dlaing

What gets me is that they have a wind tunnel, so you would think that they would achieve some level of excellence. I have not ridden a LeMans, but aesthetically they are beautiful. I have not heard complaints about turbulence so they must be doing something well in the wind tunnel. The Guzzi cruiser wind screens are another story, at least from what I have heard on other lists. Back to the topic: The snorkels appear to be a bad design, only good for noise reduction and keeping rain out.

What I find interesting is that Nology say that rejetting is required. Which if true is impressive.

I have posted this question regarding guzzi's in general and got no clear answer. I theorize that: The crossover is supposed to reduce back pressure without increasing noise. On a Boxer twin the pulses are evenly balanced between cylinders and great benefits can be had with a crossover or two into one exhaust. On a V twin the pulse are not evenly balanced or timed so a crossover or two into one exhaust will result in the cylinders not being as well balanced under all revs and loads. So a V twin may in fact do better with no crossover, if you are not concerned about noise. But the uneveness of the cylinder balance may be negligible. I really don't know. Also the crossover serves as a mounting point for the mufflers, so if you do away with the crossover, you should make a bracket to support the exhaust where the crossover was. I also posted that I suspected that the reason that my vaccuum gauge indicated that the cylinders balanced unevenly throughout the revs, was because of the crossover and possibly the airbox. The same argument may apply for individual air filters rather than one air filter for two throttle bodies.. Look at the Quota, One throttle body and a two into one exhaust possibly causing a lack of top end power but producing more low end power, unless it is all due to a cam or something else. If you remove the crossover, the crossover location is an excellent spot for a battery or two....

Mostly black magic to me. I think trial and error is a better technique than science. I have little idea what resonance is. But apparently the snorkels on this bike were part of the equation for 152MPH.

John, So, can we take it that you are much more satisfied with the Ohlins?

I rode back from the prescott rally fighting a 30MPH head wind and I could not get the bike to go over 110 Veglia MPH which made it a bitch to catch up to my pack of riding buddies after I had to pull over to tighten up my tank bag. I am sure that a not so HUGE scoop with maybe 50 square inches of frontal area placed between the cylinder heads would have boosted the air pressure enough to give me another 5 MPH or atleast get better MPG under the conditions compared to the stock scoops. Yes, I would have to move the oil cooler to where is is on the Griso or the V1100Sports, where it might not be as aerodynamic. But there is room for power gains, especially compared to the stock semi-ram air scoops. The stock scoops on our bikes are a lousy design. Putting pods behind the cylinders is a lousy design compared to ram air, but it has a beautiful simplicity and unless a dyno has air velocity compensation(a big variable speed fan) it will not show the comparative gains of ram air. The Sportis had a lousy ram air design. The angle at which the V1100 Sport intakes were placed probably creates about as much Venturi vacuum as it does positive pressure. Also the intakes were too small to see gains. 50 square inches (5x10 rectangle or two 5 inch diameter circles) of frontal area on a Hayabusa might restrict aerodynamics. On my open faired bike it will not make a difference to the aerodynamics. I am not an engineer, but I would predict about a 10% increase in HP compared to the stock setup at 150 MPH of wind. You may never hit that type of air speed, but if you did, you would want all the HP you can get. And the beauty is that you could make the system out of $20 in plumbing supplies, although trashing the stock intake system and making a two into two, X crossover, carbon fiber system with large forward mounting pods, could produce the greatest gains.

If your bike is anything like mine, the suspension mods that he suggested would ruin the handling. The heavier fork springs is probably an excellent idea. The heavier fork oil is probably a bad idea, if anything thinner oil might be the way to go. Atleast from what I have heard.... My rear shock has WAY too light of a spring, so I would go with heavier spring, not lighter. I am over 200 lbs so that does play into consideration. Stiffening up the front and softening the rear too much, will cause your front wheel to push out in turns giving a very insecure feel. A common misconception from taking a stock V11 for a spin is that the rear suspension is too firm. The misconception arrives from the fact that the suspension is bottoming out because the spring is toooooo soft. Please have Moto International do sag readings of you on the bike, and verify that the harshness on the rear is not bottoming related. They may change their mind about softening the rear, although they may mean softening it by firming it up enough so that it does not bottom out.. http://www.guzzitech.com has two excellent articles on setting up suspension that are worth a read.

You coulda just pulled the little rubber nipple from under the cap. But your solution was clever. I saw a BMW 650 single split lanes up to the red light yesterday. When the light turned green he stalled, to the anger of the cages behind him. Sh^t happens to the best of bikes. Don't give up too easily. With easy effort, a perusal of V11lemans.com forum, and a little patience, you will find your Guzzi experience very rewarding. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance was written at a time when Beemers were as spiritualy evolved as Guzzis, sadly Beemers have developed a profit formula and their soul has been sucked near as dry as a gold wing. That is not to say that someone with Dr. Frankenstein like talents could not breath life into a new beemer, as the corpse has potential. And don't get me wrong, I would love to have a beemer because I believe soul is not a requirement in a motorcycle, just a perk.

What trade off? The Guzzi is an excellent candidate for Ram Air. The space between the cylinders is wasted space that aerodynamic design would be hard pressed to improve on. When you take the lid off the air box, you immediately get some ram air effect. I would like to build walls to funnel the hot air past the cylinder heads, to shield the wiring, fuel hoses, etc. from the heat, and yes, to raise the air pressure at the air filter intake. If an air filter makes a difference to performance, so can ram air. True sticking a pair of 1.5 inch diameter tubes into the head stream of air will not raise the pressure enough to increase HP significantly. But Putting two 6 inch diameter tubes into the head stream will increase the pressure and HP, more significantly. Put your hand out into the air stream at 70mph and tell me that that pressure will not negate the resistance of the air filter.

I did not notice yours, but Richard Rodriguez noted that you had a pair of Joe Kenny's and I wondered which model you had bought. I know that I have seen your bike twice since you got them so, I must of subliminally picked up on the good looks! But I was thinking they might look better with the valve covers that you are selling. I might have to check them out. You do know that my bike is going to slowly turn into a cruiser as yours turns into a sport! Now if I could just find some black paint and some carbon fiber....

Next time it happens, be sure that all the electrics work, by turning on high beam, flash High beam, turn signal, brake lights, tail lights, and horn. If a couple of them do not work, it may be a clue. My tachometer needle starts shaking after 20 to 50 miles, almost like clockwork, I suspect something is getting warm and starting to fail. It has been doing it for over 6 months and has not gotten worse nor better. Our problems appear to be heat related, so I would not look first at connections, although it is certainly possible. Look instead to overheating relay(s), ECU, PCIII, coils, petcocks, fuel pumps, etc. Because it only takes 15 seconds to disappear, I might eliminate coils and fuel pmp because they would take a while to cool. The ECU and PCIII have processors in them that might need a reboot, so one of themcould be the problem. Petcocks and relays would tend to be less predictable than failing every 80 miles. Also your voltage regulator could get hot, drop the voltage and then the relays might shut from a lack of voltage. That would be hard to determine. You could get a volt meter, and if you see it get flaky at 79 miles just before the failure, you may have a solution. Good luck!

14.0-14.6 is what the regulator tries to maintain. I believe it is normal for the voltage to drop below 14 Volts at idle. Higher voltages then 14.6 may indicate a tendency to cook wires and batteries. Be sure that you have an accurate voltmeter, mine reads about two volts high...time to get another one... Battery voltage after sitting overnight should be 12.6V (key off), after a failed start the voltage should be a little less, and after riding, the voltage will be a little higher. I think my regulator has been acting up lately, so I'll be doing some diagnosis myself this weekend.

Does anyone know the part number(s) for the gel cells that would fit our bike from Hawker, Odyssey, WestCo and or Panasonic? I believe the Guzzi battery is a Hawker in disguise, and is designed to be on its side.

Please feel free to post other offerings http://www.sportcyclepacific.com/

I just put a pair of Joe Kenny head guards. They stick out about one millimeter further than stock. He makes many more styles. http://www.swva.net/jkenny/ Note orange silicone gasket oozing out the side from: http://www.realgaskets.com I have not put any miles on it yet...

Jaap, perhaps this could be moved to "How to" and retitled "Replacing Breather Hose" Thanks!

Yah Rich, the copper is just a little too small, while the outside of the half inch schedule 40 PVC pipe is a perfect fit. So what you need is 3/4 inch or 19mm Inner Diameter heater hose, a total of four hose clamps, a few inches of the 1/2 inch pvc pipe, and two pvc elbow connectors. I used one 45 degree angle connector at the bottom and a 90 degree angle connector at the top. Arrangements with variations of 45 and 90 degrees will work. You will need to PVC cement in the 1/2 inch pipe to all ends of the connectors. (unless you find connectors with male fittings. The 90 degree angle at the top fit pretty snub against the coils. A tight fit, but it works. Getting to the hose is not as difficult as it looks. Just take the fuel tank off, loosen up the coils (no need to remove the coils), loosen the hose clamps, yank off the hose, and reinstall the new hose assembly. My hose started cracking at the upper bend just above the coils, so be sure to inspect it there. EDIT Read to the end of this thread. there are problems with the PVC pipe, and better solutions available.

My understanding is that because the Rods rotate, decreasing their mass will allow for faster accelleration but less smooth throttle control, which is what Mike Rich seems to suggest. But not onlly do the rods rotate, but they also reciprocate. Because the rods reciprocate, decreasing their mass will allow for higher rpms and less wear. You can imagine the stresses and vibration caused by the path that the rod takes. Counter balancing a piston must be trivial compared to counter balancing a rod, or in guzzi's case, a pair of rods. Yowzers! I am getting dizzy just thinking about the path they take!

For the Forks, you might have to go with Ducati Forks, great prices! But a pain to fit. But I can't find the Guzzi shock either, which should be an easy fit.

Don't worry too much. Your bike may still be able to handle 70Watts if you keep the revs up but, probably not full time as you may need to give the battery a chance to charge. You can save about 4 or 5 watts by going to an LED tail light. Woo Hoo! That may not be enough, so you could wire the lights so they only come on with the momentary high beam switch instead of the high beam. But holding the button down in the twisties at night is a challenge. But it may be useful to hit the lights when entering intersections or approaching merging traffic, etc. OK, so those suggestions are kind of lame, how about this...throw some resistors in line with your wiring, Yah, you will lose some brightness, so that too may be a lame idea...Perhaps there are lower watt bulbs that could fit. I guess you could get a $600 HID bulb to reduce your headlamp from 50W to 35W, which is pretty significant. But expensive. Or you could put one light on another of your bikes, and only one on this bike, But that would be hard to mount symetrically. but not impossible. A bigger or additional battery would only help if you ran the lights momentarily. A high output alternator would be the best option if there is kit available. BMWs probably have something that will work, but there may be issues with brush alignments etc. If you know a good machinist, you could put a small car alternator on the bike. But that is an expensive proposition. Or you could disconnect the fuel pump and injectors and then run carbuerators!!! Ok enough rambling. Sorry for not having any great ideas.

I found some 25W x2 lamps, still have not installed them. I am sure you can find 25Watt driving lights in any cheapo place like walmart. They are not as nice looking and probably will not put much light on the road, but I got them in amber to visually stick out for safety. Other options are: HID bicycle lights. Effective, but the wiring would be tricky. LED bicycle lights. Good for being seen, but lousy for seeing, and again tricky wiring. HID driving lights Effective, but expensive. Also the current may necessitate the use of only one lamp, But with HID, one may be enough. Improve your headlight bulb. options for that: HID replacement for halogen bulb. Works great, but blue light sucks, and the cost is about $500. Higher output halogen bulbs. Not legal, but effective. And again you might have output and wiring problems. Xeon bulbs. Legal, effective, but blue light sucks. Better quality Halogen bulbs. I might go with this option and try to find gold ion type that provide a yellow hue. Yellow light rocks! If you have a naked bike, that is a non-LeMans, you may be able to remove the shield inside the headlamp and get more light where you need it. Again, not likely to be legal. You may also save a few watts by going to an LED tail light. But it is hard to find bright LED tail lights. Check out this site: http://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/

cool! PVC will keep the weight down.

Thanks Rich, Do you recall what type of plumbing fittings you used? Copper, PVC, ABS? I'd guess half inch copper 45 angles would do the trick,if the copper OD meets the rubber ID. And what the heck, rather than run three sections of rubber hose and six hose clamps, I could run two sections of rubber hose, four hose clamps and a copper pipe between the 45 degree connectors.(so much for weight reduction) Wish I had a pipe bender, but I guess I could rig something up, like bending over a large round rock, or maybe a few more 4 degree bends, if needed. Or maybe copper flex pipe like what they attach water heaters with. but then I might get into a mess with the fittings...or not.

There is a large hose running from the top of the engine to the bottom side of the top of the spine frame. The hose is about an inch in diameter. It is part 18 of drawing 10 in the parts catalog CD. Does anyone know the exact size? Ideas about where to get a better quality replacement? Mine has started to break down and is leaking. This may be something for people to keep an eye out for. FWIW I have 21,000+ miles on the bike now.