GuzziMoto

I am really happy that Aleix Espargaro won on the Aprilia. He has worked so hard on that program. That it is both their first win in MotoGP and his first win an a world championship race makes it even better. Add to that he is now leading the points, wow. The Marquez story was a poor idea of an April fools day joke. It was not a legit story, just an April fools day joke that was in really bad taste. I would not be surprised to see Marquez retire, but that the joke is actually a believable story makes it even worse, not better. As to MotoGP without Marquez, I don't think it has been better racing since they switched to fourstrokes than it is right now. When a tiny little team like Aprilia can win a race and lead the points, anything can happen in MotoGP right now. I am enjoying it, with or without Marquez.

Thank you both. I see extra deep sockets on the internet, but unable to source locally. So it looks like I will have to buy off the internet and wait for it. Thanks again.

Phil, I only quoted you to catch your attention because you have done this and know what you are doing. I am still hoping someone has the torque specs for the cam shaft nut and the crank shaft nut. But after taking it apart I am realizing I don't have a tool that can reach the crank shaft nut. What did you, or anyone else, use to remove that nut and reinstall it on the gear? That is a long reach for a 32mm / inch and a quarter nut. My normal deep sockets won't reach that far. I will look to see what I can find for sale, but I wonder if there is a special tool required for that nut. I could possibly make a special tool if required, but looking for input from you and others. Thanks in advance. Michael

I have not studied Marquez's big crash like Phil and others have. I saw video of it, but based on past personal history I don't pay too much attention to crashes like that. But it seemed clear he lost the rear end going into the corner. If that is true, the traction control electronics really had nothing to do with the crash. The only electronics that might have been involved are the electronics that control the clutch and throttle under deceleration. More likely a crash like that is rider error and bike setup. But whatever caused the crash, it was clear that some teams were severely disadvantaged by Michelins decision to bring a different tire than they tested with, while other teams benefited from that decision. That is the nature of a spec tire series, and changes to the spec tire provided will advantage some teams and disadvantage others. A spec tire series (while I believe is a mistake) needs to have consistency in the tire spec. Teams spend massive amounts of money to get the bike to work with the spec tire. Riders spend a lot of time and take a fair amount of risk honing the skills to work with the spec tire. And all that money, all that effort, can be thrown away if the tire supplier brings a different tire to a race. The teams spent time at a test, they spent money, and the riders risked their health and safety. And all that was thrown out the window because Michelin decided to bring a different tire. Whether they told the teams they were going to do this or not doesn't change the fact that this decision wasted all the effort and money spent leading up to the race and turned the race into a lottery. Some won in that lottery and others lost. It is supposed to be racing, not a lottery.

The stock upper triple clamp for a 2000 V11 Sport has bosses in it where the handle bar clamps would be if it was a version that used a handle bar instead of clip ons, as I recall. My wife also has a 2000 V11 Sport that originally came with clip ons. I actually bought the Billy-Bob (Billabio) stock handle bars and handle bar clamps, drilled out the bosses in the stock top triple clamp, and installed the Billy-Bob handle bars on her V11. If you are afraid of drilling out the stock triple clamp you could likely buy a set of triple clamps from a handle bar equipped version of V11. But be careful, as recent discussions indicate that there may be two different versions of triple clamp with two different offsets. It seems the early V11 may have a set of triple clamps with more offset, which results in less trail. While having less offset and more trail may be a good thing, it would mean that a top triple clamp with less offset would have to be matched with a bottom triple clamp with less offset. Or if you just drill out the stock triple clamp you already have you don't have to open that can of worms. As long as the bars aren't too high you should be able to make the cables and brake lines work. But if it is an issue you can always buy cables or brake lines for a version of V11 that had higher bars, like the aforementioned Billy-Bob or a Lemans.

Sounds like a plan. Good on you for taking the lead with this and putting your own money on the line. Not everyone would do that. Thanks.

Any chance someone on here has the torque specs for the other bolts/nuts? I am finally getting round to installing a set of Joe's gears, and want to make sure I properly torque it putting it back together. I assume everything gets loctite as well. I don't have any Green loctite, just the standard Blue or Red. Does it need Green? Green sounds similar to Red.

A Wave disc is typically a brake disc that isn't round, it has a wavy shape to it is a basically round shape but not round. It does much the same as discs with slots or drilled holes. It is supposed to increase cooling surface and it allows for the pad contact area to vent.

Count me in for one. As I would probably paint it I am not super concerned with how it looks, only that it fits well.

And my Daytona has a 17" front and 18" rear wheel. That configuration was fairly common back in the late 80's and early 90's. Yamaha used it on a number of models ranging from the FZR400 to the FZR1000.

If one of your options is the V2 Panagale, the Triumph comparable model should be the Daytona Moto2 765. I like the middleweight triples, the 765's, more than I like the big triples. But I would consider a Tuono V4 over either of those two.

I am also not exactly a fan of Marc Marquez. I respect his talent, but I don't like the way he rides with no regard to others on the track with him. Over the years he has put more other racers on the ground by hitting them then most others have. Contact does happen, sometimes it is unavoidable. But for Marc he seems to make no effort to avoid contact with others. That said, it seems his crashes have caught up with him. He does crash a lot, and has managed to stick around longer than most others who ride like that (think Wayne Gardner). If he doesn't walk away soon he may end up in even worse shape. But since he has outright said he won't keep racing if he can't win I expect he will walk away soon. At this point he isn't even the fastest guy on a Honda. Oh, and my fastest crash was at Roebling Road in turn 9 running around 130 mph. It was brutal, destroyed the bike (ripped the forks in half) and dislocated my shoulder (among other injuries).

Abd they can easily ship to the USA. I think mine arrived in maybe a week. Yeah, I know. Old thread. But I was bored.

There are definitely different qualities of carbon fiber, as well as different styles. Way back when our raceteam actually had an offshoot that made carbon fiber parts, mainly for Ducati's. It was interesting, but I was never a huge fan of it. I get light weight is good, but I am more interested in other light weight options like titanium or magnesium. Clearly, that isn't really an option for bodywork. But I just never got that excited about carbon fiber. So while I would buy a seat cowl out of carbon fiber, that is mainly because it is hard to find a seat cowl of any sort made out of anything, and I could use one.

Even at $300 I would still be interested as long as it was nicely made out of carbon fiber.

No one is saying that Michelin can't take measures for safety. But first, there were no tire failures in testing, so there really was no evidence for needing to take measures for safety. Secondly, if Michelin did feel they needed to bring more durable tires they should have chosen more durable tires from this years tire range. Not brought out a tire they haven't used in years. And if they were bringing out a tire that wasn't in the current range of tires offered, they should have either brought that tire to the test or made running that tire optional. Instead they brought out a tire that made some guys faster and other guys slower. It also ended up putting Marc Marquez in a scary wreck. So, maybe not a decision that improved safety. At least some racers weren't safer due to the choice made. The F1 tire fiasco was in part due to the restrictive rules that F1 had in place at the time, not allowing Michelin to bring in tires that would have worked. In F1 back then each manufacturer had to pick the tires they were bringing in advance and they weren't allowed to use any other tires. It was an attempt to handicap Michelin, as Michelin were capable of bringing in tires over the course of the weekend if required. Spec tires are not 100% bad, but there are clear disadvantages to a spec tire. Spec tires have their place, in lower series where it is more an entry class and you are just trying to level the playing field and keep costs down. But at the top level of racing spec tires are stupid. They don't keep costs down and they don't level the playing field. And this past weekends race showed that.

Several aspects of the Indonesian round stand out. The biggest one being the rain, which really mixed things up. Rain always mixes things up, but here we had dry running until the race, even the morning warm up was run in the dry. So it was a learning experience for the racers to figure out how fast they could go in the rain. But also, Michelin brought an old tire construction with a stiffer carcass and that really made a difference. It put Fabio back at the front and it put the Honda's (Marc and Pol) at the back. It seems the new Honda did not like that tire at all, after being fast in the test earlier with the current tire. I really think that is messed up. Honda (who I am not really a fan of) put all that effort into building a bike that works with the new tire and they switch to an old design tire for the race, after having them test the new design tire at the track a few weeks ago. It also highlights the flaw with the spec tire. While in theory everyone using the same tire means the tire aspect is equal, but clearly it is not. The Yamaha doesn't work nearly as well on the new tire spec as it does on the old spec tire. The same with the Ducati. While the Honda doesn't work nearly as well on the old spec tire as it does on the new spec tire. But it seems there is nothing in place to prevent Michelin from bringing whatever spec tire they want to a race weekend. And what spec tire they bring plays a huge part in determining who is fast and who is slow. If they are going to make everyone use Michelin tires, the teams should at least get to choose which Michelin tires they want to use and not be at the mercy of Michelin.

If a source was found for seat cowls, carbon fiber or otherwise, I would be interested in buying one if they weren't too dear. I fitted a V11 rear section including seat to my Daytona and it lacks the seat cowl. The wife has a seat cowl for her V11, just a plain jane one painted to match the silver. I would love to find one for the Daytona and its V11 seat.

I use a standard generic rear stand, or the fancy rear stand that came with my Daytona. But I also see an interesting paddock stand from MG Cycle https://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=73&products_id=2995 It is a Becker Technik stand that looks to use a pair of 18mm sockets on those two nuts at the bottom of the pork chops. Says in stock and under $200

I think Pecco had a valid point. His bike setup went too far into the weeds trying all these different options and that stuff should have already been worked out by the factory tester. But I suspect that won't be as big an issue going forwards. I don't think he will play that game in the future, and I think he was only in that situation because it was a brand new bike at the first race of the season. As the races go on I suspect they will have a narrower and narrower range of set up that they know works for him. They were just to early in the learning curve this time. It seems the only Ducati rider not falling into that trap at the first race was Bastiani, who was on a bike they already knew how to set up. Worked out well for him.

We just looked at the Husqvarna 401's yesterday on the way home from work. I am impressed, and both the wife and I are strongly considering getting a pair (one for each of us). They are a little tall for the wife, but with the light weight she seems to feel it is do-able. The worst thing about them is which version. I was fully thinking it would be the cafe racer version, the Vitpilen, but it seems both versions are pretty much the same except the Vitpilen comes in white and has clip ons while the Svartpilen has bars and comes in black. The Svartpilen also comes with a rack on the gas tank and a slightly different seat. After looking at both and sitting on both I am torn between the two options. The clip ons appeal to me mentally, but the higher bars appeal to me physically. And I am not a big fan of the flat white on the Vitpilen. But I could live with either, and at the price they are going for we can buy two of them for the price of one of the other motorcycles she is looking at. And they would be fun little runabouts for the area we live in. The larger 701 looks like great fun, but that isn't currently available and it is in a different league price wise.

My wife and I were just looking at the Husqvarna. But we would be more interested in the Vitpilen, the more street oriented of the two, as where we live there isn't much opportunity for off road usage (funny, being as how we live in the sticks). One day we hope to move out west, and there the Svartpilen would be better.

Well, I revalved the rear shock on the DR 350, while I assume you are referring to the front forks on the Guzzi. The shock was made to be easily opened up and revalved. Where as cartridge forks can be harder to open up as at least some of them aren't made to be revalved. In some cases the cartridge is crimped together, and that can be tricky to open up and close when done. The cartridge works much like a shock, it has a piston that moves up and down through it with valving stacks to regulate dampening. The cartridge on the wife's red frame V11 (early forks) had two bypass holes in the cartridge that allowed oil to bypass the valving in the piston. All I did to the forks on the wife's V11 was close off one of the two bypass holes so that more oil was forced to go through the valving stack. That was actually enough. Not only did it increase dampening, it made the adjuster useful as you can now feel a difference when you turn the adjuster. Before the mod the adjuster only made a difference in the last inch or so of travel, after the piston had gone past the first bypass hole. But if I could buy a replacement cartridge I would do that. Right now I am busy doing a number of things, including acquiring the required parts to set the TPS and run GuzziDiag (we have made it this far with that bike without needing either, but it seems I should finally bite the bullet). Maybe when that is done I will dig deeper into the forks, but it is hard to justify when they actually work pretty well with the bypass mod. On a side note, anyone feel like helping an old fart learn new tricks? Free Beer....

Ages ago I re-valved the shock on my DR 350 with help from a friend. I was amazed at how beautifully simply the concept of valving really was. I assume they have gotten more sophisticated but the basic premise should still be the same. In the Jeep world a high end step up is bypass shocks, where you add bypasses so some of the shock oil can bypass the piston valving. Then by controlling the flow of oil through the bypasses, and having different bypasses between different parts of the shocks travel you can change the dampening in different parts of the stroke. As I recall KTM put a lot of effort into figuring out how to have variable dampening over the length of the stroke so they could run a progressive spring and no linkage.

While I hope Guzzi does come out with a modern Lemans / V11, neither of those two would do it for me. Too angular, to busy. I would rather something more Italian looking, something with fewer lines but the lines it has are right. But happy if Guzzi comes out with a new big block, as the current small block doesn't do it for me (never mind that we own one).