single again they seem to be working more, which must please the movie studios a lot!

Well, it sure ain't in the cans! At least, not the ones I've seen the insides of. OTOH, the pics of the inside of the x-over show a nifty little perf'd. grid whose only function would seem to be to expose the maximum reactive area to exhaust gases... So who does know where Guzzi hid their cat? Can't imagine why they'd put their O2-sensor in the x-over if the cats were downstream in the cans, but then I'm not too clear on the details of that stuff, I just know that the cat on my truck has wires leading to... the computer? Going somewhere, anyway, and there's no electrical connections anywhere else in the exhaust system.

Hard to get an idea of the scale, but I suppose if those fittings are 3" car size, it would be a bit big for tucking under the tranny cross-ways... But yes, something along those lines would be what I had in mind.

That's the deal! I have one like it that I bought through Cycle Gear for about 2x that price. Don't worry about the gaps between rungs: the spacing is such that it's about like pushing your bike across a series of 4" potholes; bikes heavy enough to matter have wheels big enough to bridge the gap w/o noticing, scooters are light enough that you just pick it up & throw it in the back! Also, that weight rating is very conservative: I've pushed (with help!) a GL1200 up that thing w/ nary a twitch. And the arch is *vital* to prevent hangups.

For fitting the muffs under the tranny: better to find a glasspak car muffler that can be modified. Same thing goes for the core of the stockers, if there's anything out there that has a 2" inlet & appropriately sized oval body. Cherry Bombs [glasspaks] have been around since the 60s & probably have something that would fit one of these applications... I wish I had the time to have the welding skilz that I might if I only spent more time welding... WRT replacing the core w/ steel wool & 'glas via rivets & wire: Hmmm. I'm thinking at this rate that it'd be quicker just to fab something from scratch (that would fit into the stock envelope) out of mild steel and paint the heck out of the thing w/ BBQ paint before buttoning it up. Yes, it would rust out in 6 years or so. So what? You'll have the stock core to put back in while you fab up another, or you'll have had the time to save up for a "proper" hi-perf can!