Greg Field

Big J: You're hired. When can you start? (Nice heelan' coo', by the way.)

If you buy the Ohlins from Guzzi, it's huge money. At least $2,000 for the forks. Prob'ly over a grand for the shock. The Ohlins steering damper is near $500. Throttlemeister $150. Seat, prob'ly $600. Motobits $340. Rack $125??

Zen: I work at MI and know all those bikes pretty well. I know the previous owner of the used Cafe, too. He was at my house on Monday. I also have a 74 Eldo and an 04 Ballabio that I upgraded to Ohlins. Here's my advice: Buy a Cafe Sport. The Ohlins are worth it, especially if you respring them for your weight. So, which Cafe Sport? I'd buy the used one. Here's why: I'd trust that the bike is in top shape because the owner is a gentle rider (he traded it in on a Norge) and the bike has been maintained by MI. 10k miles is nothing. It has a lot of "the right stuff" already on it: Guzzi Ti exhaust, Throttlemeister, Motobits, aluminum Guzzi rack, and even has a custom seat from Rich's. This seat raised the seat height, so if you are tall, that's an added plus.

Al: All is not necessarily lost. A friend of mine whose bike's filter spun off last summer and was ridden for a bit was able to get his Cal 1100 back on the road for about $60 in parts. You might be able to do the same. Yes, it would be the right thing to do to tear it all down and inspect, but it seems that isn't in the cards. Remove the top and bottom sump halves. This gets you access to the crank throw and rods. Remove the rod bolts and caps. Push the rods up into the cylinders (you may have to remove the spark plugs to let some compression out) so yu have more room to work. Look at the crank throw. If it is not horribly blued, it may be easily fixed. Start with white scotchbrite and see if you can remove all the bearing smegma that's sticking to the crank's bearing surface. Once that stuff's all off, examine the throw for deep grooves and measure it if you can. Often, the bearing surface will still be in spec. If it's OK, replace the bearing shells with new ones (about $15 each at your local Guzzi dealer; get the 0106-type bearings, not the more expensive 3006 bearings that the parts book says you should get) and button it up. Put a hose clamp on a new filter and add oil. Beg, borrow or steal a mechaical oil pressure gauge you can temprarily plug into your bike. Fire up the bike and if the cold idle pressure is OK and you do not hear any obvious new knocks, try riding it and getting the oil hot while watching the pressure. On a tight bike, cold oil pressure at idle is often 65 psi or more and can easily exceed 75 psi when underway. Hot oil pressure should be 55 or so in steady state above 3,000 rpm or so. Yours may now be lower because of some wear, but if it's above 40 while hot and above 3,000 rpm, it's usable. Hot idle pressure should be 15 psi or higher. Good luck!

We've got the pattern levers (about $25) and CRGs in stock at Moto Intl. I have CRGs on my bike. Expensive but very nice . . . Here're the goldies: Here're the grays: CRGs also come in black now.

I've plugged the same rear tire as many as five times in the same day. Each one held just fine 'til I forgot it was in and whicked it to warp drive. Then, I had to plug again. Plugs'll get you home, if you take it easy. After that, replace the tire if the puncture extends in side the carcass.

I have dragged mine several times. They're bevelling off nicely on both sides. Freaks you out the first time, but if you do not over react, nothing bad will happen. They just leave a silver streak though the corner. And you are heeled waaaaaayyy over for street before they touch. Centauro pegs are lower.

From memory 45mm (about 1-3/4 inches) forward and 30mm (1-14 inch) downward.

I think it's time for Sumo matchup between Dave and Ratchett. You can tug on each others' drawers for real and do lots of grunting and sweating while we cheer you on and place bets. Based on mass alone, the favorite has to be Dave, but Ratchett my have the quickness and sinew to toss Dave out of the ring. Shall we schedule it as part of the '08 SoCal national?

Those are the ones we carry at Moto Intl.

SOunds like a fun ride, Jon.

I think the Griso is the best new Guzzi in a generation. I'm still thinking of trading in the Billy Bob on one . . .

Not backdating. Actually maybe you should do backdating on your own. The manual for the '03 and later V11s calls for 5-40 oil. I think that's a misprint. I think they meant to stay with the 20-50 recommended for previous V11s. That's just an opinion, however.

If you really want low- and mid-range grunt, get LeMans pistons, and use them with the small-valve heads and larger carbs and a B10 cam. There's a local guy for whose Eldo we did this. I do not think we even had to fly-cut the pistons. C/R is high, but it runs well on premium. It lifts the front wheel if you want it to. What Pete says about PHFs is probably true in Australia but not in the US. We can still get them new from several sources, or at least we could last time I checked, which was in November 2006. As for valve springs, the V11 ones do work. A tip, though: Those same springs were used on all the hydro Calis and are being replaced with softer springs in the warranty cam update. All those V11 springs are just being tossed in the trash . . .

It wasn't me who said anything about your plactic calipers. Nor was it me who criticized your efforts. I merely pointed out that you weren't kidding and trying to make others look ridiculous through your efforts.

try 14535203 from a LM 1000. New from Guzzi, it's about $190 in the US. Your are losing the cush drive in this installation. This will greatly accelerate wear on all the splines in your driveline. For this reason, it might be best to start with a new one, even though it is expensive. Also, consider this in your riding style. You can dramaticaly reduce wear on all these splines by using your brakes, rather than compression braking, to slow and stop the bike, and be as smooth as possible with the throttle. I have a LM 1000 with Astralites. You will be amazed how much better your suspension works for having shed about 25 lb of unsptung weight compared to the Guzzi cast lead wheels of the '70s and '80s.

They weren't kidding.

I do not think there was an Astralite drive gear. If you wanted to fit an Astralite, you had to take a stock Guzzi spline plate and have the cush-drive vanes machined off the back and the bolt holes countersunk as shown.

The latest series B11/G11/Norge engines have been re-worked to make use of the oiling system as more of an active part of the engine's cooling system. These changes, as extrapolated from parts availble to me and cryptic communications from Guzzi, include larger and moved oil passages, oil spray directly onto the valve-guide area of each head (with vlave-guide seals to control the oil), and a gerotor-style pump. These appear to be an attempt at making a "teste-oilio" engine, in the style of the BMW oilheads. If I had one of these, or a Breva or Nevada 750, I'd stick with the 10-60. You probably do not need 10-60 on a V11. Mine keeps fine oil pressure with even 5w-40 oil, even at 110 C oil temps. I'm going to try the 10-60, just to see how it does. I also work in a motorcycle shop, so I get discounts. ANd the sad news is, the 10-60 appears to be in short supply. Every time I need to order more for the shop, it's on backorder, and the price has risen. Last week, for example, the wholesale price went up $1.50 US per quart.

NEP, I think. It's kinda ugly but works well.

There are some Guzzi boxes and clutches on which clutch-cable freeplay increases as the bike heats up. On these, if you do not have the clutch cable pre-loaded on a cold engine, there will not be enough travel on the pushrod to disengage the clutch and find neutral reliably. This is rare, but it happens. Almost always on these bikes, you will notice an eccentric wear pattern on the clutch end of the pushrod, if you examine it closely with young eyes or magnification. I do not know what the root cause of this is, but i have noted it on at least three bikes that were under my care. Yours may be similar. If it is, the normal advice will not prove useful. Replacing the pushrod will help for a while. Unfortunately, though, before long you will have to return to the routine of adjusting out freeplay as the engine warms and adding it back in when the engine cools. Again, I do not know why these particular Guzzis behave as they do, but they do.

The downsides, in my opinion, are giant sucking sounds and more dirt in your engine. The upsides are you have less money to spend on things that are effectual. Is that an upside?

I have CRG LS mirrors on my Billy Bob. Here're some photos of it from various angles. The view behind is really good, in my opinion. The shop I work at (Moto International) sells 'em if you do not have a favored local supplier.

It's the first Saturday of each month.

Since you are in Holland, it might be cheaper to get them from TLM.