GuzziMoto

The thing I go back to, though, is that the Odyssey appears to be the same as the OEM stock battery in the V11. That battery had no issues with the V11 charging system. In fact, it lasted a really long time for most people, just as the Odyssey battery does. I even have an Odyssey battery now in our Lario. If it can last there it can last everywhere.

I use Odyssey batteries whenever possible. I do not do any special charging or "conditioning". I get better life out of the Odyssey batteries than any other brand I have tried, and they seem to have more power than any other battery I have tried. I can't fault them. I have tried many of the standard lead acid batteries, including Yuasa. And I have tried Shorai and Ballistic Lithium batteries. I had better results with Odyssey. I am pretty sure stock OEM battery on a V11 is an Odyssey with a different badge on it. It had a Sparker badge but it was identical to an Odyssey in every way discernible.

My experience is that in order to flash properly you need both sets of signals. Even electronic flashers seem to act that way. I assume it is so that you will notice when you have a signal out.

I think you are looking at this wrong. The slave piston was not fully extended out of the bore, it was fully pushed in to where it could not push into the bore any further. As the clutch wears on a Guzzi with a hydro clutch the slave piston retracts to allow the clutch to engage. As the clutch wears the slave piston goes further into the slave cylinder. His sounds like the slave piston had retracted as far as it could but when the clutch wore further and the piston could not retract any further the clutch started slipping. Buy spacing the slave out away from the clutch it allows more travel in the required direction and thus the clutch has stopped slipping (for now). The only real fear is that if the clutch is allowed to wear down to far it could cause damage to the rest of the parts, but my guess is that the clutch is OK and it is really just an issue with the pushrod being slightly too long. It could be an issue with fluid not being able to move back up into the master cylinder, but it does not quite sound like it to me. Perhaps I am wrong,

Unless something is seriously wrong, a hydro clutch is self adjusting and will compensate for clutch wear automatically. The same feature should compensate for a slightly shorter or slightly longer push rod the same way. That is one of the advantages of a hydro clutch. It would have to be near the point of not working for the engagement point to change.

We pulled four of our bikes out for a ride yesterday, actually we did two separate rides two bikes at a time, and had a great time. But I mention this because I had forgotten how worn out the Michelin PR3's are on the wifes V11. I am not sure how many miles it took to wear out, I stopped tracking tire mileage a while ago. I found it interesting how the dual compound PR3 wore. The very bottom has a noticeable flat section in the center but there is still rubber left, then the middle area of the two side is worn down to where the grooves of the tread are near flush. And it is clear that the wife likes left handers better than rights. It seems funny to have a tire wear out on the sides before the middle is toast, but that seems like a better way for a tire to wear. I reckon the wifes V11 will need new tires shortly. I expect I will go with the new version of the PR's, the PR4. Hers has a 4.5" rim on the back, as it is an early red framer, so it will be a 160.... again.

Check for voltage at the relay.

Uh, no, not my experience. Modern BMW flat twins are notorious for running hot in traffic, in spite of the engine layout that says they should run cool. My brother had a Rockster and that was the main reason he sold it. And our Guzzi's, including the V11, run hot whenever they are caught in traffic. Plus, some of us have modified our Guzz's to make more power, which means more heat. Upgrading the ability of the engine to get rid of heat can't be a bad thing. Is it required for everybody to do? Clearly not. But if you ride in traffic alot or have some extensive engine mods making more power and thus more heat you may want to look into it. I Doubt most Guzz's need to worry about it. But I can see where some may want to. Funny thing. The newest Guzzi 8 valve motors seem to be over cooled, and this is a bad thing. If your oil does not get above the temp required to boil off water you can and will have problems. The newest 8 valve Guzzi's do not have a thermostat and with their large oil cooler and the finning on the cylinders they seem to run to cool in colder, wetter, climates. That leads to "mayonnaise" in the oil which is a very bad thing. Not surprisingly, these same motors also have a habit of eating their flat tappets and it has forced Guzzi to switch to a roller tappet design. Are the two things related? I don't know for sure. But I do know that water in your oil will lead to oil related failures, and wiping your tappets is likely an oil related failure.

I am not sure "axial" is exactly the right word, but I think it should have no free play in ANY direction. The most important directions would be up and down, fore and aft. It should be solidly mounted at both ends, once at the frame and once at the bevel box. If you were to grab the reaction rod while it is installed it should not move. Reality says it may have a tiny amount of play, but more than that I would be worried.

You could just say you agree with me.....

You may also notice shifting getting "clunky". That is a common issue with the newer CARC bikes, which while very different are really much the same.

My understanding is this. Rubber bushings do not get lubricated. They rely on the flex of the rubber and do not spin. Polyurethane bushings get lubricated when installed and then occasionally as needed. I assume they move to some degree and don't just flex. Metal joints like Heim joints and bearings need occasional lubrication. Will you feel a difference? I don't know. But to me knowing it is better would be enough.

I see where some would like to keep the stock set up and try to make it work the best it can. But if I find myself in the position of needing to "fix" the existing set up because the rubber bushing is worn out I will almost certainly replace it with the same kind of set up my Daytona came with stock, i.e., the rod and heim joint option. I think the only reason the V11 did not come that way was cost. Pure and simple. Going with Polyurethane bushings is probably better than the stock rubber bushings. But I doubt you will get much better motion from them. But it is easy enough for someone to put in the polyurethane bushings and see how freely the rod moves after. I know this, the rod on my Daytona moves perfectly freely. It adds no resistance to the rear suspension motion.

I believe that you should not lubricate these bushes.In car & truck suspension, rubber and urethane joints are not lubricated. Generally suspension joints are tightened once at the normal load position, then suspension movement is allowed by flex of the bushes. A temporary rubber assembly lubricant can help get things in place, if needed, which then quickly dries out. Any lubricant is bad for an elastomer joint, as it allows the elastomer to rub on the metal pin or housing, and believe it or not, the metal wears (very quickly), not the elastomer. Greases attract road grit, and some dry lubes attract moisture, assisting with joint wear. The advantage of tight rubber joints is they are immune to water and dust damage. Oil, age and sunlight are their only enemies. I personally would continue with an unlubricated rubber bush, tightened when the suspension is at ride height. Just as good would be ball rod ends (heim joints) which would last a long time if you could keep them clean & greased. That is very different experience with poly urethane suspension bushings from mine. I have been taught that rubber bushings are not lubricated but poly urethane bushings are lubricated. It is important to avoid petroleum based lubricants with poly urethane bushings. As I said, I encourage people to google lubricating poly urethane bushings and decide for themselves. My knowledge says to use lithium based lubricants, in fact, little packets of lithium grease are sometimes included with a set of poly urethane suspension bushings.

Urethane bushings are commonly greased. But I think you should only use Lithium grease to do so. There is plenty of info on this, feel free to look into it deeper than I did. But I do think a urethane bushing should not be installed dry.

We just bought the wife a new "car". She wanted a Jeep. A purple JK Unlimited Backcountry. She and our sister in law are now Jeepers. We went offroading for the first time last weekend. She was literally screaming with delight.

Visually, they are clearly different. When working on the rear suspension you can feel the fluid movement of the metal joint on the Daytona. One has to think, based on common sense, that free motion in your rear suspension would be better. But the two bikes are so different otherwise, that you can't really compare by riding them. The V11 has a sweet Penske shock set up for proper spring rate. The Daytona has the original WP shock with a spring that is somewhat close rate wise. But the WP is archaic compared to the Penske. That said, the fact that you really can't tell the difference when the Daytona has a shock of clearly lower class says something, perhaps. People put effort into making sure their rear suspension is properly lubricated and greased. Having a rubber bushing that resists fluid motion is clearly working against that ideal. The rubber bushing has it advantages, it is just a question of whether those advantages are important to you. The rubber bushing is more forgiving for alignment. It also should not transmit vibration and harshness. But I don't really notice any extra vibration or harshness on the Daytona. I think the main reason the V11 has the rubber bushing is cost. It is cheaper to use a rubber bushing. The Daytona was a much more expensive motorcycle new than the V11. There are a number of aspects of the V11 that were done to reduce cost.

Since this thread is alive again, I can add something. I am pretty sure the original version of this system on the Guzzi, i.e., the Daytona, used a heim joint for the reaction rod. As with car suspensions, using a rubber bushing is a trade off, less performance for more comfort. A rubber bushing will transfer less vibration and jolts, while not giving the same fluid motion and range of motion. If I were replacing the rubber bushing on a V11 I would go with the type of set up as on the Daytona. But that is me.

I have had good luck with the Wix filter, NAPA filter, and Mobil 1 filter. I don't really worry too much about it, any quality filter is fine. It really comes down to which quality filter is easiest to get where you live. I used to live near a NAPA dealer, so they were easy to get. Now I don't, so I will probably be using something else. I prefer to buy from a local source, I know the internet allows you to order anything from anywhere, often at a good price. But where is the internet when you need something that day? Support your local shop, or you may not have a local shop.

You certainly could use a temp switch to turn the fan on, same as most every water cooled bike does. But trying to do switching based on speed would be hard. You would need a way of switching based on speed. The advantage of the switch on the handlebar is that it allows you to switch the fan on BEFORE it gets hot. As long as you remember to turn the fan on when traffic slows down. My solution is to avoid traffic like that to begin with. But if you need one, I would do the handlebar switch. The temp based switch is nice, but I like the control of the handlebar switch.

I think the fan would make more difference in slow speed riding. Air cooled XB Buells came with a small fan that was on a thermostat switch. I would think just installing a toggle switch on the handlebar would be fine. That is a common mod on dirt bikes that get ridden in the woods. They either add a fan with a switch or put a switch to the original fan and turn it on when they think they will need it. And I was not saying that you are making dramatically more power now and as such more heat, just saying that IF you make dramatically more power you will also be making more heat. Higher compression does usually mean more heat, though. Measurable? Don't know. Measure it.

I do think that a larger oil cooler would increase the cooling capacity of the motor. And the thermostat would allow you to run a larger cooler without over cooling like other bikes. But in slow traffic, where you are most likely to run into over heating issues, the larger oil cooler probably would not help as much as a fan that blows air through the oil cooler. It is the same as water cooled motors. They use a fan for slow speed situations to help cooling. Bigger radiators increase cooling capacity but have less benefit in slow speed situations. If you dramatically increase the power output of your motor you are also increasing the heat output of your motor. If you ride in slow speed situations a lot you also may benefit from a larger oil cooler and/or a fan. Or not. It is likely not needed, but it can't hurt. If you want to know if it would help, track your oil temp. But I would not over estimate the engineering that went into your Guzzi. They likely grabbed the oil cooler that was handy, the one that fit in the location the stylist wanted it in. I seriously doubt there was any real "engineering" that went into it. It is a Guzzi.

Fans are nice, but groupies are better......

There should be a thermostat in the oil system, so that oil does not go through the cooler unless it is hot. So a larger oil cooler should not be an issue. I doubt it would actually help for most people. Unless you have over heating issues what good would a bigger oil cooler do? But, it should not be a problem to do. If you do something like this I would consider adding a fan with it. If you are stuck in traffic a bigger oil cooler isn't likely to help much if there is no air flow through it. A fan might help. A bigger oil cooler does add more capacity, but often the oil in the cooler does not get changed during an oil change, so it is a trade off.

Also, bearings have their size printed on them. You can usually just read the bearings to get their size.