GuzziMoto

I agree about the lack of filtration not being a good thing. Not sure it is as bad as you think, but no filtration on a street bike is generally not good for longevity. As to the wheel base, it should be near identical to the wheel base of a Griso. The only thing that would change that bikes wheelbase from that of a Griso is the rake of the front forks. And as those front forks look to be slightly steeper than that of a Griso the wheelbase should be slightly shorter than the Griso. But the difference is likely minimal. The engine, transmission, and rear swingarm are the same between the two, that is 90% of the wheelbase. The rake of the front forks is that last 10%, a steeper rake angle would make the wheelbase slightly shorter while a more relaxed rake angle would make the wheelbase longer. The rake of the Griso is what, 26 degrees? That bike likely has a rake angle around 25 degrees. So it seems unlikely it has a longer wheelbase than a Griso. Mind you, that is a long wheelbase. But it isn't uncommon for a Guzzi.

That looks to be a spine frame Sport with a fairly modern 8 valve CARC motor (like from an 8 valve Griso) stuffed into it. Tricky in part because the alternator of the modern motor is up front between the cylinder heads, driven by a belt as I recall, which would likely be in the way of the spine frame. The Sport was before the V11 Sport, between it and the Daytona. Think of it as a Daytona with a V11 motor but the older 5 speed trans. Impressive. I wonder if they switched from the belt drive alternator to one mounted directly on the end of the crank.

Spinning the motor backwards is not a major issue in my opinion, especially since we are no longer setting timing or doing anything where the slack in the timing system would matter. But I still recommend you always rotate the motor the direction it is made to rotate in. I don't believe rotating the motor the wrong direction will instantly do any harm. But it is good practice to always rotate an internal combustion engine the direction it was made to rotate in. The cams were designed to go that direction, the ramps on each side of the lobes were machined to go that direction. The tensioner in the timing chain was designed to go that direction. That said, do what you want. I do know that for setting valve clearances the exact position of the crank doesn't matter. As long as the cam tappet is near enough on the other side of the cam from the lobe that opens the valve you are good. If it is off by a little bit it will make no difference. Heck, it could probably be off by 90 degrees of crank rotation and it probably won't make a difference (90 degrees of crank rotation is only 45 degrees of cam rotation). I would try to get to TDC at combustion, but as long as you are in the ball park you are fine. No reason to stress about being exact. Your valve adjustment won't be any better because you were precise about being at TDC.

I think you may have it backwards. When you are in sixth gear it takes much more movement of the rear tire for a given amount of piston movement. The lower the gear you are in the less the rear tire moves for a given amount of piston movement. So putting it in the highest gear means that it takes more movement of the rear tire for a given amount of piston movement. Trying to do it in first or second gear is harder, it is harder to move the rear tire and every movement of the rear tire results in more movement of the piston. It is easier when it is in top gear. Also, you don't need to be exactly at TDC, as Pete said. You only need to be in the ballpark. If you are near TDC at the right point in the four strokes, meaning you are near TDC at combustion, when both intake and exhaust valves are closed, close is good enough. You just need both cam lobes to be on their respective base circles so there is clearance. No clearance and you are probably at overlap instead of combustion.

I had no issues turning the motor by the rear tire, just use 5th or 6th gear with both sparkplugs out and it makes it very easy to turn (leverage is your friend). Using the rear tire also makes it easy to make sure you turn the motor the right direction (you don't want to turn the motor backwards for any of this). I also had no issues using a straw to feel for the piston. In fact, I have never used the markings on the flywheel for any of this. Not sure if the markings are even there. I don't like sticking solid objects down the sparkplug hole, I prefer things like straws that will give if things go sideways. A straw can't mess anything up.

To expand on it, some are scared they can't weld something that they have used brake clean on previously. That is not the case. If you use brake clean on metal and then weld it any liquid brake clean still on the metal, or even possibly some fumes that are still hanging about (although that seems like a slim issue), will break down under the heat of welding and if it is the wrong type of brake clean it will create phosgene gas. Particularly common is small traces of liquid brake clean sitting in pores of the metal. But if you use brake clean and then thoroughly dry the part you can weld it. The key is, being sure all traces of brake clean are gone. As brake clean does not leave a residue on the part, once it has evaporated it is gone, you don't need to worry about welding a part you used brake clean on previously if the brake clean is long since evaporated. But if you only use the non-chlorinated brake clean on metal you are going to weld, or simply skip the brake clean and use other safer solvents, you don't need to worry about it. Since the possible results of welding metal that still has liquid brake clean on it are potentially lethal it makes sense to be overly cautious. I feel this is something you can't stress enough. Better safe then sorry.

Whoops, my bad. Everywhere I meant to type brake clean I typed brake fluid. Sometimes I am such an idiot.

It is, as I recall, the chemical that the lack of makes some brake fluid "non-chlorinated". You can use non-chlorinated brake fluid when welding. But do not use the non non-chlorinated brake fluid for welding applications. I assume it is some form of chlorine that is in standard brake fluid. They refer to it as chlorinated solvents. Whatever that is. But the chlorinated solvents can breakdown and become phosgene gas under the heat of welding. Phosgene gas is super poisonous. Can be very bad.

I love those things. It can be a pain adapting it to each reservoir, but it is worth it.

Sadly, Guzzi has made worse errors, like the 8 valve engines that ate their tappets. And that seems like a matter of getting the valve spring rates wrong. But I don't think we will ever know for sure what they messed up to cause that issue. Some issues with Guzzi's are quality control issues, where a certain number of them are just poorly made, perhaps using poor quality parts, that didn't get caught in QC. But sadly other issues are basic design issues. So, an aluminum oil pump gear is not surprising. They may have simply had some alumnum oil pump gears laying around, and while the engineer may have spec'd steel, if they had aluminum gears laying around leftover from something else they may have just decided to use them.

As Pete said, the Joe Caruso gear set for the Daytona and Centaro doesn't get rid of the belts that run the cams. But he does offer an upgrade for the gears that run the oil pump, along with the oil pump itself. The stock gears were aluminum as I recall, and were known to sometimes blow up. Also, the better oil pump helps.

If you remove the cable, be careful with it. The inner part of the cable that spins is not fixed inside the cable and can slide out. Not a problem if it does slide out, just be careful as you don't want it to fall out and get damaged when you weren't expecting it. Not a problem if you slide it out in a controlled way to verify the cable is not broken inside.

A broken cable is the most common issue with the cable driven stock speedometer. But to check the cable you need to do more than remove the cable from the speedometer and crank the engine over. An easy test is to remove the cable from both the transmission and from the speedometer. Then you can check to make sure the cable is not broken. Also make sure that one end isn't broken off. It is easy for the end of the cable to break off and not be noticed.

The manual has the original pressures, for the original tires. There should also be a sticker on the chassis that lists those stock pressures. Reality is by now no one should have the original tires still on their V11. So, while the original pressures make for a good starting point many will find that they prefer slightly different pressures with their current tire of choice. Generalities; less air pressure = more grip = more wear / more air pressure = less grip = less wear. Also, I find handling is lighter with more air pressure. That can be a good thing to a point, but too much air pressure beyond that happy middle ground tends to lead to a lack of confidence with the bike feeling "flighty".

The short answer to the OP question; No. I don't add moly to my gear oil. In my opinion (which is worth exactly what you payed for it), if you use the right oil no additive is required. Sure, you can use a lower grade oil and add moly to it, or you can just use a better grade oil. There is no magic in a Guzzi final drive, it is a pinion and ring gear set with some bearings. There are plenty of vendors that make gear oils suitable for those needs without adding anything to the oil. But everyone should do what they want to do, what they feel comfortable doing.

It is easy enough to measure your sag. If your sag says you need springs to really get your sag numbers right, springs are a great first step. Odds are, you need springs. But, as mentioned, you can measure your sag and see if you need different springs. In a nutshell, if you set your sag with you on the bike and that leaves the bike sagging too little without you on the bike your springs are too soft. That means you have to add too much preload to get the sag where you want it, which results in not enough sag under the weight of just the bike. Too much sag with you off the bike is the other way, the spring is too stiff.

We used to have two gas stations in town where I live. Now there is just one. Sure, there are other stations 15 to 20 minutes away, but only one local station in town. I realize my scale of distances is nothing like what it is out west, though.

Yeah, it is not normally a high pressure situation, so the intake pipe does not need much to stay on. It is actually normally a low pressure / vacuum situation between the head and the throttle bodies. It should not take much to keep it on. But you can see one of the slots in the metal intake spigot that the rubber boot grabs in your picture. Something went wrong to pop that off.

Those are nice cars. Especially the styling. But they perform well also.

This most recent race in the UK, at Silverstone, Marc didn't do so well. But he seemed up beat about how the weekend went. Bigger news was how well Aprilia did, including Aleix. All four Apes in the top 10, and three of four in the top five. Was great to see Oliveira have a good weekend. I have high hopes for him an the Aprilia.

Good for PJ. He has been at this a long time, this is his first win in ages. It has to feel good. Beaubier needs to get his head on straight. That was a costly mistake. He has the talent, but he needs to ride smart.

The notion that a motorcycle can't be art simply because some non-motorcyclist might not think it is art is laughable and misses the point of art. If even one person thinks something is art, it is art. That someone else, or even everyone else, would not call it art doesn't matter. Such is art. I appreciate the art side of motorcycles (and cars, that E-type is certainly art). But my favorite part of motorcycles is riding them. Side note, I have a guitar hanging on my wall that is art. I do play it periodically. But more often I just look at it. It is beautiful.

I have mentioned this before, I will mention it again. The air density affects the octane requirements of any non-forced induction gasoline piston engine. As air density goes down, octane requirements go down. So, at higher elevations a given motor will have lower octane requirements. I have been to some higher altitude places where the fuel available was 85 octane. That isn't even an option where I live. People riding their V11 closer to sea level will need more octane then people riding their V11 in the Rockies will. I figure the generic octane requirements published are likely to be worst case, higher air density, higher engine temps, etc. The wife's V11 manual says 91 octane (95 RON), but I have no doubt it could safely run on 89 or even 87 octane in many situations. But I am also pretty sure in some situations that lower octane could be an issue. Safer and easier to run it at the higher octane.

TDC for valve adjustment is when both intake and exhaust valves are closed and the piston is at top dead center. Being a four stoke engine, the piston hits TDC twice for every combustion cycle. The other time the piston hits TDC is when the intake and exhaust valves are open during overlap. So, piston at the top with both valves shut is when you set the valve clearance (as Pete said, you just have to be close on that). If the piston is at the top and neither valve has any clearance odds are you are at the wrong TDC and you do not want to set the valve clearances there. The term "choke" has become generic, engines mostly do no use "chokes" any longer. A true "choke" covered the intake to restrict air going into the engine. First came enrichener circuits that didn't restrict air as a "choke" does, instead they added extra fuel. That is what you would have, for example, on most motorcycle carburetors. The fuel injected V11 uses something even simpler, a fast idle lever that simply opens the throttle slightly to allow the engine to idle fast. It is purely mechanical in function, opening the throttle by mechanically acting on the throttlebody itself.

I would think of it as better to have the additional margin of safety you would get running premium. Since if it is an issue, you would not necessarily know it until it was too late and the damage is done. I would rather have extra safety margin. But to be fair, the V11 mill is fairly low compression and likely could run just fine on regular. But in certain situations it could become an issue. But true detonation is hard to hear, and the damage it can cause is serious. To me it is not worth taking the chance. I burn so little gas relatively speaking in my bikes that paying a little more per gallon is no big deal to me. Also, the octane requirements are greatly affected by air density. Lower air density means lower octane requirements for the same engine.