Ryland3210

It's Greek to me. Please translate.

I had reverse cone megaphones on my Norton, and loved the sound. I bought them in the U.K., and they were the original equipment replacements. But the Guzzi has 2" pipes, and there is that pesky 45 degree bend to deal with. Have you any sources you know of?

I had considered the visegrips alternative, but on my bike, the steel stamping this screw holds down is very thin. Had the head been taken off, there would have been no more than about 0.040" left. The screw was so tight (having been Loctited), I had no confidence I would be able to get the screw out that way. Dremeling flats for the visegrips would have been more likely to succeed, but in this situation, the steel stamping has a feature that would have prevented my visegrips from rotating the full 360 degrees. I knew from taking out the other five, that there would be a battle all the way out. Hence the decision to go with the hexagon/socket combination. I had a similar challenge taking the rotor off the hub (I switched from the 5.5 inch wheel to the 4.5"). Five screws came out, but the sixth started to deform as I attempted to loosen it with the metric key. No room to machine flats in this case where the screw heads are countersunk. With soft screws, I'm concerned that an impact driver might destroy the screws. In this case, I ground down a 1/4" Allen key to an interference fit with the screw's socket and hammered it in. That worked fine. As Greg suggested elsewhere, I used copper based anti-seize on the threads to prevent galvanic corrosion of the aluminum and Schnorr lockwashers. These are actually called springs by Schnorr. They are hard stainless steel Belleville washers with serrations.

The names have been changed to protect the guilty in the following: A rookie New Jersey cop pulled Snake over for speeding and Burro recorded the following exchange: Rookie Cop: May I see your driver's license? Snake: I don't have one. I had it suspended when I got my 5th DUI. Rookie Cop: May I see the registration for this motorcycle? Snake: It's not my bike. I stole it. Rookie Cop: This motorcycle is stolen? Snake: That's right. But come to think of it, I think I saw the owner's registration in the saddle bag when I was putting a unregistered .357 magnum in there. Rookie Cop: There's a gun in the saddle bag? Snake: Yes sir. Right saddlebag, a gun and the left saddlebag has a big bag of dope. Rookie Cop: You're sayin' you got an illegal firearm AND drugs in those saddlebags?!?!? Snake: Yes, sir. Hearing this, the Rookie Cop immediately called his captain. Snake and the scoot were quickly surrounded by the entire Newton P.D., and the captain approached Snake to handle the tense situation: Captain: Sir, can I see your license? Snake: Sure. Here it is. It was valid. Captain: Who's motorcycle is this? Snake: It's mine, officer. Here's the registration card. It was his Goldwing. Captain: Could you slowly open your right saddlebag so I can see if there's a gun in it? Snake: Yes, sir, but there's no gun in it. Sure enough, there was nothing in the right saddlebag. Captain: Would you mind opening your left saddlebag? I was told you said there's a big bag of drugs in it. Snake: No problem. Left saddlebag is opened; no drugs. Captain: I don't understand it. The officer who stopped you said you told him you didn't have a license, stole the bike, had a gun & drugs in the saddle bags! Snake: Yeah, I'll bet the lying bastard told you I was speeding, too!

Even using heat and shock, I managed to bugger up one of the screws on the rear wheel housing without budging it. I didn't have an impact screw driver handy, nor an easy way to make a slot in the head. Besides, I worried about removing material near the diameter of the thread. These screws are only M6's. Instead, I used a Dremel tool with a small diameter cylindrical burr (like an end mill) to machine the head into a hexagon. Then I ground the chamfers off the end of a cheap Taiwanese 9 mm socket so it would get as much engagement with the hex as possible. Finally, I hammered the socket onto the screw and had no trouble ratcheting it off. This procedure took about 20 minutes. The trick is to get the angles of the hexagon right, and end up with a standard socket size. I guess I was pretty lucky that my 9mm socket ended up being a press fit. Then again, both the screw and socket weren't the hardest steel in the world. Here's a picture of the screw and socket:

Looks and sounds great. Do they have removable baffles to install for the anal inspectors we have out here? John

Assuming you are not joking, read about oil filter tightening in Frequently Asked Questions. Consider adding the hose clamp as insurance.

My preference is Staintune or Ferraci slip on's or Stucci's with crossover. Will pick up within 120 miles of Warwick, New York, or pay for shipping. Send me a PM if interested.

I installed the Buell directionals, but unfortunately didn't keep the receipt. The way I did it was to simply go to a Harley/Buell dealer, look at a Buell that had the same directionals and gave that model to the guy behind the counter. At the dealer I went to, all the Buell models had the same directionals, so it didn't matter. Buells have a flexible section by design, so they are less likely to break. The mounting hole had to be drilled out slightly, but it was easy going through the plastic. The connection leads and connectors they came with worked fine as they came.

Further to Phil's point, it is very likely (but I would like to hear this confirmed) that the ignition is a capacitive discharge or other system which injects a pulse of current into the coils only when triggered by the ECU when the engine is running.

This can be a good thing, if the "real" manufacturer turns out a quality product. Copycats often miss some of the trade secret manufacturing methods and produce an inferior product. Even within manufacturers, the same product is sometimes sold under different lables and different prices. I know of a case where the filter sold as a motorcycle filter is priced at 3-5 times the same filter sold as an automotive filter, both under the same brand name. There is some justification for this: The additional cost of packaging for a lower volume market, market promotion, and so on. Still, instead of creating a special part number for a motorcycle application, the standard automotive part number could be printed in the catalog for that application at no additional cost. But then, someone thinks, "hey, we can get a better margin if we create a new part number and put it in a different box!" I don't have to tell you which one I buy.

When a battery has been charging, its voltage immediately after the charging stops is not a reliable measure of state-of-charge. It takes very few amp-hours to drop this voltage down to where the battery can produce significant current. To get a good indication of the battery's condition, this "surface charge" must be drained off. One way is to simply wait several hours after parking the bike. If you have just parked the bike and want to know its state of charge, another way is to turn on the headlight for 3 minutes (without engine running), then off, then wait 15 seconds before measuring the battery voltage.

Careful, there. I did not measure 330 watts, that's what my manual states. I did not take a voltage and current measurement at 5,000 to verify the manual's spec. Also, the shop manual states 350 Watts for my bike, so either might be true at 5,000 RPM.

The difference could be in the regulator as well. There is also an update for the workshop manual which covers my bike. In section R, it disagrees with the operator's manual, specifying 350W, 14 volts at 25 amps at 5000 RPM.

It's simple. Measurements showed that the Purolator design allows the O-Ring to act more like a spring instead of extruding out of the groove. Therefore prevailing friction torque of its O-Ring would decrease less per turn of loosening. Just to be sure, the durometer of the UFI and Purolator O-Rings was tested and found virtually identical. The pitch of the thread, which is another factor affecting the tendency to loosen is identical on both filters. There are other advantages in terms of sealing efficiency of the Purolator filter's groove unrelated to loosening. Whether using the turns method or torque method of tightening, reliance on Hooke's Law, Coulomb friction, and other laws of physics predict results will be consistent with measurements, leading to the conclusion that the Purolator design is less likely to loosen. I have no wish to beat this dead horse any further.

Sounds great! Please let me know how they sound. My '04 Cafe Sport is much too quiet. Are you going to have to remap the ECU? John

It's the L10241.

Ratchethack, Contrary your assertion as to my position (which itself is an unsupported hypothesis), I cannot agree with your conclusion. I agree that no conclusions are possible from hypotheses alone. However, measurements and tests were indeed made of various O-Ring groove designs and O-Rings. Conclusions were drawn but not simply from hypotheses. In fact, I drew no conclusions without measurement testing. In order to discount the conclusion that the Purolator design is less likely to loosen than the UFI, which I continue to stand behind, one would have to discount, IN GENERAL, the validity of accurate measurement, proven physical relationships between durometer, compression percentages and sealing capability and prevailing frictional torque generated thereby, as well as known good industry practice in the design of O-Ring grooves. This same disagreement between you arose before, and this is the second time I have had to correct your mischaracterization of my work. I like you and respect your knowledge and dedication to this forum Ratchethack, but you give me the impression that your zeal to debate with dlaing has clouded your judgment in this particular case.

That could account for the 330 watt output specified in my Cafe Sport manual versus the 350 in the Shop Manual. My regulator looks pretty close to black, certainly not silver. So is the regulator on my bike less reliable than the Ducati type?

No worries. How could you know how extensive the problem might be? Thanks to you, at least it's been brought to the attention of the forum. It may be an endemic problem throughout the Ballabio/Cafe Sport models maybe more. If the factory didn't know about it, why would they bother to tie the cable away from the pinch point? It isn't obvious by appearance.

A few comments on patents: One of the famous quotations was made by an official in the patent office, in I think around 1880. He said words to the effect that every invention had been created, and there was nothing left to invent. Ammeters have been installed in automobiles since the beginning. My 1970 Norton had one. The patent system was introduced in the U.S. specifically because good ideas were being keep secret by their inventors and used only by themselves to retain a competitive advantage. Great ideas would die secretly along with their inventors. Patents provide a temporary monopoly on an invention in exchange for disclosing the invention and teaching the public how to duplicate them. Once the patent expires, the inventor has no further rights to his invention. By the time that happens, if competitors haven't already found a way to work around the patent, they certainly know how to copy it. Some of the first patents were on the McCormick reaper, Eli Witney's cotton gin, and other inventions which resulted in enormous increases in food production to name just one area. Others are electric motors, generators, light bulbs, the list goes on and on. Patent protection is of incalculable value to the production of technological improvements. Without it, many an inventor with a revolutionary idea would never bring it to market, just to be blown away in the market by financially strong copycats. It still happens, but at least the little guy has a chance to win in court.

If you take my current measurements at 12.4 volts, and assume it is proportional with voltage as a conservative case, you get 152.3 watts at 12.85 volts. Using the same logic, at 13.84 volts, it would rise to 176.7 watts. But the current for lamps, coils, and fuel pump is actually not going to rise proportionally with voltage. At 2400 RPM, the manual says the alternator is good for 22 amps, so at the 13.84 measured there, it comes out to 304.7 watts. Therefore, at 2400 RPM the reserve conservatively computes to 128 watts. Hey docc, thanks for being polite. I'm not so geriatric that I cruise at 1500 RPM. I'm riding a Cafe Sport, not a Harley geezer glide! Today's ride happened to be a good test for 2-3,000 RPM cruising. On Northern New Jersey's country roads, the range of speeds is 35 to 50 MPH. They wander through small villages dating back to the 1700"s, and meander along roads built orignally for horses and wagons. I think I only got over 60 once for about one mile out of 200. On the way up to a MGNOC rally in Massachusetts, I had fun blasting along at 95 for a good 20 miles along one stretch. The Cafe Sport seemed to love the exercise.

More info.: My manual says the alternator output is 330 watts. The regulator is the black one, which Greg Field referred to as the "much larger" Ducati unit. I rode about 200 miles today in cold weather with the Widder vest and gloves on. On the country roads we rode on, RPM's stayed between 2 and 3 thousand 99% of the time, except when idling. There were quite a few stop sighns along the way. I made no effort to keep the revs high. The bike idles at 1100-1200 RPM. Before starting the trip, battery voltage was at 12.42. Afterwards, after draining off the surface charge, the voltage was 12.63. This recharging of the battery is consistent with the measurements taken above, which showed there was plenty of reserve power available at 1500+ RPM.