GuzziMoto

That is some good advice, Chuck. I have heard of more than a few people with dragging rear brakes on their V11. Sometimes it is bleeding, sometimes it is dirt / crud around the slave piston. It could also be from poor adjustment of the linkage not allowing fluid to flow back into the reservoir as it heats up. That could also result from the riders foot applying just enough pressure on the brake lever to move the master past the point where it is open to the reservoir. It could also be from old fluid with water in it. I typically ride with the balls of my feet up on the pegs, my foot isn't able to apply pressure to the brake lever unless I move my foot to a different position. Then, when I am done I put it back.

That is true, the Chevy is rear wheel drive with the motor mounted North/South. I did not think about that. I do think that the K75 is a neat motor/bike, but they needed to develop it further. It got killed before it fully developed.

The size of the caliper has little to do with fade. That is more a matter of disc size, pad used, and fluid used. Condition and function of the brakes can also play a major role in fade. Brakes that drag can easily overheat and that can cause fade. But the caliper is not a heat sink in a disk brake system. How big the caliper is does not really affect how much heat the system can handle. The cost to go from DOT 4 to DOT 5.1 can be a matter of a few dollars. It depends on what fluid you choose. All brake fluids are not created equal. They may all meet the same basic DOT standards, but that is where the similarities end. A high quality DOT 5.1 fluid can be pretty expensive, with some fluids going for $20 a liter or more. And I see people who are determined to save a dollar or two on their oil filter, so it would not surprise me to see people who don't want to spend more on brake fluid than they need to. But those high end fluids aside, I would have no issue using a DOT 5.1 fluid. I think the point being made was that it should not be required to use DOT 5.1 fluid. If you have an issue with brake fade something is likely wrong. Using DOT 5.1 to cover up an issue with your brakes is a band-aid, and a poor choice at that.

You certainly can use a DOT 5.1 fluid in your Guzzi. But I would look deeper than just the rating in big letters. The DOT rating for brake fluid is a minimum rating, "you must be at least this tall to ride this ride" type thing. There could be DOT 4 fluids out there that are every bit as good or better than DOT 5.1 fluids. In my opinion, cost is the only reason not to use DOT 5.1 fluids. http://www.stoptech.com/technical-support/technical-white-papers/brake-fluid But I do agree that if your rear brake is fading something my be wrong. As mentioned, we do not have that issue. And we are not THAT slow.

YMMV. I had to take the brass holder off to get my Sport running right. Me too. I think it had too slow of a heat-sink effect, meaning it took too long to heat up and cool down under different conditions, so the ECU was always a little behind in fueling and ignition changes. It ran much better when I put a new, OEM blue plastic holder back in. While it is clear that having (or not having) a brass temp sensor holder can change the way the V11 runs, I am not sure about the notion that it slowed down the heating up and cooling down of the sensor. Having the plastic sensor holder, as opposed to the brass holder, more likely slightly insulates the sensor compared to the brass holder and allows for the sensor to always run a little colder than it may otherwise run with the brass holder. The brass holder would obviously better conduct heat from the head to the sensor but is incapable of being hotter than the head it is attached to. The plastic holder would likely insulate and slow heat transfer from the head to the sensor, resulting in a lower temp reading. A lower temp reading could result in a slightly richer mixture, often a good thing but not always. Thus, some run better with the brass, some run better with the plastic, depending on whether richer is better or worse.

My current set of cars.... I have a Chevy Colorado which is a company owned pick up truck. Then I have a Smart car, an american Brabus version of the FourTwo. No turbo, yet. The wife is currently shopping for a new car. Her short list so far includes a new smart car (not her favorite), a Subaru BRZ, a Mini Paceman, and a Jeep Wrangler. Yes, her short list is varied and contains an odd mix. And she is still looking.

A nice looking BMW K series? Sorry, not possible! Wait, but the motor is shaped almost exactly like your Volvo! Touche. Least common mass-produced engine configurations: Motorcycle - BMW horizontal inline 3 cylinder Car - Volvo transverse inline 5 cylinder Not in this country. My Chevy Colorado pick up truck has an inline 5 cylinder engine. There are many thousands of them around here. The three cylinder car engine, like in my Smart car, is way less common. Although there have been a few other cars with triples.

I agree with Lee Parks. But, that said, I am still not sure how well a larger caliper is going to help with heat fade. A bigger caliper allows for larger pads, and it does have a larger amount of fluid behind the pistons. Either or both of those might help a little. But the best cure for brake fade is a larger disc.

Around here maximum octane varies depending on location. In one area / neighborhood premium might be 91 octane. A couple miles away premium might be 92 or 93 octane. We used to have some Sunoco stations that had 94 octane, but they seem to have phased that out. On a side note, I know altitude has an effect on octane requirements (at higher altitudes octane requirements go down) but I wonder if temp has an effect on octane requirements.

Doing the rear brake pads on the V11 is easy thankfully. These Brembos are pretty nice to work on. Small though. I am amazed how they threw on such a small caliper on a 550lbs bike. Can't wait to get my Scura with the 4 piston caliper from a V11 Jackal. Should of had a 4 piston from the start. I have never had an issue with the rear brake on the V11. I know it is pretty small, but it seems more than up to the task. The wife and I both rarely use it for much more than a parking brake, but even when we do use it we have no issues with it. It has never faded or failed to do slow the bike when needed. I am not sure what you will gain by increasing the rear unsprung weight. Are you changing the master cylinder as well?

I don't know about the quality of your fuel. Here quality is pretty well regulated, but I tend to stick to name brand stations and avoid stations that see little traffic. If I am filling up with premium I would rather I was at a station that had others doing the same on a regular basis. That way the fuel I get is not stale and old. This is extra important (in my opinion) if the fuel has ethanol in it. Here we are required to have a certain percentage of ethanol in it, but they can't just add extra ethanol. It is a regulated amount percentage wise. There is considerable debate here as they are talking about raising that percentage. I don't want to get into a debate about ethanol, though. I just wanted to point out that your premium fuel and our premium fuel tends to be the same octane, we just label ours with a lower number as it is measure using an average of RON and MON. Most other places just post the (higher) RON number. There are other factors here that play into fuel mileage and performance. Around here now they have switched to the winter blend, and the result is probably about a 10% (or more) drop in mileage. It has to do with the things they put in the fuel to help it burn in colder temps. Come spring mileage will go back up.

It is often suggested that the V11 does not really like to run smoothly below 3k rpm. There is also a tendency to "sneeze" at lower rpms. What gear are you in when it does this?

Our fuels are pretty much the same octane. The difference is in how we measure/label it. Our averaging method between RON and MON gives us a lower number on the label. But the fuel has pretty much the same actual octane.

Yeah, but when Buell was first closed by HD they were selling $10,000+ Buells for 5 grand. An $11,000 or more EBR is a great deal but not in the same league as a brand new Buell for 5 or 6 thousand dollars. It does not have the same "Fire Sale" effect on me.

I really wanted one of them, but financially I could not do it as we were in the middle of buying a house. There was a brief period where they were stupid cheap, and I regret not being able to buy one at that time. I had an older X1, I regret selling it. I came close to buying one of the new Buell Cafe bikes, but a house had to come first.

I was just reading about EDM holes for oiling. One thing that was clear from what I read was to make sure the part they put the EDM hole into is thoroughly cleaned. It (EDM) makes a lot of debris when it is making the hole. Failure to clean the debris out before putting in service can result in failure. Is that the Rotax based motor?

15 or so years ago we paid about ($9k or so) that for the wife's new V11. It was a demo, with about 200 miles on it (not much of a demo, really). It still came with the factory warranty. I can't imagine paying $9k for this one, but I can't fault them for dreaming. Best of luck to them.

But if your used upgrade is not actually an upgrade, or worse yet if it is a failure waiting to happen, your money is at best wasted and at worst you are worse off than you were. The Brembo master fitted to a V11 is not junk. If you only want a radial set up for the look, that is fine. But if money is that tight why spend the money on the look of an upgrade? I am simply trying to make the point that an OEM radial master is not really much better than the stock master on a V11. It is your money, do what you want. But to me brakes are not somewhere to skimp or buy based on being the cheapest option.

OEM radial masters are not as big an upgrade as the ones you can buy on the aftermarket. They do offer the looks, but an aftermarket version like the Brembo RCS is much nicer than the OEM radial masters. Even the Brembo made OEM radial masters are not as nice as the ones you can buy aftermarket. In the US you can buy a Brembo RCS for arond $350. I can't see buying a master cylinder used or buying one based on price.

I think where he is at right now is trying to determine if there really is a problem to begin with. So far there is only a lower oil pressure reading than expected along with this small amount of wear.

What I meant when I said "those parts are not directly pressure fed" is that they do not directly receive pressurized oil as the rocker arm does, nor do they require the pressurized oil to do what they do as a plain bearing does. Looking at your pressure relief valve is a good idea. As has been mentioned, no matter how much oil the oil pump actually pumps if that valve does not do its job there can be no pressure. As has also been said before, low oil pressure would affect the plain bearings first so looking at the mains and big end bearings along with the cam would be a good place to look. The oil filter is also a good thing to check, but I thought you had already been down that road in previous threads.

I have said this before, I'll say it again. A motor that does not burn oil and runs great is not a motor I would be tearing apart. The wear to the washers is from the pressure of the spring, as mentioned. That wear is not due to an oil pressure issue. Those parts are not directly pressure fed. They rely on oil splashing off the rocker, which is pressure fed. The wear could be from poor oil or oil beak down between oil changes. A splash fed part may be more susceptible to oil lubrication issues. If you want to look for possible oil pressure (or lack there of) issues, I would check the mains and / or the cam.

You can back probe the connector. That is, come at it from the same side the wires go into the connector from. Try using a pair of pins. If you get some alligator clip leads you can clip them to the pins on one end and to the probe ends on the other. Another option is a posi-lock connector, that will allow you to tap the wires. You can use those cheap wire tap connectors, but I avoid them. http://www.posi-products.com/

GuzziDiag allows you to do it yourself. Todd, aka RacerX, probably can do it for you with his set up. A Power Commander will let you adjust the mapping externally, but with GuzziDiag being out it seems crazy to go that route now.

While there may be issues with the map, my take is that it was running great and then one day it started running like crap (possibly after sitting a month). I take that to mean that the map works well enough and is not the source of the issue. It could be the Power Commander as a whole, there have been at least a few people who have found their Power Commander suddenly became the problem. But as this one is hard wired in (stupid shit) it is hard to un-plug it and see if that is the issue. Who does that?