Chuck

Pretty good eye. It's .003" out. Thanks. Obviously more a matter of screen distortion then Yeah. It looks strange in the picture..

Excellent...

I understand it was never "legal" to lane split in Ca, it just wasn't enforced. The bill actually makes is legal. Lane splitting is a wonderful thing in that traffic..

Pretty good eye. It's .003" out.

Thanks Scud..

Probably laying on it's side screaming it's heart out..

Austin is a perfect example. I told him he could work on his KLR in the shop when I was in California. I came home to this.. 2018-01-06_01-36-03 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr Now, it's no small feat for a kid to dive in to something as complicated as this. He's a *good* nuts and bolts guy. He'd seen this: 2018-01-09_02-51-39 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr And thought, "that's probably not good." Never gave a thought as to *why* that cam looked like that, and was going to swap heads with his spare engine. That's when I came home. Walked out into the shop, saw the cam and rooted cam bearings, and had an immediate look at that rod bearing. 2018-01-09_02-53-12 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr Here it is.. 2018-01-09_02-54-18 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr Texted him, "what are you going to do with that rod bearing?" He texted back, " Huh?" The next time he was in the shop, I started explaining how the oiling system worked, tolerances for bearings and why, etc. .. and this engine is junk. "Oh, by the way.. did you notice the cam bearing material galled onto the "good" head you were going to swap?" Sorry, no picture for that. Told him to cut open the oil filter of the spare engine and showed him how to squeeze the element flat between 2 clean plates. No metal in it. Told him that he *probably* had a good bottom end to swap into the bike, but he'd have to source yet another head. He said, "I'm really glad I didn't go any farther before you came back from California." That is why he will be a *good* mechanic. He suddenly realized how little he actually knows.

Yes, Docc.. that is the perfect example. I've seen it many times over the years. Yep. There are very few airplane mechanics that fly. A pilot gets in and goes, thinking, "what could possibly go wrong?" A mechanic with some experience *knows* what can go wrong..

Sorry Phil, but that's the long and short of it. Let me digress. When I was in my early 20s, I would have jumped on this problem, found the answer and been confident that this *was* the answer. I have done that.. But.. Put another almost 50 years of experience into the mix, and I have learned that I *don't* know it all. There is a learning curve in any trade, whether it is being a Guzzi mechanic,doctor, tool and die maker, or candle stick maker. It starts at the bottom and goes up at an exponential rate. At that point you think you are hot sh!t. Then, it drops almost as fast when you realize you are not. My new pup Austin is there right now. He's just realizing he is clueless. He will be good. Know what I mean? The people that end up being bad at what they do never realize there is much more to learn, and how little they know. So. I'm confident that we have the answer, but there is sill that lingering doubt, brought on by experience.

Thanks, Nick.. a little nippy up around your place, too? Now, the butterflies begin. It's much the same as when I was putting the Aero engine together at first startup. Will it actually run?.. this has never been done before..the camera is running.. (I'm *really* going to feel like a doofus if this thing doesn't work ..) That was all over, though.. as soon as I punched the starter button. I'll be worried about these springs failing for some reason I have never even considered for quite some time. Oh, well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The only way they are going to see you is if your picture is on their phone..

Thanks, Scud.. it'll be a long time before riding impressions for me. -3F as we speak with a -18 wind chill. This is the longest period of seriously cold wx in my memory.

If you haven't seen it, we will have a new spring for your trigger job shortly. Re-engineering the Shift Spring

Luhbo said I'd say the new Guzzi springs are capable of breaking. Here's the one I installed last summer. It has less than 5000 miles on it. 2018-01-15_12-58-03 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr It was well on it's way to breaking. So, I installed the new home made unbreakable coil spring. caw caw.. But first.. 2018-01-15_12-58-25 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr the diameter is just a smidgen (technical term) over .599". 16mm=.630, 15mm=.5905. Manufacturing tolerances.. the reason I didn't go with the 2mm dia. wire that perfectly fit Scuds selector shaft. Looking back at the reliability lab report.. I decided that would be fine, and put it together. But.. 2018-01-15_01-15-11 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr The bigger radius on this spring rides on the sharp edge of the stamping. It is *most likely ok* to do that, but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you to take your high speed die grinder.. what?? you don't have one? Ok, maybe your Dremel? No? Jeeeze. How about a file and dress a radius where it rides that matches the radius of the spring. It doesn't have to be perfect.. just do your best.. but striving for perfection is only good craftsmanship. A picture is worth a thousand words again.. 2018-01-15_01-26-33 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr This is a rubber bob. Diamond impregnated rubber. Ooooh....shiny. 2018-01-15_01-33-48 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr Cleaned it up in the solvent tank and compressed air, reinstalled on the Mighty Scura, and am confident I won't have to do this job again. (caw caw)

Anywhere someone is allowed to express their opinion. While we think of this as detrimental it's actually a key component of crowdsourcing. If you get enough people expressing their perspective you will generally come up with the best solution. But for that to happen you need a range of perspectives. Some negative, some neutral and some positive. Even the most ridiculous notion may have either have some merit or trigger some discussion that can lead to success. It's also a learning experience, no one ever learned by being 100% right all of the time. It's ok to fail, or to have a bad assumption. Too many people are afraid to speak up which is too bad because right or wrong the may contribute without knowing it. Absolutely.

I've had the Mighty Scura sitting for as much as 10 months when it was out in California.. Started right up. Now for the lecture. It's not a good idea to start an air cooled engine in cold weather if you are not going to bring it up to operating temperature. It will cause a *boatload* of condensation.. internal rust. I always preheat aircraft engines to boot when it is near or below freezing.

Nice picture, and welcome..

Ya snooze ya lose. Bought the Monza I'd been wanting for 10 years when I was layin on my death bed in the hospital. The Kid said, "looks original, the price is right.. I'll deliver. Buy it now?" Knowing full well that I shouldn't make any decisions with drugs in my system.. "Sure."

Hi, Stephen.. it's been a while. I didn't make any extras except a couple for Scud and one for me. I made several of different thickness and preload. Once I came up with what I thought was best, I gave all the rest the flotation test per Dave Richardson. Regarding the coil spring. Footgoose has done it, of course, although early on he mentioned some difficulty shifting and thinks it "may" need a stronger spring. What it does do, however, is introduce some variables in tension during the fore and aft travel of the pawl. Lucky Phil alluded to that, and agreed the torsion spring seems to be the way to go. Not to mention.. it would be very difficult to design a kit that would work for everyone, no matter their skill level, to install. Certainly, the pawl spring breakage is real. I know Mark at MG Classics and Todd at Guzzi Tech pretty well, and they have changed a boat load of them. Scud is a V11S whisperer, and from memory broke 3 in different bikes at about 10000 miles. Thanks, Stephen. As far as I *know* Guzzi didn't have a reliability lab at that time. Dr. John mentioned putting a front wheel against the wall, dropping the clutch, and seeing what broke when he was working at the factory. (Greg Fields V twins book) I gave it my best shot. There will be a *lot* of crow to eat if they start breaking in service, too.. but I'm reasonably sure we have the answer.

Don't forget.. the last of the *real* Guzzis, man..

Seriously, the V11S is not a "sport" bike, and that's a good thing, IMHO. It's a Sport touring bike. Comfortable enough to ride to the twisty bits, have a good time while there, and ride back. Most "Sport" bikes are not particularly good at that. Gimme some good eye talian road huggin weight when I'm out on the interstate. A V11S, especially an Ohlins bike is more than "good enough" in the mountains. Again, IMHO, it would be impossible to get it down to sport bike weight. It's just too robust. I don't have a problem with that. It's my favorite all around bike of all time.

It's too early in the morning to be scared like that. I clicked on it and saw this "thing" looking at me. I do not like it, Sam I am. I think I'll go fix some eggs and ham..

I'm just now taking the preselector off the Mighty Scura, and for whatever reason, it's a pisser. I'm about ready to take a special removal tool, cleverly disguised as a Craftsman screwdriver sharpened on the end. to the parting line. The only thing I had laying around when I did the Lucky Phil mod was Aviation permatex. Maybe it's better glue that I thought.

Different strokes for different folks, of course.. but I've seen very few custom Guzzis that I like better than stock.

I once had a pair of "Elkskin Ropers" that I thought were pretty protective. After a little unscheduled slide on chip and seal, the only injury I had was where a knuckle was ground off a little from the glove burning through. I won't wear gloves without hard knuckle protection any more. Still use the ropers on the lawn mower..