Greg Field

I can tell you exactly what happens: When you walk into the shop in the morning, it smells like battery acid. You realize you've porked the pooch and shut off the charger and look at the battery. The case is distorted hot to the touch. It now will leak if you tilt it to the side. This was a 14-amp rate overnight.

Email me at parts@motointernational.com if you haven't found one yet.

Hydros have a unique camshaft. Oil to fill the hydraulic lifters is supplied through the block, not through the cam.

If your local folks can't supply, Moto International can. We ship all over the world. Rings're about $40 per side. Rod shells are about $16 each in stock sizes. What happened that you need rod shells and rings?

There never is too much. Traditionally, the RH exhaust lobe wears fastest on Guzzis. Why? Being in a lubrication shadow is one theory. Usually, the RH exhaust lobe is the one that wore out on the hydro EV cams that were failing. Guzzi tried three different cams before it was fixed. Part of the fix was the oiling holes.

The holes ooze oil oil directly onto the lobe. I can't remember for sure if the late V11 cam had them or not.

Hey! That's my buddy Paul. He knows how to ride that thing.

If you want a roundhead, get a roundhead. This is like putting fake "knucklehead" rockerboxes on a Twin Cam Harley engine.

I'm probably the only one who thinks this is all obscene, but there it is. Go all the way and put the exposed hairpin valvesprings of an early Falcone, too!

Gary live in Utica, which is north of Detroit. Last I heard, he was doing well. He grew tired of squabbling on forums.

Raz: We've got 'em for $39.95 US per side, so with shipping it'd be about $110 for both sides.

Similar specs but not exactly the same. We have fitted them to 4-5 Sports. They work just fine and are a drop-in. You could also go with a Megacycle cam or nay of several other offerings that are common in Europe (Scola, etc.)

On a new Guzzi cam of this era, both front lobes taper toward the front, and both rear lobes taper toward the rear. The taper is not much, 0.002 inch or so. (FWIW, Guzzi's use of tapered lobes started, I'm pretty sure, with the Sport 1100; earlier Guzzi cams feature flat-top lobes, or so I have been told by one of their engineers.) If you look at the sides of your cam's lobes, you can see this manifested in the worn (high point of the taper) and unworn (low point of the taper) areas. On a new or good Guzzi cam, the unworn area would extend up and over the tip of each lobe and would be as much as half the fore-aft width of the lobe. As the cam and tappets wear, the fore-aft width of the wear pattern will move forward on the front lobes and rearward on the rear lobes until eventually it marches off the front or rear or the lobe. Once this has happened wear accelerates. Pretty soon, the wear stretches across most of the side of the lobe, too, leaving just a crescent unworn on the upper third of the lobe, and circular spin marks near the center of the side lobe. Things are still spinning but wearing fast. This is exactly where your camshaft is at. Look at the exhaust lobes, especially the front (for RH cylinder) one. The crescent is there and growing smaller. Can you yet catch a fingernail on the edge of the crescent? Soon, you will be able to. One day, one of the lifters will cease spinning, and then you'll soon hear nasty noises. Replace the cam or have it re-ground. Use new tappets or good re-grinds. As said in the other similar thread, they must not be flat on the bottom. They are ground on the bottom surface to the shape of a very low cone, such that there is a point in the center, to mimic a "radius." Commit to using good oil that contains API SG levels of zinc and phosphorous (1200+ ppm of both).

Clear is good. They must also retain the radius on the bottom. To check them, put two of them face-to-face. Hold their inter face up to a strong light. Light should shine through a narrow gap between them, except at the very small part of the faces where they actually touch. "rock" them against one another, and you will se the gap narrow on one side and widen on the other. If the gap doesn't do this, they're worn too flat for safe re-use.

Usually, that means you oil rings aren't as sealed as they should be.

Slavomir: Use new rings. Install them dry. Your engines main problem appears to have been complete lack of ring seating.

Slavomir: Look at all that chocolate on both pistons all the way down to the oil rings. Your rings never did seat, or you've been running it a long time after it lost ring seal.

Send a pic of the cam, particularly of the RH exhaust lobe. Show the lobe tip and also a side view of both sides of the lobe. I can tell you what to look for. Tappets that look like that usually indicate a lot of water in the oil. They can run like that for tens of thousands of miles, so long as they keep spinning. One day, they will stop spinning and very soon wear out. Replace them with new or re-ground tappets. New are about $30 US each. Re-ground are half that.

One of our techs at Moto Itnl. has a Givi on the back of his Coppa Italia, mounted to the factory rack, and it works great.

Ask Ratch. He'll write a 3,000-page screed on it.

OK. I have it on my calendar and will put more planning in after the first of the year. Could be good fun.

Here's the story, or the parts that were printable in a newspaper: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/loca...8_horse15m.html

The 1200 Sport kit includes an ECU that is open loop. I do not know of a way to get its mapping data. What I can tell you is that many of these twin-plug bikes seem more prone to pinging than our V11s, but there could be many factors that contribute to that.

I think they started a sex farm in Enumclaw, WA. (Look it up . . .)

CHeck out these Norskies, riding around the world on two Nimbuses, 1937 and 1939. http://kccd.no/journey_en.html I heard they were heading to Seattle, so I emailed them, and they've been staying with me for a few days. Great company with some wild stoies of Siberia and Mongolia. If they swing through near where any of you live, I highly encourage you to have them over and have some beers with them. They're totally my kind of nutcases. Maybe they will be your kind, too?