dlaing

What did you do with the blue nuts? Are they at the same adjustment point as before? Not sure why that would create a noise, but it might????? More likely, the new springs are the wrong size. You might take the springs out and measure against the OEM. I am sure you were dreading that, but with practice, you can get it down to 15minutes.

Why did you install the GEI relays? Was it acting up or did you do it for preventative reasons? If it was acting up before, you likely have a problem that needs in depth diagnosing. You may also have overloaded the starter and headlight relays, so they may need replacing. Possible problems are bad grounds, loose or bad connections, bad voltage regulator, a short somewhere, etc. If you installed the GEI for merely preventative reasons, you likely have the rare situation of a bad GEI relay.

For a greater understanding of fork fluids and oils. http://www.peterverdonedesigns.com/lowspeed.htm important as it shows that the weights don't match the viscosities across brands. The "Cartridge Fork Fluids" tend to have wider temperature ranges, but many "fork oils" also have wide temperature ranges. I would look for something with a wide temperature range rather than the marketing term "Cartridge Fork Fluid". Maybe there is more to it than that, but until proven otherwise, I'll go with the information in those charts and simply look for a wide temperature range, in my desired viscosity.

Here are some shock spring part numbers and corresponding spring rate in lbs/inch: 1091-24 457#/in 1091-26 485 1091-29 514 1091-31 542 1091-34 571 1091-36 600 1091-39 628 1091-41 657 http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/7108/oh...gdecoderno0.gif

It comes out really easily. I a pretty sure it is plastic too, so to be safe I cleaned mine with oil. I probably risked scratching it by using paper tissue, so you might want use optical lens cleaning tissue or cloth.

Published specs indicate the Ohlins has an eye to eye length of 286 and a stroke of 70mm. I initially got information somewhere that the Sachs was 276mm, but when Ratchet said it was 280mm I went to the garage and measured my Sachs at about 278mm (and easily could have been off by a few mm, as it is difficult to measure without proper tools. If I get some 12mm bolts I could probably put them through and measure.) But the point is, I think your shock is more than 5mm longer than the Sachs. Your initial impression is that it rides better and handles better, so why go lower? Try giving it 4mm more preload and go for a ride. If it really makes it worse than yah, you might want to go lower, or do as Ratchet suggested and raise the front...giving the sidestand more clearance But I would not raise it beyond the forks dropping below flush with the upper triple clamp. If touching your toes to the ground is the problem, then yah, it is not going to settle lower, so take 5-10mm off the preload (giving about 10-20mm lower saddle height But the fork springs will be here soon, right? Keep in mind stiffer fork springs will change the ride height in the front. Be sure to measure your front sag before changing the spring

And by taking the pan off you can get a more complete oil change

You mean Crooz' wives, right? I say go for a pair of Italian Twins, Maybe Isabella and Isotta Rossellini

The static sag is not really an indicator of firmness. The difference between the static and laden sag is probably the most informative indicator of whether your spring is firm enough. Keep in mind for heavier riders the difference between static and laden should be higher to reach the same goal Your 8mm and 29mm differ by 21mm. I think this is just about ideal for the real world. By comparison my 5-6mm and 31mm differ by 25-26mm which I think is too soft, and bottoming does occur fairly regularly, although it is much better than when I had my Sachs shock which probably had a difference of about 30mm and bottomed out very frequently. I kept the static sag at about 2mm with the Sachs I think Paul's bike is lighter than ours. Maybe that is the reason his 1091-26 works well for him. Ratchet said, "It's an entirely subjective thing, of course. Personally, I'm much more comfortable over the roads I ride with a little more than double the unladen sag than this, and nearly the same laden sag you're getting" If I interpret Ratchet correctly his bike has about 17-18mm static and about 28-30mm laden, which is a difference of somewhere between 10 and 13mm which is in my opinion probably a bit too firm, but possibly not if he rides very forward in the saddle. However, with that firm of a spring he can probably get away with lots of static sag without bottoming out. Combined with a Wilbers shock that rides higher than the Sachs, Ratchet's bike should handle very well. But it won't be as comfortable and compliant as your Ohlins. I think you will find that you get used to the increased ride height..

So is the problem the ride height or the harshness? You might want to add the heavier front fork springs before going through the trouble of pulling the rear shock, as the dynamics will change.

1091-26 is a 485# or 85 N/mm spring or 8.66 Kg/mm 1091-29 is a 514# or 90 N/mm spring or 9.17 Kg/mm From a conversion chart here http://www.ducati-upnorth.com/tech/suspensionspring.php FWIWIMHO I think your sag and spring rate are about right. Since you talk about wanting it to "settle" (which won't happen) I suspect you find it either to harsh or too high. Assuming it is too harsh, I would try backing off the compression damping. I thought the shock Ohlins spec'd for Guzzi had a remote preload. I guess the last one did not. EDIT I see you posted it does, but is limited to 8mm. If your range is from 0mm to 8mm, even if you stay at 8mm, it might be worth removing 4mm preload so that your range is ~4mm to ~12mm. I also see you posted 29mm laden sag, which sounds good to me! If ride height is the problem, then reducing preload is your best solution. Backing off the preload will give you a greater tendency to bottom, so I would make sure you are not bottoming before pulling the shock to make such an adjustment. If you are bottoming but need to go lower, than you need a stiffer spring. I find it helpful for understanding how the spring works, to shift my weight back and go over bumps to see how it complies. Of course, how it complies in your normal riding position is more important, but the butt-o-meter is a numb instrument and shifting weight back will give you a greater clue to whether or not it is bottoming.

First you said, Which seems to indicate you want more sag. Then you said, Which seems to indicate you want less sag. FWIW My record of measurements indicate the Ohlins is 10mm longer than the Sachs, so 8mm static sag would sit 2mm higher than the Sachs with zero static sag. I tried to get my Penske built to the Ohlins dimensions, but it ended up 2mm shorter than the Ohlins. I set the static sag to about 5 or 6mm which would put the ride height, bike only, at about the same as your bike with 8mm static sag. I think 8mm static sag should be about right for you, but it really boils down to personal preference. If you have short legs, more sag will be a good thing. If you want it to handle well, less sag may help. The loaded sag is however more critical. Mine is about 31mm laden, but ideally I think it should be a little less. I may go to a HyperPro rising rate spring to reduce bottoming without getting too stiff. Penske recommend 7/8"-1-1/6" laden sag (22.2mm - 29.6mm), but the Penskes tend to have less stroke than the Ohlins and be more geared towards racers. I think somewhere between Penske and Ohlins recommendations lies nirvana. Ohlins recommends Without rider: Rear: 5-15 mm Front: 25-30 mm With rider: Rear: 30-40 mm Front: 35-50 mm I think those are good measurements for touring on smooth roads. I tend to think the Guzzi Rear with Ohlins is probably best with about 5-10mm static and about 30mm laden. For rough roads and agressive handling, maybe about 25mm laden sag is about right. But as always, YMMV

Sorry Crooze, no bashing intended. Wait a second, why am I apologizing, you bashed Crooze about as much as I did Heck, I did not even think it was about Crooze until you mentioned it.

I think intervention is required Ever notice how the UN Flag logo looks like a bomb site to demolish the northern hemisphere

Although it takes me five minutes to screw the manhole back on without stripping the threads, or optionally dealing with the hoses annoyingly attached to the pan, I must say it really is not that bad, and the aesthetics of no visible oil filter is a plus. How about the service bulletin for simply checking the oil level on a beemer

first time I paid about $14 -16 after shipping, but then Ratchet(thank you Ratchet) turned me on to a local place, Fallbrook Oil, that sells it for about $9. But they are not open Saturday (so I have to visit on day off) and I am sure if you wanted mail order the price would jump up because of shipping and handling, so I won't bother providing more contact info. I think $9 or $20 is a small price to pay for peace of mind, and sweeter shifting But if I had to winterize my bike and rode in wet weather more often, like Nogbad, I might look at an oil that I could afford to change every year, regardless of the low miles..

I thought chicks digged scars I think preventing nuclear war and crashes is a good thing I think we should skip the thread about preventing nuclear war as some forum members are probably for it and I will turn all blue arguing with them. But a thread on preventing crashes could be productive.

Any relay that would cause the engine to die would not cause the lighting to go out and any relay that would cause the lighting to go out would not cause the engine to die. But the starter relay failing could cause the lights to go out and for the bike to not start. My guess is a loose battery connection. But I would still get the GEI relays from Pyro Dan. Singapore is a long way off, so you might source the GEIs locally. Also, if you rewire the headlights so that a direct line goes from battery to headlights through a pair of relays in the headlight shell, it will take a load off of the starter relay and then you would be fine without a GEI relay.

OK, clamping spring, not retaining spring. The first time I had the leak I bought both seals of the axle not knowing which would fix it. As it turned out it was the larger seal that went bad, but I had knocked out the number 10 seal and figured I should replace it. The leak was much slower, but it still leaked. I lost track of which side should go in or out, but I flipped it(I think but in the middle of doing the flip I lost my 100%certainty ) and switched to shockproof heavy and it got a little better, but still leaks, and not as bad as the initial larger seal leak. So it is possible that I flipped it back to what it was when it leaked. But it is also possible that the new seal was just too old. Telling if it is a leak or seep is tricky because it has to make its way out through a labyrinth of grease. It builds up after hours of riding and then spins out on to the wheel. At first it was difficult to tell if it was oil or grease because the grease was washing out with it, but eventually the red line shockproof's tell tale red could be seen. For some reason it does not get out through the needle bearing side. I am going to get a new seal (not expensive) and put it in the right way. Thanks

I thought I thought all the fuel sending units were deployed to Iraq to send us back our fuel.

Thanks Gary, that jives with what someone else on the SoCal forum said, that the groove and spring side should face the oil, and thus the flat side towards the washer.

LOL My high school filled out something like 30,000 3x5 cards hand writing, Care*Free on each card. We won a Hall and Oates concert It was not a great concert, but weird fun having big name musicians in our school auditorium...even if I only recognized two songs of theirs. They didn't seem happy playing to ungrateful high school kids. I would have prefered Neil Young And the school would have preferred Olivia Newton John or the BeeGees

which way does the axle seal (number 10) face? One side of the seal is flat and the other is grooved and presumably has a retaining spring embedded in the groove. Does the flat side face towards washer (number 32) or the other way?

Speaking of Pierre and bigotry: Here is a joke kind of about Pierre's presumed ancestors: A thief in Paris named Pierre De Plume planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre. After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings, and made it safely to his van. However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas. When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, "Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings. I had no Monet to buy Degas to make the Van Gogh." And you thought I didn't have De Gaulle to post this. Well, I figured I had nothing Toulouse.

Great post I really have to work on figuring out how to lean more and push harder. I know there is a way to push past what I perceive as my limit of leaning and pushing, but I have not found it yet, or rather, I think I had it years ago, but lost it. Maybe more pushups