dlaing

And here is a comparison of the Stucchi and stock. The Stucchi is in red with I believe K&N pods. The stock is the same as shown above. Please read the Manley site to get the straight dope.

Ian, what mufflers are you using? It is interesting that your observations are the opposite of what Manley Cycles' Doug Lofgren observed. There is probably some explanation. Different mufflers? Different state of the engine...for example High TPS voltage and US tight valve specs may produce a peakier engine when combined with the Mistral crossover, than Low TPS voltage and RaceCo loose valve specs. Or vice versa... I also suspect throttle balance, fuel mixture, and variations in manufacturing tolerance all play a roll. Perhaps Mistral read Lofgren's report and modified the crossover to get more HP??? I wish I had enough money to try out every muffler, crossover, intake combination on a dyno Here is a chart of the comparison that Lofgren did. If I read it correctly: The Red is the Mistral crossover with stock airbox and Agostini slip ons. The Blue is the stock crossover on the same bike.

Carl, How is Pierre creating those curves? With 16M aftermarket roms? I have been waiting for his report on http://www.guzzitech.com

Rotorhead, You should be able to go with a lower fuse rating. The total draw from the horns is 10 amps, so go with a 15 amp fuse. Of course it may be no big deal to stick with the 20 Amp fuse if your wiring is up to snuff. Here is a good site: http://www.fiammamerica.com/Product.asp?ProductID=167 You can even hear what your horns sound like!!! Make sure nobody is sleeping when you play it....

For the tail....

Those look great! Looks like he put many hours into them. I like the idea of casting the LEDs in clear resin. For the tail light I was thinking of drilling many holes in my OE reflector and mounting LEDs in the holes. The parabolic shape would help the angle issue. I already tried making my own 1157 LED bulb, but got frustrated by the dimness of the LEDs that I purchased for it. I used 24 LEDs ($30 worth) and with the brake on it was about as bright as a 10 watt bulb.... These are kind of cute...

I tried these http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/miscai...urnsignals.html on my R90S fairing (RIP). They stick on with doublesided adhesive tape and stick out a little too far. If they could be surface mounted they would look great. Another problem is that they are only bright in one direction. I suspect there will be more and better choices for LEDs in a few years. HP makes LEDs that are assembled into truck lights that have a wider brighter light. Perhaps you could make your own LED lamp out of a nice looking surface mounted marker light. I also like the marker lights on late model VWs.

Niiiiiccccceeeee!!!!!!!! I am pretty sure those are OZ wheels. Also, available from Ghezzi (and Brian?)

I just bought a Napa Gold 3008 and it threaded to except some sort of threaded fitting. Did I get the right filter? I have not looked at the OE filter on my bike yet, but I presume it looks like the filter in the manual with fittings to slide a hose over and not female threads..... If this is the right filter, do I just need hoses and fittings? What do I ask for? Braided steel fuel lines??? Here is the low down from NAPA: Attributes: Attributes: Fuel Filter (Gold) Style: F Height (Inches): 5.355'' Height (mm): 136.01MM O.D. (Inches): 2.52'' O.D. (mm): 64MM Inlet Thread Size (Inches): .578'' Inlet Thread Size (mm): M14X1.50 Outlet Thread Size (Inches): .484'' Outlet Thread Size (mm): M12X1.50

Lex, are you sure those are Todd's words? I don't know the exact context of that statement, but I doubt he was trying to blow smoke. I can imagine he may have at one point been cautious to only recommend the 'officially' recommended model for fear that the pin assignments might not match. I know that he was at Dyna when they were building the PCIII for the 16M Guzzi which is different than the PCIII for the 16M Ducati. From that experience I can understand why he would not recommend something until he could verify it with Dyna. On the Guzzitech.com forum I have read statements from him that would suggest the opposite of what you quoted. Not to say that he did not say that, but that the timing or the context of the statement may indicate that his intent was not to blow smoke over the issues.

Good answer Jason! But I think you were too close to his secret that he was carryin plutonium around on his guzzi! Damn Terrorist! Here is a short answer: The best way to firm up the rear end is to remove the shock and turn the bike into a hard tail. If you are not harleyesque of a man to ride a hard tail, than the next best thing is to buy an Ohlins rear shock and while you are at it Ohlins forks, but buy it from someone who can fit the right springs. There are some other threads on the list describing Mike Stewart's and Lex's experiences with new springs that is worth reading. But that is not the best way, just a heck of a lot cheaper. If your pockets are empty, bust a wrench and firm up the preload on the rear. I used a drift and a hammer to get my preload ring to move. There are some great articles on http://www.guzzitech.com on suspension setup and sag adjustment. They don't cover the concept of luggage preload, but you can figure it out....

The cool thing is that it keeps the dripping oil off the reat tire, but the oil hits the ground after you put it on its side stand. I am thinking that for the next gear oil change I'll just let it drip down off the muffler or maybe put a paper funnel to guide it to the drip pan. I understand the look is not for everyone. I'll post another picture in about a month. the color of the muffler should match the pipes by then. I am only riding on weekends.... I really wish that I had gotten a "before and after sound" capture to give a more accurate indication of the sound. It is not much louder than stock, but it is bellissimo! What I like is how the sound feels like it is coming from the engine rather than behind the bike. I do think that one can get more power out of a pair of Mistrals, but I need to dyno the bike to be more certain. I tweaked the power commander one notch leaner and got better response where I thought I may have been losing power, so a remap will make a difference. Also, I am overdue for a throttle body balancing, so perhaps I will create a new sound file then!

Here is a photo. I expect the muffler to match the color of the pipes after a few more rides. The .avi movie has much better sound quality than the .mov movie. The .mov makes the sound metallic.

For a luggage rack try http://www.agostiniduilio.com/ or http://www.tlm.nl or http://www.motointernational.com If you go to the Teo Lamers or Moto International sites you should download their catalog, which have hard luggage and I would assume a luggage rack.

Click here for thread on Quat-D muffler

Flow of electricity is too weak ? Though the neutral switch. Is the neural contactor could be the cause ? Yes, for the reduced electrical current. Or could it be the general wire ? Yes, but only at a point that you did not ground. So if you grounded the wire where it connects to the neutral switch, than the neutral switch is the problem or atleast a co-factor. It is always good to have a second switch, so go ahead and get a new one, and it may fix the problem. I thought that my bike needed a new clutch switch, but the new relays fixed the problem. Make sure that when the relays were installed that they did not push any wires out the bottom. Don't go Crazy! You could try getting a volt meter, look at the wiring diagram, and probe for voltage drops but it is hard to find places to probe, You could start with the point between the neutral switch relay's ground terminal and ground. You should get close to zero Ohms between those two points. Ignition should be off when you test there. Then with inition on, test for voltage at the starter relay, and then the starter solenoid if you can get to it. Also, make sure your battery terminals are tight.

You are correct Michel, if the neutral light is on, you should be able to start. And if you make a permanent ground so that the light stays on and the problem goes away, you have either a coincidence and the problem is elsewhere, or the neutral light switch is working, but the flow of electricity is too weak to activate the relay....

click here for a smaller version of the movie(under 1MB with a slight loss of image and sound quality): http://www.scripps.edu/~dlaing/v11s/quatd.mov

OK! Check out the AVI file here: Quat-D Movie or copy and paste http://www.scripps.edu/~dlaing/v11s/QuatD.avi It is just under 6MB so you folks on modems may need to go brew some coffee while it downloads....

Thanks Paul, I found his image under "friends" His bike looks great! I love the combination of your tail piece, no fender, and no slip-ons! I installed my muffler today. It took about three hours with a gear oil change. I went slowly and carefully. Now that I know what I am doing it will probably take about an hour to take it off and change the gear oil. The muffler seems to weigh about half as much as the stock crossover and the two mufflers, all together. The bike feels lighter. The narrow look from the rear is sexxxy. I am on cloud nine The muffler sounds great! It is just a little louder than stock, which is just what I wanted. The note is bellisimo! When taking left hand curves the sound reverberates off the road. Rights are quieter from the riders perspective. Performance wise, the hole at 4500 rpms appears to be gone. My immediate impression is that the power band is about the same, otherwise. I hope to get it dyno tuned soon to compare it to Jack Price's Stock Dyno result. Absolute numbers might not be good for comparison, but variations in the curves may give an idea of what the muffler did to the power output. Mark Taylor! If you are reading this, and our interested in a power commander map, let me know. It may take me many weeks to get around to dynoing it, but I will of course share the map. I still have to figure out how to record the sound with my digital camera....

There are two paths for getting power for ignition. one is through the neutral switch and relay. I think you can assume this is working despite your ground test, because the neutral light is working and you replaced the relay. There still could be a loose connection to the relay, but that is unlikely. The second path is through the side stand switch. Correct me if If I am wrong: The bike should start or run with the side stand up and the bike in gear, or the side stand down and the bike in neutral. So, both switches would have to fail, which is possible but unlikely. The most likely switch to fail is the clutch switch that does not effect the running, but the starting. If the bike is in neutral and you put the side stand down, does the engine stop? This would indicate a bad neutral switch or connection along that line. But I doubt it, because your neutral light is on. Try holding in the start button and pulling the clutch in and out, in and out. It should start. If not you probably have a bad connection at one of the relays. Of course there are also possible failure points elsewhere like the starter relay or solenoid, but try wiggling the clutch as it is easy to test. I suspect that it was only coincidental that grounding the neutral line fixed the problem. Did the neutral light brighten after grounding? If so, than I am wrong. Good Luck

Keep your greasy hands and blow torches away from my 800$ tin can!!! I am still not in good enough shape for a long ride. I might try to make Phoenix.

My Quat-D Muffler arrived yesterday!!! I'll have to wait till the weekend to put it on. So I should have a seat of the pants report by Monday. If I can figure out my digital camera, I should also be able to send mpegs with sound. The finish and quality of build appear to be excellent. It appears to be made of stainless steel. I guess they sand or bead blast it to give the finish that is accurately depicted on Jap's accessory page. It almost looks like a ceramic coating. You can see indentations where they apparently spot welded the baffles into the muffler. There is no way to rebuild the muffler, unless you torch it apart. I am impressed! It is truly a work of art. The real test will be to see if it holds up to oxidation. The picture of it mounted to a bike on Jap's accessory page seems to show some ugly surface oxidation. Road salt can do that to a bike. I am hoping for the color to match the stock pipes. Arnold Barnhart suggested that I clean it with denatured alcohol before firing it up, so that finger prints and grease are not embedded into the initial burning in. Sounds like good advice to me. We shall see.

I was considering this HID direct replacement for the H4 http://www.itsrealstuff.com/html/motorcycl...cle_h_i_d_.html $499 http://www.coolbulbs.com/HIDKits_body.asp $579 US Make sure you get the High/Low beam http://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/index.htm#list has links to other HID vendors. The Prices of HIDs is high and may come down in a couple of years. I was even thinking of getting a pair of Bicycle HID lights but I suspect the beam patterns might not be suitable. A pair of HID driving lights is another option...

I guess we can only get access to the owner manuals. Login is probably for VIPs....