dlaing

"with a baseball bat"????? That banana is freaked! But atleast he knows what time it is.

I used a fitting identical to that, but I had to grind it down until the wall got a leak in it and even still I had to force it to bend enough, and then I could barely get it off. I'll be looking for a 90 degree fitting. But I have another idea. Some people have more trouble than others. I suspect this is because not all zerks are the same. Ideally one could pull the shaft and install a zerk with the right bend, right??? http://www.mcmaster.com/ has zerks in 0, 30 45 65 and 90 degree angles (but none in metric ) Anyway, just an idea...it may not work at all. FWIW to get the shaft off, or to get complete access, I believe you must take the swing arm off. It is not that bad of a task...

Party! Good point about the TPS. If OC mapped it to the existing TPS, he may be kind of stuck with that setting. But then again, if it runs better with no PCIII, the mapping may be way off anyway. I'd like to compare the OC USB map with my Dyno Dudes Serial map.

I'll be happy to help. I have a PC in my garage with the Power Commander software loaded and a Twin-Max carb balancer, that is very portable, so I can bring it whereever and we can balance you in five minutes. Road tuning the PCIII could take longer, but I am sure we could get it a little better within an hour. This Sunday is the Ortega Highway Lookout Cafe meeting, weather and crisis permitting I'll be there.

I just gave motoman my email address. I hope I don't get too much junk mail!!! But it looks like I get a lot of good articles for giving my email address My only disagreement with the MotoMan break in would be to keep it under ~7000RPMS for the first 500 miles(for the sake of the valves, don't take them to maximum stress level immediately, but hey, I could be wrong) Also, I believe the Guzzi cylinder honing will outlast conventional, so if you don't get to break it in in the first 20 miles, don't sweat it, just get to the break in as soon as possible and I suspect the break in should be a little more than 20 miles. Also, our bike does not warm up until after a few miles, right???? I did not do the the motoman method, and I am paying the consequences by having to top up every 1000 to 3000 miles depending on the brand of oil. FWIW I top up if it drops below 3/4 or sooner if going on a 500+ mile ride. Since I don't have windage plates, measuring the oil level accurately is important.)

The Ohlins fitted by Moto Guzzi are also 54mm. My Ohlins(from Cafe Sport?) was longer than my Marzocchi(from 2000V11S), allowing me to put my clipons on top of the triple clamp, LeMans style. I have the Convertibars, but Jean Mark's appear to have much better adjustability. The only advantage of the Convertibars is that you can rise much higher if you lengthen all the cables, but I have no desire to go any higher than the cables allow....will maybe an inch more. Anybody want to trade their Jean Marc's for a pair of Convertibars?

I suspect he was trying to keep it simple, but in doing so omits some important details. Perhaps if Ratchet and I bump heads for a bit, we could hash out a better How To. Try going to http://www.bikesetup.com/ and clicking on Setup Index It borrows for Traxxions site, and is more complete(it covers spring rate and unaden sag) and less mis-leading than his Preload page, but it is much harder to read.

I opened it in photoshop and zoomed in. If it was photoshop on the tank logo, it was a better job than I can do in less than many hours. I don't think we can assume they are dumb. I think most of us have stuck our foots in our mouth with bad humor. Putting that on your bike does not mean you support or condemn the man. The owner likely just thinks it is funny, and I'll bet many will agree. To me it is harmless, but I don't know much about WWII history. From what I know, Italy was no Germany. Driving through certain urban areas in a Dukes of Hazard car is dumb. Did you notice in the Dukes of Hazard movie, they removed the flag from the car? My Dad's ex-girlfriend (a Swiss Citizen) was denied entrance to the insert nation that supports evil rulers because she was arrested for throwing tomatoes at insert evil ruler. Dumb as that action may be, she is my hero I wish I had her huevos. I'll bet the owner of this bike is on this forum and is as smart and well meaning as the rest of us. But then again, he could me a member of insert evil political party I used to have a Cabaret Voltaire song, "Do the insert evil ruler headkick" I did not really understand the song... "Do The insert evil ruler(Headkick)" contains the lyrics "White spats and bola lats / Black shirts and perverts / Father's hands / Kick the corpse" with a chorus of "Do the insert evil ruler Headkick." Without criticism of politicians, the world would be a very scary place. Using your bike or this forum to do it, may be dumb.

Warning the following link leads to an image that some may find offensive: http://img462.imageshack.us/img462/6549/motomussolini2ro.jpg It depicts defacing of the holy Moto Guzzi logo, with the name SELF CENSORED In my opinion less dis-tasteful than BMWs in SELF CENSORED regalia.

Do you suppose that SELF CENSORED is as popular in Italy as SELF CENSORED and theSELF CENSORED are in the USA? We certainly see enough SELF CENSORED flags and PC reactions to them. (personally I am offended by the SELF CENSORED flag, but tolerate the freedom of speech and realize the flag flyers likely do not support slavery, anymore the SELF CENSORED are flown to represent Imperialism, War, Opression, and Torture.) Its all relative

How did SELF CENSORED justify his acts of war? Was it to spread Catholicism? Or just imperialism? He never acknowledged support for the holocaust, right? SELF CENSOREDjustified some of his support for war by saying he was stopping communism. Both SELF CENSORED andSELF CENSORED were pro corporation. Historians are quick to lable them as socialists, but no self-respecting socialist would find much if anything in common with their philosophies. Similarly, SELF CENSORED seems to have little to do with the Labor party, but there he is....I don't get it. Is labor to wishy-washy to get rid of him? or is he left wing domestically and fascist internationally? Or I guess people just buy the line that attacking SELF CENSOREDwas anti-fascist In the SELF CENSORED,SELF CENSORED holds on to Party support because he is faithful to the party. Is it a special political formula to rise through the ranks pretending to be SELF CENSORED wing, while serving as a puppet for SELF CENSORED corporations? (Don't get me wrong, like policeman, most corporations are not evil, some just have dirtier jobs)

HOW INSPIRING

I used to have a Quat-D and it got about the same MPG while using a power commander that enriched it quite a bit. If you have not enriched it, what Mike said may be the reason. At 7000 feet you won't ping, but you really should have the bike mapped so that you don't burn a valve, or ping when you drop to lower altitudes. Somewhere on the forum I posted a graph of my bike with the Quat-D before and after mapping and in some places it was something like an indicated 17:1 fuel ratio (way to lean). The power commander and the dyno tune made it run quite a bit better, but I still had a little ping in an area that the tuning link said to go leaner not richer. A few tweaks and it was much better. FWIW I posted a while back that using lower octane fuel gave me better MPG, but I have not been able to replicate that experience and will chock it up to a tail wind. You should be very happy with 40MPG, as most of us get mid thirty MPGs By the way, if anyone is curious, I ran out of gas today and it took exactly 5.0 gallons to fill it to the bottom of the fill neck. As always, YMPGMV (your miles per gallon may vary)

sorry, I know you were looking forward to riding the best setup GuZZi in Universe, but we just got rained out.

riding in 8 hours!!!

Sorry faulty memory. Only a few failed. A google of this forum indicated only some from the Italian forum had failures. I suppose I must have associated the Rosso Mandello clutch with the Scura clutch.... Sorry RM owners!

Yah, that's what I meant to say

I don't know how much to trust their engineers. The Rosso Mandello was supposed to have a superior clutch, but many failed...EDIT only a few allegedly failed...thanks for the correction Jim! With emissions standards and everything, you would think they might go with higher comp, but maybe higher comp requires a rich mixture at some point. I do like the slow evolutionary approach that they have taken. I think the higher compression jump by Guzzi was a good thing, but somehow I trust Mike Rich more, and think the 10.25:1 is a reasonable ratio as long as you re-map properly.

No, I just bite it once or twice, swallow and then get constipated and bloated. Life is a bitch when you don't have a mother puffin to do your masticating for you. Maybe I should get my wife to do it Or just live on liquids!

Good point. Ratchet, I apologize for giving a f@ about your pal wanting to put hi-comp pistons out of his bike. You and Pete do make some points that have some RELATIVE validity, and possibly some absolute validity that time may prove. One more question for Ratchet and Pete: Do you think it was a mistake for Guzzi to go to higher compression pistons in 2003/2004? They allegedly upped the compression from 9.5:1 to 9.8:1 That could be compared to Mike Rich's 10.25:1 FBF's 11:1 is probably less than 11:1 if it does not ping like a table tennis player

There is evidence that it WILL cause problems if the increase in compression significantly increases the speed of the fuel burning to a degree that fueling and timing cannot compensate for. There is evidence that FBF will tune the bike so that is not a problem. There is evidence that Mike Rich is confident that his increase in compression coupled with better design results in no problem. The longevity argument cannot be proven until someone rides with high compression pistons for a long time. Perhaps I have to be more specific about Mike Rich's claim as quoted by Al R.: Now in the interest of consensus, does that sway you? I suppose you could still be concerned about durability, but I am not. I see no reason why the Mike's pistons would necessitate annual rebuilds or anything close to that. More evidence: Maybe Callithrix would like to post whether or not his bike died at 10001 miles???? Other owners of FBF pistons include helicopter Jim...I think we would have heard if he did not get 10,000 miles out of them. Robbiekb Enzo aka captain nemo Al R. has Mike Rich pistons. John T. was thinking of it... Mike Mason went with Ross high compression pistons. Perhaps some of them could provide feedback.

That is the perfect bike! 100HP, and Ohlins suspension, right?

You are getting warmer, will sort of, but you have it all backwards. AGW is not a fraud, but a call for sound decisions, rather than supercharging industry, and flogging civilization out at WOT. The Global Warming Fraud pundits are the equivalent of the insane hot rodder, destined to death or glory! Sorry, the glory of sub 15 minute supercharged school bus run on a one hour route, is not worth risking the lives of our offspring.

No, the ideal forum recommendation gives someone like Polebridge all the information that he needs to make a smart decision about what is right for him. Rants by you and Pete are both informative and amusing, but lack the objective balance of stating the fact that with smart decisions, one can increase HP by more than 10% through the modifications that are outlined in this thread. Yes, on older Guzzis there is a history of hot rodding that has resulted in schrapnel. Thanks to forums like this, those days are disappearing. As always, people will ignore good advice and will take risks and pay the consequences. Nobody here is recommending a race cam. Nobody here is recommending 12:1 compression ratio. Nobody here is recommending turbos or super-chargers. What has been recommended is essentially sound advice. If you want to suggest that high compression pistons WILL cause problems, your argument does not hold. If you want to suggest that high compression pistons MAY cause problems, I think that it is fair to offer such a warning. There is evidence on both sides. Why can you not accept all the evidence? As for the porting, and addition of better quality valves, I have not seen any concrete evidence to suggest that they would not be a good idea. Where is your evidence? Please agree with me on that, so we can take it off the table. As for the PCIII, I know we both agree that is a good part of Polebridge's plans through FBF, although you might skip the custom tune, right? But he should get a custom map if he gets valves and porting, right?

OH GAWD, please no more talk about diarrhoea, or I'll fetch a moderator and have this thread shut down...I am trying to swallow what I eat and you are making me spit it out, which gets expensive... But maybe I could just keep reading and purge to the point where I would be so light I would not need anymore HP.