Lucky Phil

Yes the "special tool" is called a flat blade screw driver. Slide the blade into the ID of the seal and gently lever it on the shaft shamfered edge. It will pop right out and the shaft wont be damaged but the seal will obviously be toast. Replace with an OEM seal as it's special design. To install make yourself a simple seal driver or just do it carefully with a large flat faced drift and a hammer. Ciao

Yes, suspension does warm up and the settings are effected slightly. In the top shelf units not so much as the design of the bleed orofice and needles in the low speed circuit is compensate to a degree. If you want it set right then yes take the bike out and put a few miles on it before set up. Ciao

Yes all modern sports bikes will stand up when you apply the brakes whilst turning into a corner, some really badly. This is what catches out a lot of riders when they over cook it going in, grab a handfull of front brake and the bike immediatly tries to stand up and run wide. Then they panic and preservation takes over and they apply more front brake which compounds the issue usually until it washes out or they run out of road or hit something comming the other way. Yes, as I said the rear will do the opposite due to mainly to the large rear tire on modern bikes compaired to the front. Dragging the rear brake a little increases the slip angle of the rear tire and helps it turn. Because the rear tire is a lot wider as the bike leans over the rear contact patch moves laterally more than the front. This means the rear is always trying to steer the bike wide to an extent. Its why when you fit a larger rear tire the bike will steer slower and not be quite as agile. Its a tradeoff you accept and get used to for the extra grip. When you drag the rear brake a little mid corner it helps to negate this effect and tightens the line somewhat. You may notice some modern racers are using a thumb rear brake now ( as opposed to Mick Doohan that first used one years ago because of injury) so they can use the technique on R/H corners when they have the balls of their feet up on the pegs and they cant reach the rear brake pedal. Ciao

Yes docc when you have the suspension setup right and you trail brake all the way to the apex and get the bike turned as you release the brakes the front should stay planted so the transition from the forks being loaded by braking to cornering is seamless. As you release the brakes at the apex what you dont want is the forks extending again, unloading the front tire, losing grip and making the steering change. Watch some recent racing accidents( it used to be different ) and there are two types of front end crashes. One, the nasty type are on corner entry only just off the vertical at initial turn in, almost still upright. This is caused by not starting the breaking upright and loading the tire before you start to get it turned in. No load equals less contact patch and less grip and lower tire temps.Happens a lot to riders who's style is to use a lot of mid corner speed. They dont brake hard enought initially and it catches them out. The other type is the apex crash just as you get OFF the brakes sometimes before you open the throttle or just on initial opening and the front tire unloads and washes away. It's interesting stuff and I dont envy the modern racer these days as the window for everything is very small and the price you pay for getting it wrong high. Of course little of this aplies to the road as you should be nowhere near these limits but the understanding is interesting. I'll be applying these techniques on Monday at Phillip Island:) Ciao

Front trail braking is basically using the brakes from the point of application all the way to the apex or there abouts. It obviously means you can brake later because you get to use the brakes for longer. It also keeps the contact patch on the tire larger all the way to the apex because its still loaded and therefore you have more grip. It also keeps the front forks compressed which shortens up the trail and quickens the steering to help you get the bike turned. Forget the rear brake as a means of slowing down on a sports bike, on a sports bike its basically a decoration unless you're two up or carrying a lot of gear. Good for two things, holding the bike on a hill at the stop lights and helping the bike hold a tigher line on longer corners if it's running wide.A little rear brake application will help keep the bike on line. Some racers use it a fraction before the front brake to help the rear squat a little but even that's unusual these days. Other racers use it to help get the bike turned on the way in if they need to and also tame the drive a little on the way out. We are talking seriously good racers here, not me for sure. So thats a race track tutorial and in the real world you can basically forget it for the street. The key to safe and fast road riding is to get your entry speed sorted before the turn in and get the turn in point right. Dont use trail braking on the road as a means of trying to improve your speed. Leave the real trail braking for the track. I trail brake to a degree on the road out of habit but rarely all the way to the apex unless I've seriously misjudged the situation, not so I'm faster. However I've been road, track and dirt riding for a hundred years and didnt learn to do it on the public roads. My advice is to learn how to trail brake on ride days at the track and practice it very conservatively on the road, primarily so one day if you misjudge a corner situation you will know how the bike reacts to firm braking whilst turning and give yourself a little extra margin of safety. Ciao

I bought a 30 liter one for around $450us off ebay. Not that it was from the states but there's an idea of the cost. It can take a Daytona cylinder head ( maybe 2) so anything up to an average small car:) You can buy them anywhere from a liter to 30 liters. Mine I must admit is a little big for most stuff and because you need to run it around 80% full its a little bit of a pain but you can do some decent sized stuff. I think on balance a 10-15 liter would be good. Ciao

Yep I think I prefer black as well. This one is carbon believe it or not. Ciao

Lets do this the right way, remove the carbon. Then you can set the squish as well if you like. After years of scraping the carbon I bought an ultrasonic cleaner. Much easier and faster but less therapeutic. Ciao

Yep they do Chuck, just start them 120 deg apart and away from the thrust face is the accepted methodology but at the end of the day they are free to and do rotate around the piston. Ciao

Ha, I get a bit wordy for sure. Mechanical returnless systems still have an in tank regulator but the most common returnless system ( ones with a MAF sensor) and method of varying fuel pressure is via the ecu varying the fuel pump speed. Ciao

The manifold vacuum facility isnt necessary. Ducati used it for a while but found it wasnt needed. Modern in tank regs dont use it either. DI....direct injection like my wifes new 2.3l turbo Kuga has. Ciao

The std narrow band O2 sensor only operates in steady state operation, in other words at a constant throttle. It's is a crude device and contributes little in terms of performance, either torque or how well the engine reacts to the throttle. Many actually cause mild surging on steady state throttle. It's all about emissions. It reads the sensor and TRIMS the fuel accordingly for emissions and best ecconomy. The ECU has absolutley no idea what the fuel pressure is and the O2 sensor isnt there to give the ECU an idea what the reg is doing it's there for the reasons outlined and also to give the ECU information it can act on in STEADY STATE operation to cover the many other variables the engine encounters during operation. It closes the loop between what the fuel map and trim tables are ordering and what the exhaust is indicating. The important thing to re enforce though is its for steady state operation only and is basically rubbish. For usefull practical closed loop you need a fast response wide band sensor and the software to support it. Its a long bow to draw to say the O2 sensor is there to compensate for any variation in reg pressures. Moden systems these days the ecu actually varies the fuel pump speed to get the fuel presssure it wants and the engine needs to support the fueling requirements. These are the systems without a fuel return line. Ciao

Not sure where you get your info from Roy but regulation has to be pretty accurate. A friend of mine was making up new adjustable caps for the regs with a heavier spring and an adjusting screw which cranked up the pressure. I worked one day with him doing assembly and setting the pressures on the rig. He sold a lot of these to Harley guys to richen up the overall mixture so they would run properly. A cheap and effective fix as it turned out instead of remapping. The same unit fitted Ducatis as well. So you can increase the pressure to an extent ( I think from memory we were getting about 4.2 bar max out of a 3bar reg) and get the std injectors to flow more fuel and of course if the std reg is regulating low the bike will run badly as it will with a blocked fuel filter. So the std injectors are quite capable of flowing more fuel with greater fuel pressure because generally engines arn't produced which are injector flow limited. So the injectors will usually support greater fuel flow than the maximum the engine requires in std form and usually will also be good for a modest power increase as well. When you really want a lot of extra power then you'll need bigger flow injectors or additional injectors. The reg has a very important role and it's critical it delivers a consistent output, this is obvious as if it didnt then production bikes would all be running differently and would require different fuel maps depending on what the regs output was. It's totally possible to swap regs between bikes or repalce a reg and the bike will fuel perfectly and thats not because fueling tollerances dont matter. Ciao

The flywheel guy at the factory had input into the torque arm. He gets imput into everything including Carrillo rods which normally have 10mm bolts but for Guzzi have 3/8". Every design crosses his desk and gets the added weight factor. Ciao

Ha, did you notice in the video the close up of him pulling up after the run to check the view the drop of oil fron the engine bay hit the ground. Jags, some things never change:) Ciao

This is one of those things that just lacks style and elegance for me, especially elegance. It's a logical place to fit a silencer but they have just made a styless box out of it. Add to that the pillion peg hangers now just hang out there like they are lost and looking for a home, no not for me. John Britten used the same design on the final version of his race bike and it was elegant, but then again most of his stuff was. Ciao

Hylomar has been around for years and yes it was approved for use on RR gas turbines but I wont hold that agains it. It's quite good but there are many better options around these days, three bond in different forms etc. Ciao

Life a bit boring lately? Ciao

I wonder if powder coating would work, you'll get the coverage but dont know about the heat tollerance around the exhaust port. Cylinders should be fine. Ciao

Except that I can't get it out of the house now. I've got a track day coming up soon and I thought, I'll take the 1198 out. Then I realised with the temporary bathroom I've set up in the laundry while I do my bathroom rebuild I cant get it out of the house....Doh. Half considered taking out the V11 but I'm a little short on "condition" these days and It would win a wrestling match with me around Phillip Island hand down. Looks like the 1000ss then. Ciao

Hmmm, 4000 miles isnt much. I'll be keeping a close eye on mine for sure. Ciao

Install the piston into the cylinder leaving the piston pin accessable and install the cylinder on the studs and slide it down until you can slip the pin through the piston and rod and fit the clip. Job done. Ciao

Theres a reason they're called fantasys czakky.........better there than the reality:) Ciao

Ha not at all Docc, I have a Ducati there. Ciao

You know I grew up with these things as in I had friends that owned them so I knew what they were like. Believe me you're not missing anything. Heavy, tall, an engine that was full of roller bearings so was really mechanically noisy in a rumbly sort of way and high frequency vibrations. Multi bearing pressed up crank like a Z900 but not as reliable. Back in the 80's parts were hard to get, god knows what they are like now. One for the lounge room I think. Ciao