Greg Field

As I said earlier, I had this bike in SoCal last summer, and it was very hot. THrough most of California, temps exceeded 100F. The bike ran perfectly.

The only thing dyno-tuning with a PCIII can affect is fueling. Square tires, on the other hand, can affect many things, as only those who eschew Groupthink and Think Outside the Box (which is the new box) will ever be privileged to discover . . . I can't help but think it's kinda funny people now claiming the gap is necessary, when you didn't even know there was one until I told you: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...t=0&start=0

And one I share with you . . .

All the V11s came with the plastic snesor holder. The only ones that vapor lock are the ones with the external pump. Y'all may draw your own conclusions. I already have. Back to square wheels. Who will admit to performing this amazing improvement on their bike?

I prefer bourbon or Diamond Knot IPA. Haven't done anything harder in 20 years or so.

As I have said a thousand times, anyone who thinks they can infer sense from PGA's actions is on a fool's errand. They do not know why they do what they do. Oh, the stories I could tell . . .

It's long overdue for someone to testify about how much smoother is the ride after switching from round to square wheels.

Beautiful, Slug. Grease everything while you are in there. My speedo has 25,000 miles on it, uncommon longevity that I believe is due to my greasing it early enough in its life.

Sad news, indeed. Mike and Todd got singled out for especially abysmal treatment. IMO, they made a wise decision to cut their losses before the economy tanks further, making it even harder to survive in this business.

Speaking only as a West Coast Yank, anyplace with "shire" in the name seems de facto only fit for little folk with hairy feet, what?

What if you spend the money and don't survive anyway? (I'll spare you the smarmy winky bullshit emoticon. In return, realize that you do not know more than I know, so do not wink at me.)

Awesome LM1000. It's fun to see one more highly modified than my own. If you part out the LM1000 engine, I'd like the top end.

I would pay to see you try to "milk" a bull walrus . . . please sign over your Griso to me before the attempt . . .

Do you pack it with yak fat, or something better?

Hang in there another day. Dr. J is feeling under the weather. I'll be calling him again tomorrow and should have your answer.

Nice video. It all ignores one thing, though: If what actions we can take do not mitigate the change, that is, if the warming is actually caused by processes outside of human control, then our taking action does not move us out of the column in his table that includes all the upheaval. We'll get the upheaval and we also have all the costs.

Yes, he's recovering well from a badly broken wrist and some other injuries. He's planning on getting another Griso soon.

That exhaust is from my buddy Steve's bike. He centerpunched an elk with it in November.

The sensor holder is plastic, insulating all but the tip from the heat. See how the copper base is insulated by the plastic and how the plastic extends upward to insulate as much as possible of the sensor? The copper base has, from memory, a little well milled into it that fits the tip of the sensor. These things indicate to me "intelligent design" intended to let the tip get an accurate read of head temp through contact between tip of sensor and the copper base. I may be wrong, though. I'll find out from the source and accurately report what he says.

Here's what I would guess the purpose is: The copper transfers the heat to the sensor tip. The plastic holder helps prevent too much heat from being sucked away from that copper tip. This is also why I recommend using something to insulate the brass holders: keep the heat to the sensor. Certainly, I could be the one who has it backasswards, but based on many bikes I've set up thyis way that run perfectly, I believe it to be the designer's intent. I will find out, though. I promise to get to that NLA Monday.

Though the Stelvio has the same brakes as the V11, the Stelio's feel less powerful because of the difference in wheel size, which nets a reduced leverage ratio on the Stelvio. Still, the point remains: Testers have found these brakes wanting. They're ten years behind what is considered good brakes today. Fortunately, It is easy to gain back 5 of those years.

Yes, keep the reports coming. Wonderful stuff.

Me, too. It's super clunky.

I'll try to dig out the quote I read from back in the day where the qualified tester commented that the drum brakes on the V7 Sport were as good as any rider on any road could ever need. For most people he was, and probably still is, right. I have owned a V7 Sport. I found that said tester's assessment was woefully wrong. Re: V11 Sport brakes: I read yesterday a test of the Stelvio, which has V11 Sport (front) brakes, and the "in the trade" tester commented that those 10-years-past-prime brakes were so lame that he just relied on compression braking instead. It's in the Robb Report Motorcycling mag. By contrast, the same tester liked the brakes on the Benelli that he was riding back-to-back with the Stelvio. Can anyone guess what type of brakes the Benelli has?

Well, I haven't talked to Wittner yet but will. In the meantime, let me argue the case that you all have it backasswards. Here goes: Break open your stock sensor. What is the small metal bit made of? It looks like copper to me. What does copper do really well? It transfers heat really, really well. It's also expensive. It would never be speced unless the spec-er wnated maximum heat transfer, for cost reasons. Then, after spec-ing expensive copper, what do they make the rest of the holder out of? Plastic. What does plastic do pretty well? Many things, but among them is that it is a poor conductor of heat. So, they encase a great conductor of heat, which is screwed directly into the heat source and then encase the conductor in an insulator. Why would someone do that? Let's see if your mental faculties are firing tonight . . .