Ryland3210

Notice what I said about oil cleanliness being more important for roller bearings? They are more sensitive to hard particles, such as even very tiny bits of steel, because of the high contact pressures of the rollers. Even soft aluminum particles can cause rapid failure. If a roller skids, instead of rolling, it's quickly destroyed. Obviously lack of oil is a killer, but also it would be a good idea to examine the failed bearing carefully to determine cause of failure. If the pressure relief valve is connected before the filter instead of after, there is the additional risk that a particle sucked in by the pump, or from the pump itself sticks the relief valve open, thereby reducing oil pressure. Guzzi's have the relief valve after the filter. Have a real good look at the pump internals for any sign of failure.

Sounds like you were better prepared than I was on my 450 Honda in my early days of cross country biking. Off we went, two up with full camping gear tied and bungie corded on everywhere possible. On the sides, behind the tallest sissy bar I could find, even on top of the front fender. The bike never missed a beat, from New Jersey to California to Mexico, and back in 20 days. Recommended oil change interval on it was 500 miles back then, which meant it was essentially a daily routine. At the end of riding all day in hot weather, the oil ran out like scalding hot water. Oiling the chain was every other day. The constant velocity carbs did a great job keeping the mixture right across the Rockies as well. Even with all the weight, the little engine that could, easily held cruising speed up the high altitude hills, although I had to drop a gear or two at times. I had made my own comfort seat (there were no aftermarket seats in those days), and made foam pads to lay my calves on top of the crash bars. For bars, I bent the wide "western" bars of the day back to U-shaped. This combination allowed me to ride almost horizontal, leaning back on my partner, who in turn rested her feet on my pegs and leaned back on the sissy bar. It was really comfortable. In those days in an America with far more freedom than we have today, it was no problem tent camping for free in rest areas. No rules against it, and no charge. Our routine was two nights camping, one night motel. To be honest, the only thing missing was better foul weather clothing. Can you imagine!? Ordinary camping rain suits over thermal underwear and jeans. Two days of continuous rain from West Virginia all the way to Kansas, taught me a lesson I also will not forget. Fortunately weather was near perfect for the rest of the journey. The only precipitation was a light dusting of snow during the night we camped at the Grand Canyon. It was an unforgettable trip I'm looking forward to repeating, but as you say, learning from mistakes made.

Roller bearings have considerably lower friction, and are able to live with much lower oil pressure. They cost more than plain bearings both because of the cost of the bearing itself, plus tighter tolerances required to mount them. Oil cleanliness is more important for long life. Harley Davidsons, famous for being able to idle at subsonic RPM's are able to live with minimal oil pressure because of the use of roller bearings. Some say that all that is needed is to deliver oil to roller bearings. Guzzi's, in contrast, need 1100 or more RPM to ensure adequate oil pressure to prevent metal to metal contact in its plain bearings. When my bike was delivered, it idled at 600 RPM. That sounded cool, until I installed a pressure gauge. When hot, it made practically zero oil pressure at that idle speed. I immediately started using the so-called "choke" (actually a fast idle) to keep it up at 1100-1300 RPM.

That's a great price for that particular battery. It isn't literally a dry cell. One concern is the state of charge. In the case of conventional lead-acid batteries, allowing them to self discharge while on a store's shelf for too long results in diminished capacity. Over here, for example, auto batteries by most manufacturers are date coded for that reason. 6 months of self discharge can be significant. Smart stores will put the older batteries in front. This particular battery may not be affected as much by that, but I don't know for sure. If it is a factor, it may be that the batteries have been around for a long time, which would account for the steep discount.

Perhaps, but with somewhat different objectives!

The most beautiful women in the world are women!

My most memorable concert was the Watkins Glen Sequel to Woodstock. In the miles long, snail pace line to get in, I was with friends. I was on my Honda 250, and all my stuff was being very kindly kept the carload of pal. It was hot, so I had given them my jacket, sleeping gear, tent and helmet, too. I kept riding up to the gate and back down to touch base with my buddies from time to time, until one time, they weren't there. I looked everywhere for hours, but could not find them among the approximately 400,000 people and innumerable cars as far as the eye could see. Having no food or shelter, I got desparate and begged my way into a tent for the night under a blanket and a little grub from some friendly folks. That night was unbelievable. A unbelievable spectical of costumes and public nudity, every possible drug and form of alcohol available and being consumed. Many had brought truckloads of beer and whatever for sale. Walking around that night was like being on another planet, I can tell you! The concert was terrific the next day, but I was a little under the weather, wondering how the hell I was going to get home or make it through another night. About 3:00 PM, walking into the crowd to find a seat, I almost stepped on one of my friends. Had that not happened, I don't know whether I would have even noticed them. Lucky isn't the word! With my spirits now soaring, it became the best party I can recall. They even let some of us bikers on the race track. It was great zipping around the track, but a little tricky, since not everyone agreed which was the right direction! Made it home the next day, safe and sound, and lived to tell about it.

In my case, the surface was polished smooth which is what I would expect with a fiber washer intended to be slippery. I'd worry about abrasion if there were any sign of it. As it was, I left it dry to avoid viscous friction.

Welcome aboard! Coincidentally, I also have been riding 40 years, and until I couldn't risk kick starting my '70 Norton Commando any more, it was my favorite ride for 30 years. Loved that bike, and it never let me down. Life goes on and I'm happy to have bought an '04 Cafe Sport two years ago. Take a look at the Ballabio & Cafe Sport models. The main difference is Ohlin suspension on the latter. These models are somewhat more comfortable than the LeMans. They have the 6 Speed transmission without the tranny spring problem. Better relays available now, and better load distribution. Design defects are minor, and with the help of this forum, you would quickly learn how to remedy them. There's a list somewhere among the posts.

Generally, retarding the spark from optimum power output helps pass EPA requirements.

Thanks for the update, Dave. When I changed my wheel recently, I found a thin layer of a relatively slippery, dry, contact patch material on one mating surface. The mating aluminum surface had been polished, either during manufacturing or by the motion of the contact patch. I thought about greasing it, but changed my mind, once I realized that the dry material might have more static friction than a greased surface, but effectively zero viscous friction. I left it dry on purpose.

In your climate 10 amp-hours may be enough. In mine, I'll stick with the 15 amp-hour battery. The price is about the same as I paid here-reasonable. Good luck with it.

In your climate 10 amp-hours may be enough. In mine, I'll stick with the bigger battery. The price is about the same as I paid here-reasonable. Good luck with it.

I like the eccentric path. Reminds me of a cam. It could make for some real thrills for me, switching from left hand to right hand drive as I mindlessly navigate the beast.

I'm planning a trip from New York to San Francisco by way of Pittsburgh, Denver, across the Rockies into Utah, and then south to Phoenix for my daughter's wedding before heading across the Sierra's to the west coast. I'm starting around April 7th, so there will be plenty of climate variation. I've had good luck with a Joe Rocket mesh jacket when it's hot, with waterproof liner when it's wet, and heated vest and gloves under that when it's cold. The variety of products has me befuddled about pants. I would appreciate any recommendations. BTW, anyone looking to pass a little time along the way with this die hard rider is welcome to reach out. Thanks, John

Reminds me of a pinball machine. Coming from the U.S., driving on the left is challenge enough. If I found myself entering this joke on driver, I would get into the inner circle, and keep driving in circle for heaven knows how long until I reached escape velocity and ricochet'ed out on a random exit road!

So therefore, Dan's workshop manual with its diagnostic codes is not correct for the 15M? And there is no diagnostic connector for a blinking LED?

Thanks for the great link. The Workshop Manual is for which years? The check lamp looks like a good thing to buy. Please excuse my ignorance, but how do I know if I have a P7/P8 ECU? The 15M version is on my '04 Cafe Sport. Thanks.

Hi Joe, I recently bought a sheepskin hide with really high density wool. I cut it to fit, and it makes a huge difference on my butt comfort. Highly recommended. I also took my Cafe Sport's fly screen off right after I bought the bike, but under 85 miles per, wrists and arms still took a lot of abuse until I changed the foot controls to move my feet forward.

My friend and our ladies packed into a Jeep station wagon that was made sometime in the 50's and took it across the country to Vancouver, up to Jasper and back across Canada to New Jersey. It had a lot of miles on it when I got my hands on it. It had been set up with a 2 barrel 283 Chevy V8 and used for plowing for many winters. The differential was somewhere around 4.11:1, with a three speed on the column. We had two breakdowns. I bent a pushrod in the old 283 while racing it in Oregon. Easy fix with a $2.50 pushrod and back on the road in a couple hours. The other problem was a blown U-Joint on moutiainous dirt roads near Kamloops. No surprise, considering the years of snow plow duty. No worries: took off the drive shaft and drove back into town in four wheel drive on the front differential. Also found the replacement U-Joint in stock at the one auto parts store in town. Got drunk with the rest of the population that night to celebrate. No other problems. The trip was a blast.

Wow! Thanks for the comments, Dan. Memories of the time I lost it trying to take corners like I was at Watkins Glen on knobbies 30 years ago, still create fear sometimes when taking a sharp corner on the Guzzi, even though there is no comparison. So the tires were made around 2002, right? Do you recall which Bridgestones they were?

It's always hard to argue against taking the safest possible approach, but then we wouldn't be riding high powered motorcycles in the first place Personally, in my mind, there's always the challenge of optimizing the trade-offs among the cost, safety, longevity, and performance factors. And then there's the fun of it all. My attempt to create a political thread in banter worked for a while, until foul language had to be censored and it became too personal for Jaap to tolerate, so he locked it. Let us hope people are more civilized if another one is started. It's someone else's turn to try. I don't want to become Mr. Political Thread. I only did it for the purpose of attracting this kind of thing away from "Technical". I'm grateful for Jaap's patience and his deletion of off topic debates when they consume too much space in technical threads. There is a middle ground, where an off-topic converation is sparked within a technical thread. I think that's OK, if it's kept short AND provided the parties voluntarily move over to Banter as soon as the first counterpoint is made.

Point well taken on the blanket on a bike inside an enclosed space. BTW, I did not intend that it should be all the way to the ground where it could trap fumes. Gasoline vapors are denser than air, and will "fall" to the ground in still air. There was little risk with a bulb under a car sump and blanket over the engine, with plenty of ventilation outdoors when I used to do it. A 60 watt bulb does not get all that hot, and even if gasoline drips on it, a spark or open flame is needed to ignite it. A spark generated by a loose connection in the bulb socket could do it. A commercially available fixture rated "explosion proof" would eliminate that risk factor. An incandescant bulb, with its lower efficiency than a halogen would be better because it makes more heat and less light. If there is leaking gas, any heater with a connection that can potentially permit a spark is risky. The convection heater at a distance with forced ventilation as part of the picture would be safer. If you ever want to take a shortcut to long term testing of this kind of behavior, here is a method: Since most phenomena like this exponentially decay to final value the change with time will initially be linear, then will show a bend in the curve if you plot it. Plot the data versus time. At some point it will become apparent what value it will finally attain without having to plot forever.

As far as Jeep reliability goes, "decades ago" is the relevant phrase in the Alaska to Chile story. Just sold my '2000 Cherokee. Put the first set of brake pads and rotors on the front wheels at 134,000 miles. Cost about $250. Replaced one rear door strut that snapped its end off because I tried driving it across a bumpy field with it open-my fault. Cost $40. Other problems-zero. I never had to take it back to the dealer for any warrantee work, and when I sold it because of boredom, even the exhaust system, made of heavy gauge construction looked it was going to last another 100,000 miles or more. The original battery was getting a little tired, but still started it every time, even in the winter cold. On bearings and seals, it's certainly no problem out here, even for my '70 Norton, and anything else I need them for. Recently bought a distributor for my '74 Jeep. It cost $80 from NAPA, and they actually refunded $30 for the old one. Let's face it, new cars have become so reliable, that the need to at least break even on service has resulted in the shift to offering only complete assemblies which cost much more than the broken part. It's a cause and effect relationship, not just motivated by insurance and litigation considerations. There are different strategies among makers, however. My VW has an access door to access the top of the fuel tank in case the fuel pump needs service. My previous Camaro and Chevy Astrovan each cost just under $1,000 to replace the fuel pump because the rear differential and fuel tank had to be removed for want of an access door, all because of a frozen shaft bushing.