Lucky Phil

Not sure if I've posted this before. Danish band Choir of young believers from 15 years ago or so. Theme song from a very good Danish Police series "The Bridge" which is worth a viewing itself. The lead singer died not so long ago, real shame.

I'd be looking at your rear wheel bearings first thing just to be safe. Don't bother with squatting down and trying to twist it, grab a 3 foot length of timber and put some tape on it to protect the paint and stick it between the swingarm and tyre sidewall and lever the wheel and see if it moves. The situation is when the bearings are shot badly enough cornering forces mean the wheel twists a little which pushes the brake pads back into the calliper enough to lose the brake. Then some straight riding and a few pumps on the pedal brings them back onto the disk. If you've picked up some rattly vibes in the footpegs lately thats also a good sign of bad rear wheel bearings. Phil

No not really. Apart from the reduction in frictional wear from repeated use the threads in the threaded hole see the same physical stresses whether a stud or a bolt in this application. When you torque up a cylinder stud on a Guzzi or Ducati or many other engines as an example you can feel that long stud twisting under the torque load just like a long bolt. That torque is transmitted into the threaded hole just like a bolt but with without the thread frictional loss. The frictional loss is carried by the nut threads in this instance. Phil

From an engineering perspective it makes zero difference whether it's stud or a bolt and nut. If it's something thats coming on and off all the time a stud would be preferable but otherwise it doesn't matter. It's easier to buy a decent grade of bolt than a stud as well. An interesting aside, all the load on a threaded hole or nut is taken by the first 6 threads and just over 60% of that is taken by the first 2 full threads in the hole or nut. From memory it's like 36% for the first full thread and 25% for the second thread and it tapers off for the last 4. Phil

Ha I needed to go back and re watch the second one to realise they were females. Phil

There's a mile of difference between getting a classic bike for free and purchasing one. No point owning an old classic that is mechanically sad either. For me they either run well and are reliable and therefore enjoyable or don't bother at all. Nothing worse than an old classic that's "got some issues" when 99% weren't that great to ride when they were newish let alone 3/4 or more worn out. I actually know people that have indeed been given or received bargain old classic motorcycles and it's turned out to be a poisoned chalice. What do you do when that gifted Ducati bevel drive that kinda runs but jumps out of gears a bit and is a bit noisy turns out to need a $10,000 engine rebuild. What do 99% of people do with it then? Sell it as a basket case OR screw it back together and try and sell it to some one that's not up with the cost of old bevel drive parts and then pass the shock onto them. When you are interested in buying a Vincent for example you don't just go out and buy one, well not if you're smart you don't. You join the VOC and generally wait for a known good one to come on the market via contacts so it provenance is know along with the owner. You can just buy one blind but that can easily lead to the multi tens of thousands of dollars in outlay after you find out its mechanical details. If someone offered me a Bevel drive Ducati that "looked ok" I'd be budgeting and extra $10,000 on top for the engine alone. If I got away with any less I'd consider that a win. Oh and ten grand wouldn't cover labour just parts. Has anyone checked out what a set of OEM replacement mufflers cost for a Honda 4 or Z900. Of course some are happy to pay good money for 3/4 clapped out rubbish with non standard major components and wallow in the dream I guess. Old classic bikes.....beware. There's very little place for emotion in that department. Unless money's no object of course. As an aside I'm quite shocked at how little a V11 Sport is worth in this country. I was looking at Bikesales.com here in Aus a few days ago and the money people are asking for what was a pretty pedestrian model Guzzi back in the day like the 850T series is a joke when a V11 sport can be had for 7 or 8 grand and is hard to sell at that money! An 850T turned into a sports bike for 11,500 bucks! Thats what "emotion" does to the "classic" market. Want a better solution. Look for a current bike that's going to be a future classic. Less risk, less outlay and a far superior motorcycle. Phil

The pressure switch is on the delivery side of the pump. If the pump is not picking up oil removing the pressure switch won't do anything except give you access to that side of the pump and use a syringe of oil to try and prime the pump from the delivery side. That or clamp the breather hose and pressurise the crankcase with 5 psi of shop air. Or pull the pump and pack it with grease. Either way better to avoid the issue in the first place by making the oil and filter change as short in duration as possible. Phil

Probably because SD originally sold genuine OEM TPS's sourced from Guzzi or the OEM as opposed to CA probably sourcing them from China. Now that new OEM sensors are pretty much unobtainium they also probably source from China direct but without passing on the reduced retail price. I don't think there's any issue with Chinese made stuff in general but I still think they grade their components. The best go to the big customers that buy in significant quantities and may even have their own form of quality control or testing and the lesser quality is sold via ebay and such. Just my theory from experience. CA Cycleworks are renowned for selling quality stuff and I think from memory they actually yest their TPS's before selling them. Phil

The Guzzi BB engine has a history of losing the prime to the oil pump. It's not a really common thing but it's happened enough times for me to not leave them draining overnight and to prime the filter. It's never a good idea to leave any engine without oil for extended periods of time with the pickup uncovered. Holden 253 V8's were another example of an engine that could lose it's prime during oil changes and the only way to rectify it was to remove the pump disassemble it and fill it with grease. same methodology I used when assembling my Daytona engine which is basically a BB bottom end. Phil

A V11 Sport is actually a pretty rational choice of motorcycle for long term ownership, albeit less so as the new parts supplies dry up. Lets see, cheap to buy, easy to maintain for the backyard mechanic, about as hard as the average lawnmower to do a top end rebuild on, low parts count when you need them ( pistons, rings, valves, main and big end bearings etc) robust. All these V11 owners imagining how "unique" their choice is and how it's an emotional purchase when in reality the V11 Sport is quite a sensible rational choice for the average long term owner. A 40 year old 6 cylinder motorcycle though is another thing entirely. Everyone brags about "buy what you love" until it breaks that is then it's a different story. How many people have I seen buy a brand new Italian motorcycle because they "love it" and have zero mechanical aptitude and the nearest dealer is a 3 hour drive away. They then hit the internet crying about their circumstances when their Italian dream has an issue and there is no one local to fix it and they have zero clue themselves. Plenty of Ducati owners bought their "dream bike" on passion 15 or 20 years ago and the dream and passion lasted until their first major service bill and then the same owner got all passionate about a hassle free cheap to service UJM and the Ducati made way for the rational bike choice. Passion needs to be underpinned by rationality to create a stable structure. Phil

I personally wouldn't leave the bike overnight without oil in it. I drain the oil, replace the filter ( pre charged) fill the oil and start it as soon as practicable. Phil

Yes they are cast steel. Phil

I think I can give you an answer to the that question, no useful benefit to that swing arm in any department apart from keeping more road grime off the back of the gearbox and MAYBE slightly less weight. Like a mega expensive rear wheel hugger. Phil

I know motorcycle desire is a strange thing but why would anyone want a six cylinder CBX. They were a bit of a orphan even in their day but now in a 40 year old motorcycle they represent about 3 times the risk mechanically. These bikes were all about the engine and the rest of the bike was like an afterthought. Like a 60's Ferrari, you know you bought the mechanicals and Ferrari threw in the rest for free. It's like choosing a dog breed. I look at people that choose dogs that are just a headache as a breed let alone as an individual dog. For example why would you buy a massively sized breed that costs a fortune to feed and comes with a truck load of hereditary physiological issues, why? When I bought a dog 5 years ago I chose a breed I liked but above all it had to be a physically robust breed without chronic breed issues. These questions about rationality interest me quite a bit. After we ordered the Supra my wife saw the latest Corvette on the road and asked me why we didn't buy one of those as our Sunday drive sports car. I told her the Supra was stretching the rationality boundary but a Corvette would definitely be crossing it. Same goes for a CBX I think. A rational classic would be a Mk1 Le Mans. You can still buy them for reasonable money and there are parts available at 1/3 the quantity of a CXB and a backyarder can still work on one. A sporting ditch pump. Rational purchase and more class than a fat wide wobbly CBX. There endith the lesson in rational life choices. Phil

Nice story Pete. My good wife also reminded me that since my 80's sojourns around Europe the wall has come down and China and India now have burgeoning middle classes. So Eastern European, Russian, Chinese and Indians and probably more I haven't thought of are now travelling. Phil

Yes Mick it's a western world phenomena.

I live in a city that has grown by 1.4 million people in the last 21 years and it's basically getting to be a nightmare. From around 4.2 million to 5.6 million without any infrastructure upgrades to speak of. The two main issues are infostructure not keeping up with population growth due to a lack of proper management and the Neoliberal thinking that exists today where the social values are now "whatever I decide they should be". You cram more and more people into the same space and abandon the long term developed and traditional social values of basic manners, courtesy, honesty and integrity in dealing with others because that "kinda gets in the way of the life I want to lead and the things I want to do" and things start to get a little sub optimal. I've done 3 long term tours around Europe in the past 84,86 and 1997 ( and yes Neuschwanstein as well Mick) and am about to return again for 5 weeks touring Italy. I'm expecting it to be very very crowded compared to my last visit. Ciao

Just as real as Nathan Cavaleri from maybe 25 years ago I guess. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-03/guitarist-nathan-cavaleri-on-life-after-childhood-fame/12438344 Phil

I converted my RE650 Interceptor to LED indicators and used the above mentioned orange adjustable flasher unit. All worked out just fine. No painful wiring diodes required. Might do the same to the v11. Phil

Ok makes thing easier unless the unit is close to the header I guess. Phil

Oh ok. Not what they do here. So the units come with the pipe connected and purged. What happens if the distance between the header and a/c unit is only 3 or 4 feet do you just coil up the pipe to shorten it? Is the pipe some sort of flexible pipe more like hose for the US units? Ours use ridged copper pipe and you cut it to length to suit your installation. Phil

Should have bought from CA Cycleworks. They sell quality. https://ca-cycleworks.com/pf3c.html Phil

How do they accommodate the different line lengths Chuck. The installs I've seen done the units come pre charged and the lines are stock material cut to length then the fittings installed so the location of the evaporator and condenser can be 1 foot or 15 feet. Phil

All come pre charged these days Chuck that I have seen but you still need to vacuum them according to the install instructions. You need to purge the lines from the a/c unit to the header unit and they can be 5 or 6 meters long. You need to evacuate those lines. Phil

The early bikes had a black and the later bikes Violet from the wiring diagrams. The others look to be the same colour as is the orientation. Phil