dlaing

I'd sooner go through the trouble of molding urethane than go after the major project of removing the bolts. Once you have gone that far, why not order the superior part if it existed, or make it yourself if it is easy to do. I have had some limited experience with plaster, polyester, alginex, and silicone casting, but never urethane. I am certainly more frightened of taking on removing the buttonhead screws in my bike that is more than twice the age of Greg's 2004, than I am frightened of replacing the simple rubber cush with urethane. Makes me crazy to think that such a clear simple solution is viewed as a major and risky endeavor. Greg is a professional wrench+++ and his experience was, "The first step was to take it apart. I used my usual technique for buttonheads (which stip easily): 1) heat on the head of the screw for one minute with a MAPP gas torch; 2) insert the appropriate sized allen socket into the screw and give it a wallop with a hammer to shock it loose; and 3) turn out the screw with a ratchet wrench. Two of the screws were loose already. Two others cam right out. The final two took 45 minutes of heating and pounding and cursing. I finally had to drive them out by chiseling a shoulder into the buttonhead and driving them around with a punch. Both fought every turn of the way. It wasn't loctite; it was corrosion between the threads. This on a 2004-model bike that has been in service just 26 months." I guess my clear solution may be to let it be, although I am curious as to just how hard these chrome-moly steel hard rubbers really are.

Cool, just when I thought the conversation was dead, a argument of semantics rears its pretty/ugly head; "no, extra drivetrain lash" ??? I guess that boils down to how you define drivetrain lash. Is lash the rider's perception of freeplay, or is it actual freeplay? I define it as freeplay between engine and traction and use the term 'noticeable drivetrain lash' to denote rider perceived freeplay. Because the rubber is now more compressible, there is more freeplay or drivetrain lash, but it feels like less lash because it is cushier and the noticeable jarring of the lash has been reduced. Are you a comedian by night?

Thanks for the concern Ratchet. If you read the sag thread, you will realize that my suspension is very well sprung, and that I am only trying to extract a small improvement out of it. I think the swiss cheese modification would be fine if not over-done, and if the rubbers are not already worn out and hardened, especially because getting some silicone grease in there early in the life of the rubber could help soften them and extend their life. But replacing the rubber with polyurethane should be a no brainer and better than swiss cheesed steel hard rubber. All I have to do is find something a little softer than stock, make sure it is rated for durability, and figure out how to mold it. FWIW this looks like about the easiest thing to mold that I can imagine....just seal up the bottom, add mold release(possibly optional)and pour in the mixed urethane. Child's play really, but maybe a little swiss cheesing to give it room to extrude. This ain't brain surgery or rocket science. Urethane is superior to rubber for this purpose in just about every way. The only situation where it might be worse is in high heat situations. For example I don't think I would use it to replace the crappy rubber intake manifolds. Perhaps reinforced silicone would be ideal at the manifolds But the heat that the cush rubbers will be exposed to is completely tolerable. The good grief is for the vampires that try to suck the life out of a perfectly good idea. Yes, your technique would probably ONLY take me 8 hours of cursing and swearing as the bolt heads become unworkable while mine would take that 8 hours plus 6 hours of shopping and 2 hours of molding. BAA, YMMV. "takes relatively little time"? what? to open pandora's box to out-engineer Guzzi's engineers? If I am going through the process that "takes relatively little time" risking bolt head strippage, to out engineer Guzzi, should I really use 7 year old cush rubbers that may now be even harder than chrome-moly steel? I know, your answer is yes. Good grief, Charlie Brown!

I have no idea. Unfortunately the manual mentions nothing about bleeding. http://www.ohlins.com/Portals/0/documents/...s/07261-01A.pdf But it does have nice pictures worth looking at.

Careful BFG, I still have a degree in spamination detection! How much did SAGA pay you!?! Are you now or have you ever been a member of the SAG, the IRA, or the a non-Guzzi MCC?

Thanks Pierre, I was looking for something like that. I really have to pull the cush assembly to get a clear idea. These guys could be perfect for a run of maybe a hundred cast pieces. No job too small sounds expensive. If I am the only customer, given the feedback and PIA factor, I think I could either cast it myself with the metal parts functioning as the mold, or buy stock urethane (available at San Diego Plastics) and cut it to fit. A search by google showed some promising casting urethanes, but few prices were available for the either the stock or the liquid. If cut to fit is easy, than I could post how-to instructions for making your cush drive as cushy as a young supermodel's assets, rather than as cushy as swiss cheese that has been in the refrigerator for four years. But I am sure some will argue, "cheese gets better with age"

39,xxx miles. Would be more if it weren't for Guzzis snail like part delivery service. But would be less if it weren't for this forum...how else would I know that chrome-moly hard rubber cush drives were a good thing? I learned this just in time to save my splines!!! ...At least the hooters thread still makes sense to me.

So, Rubber as hard as chrome-moly steel is the ideal material as long as it is swiss cheesed. And I am the one who is off base for suggesting a more durable and absorbing elastomer for the job. Good grief. I have never seen inside the cush drive of my V11, but my V65 cush rubbers got torn up pretty good after maybe 20 or 30 thousand miles. Glad to see nobody here but me has ever seen cush drive rubbers become hard, not like Chromoly, but like plastic. Maybe it was just the small blocks that used crap rubber, although when new, at least they were soft and compliant. I do agree a LITTLE swiss cheesing and silicone is better than nothing, but if one has to go to the trouble of removing these button screws, it would be nice to have some better shock absorbers to replace it with. But as usual I am wrong and chrome-moly hard rubber is the superior choice. So for the third time, which spline is it that gets damaged if you don't swiss cheese your rubber?

Watching rubber go hard over the years. On my Guzzi I have seen it happen to every piece of rubber that I can see, except of the gel grips that are obviously made of the right material for the job. The anterior longitudinal guzzichondriacandectrum?

I realize "all the give of chrome-moly steel" is an exaggeration, but rubber is a less than ideal material for the job in my opinion. Maybe if you got it loaded with silicone grease before it had hardened it would stay soft like Ratchet's. But I am sure there are many that never got lubed, that are so hard that drilling won't give them much cush without risking the durability of the rubber bumpers. By the way, which splines are in danger of failing if I don't do anything?

I suspect it was wired wrong. If not, you may find out when you put the correct Ducati one in. Do check fuses and wiring for signs of melting and bad connections

Looks like an opportunity for someone to whip out a thousand of those bumpers in a nice soft Urethane, maybe 50 durometer on the soft scale, and sell for a modest profit. Or maybe some other elastomer would be more appropriate. Who was it that sold the wheels with no cush drive? Was it OZ or Dymag? It does seem like the cush drive should be better engineered. Titanium springs in place of rubber bumpers????? But we need damping. Sorbothane???

The Dip is on a seperate relay from the other indicated failures. If it were not for the dip beam being one of the problems, I would say it is most likely a bad starter relay. So, it is probably as the others suggested, unless the dip beam burnt out about the same time. Of course it is usually easier to test for a bad relay by swapping than it is look under the tank for bad connections, so I would check the relays first. Beware the Starter relay is the only one that requires five pins. The other relays could be four or five pins. So, when you swap, make sure you put a five pin relay in the starter relay socket.

Braking down in the nether regions of Quebec might be a problem. But if you can make it to an auto part store, there is a good chance they will have the bearing in stock. Here is a list of bearings that you can translate to Quebecois, print out and carry along with your volume of Guzziology(that might already have the numbers). http://www.geocities.com/rcdlaing/v11bearings.htm But you can always tell the mademoiselle that the bearings have to ship from Italy or from some boutique bike shop in boston, while you borrow the rafters in her garage to hold the bike up. Hopefully you will be out of there by the time the EPT results come back Bon voyage!

Thanks for the feedback. Judging by our spring rates, I should be closer to 15/30% than you, but my aftward sitting seems to throw it all off. We have a lot in common with our setup. Roughly same weight and height. Corbin Saddle. Penske shock (I customized it to have a 68mm stroke) Mike Stewart's recommendation led me to order a 525# spring, but they sent a 550#spring, which I think turned out to be better for my aftward Corbin mandated seating. (I measured sag sitted about 2/3 of the way back in the saddle) I did not go with the Traxxion fork upgrade but bought a Cafe Sport Ohlins forks from Mike Stewart who had bought them from Jaap, who had bought them from Antonio, who had bought them from some guy who converted his Cafe Sport into a side car hack. (Antonio, correct me if that story is wrong) I am slow and like plushiness, too! (still working on the getting old thing at twice the drinking age )

Does your new regulator look like the one in the photo you posted or like this

Be sure to get a Class B and C extinguisher The white wire should have connected to a green wire and the black(or is it black and white?) wire to a red and black wire(assuming Carl's diagram matches your bike.) Note his diagram does not cover the black and white wires, but the black is supposed to go to the lighting wiring and I believe is required for voltage feedback, but I could be wrong, and it also goes to one side of the charging warning lamp. The white wire is supposed to go to the other side of the charging warning lamp. Be sure that you are not overcharging. If over 14.6V you have got a problem. Keep in mind you may have also damaged your battery. Does anyone know if the black wire is required for voltage regulation? FWIW here is how I hooked up my Electrex regulator that has the white wire but not the black wire, so the black wire just gets capped off. In your case they probably capped off the red and black wire, but if they capped off the green wire that could explain the problem My charging warning light works fine.

Right now I assume I have the allegedly 0.95kg/mm stock Ohlins springs that shipped with the Cafe Sport. Most would say this spring is too light for my 220 pounds plus gear and apparel rider weight. It feels nice and compliant, but I feel it could be better during braking. As I said before, it could just need a higher fork fluid level. The preload on the front external adjuster is maxxed out, resulting in a 26mm/36mm. I am about the same weight as BrianG, and I think he has a pair of 1.1kg traxxion springs in the front and apparently more difference in unladen and laden sags. I guess he must ride further foward, or maybe he switched to other springs. Maybe I just need to get my Corbin adjusted for a more forward riding position. It sure would help the weight distribution. At the rear I have a 550 #/in spring, which after listening to the testimonials on this forum, I figured would be too firm, but after using it, I suspect it should be firmer. The rear feels pretty good at 6mm/31mm, but as I said before, I think a progressive spring for my Penske, would better match the front end's progressiveness. From this thread http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...0rate&st=60 about rising rate springs and other things. HyperPro offers a spring with the following weight specs Start rate = 90.13 Nt/mm. = 9.190556 Kg/mm = 515.0929 lbs/inch End rate = 144.2 Nt/mm. = 14.70407 Kg/mm = 824.103 lbs/inch But I am not sure where the transition points are. I don't want to give it too much preload and I don't want to be as firm as an empty freight truck on big bumps. I think the only thing I can do is try it. A question for anyone, what are your sags and spring rates and how much do you weigh, and where do you sit?

How come we never see you out riding? I'll bet you I probably have twice the miles on my V11 that you had on yours...but then again you probably put some miles on that Triumph, too. Go buy a Guzzi, you Yamaha riding maniac! Or at least make it to one of the group rides that Ratchet keeps missing or avoiding. But at least he has some miles on his bike!

Do you pick from the Inner or Outer Diameter of the seal? I am guessing the outer is too tight, but damaging the shaft would be my fear if working it out with tools digging at the ID.

In Peter Verdone's site and the others that I have linked to, all of those ranges center around an indication of a firmer front with more unladen sag. For example once again: from: http://www.peterverdonedesigns.com/springs.htm I have never seen a recommendation for identical numbers fore and aft, other than from you two, but certainly you would think the guy at RaceTech would know what he is talking about. In addition, a Guzzi being a shaft drive bike MIGHT benefit from a firmer rear and more unladen sag than the numbers that I have seen seem to recommend. Shafts work better with less joint angle and lowering ride height at the rear might help that. Also with the bevel box being so heavy, heavier springing and damping than a chain driven bike might be of benefit. How an expert recommends sag might be open to various interpretations: If you bend Peter Verdone's numbers above in the direction of 18mm/36mm, you get kind of close: Rider Sag - 30-35mm Free Sag - 15mm Rear - Rider Sag 30mm Free Sag 10mm Also regarding unladen sag in the rear he says, "(extremely light bikes use less)" This is somewhat consistent with my point that more rider weight requires greater difference between unladen and laden. A lighter bike is the same thing as a heavier rider proportionally speaking. And less unladen sag results in a greater difference between unladen and laden. But that is the only expert that I have heard allude to what makes sense to me, and I only today noticed that he wrote that, so it is easy to miss the fine details and what the implications

Guzzitech has been advertising the five spoke full floaters for Guzzis and have not mentioned the need to modify, but I suppose modification may be required. Worth an email to todd at that place called guzzitechspotcom aka racerx, if interested.

These are a nice upgrade from stock for only $206 each http://www.guzzitech.com/Brembo-50SFRotor-Todd_E.html Of course you can probably get the same, but used, on eBay for half the money. For my bike I am planning either those or better yet, theses: http://www.guzzitech.com/store/Brembo-55FFRotors.html for $610 per pair.

It could be a wiring logic difference between the two regulators??? How did you match the wires? Assuming wiring matched up fine, I think you may have toasted something. The most obvious things to look at are the relays and fuses. http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzi007/sch...Sport_1100i.gif

Assuming Sag ratio means the ratio of laden to unladen sag, you are wrong. If you start with say 15mm unladen 30mm laden you have a 15:30 or a 1:2 ratio. If you add 10mm more preload the sag will decrease to something like 5mm unladen 20mm laden which is a 5:2 ratio, not a 1:2 ratio and the spring rate has not changed as you said it would if the ratio changed. The actual change varies due to progressive qualities of the shock or forks. But there is no way the ratio is going remain the same when preload is applied. Yes, people do these things when they ideally should be buying springs. BINGO! As the rider to machine weight ratio changes, the ideal unladen/laden sags should change too. To suggest it does not is ignorant and misleading, and that is what started this whole argument. Compliance is the primary goal and we can better maximize compliance and do better than ball park if we use reason rather than the overly simplistic 15/30% ratio. Still it is better than simply going with 30% laden sag and ignoring spring rate. Preload may not have an effect on a linear springs compressibilty, but preload does have and effect on progressive spring's compressibility and on shock's compressibility. It's simple, and it's a fact. I have illustrated this effect, presumably because of the shock, with my measurements of adding preload and changing from a unladen ~21mm and ~50mm laden sag to an unladen ~6mm and ~31mm laden sag. But it has little to do with what I am arguing about, as the difference is not that great. I am arguing about two points: One, that using the same ratio for both front and rear is bettered by following the advice of the experts and using different ratios front and rear. And Two, what I have devoted 90% of this discussion to showing that a lighter rider on a V11 may need less difference between unladen and laden sag and heavier riders more because of the ratio of the bike to rider weight. It is a small difference as I said, but none the less it modifies target sag, and I have clearly proven it to be true.