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I may be the only one interested. I had trouble understanding the diode concept, so this is what I came up with. When the switch for the third relay (bottom of image) is off, the headlight bulb is grounded by the common and it functions normally. When the switch for the third relay is on, and the low beam is activated, the headlight common is not grounded so it grounds through the high beam filament. When the switch for the third relay is on and the high beam is activated, the low beam goes off, deactivating the third relay and you get a normal high beam. When the switch for the third relay is on and the high beam flasher is activated, the current is neutralized by by a positive current on both sides of the filaments and no ground. This has the added benefit of temporarlilly killing the high beam, which is a useful signal to let traffic proceed. I think that should work. Before I roast my wires, any second thoughts? Click on link for Higher Resolution PNG image http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/4043/da...adlight28ie.png

You could be right. The number of pro racers that die on the street may be proportional to or higher than the average per capita. The bottom line is not to get in over your head. If you can increase your ability and not push it harder, you are doing a good thing. But yah, the ego boost can be bigger than the boost in talent. I still need more talent.

What exactly hamstrings us? I am slowly working on making a silk purse out of my sow's ear, and need to know about these alleged limitations. There are some problems, but I can conceive a solution for almost all of the problems that I have thought of. The frame can be made more rigid with bracing. Weight can be lessened and moved forward by converting the rear subframe to a lighter weight mono posto. Unsprung weight can be removed through the use of forged wheels, alloy bearing spacers, ceramic bearings, titanium bolts, etc. You can put the world's finest shocks and forks on the bike. You can put the world's finest brakes on the bike. What have I overlooked? That my silk purse made from a sow's ear is empty and I cannot afford gas? Sure, but it is still cheaper than a Ducati 999 or BMW R1200S. The bike has that Guzzi patented, je ne sais quois, and I have a connection to it. No, the resale value will not be equal to the other bikes, and I would lose in a race, but lap times and re-selling are not my goals. There is no absolutely right or wrong way to evolve your Guzzi. If you want to trust the dealer when they tell you the OEM suspension is set up right, then you may well be happy living in your happy OEM world, just don't be surprised if you get speed wobble issues. If you want to limit your suspension upgrade budget to adjusted preload that is fine. But you might do better for the price of springs and installation. If you want to do that and add on thousand dollar shock, more power to you. Uprade the fork damping??? Sure, why not, it is only money, but you will get a better ride. Full Ohlins on an ol' sow??? Sure why not? The Guzzzi is the greatest bike design on Earth and it deserves great stuff. You got mo' money, and want the Superbike gear, GO FOR IT! Yeah baby! Carbon fiber wheels and brake rotors, radial mounted calibers, titanium bolts, uh huh! Just beware the resale value is lost, but you got money in the bank, so who cares.... PS money spent on track school is also said to be a good investment

This old prototype looks nice V65TT Baja They could drop the 750 engine in something like that and give it a mono shock. But getting a lot of travel out of a shafty can have trade offs. http://www.mgcn.nl/dameijer/html/v65ttbaja.htm The production TT was less impressive looking http://www.mgcn.nl/dameijer/html/v65tt.htm and probably had many of the V65 problems. Has the Breva750 engine been more reliable? I suspect it has.

At your service You might try a book by one of our fine forum members But don't worry, it has pictures shop local or try http://www.amazon.comYou might also want to buy Guzziology by Greg Field's buy Dave Richardson http://www.motointernational.com/guz_spl.htm I have read neither If you are looking for links, you might try the amazing website in my signature. It has links that will take you places with more links. This site has more about Guzz's development than I can remember: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moto_Guzzi But http:www.guzzitech.com and this website are my favorites websites, but the historical stuff is burried here. If you just read all Pete Roper's posts you will get a fascinating education.

Welcome to the Forum Moto Pierre! If your oem battery was a Spark500 the terminals should face to the rear. Positive on the Port side and Negative on Starboard. If your OEM battery was a Yuasa, I don't know

Keep in mind that there is more than one type of acrylic. And there is more than one type of polycarbonate. This PDF gives info on some variations of Acrylite PLUS http://www.cyro.com/Internet/SiteContent.n...pdf?OpenElement This chart shows some variations of polycarbonate I think you will find the UV resistance essential. Of course if you are picking scraps out of a bin, you might not get to select the optimal plastic.

Do these have less balance than Stucchi crossover? Less balance probably means more mid-range and less high end.

Yuasa says, http://www.yuasabatteries.com/battery.asp?...81&vID=5053 Or if link is broken, search for Battery Type: YTX15L-BS They also say, http://www.yuasabatteries.com/faqs.asp?action=1&id=27 And headed away from leaking and back to charging... Here is odyssey's view on charging and chargers and recommended chargers Also interesting tidbit for those making short runs to the beer store. http://www.odysseyfactory.com/shortlife.htm

More evidence that wiring is commonly the problem: Electrex, who makes my aftermarket voltage regulator, has in the instructions to create a new ground line, and a new line to the battery. But there is no reason you should not use the original ground and line to the battery other than from connections being bad. In the experience of Electrex, presumably they must be getting people returning the regulators saying they did not work, when in fact the problem was the wiring. They are no fools. As more regulators and batteries fail, I think we will find more people finding corroded lines like Martin's and voltage drops like what I got between the regulator and the battery.

I always thought the Stucchi fairings were made by Givi. Obviously they are different Yah, I would just find some some premium brand acrylic thin enough to bend. If it is a tad too thick, a head gun, a crude form of roughly the right circumference, like maybe a large bucket or tire or sheet metal bent to desired shape, and some patience will bend it right.

I am not sure which Givi you have, but I think the bends are too complex and you may need vacuum forming Or maybe you have a different fairing

That may be what happened to mine. After about three years the Spark 500 OEM battery gave up. I replaced it with a Hawker Odyssey that lasted one year. When it failed, I also determined that the regulator failed. When I tried installing the new regulator, I determined that I had about a drop of one volt between the regulator and the battery. This voltage drop probably killed my regulator, and my regulator probably killed the two batteries. So, yah Gary's recommendation to check your wires should not be ignored. It should probably be an annual or semi-annual scheduled maintainance. It is pretty easy to clean the connections and measure the voltage drop between regulator and battery, so just do it Also, if your 30A fuse is starting to melt, it may be too late...but is certainly an indicator.

Where did you go? If you want to learn from experience, I am your man Just don't do what I did For my V65 SP fairing I made a template by wrapping around fairing with card board, cut the acrylic (from some place on Canal Street) to match template, put in oven on top of a wax paper covered cookie sheet (I think I preheated to 250F, but it was long ago.) After it started to shrink I carried it out to the bike wearing oven mitts and wrapped it around the fairing. As I wrapped it around it cooled quickly and cracked a little from my pushing too much when it had firmed up too much. I drilled a stop crack and it then lasted a long time, but always had a two inch crack at the base. It looked OK but nowhere near factory perfect. A second person to help hand mold it would have yielded better results. But if I were to do it again, I would create a form, as txrider suggested.

Not a chance. But maybe the Norge In another thread we were discussing reducing the voltage load, and Gary Cheek suggested it would be possible organize some relays in such a way that you could run the High and Low beam filaments in series to reduce the current while maintaining a legal headlight. It hurts my brain to even think of conceiving a wiring plan for that, but it should be possible

So which do you think is hype? Don't use a charger that does not produce 14.2V or greater, or don't use a charger produces more than 15V? I understand it is fine to use the charger that does not put out 14.2 V as long as you realize it will not always fully charge the battery. I also understand it is OK to use a charger that exceeds 15V as long as you monitor it and do not exceed the 15V. But you have success with the lawn mower batteries and are probably pumping 16V into them, unless your charger is different than mine. Is that OK? I have suspected that it might be fine at my 2 amp setting, but at 10A I think I would damage the battery before it becomes fully charged if I took it up to say 15.5 Volts. If I was content with charging just enough so that I can start the bike, I would agree that setting my charger to 2A and bringing it up to 15V is good enough, if you can go for an hour ride after charging. If you can't and are then going to let it sit all Winter, the battery is probably about 80% charged, I think you will be decreasing the batteries life storing it partially charged. Would you recommend storring it partially charged or exceeding the 15V to get it fully charged? If you would exceed 15V would you do it at 2A, 6A, 10A, 20A setting? The good thing about the Guzzi regulator is that it won't exceed 14.xV unless broken, but my Electrex Regulator won't even reach the magical 14.2V recommended by Hawker. For me this is another reason to periodically charge. The main reason I charge is because I have a leak through the ECU. But it does seem like the Electrex keeps it charged, so maybe the 14.2V is bull-loney, unless the battery is fully discharged and sulfated

Somewhere on the forum there are pictures. There is not much restriction in the crossovers. The loss of mid-range appears to be some other design issue, like not enough restriction and maybe too much expansion and vagueness to the flow. If you could create an X style crossover within the crossover box, it might flow better. You could even perforate the tubes of the internal crossover and fill the box with steel wool, so that you get the power of the Stucchi crossover, but quieter.

I keep looking at other bikes and their "specs", thinking of trading, but none can compare to what the "specs" don't tell. But I am surprised you miss your LeMans more than your G&B. You did sell your Ghezzi and Brian, right? Inspite of giving up your LeMans, you are still welcome at all Guzzi Gatherings

Stock airfilter is the best. Cutting holes in the lid will give you power for no money down, but you will pay in earlier filter replacements A cross-over is less ban for the buck. More open mufflers can be good bang for the buck if you buy them second hand and are not worried about scratches. A power commander will make the bike run better for not too much money. I recommend it as the first investment towards the engine. Suspension is the most overlooked investment made. But bang for buck starts to diminish pretty quickly. Start with sag. If that is OK with simple pre-load adjustment you are 80% happy without spending a dime!!! If you need springs, add $250US plus labor.(but you have to change the fork fluid anyway...) If you want more improvement, get a better shock $750-$1300. If you want more improvement, spend $500-1000 getting forks revalved. If you want more improvement spend $2500 on Ohlins R&T forks. If you still aren't content, spend even more on Ohlins Superbike forks. Then go on a diet, lose some weight and spend more money respringing and sorting out. But don't forget, brakes and tires are important too. I think I tried the Dunlop D208, but not the D220. Pretty good life and traction. But I like Metzeler and Pirelli sport touring tires more. Purely subjective. I am still shopping for brake rotors...

Good point. Perhaps an old battery trying to recharge won't toast the regulator. But if you have a good new battery and left the parking light on over-night, push start it and then keep the revs up to recharge, you may be looking at a toasted regulator. The Ultimizer is cheap by comparison But I suppose if you hook up your automotive charger until you get 15V (watching carefully) that is probably charged enough to start and maybe keep you from toasting the alternator.

http://www.batterymart.com/p-odyssey-ultim...ry-charger.html Is expensive at $69 +shipping, but worth it in my opinion. It was not available when I bought my $109 charger, Xenotronic Optimizer http://www.portablepower.com/items/search/all/1/all/34S201S4 My $30(on sale) 10A/2A Schauer automotive charger puts out more than 15V. But is fine to use up to 15V, but that leaves the battery partially charged. Hawker recommends, " If the voltage output from the charger is less than 14.2V or more than 15V for a 12V battery do not use the charger. " from http://www.enersysreservepower.com/odycharg_b.asp Recommended reading for all Spark 500 and Hawker Odyssey owners ...IMHO

My experience is that the more discharged any lead acid battery is, AGM or other, the larger the current will be. If I plug in my 10A/2A automotive charger and set it to 10A it starts at 10A and about 13.5V and then as it charges the voltage rises, exceeding 15V(which is bad, and which is why I use the expensive recommended charger) and the amperage drops to about 2A. If I switch to the 2A mode it starts at 2A and about 13.5V and then as it charges the voltage rises, exceeding 15V(which is bad, and which is why I use the expensive recommended charger) and the amperage drops to roughly about about 1A. Not sure what happens with our regulator. From what I can tell the voltage remains the same while the amperage is regulated only by the wires roasting and the fuse blowing I would guess that an AGM battery discharged to say 11.8V (20% charged) would draw over 20A at 14.5V. Combine the 10A or more of other things that are running and we may quickly be above 30A. As the battery becomes charged the current will drop to less than one amp when 14.5Volts are applied. But I am only guessing and don't want to experiment measuring the amps flowing to a discharged battery from my expensive regulator and alternator In fact the only way I know how to test the amperage, above 10A, is to blow the fuse

Great idea! I have so many terminals now. I have an extra for my headlight relays, for my aftermarket alternator and for the charger. I did move all the ground wires to ground at the frame and then ran one wire from that frame point to the battery. Works swell, but juggling the positive terminal wires is still a pain. I was thinking of moving some of those wire to the starter hot lead, but then it would be a greater pain to remove the starter....can't win. But the hemostats may do the trick or maybe needle nose vice-grips Of course that is ground leads first when removing, and ground leads last when reattaching the battery.

I don't think limiting the current is neccesary other than making sure the car is not running. The 12.6V of the car battery will not produce excessive current unless something is very wrong with the motorcycle, like a shorted battery, starter wire, or starter. If you just left the parking lights on too long, or the bike sat for a winter, I don't think the current would be very strong. Leaving it connected for a minute before starting would help charge it. After you start the bike it should be immediatly disconnected. Pre-charging for a minute with the car battery will decrease the amperage between the alternator and battery after the bike starts. It will take a load off the alternator, as the alternator will now have to work double duty to charge it. But you are certainly correct that if the car is running the current could get too high, and if something is wrong with the bike the current will get too high. I suspect I toasted my regulator because it had to work extra hard to charge a battery that was failing. A week battery will draw more amps from a given voltage. This can overload the regulator, the wiring, and maybe the alternator. If you know you battery is weak and you are about to go on a ride to charge it up, you may be asking for trouble. Traditional strategy is to keep the RPMs high, but this may produce too many amps. Keeping the RPMs high is a bad strategy. Charging with with one of the chargers recommended by the battery maker is the best strategy. IMHO I certainly could be wrong...