Lucky Phil

My new car doesn't even have a dipstick, stupidest thing ever. You take the car out and drive it for at least 30min then park the car on level ground and do an oil level check via the entertainment screen. It elevates the engine rpm to 1000 for about 30 seconds and does an oil level check and gives you the result. Like I said stupidest thing ever. Whats happened to German engineering? Millennials is what's happened. Phil

Well the Germans were way in front of everyone. Part of the reason they used inverted V12 engines was ease of maintenance. On a ME109 for instance the crews could do most of the engine work from the ground without stands by simply opening the bottom engine cowls to access the engine top end where most of the maintenance items were. On a Merlin you were working from a stand 6 feet off the ground on top of the engine cowls. Phil

Yep I often see on car forums guys that remove stuff from cars because "they aren't needed". The fact is every car and bike is designed down to the last cent and unless there is a big customer appeal issue then it either doesn't get incorporated OR it's just enough to do the task. My FIL worked at the GM test ground here for over 40 years testing and developing new cars and prototypes and I meet owners all the time that modify production stuff that they spent many many hours developing and think some backyard business that's R$D consists of a few hundred miles driving on public roads has it all covered. The Supra has a 5 pound weight bolted to the chassis cross member near the diff. It's called a chassis damper. Whats it do? not sure but I could have an educated guess. Clowns remove them because it's useless and saves weight! My advice is that unless you know precisely what it does and have the knowledge of a chassis engineer then better to leave it installed because the bean counters at BMW won't have it there unless it's necessary. A five dollar saving on a chassis damper not fitted translates to probably a million dollars on the bottom line to BMW/Toyota. They wouldn't fit it unless it was necessary. Phil

Yes docc but don't confuse it with the superior JIS ( Japanese industry standard) cross head screw which the Japanese developed and use which don't cam out. Phil

You need to pull down a modern car engine docc to properly understand how much of the design is about production line speed and ease of assembly and minimising machining. Terrible. Phil

I'm not a fan of these short mufflers and brand that's a box under the gearbox ( brand I forget, probably because the exhaust is so ugly to me) for aesthetic reasons. The rear wheel/swingarm area of a V11 Sport isn't the prettiest part of the bike esp with the enormous std rear hugger and the flange around the bevel box. Quite ugly and heavy looking in my eyes. A nice muffler style contributes in a large part to breaking up this visual and minimising the appearance and impact of this rear end appearance. Short or non existent muffler styles that expose this area do the opposite and draw your eye and therefore attention to the the heavy look of the rear end. I much prefer the std bike without the factory rear hugger for this reason as well even with std mufflers. One of the highlights of going to custom wheels was being able to machine off the bevel box shroud for a cleaner lighter rear end appearance. Phil

Not sure about this. I've done a lot of work on McDonald Douglas A4G Skyhawks. Not much consideration for maintenance on that thing. Phil

There is a line of thought that suggests if you eliminate as many processes as possible, even the simple ones to achieve the objective then you also reduce the potential for errors. I agree with this Pete especially in the new world of Dealership mechanics and their level of skill combined with the overriding target of profit being the top priority. I'm not a huge fan of the Lego engine principle but there is nothing to be done about it anymore it's here to stay and a big part of why dealership mechanics skill levels are so poor. They don't get inside engines much anymore, most particularly in the car world. Most can't do a head gasket job anymore. Too complicated for them. Oh they'll get it done and then you'll be back to the dealership for the next 2 years trying to get sorted the oil leaks and timing issues etc introduced during the head gasket job. Eventually you just get tired of the battle and move onto the next car etc. Phil

I looked at the new model in a dealership a few months back and even sat on it. It was very nice to sit on and looked nicely made although I know of 5 or 6 early production faults that have been experienced. Once again the people that just can't wait for a new model to bed in are the suckers that suffer. No sympathy for them. Guzzi missed one big maintenance opportunity in that to do the valve clearances you need to remove the cams! A bit of forethought during the design process and a slight mod to the architecture and this could have been avoided and the adjustment made very simple. Designers don't care about this stuff anymore because engines are basically disposable items now. Phil

Judging by the trees on the side of the road it didn't look that bad to me. I've been caught if far worse here and I've also had a house destroyed by a freak storm back in 1990. In that event it was accompanied by golf ball sized hail. I was actually in the garage at the time it hit and was so concerned by the movement of the garage roller door I went and spread my arms and hands out and pressed on it from the inside to try and support it. As I did this the hail hit and I stood there watching 1/4 in deep dents form on the door as the hail hit it from outside. A scary surreal 30 seconds and it was over. Opened the garage door to the wife screaming inside the house taking shelter under the dining table with our baby and the front of the house destroyed along with the cars and every tree on the property and every fence down. Like a Tornado alley event in the mid west I guess. You couldn't get a Glazier in our area for months. Phil

@Guzzi-in-Vancouver, The original answer on this was never given. Was the poor running because the L/H throttle body had popped off? I know other things were done but what was the primary issue? Phil

You need a drill press, hand tools and a vise. Phil

The threads will work BUT the issue is and always has been after you jump the thread hurdle is the hose from the tap to the pump is so short and has a gentle bend in it in two directions and any sort of reducer in that line which by its nature will create a 20-25mm long unbendable section in the hose creates problems both in fit, practicality of access and you now have 2 extra potential leak points. Phil

I can't understand why people are going down the Macgyver route when the original screw tap is an excellent design that fits the very tight and awkward location well including the odd sized feed hose to the pump and all that's needed is a simple cheap mod to make it perfect. No need to reinvent the wheel here. Thats why I came up with the original fix. Phil

Wrong manual page. Item 33 page D6 2002 manual p/n 37359005 Axle, swingarm, shim, bevel box with needle bearing, spacer, rear wheel with drive spline assy, brake hanger, swingarm washer, nut. Phil

What 2 inches? or do you mean .05? anyway it may heave eaten a cam lobe or the inlet valve has seized in the guide from lack of use. Phil

Looks more like Motoheadache to me Phil

You want the truth? a turn or 2 one way or the other ain't going to make a whole lot of difference to a V11. If you are 2 turns more on one side than the other thats the tyre centre line 1mm off centre. I'd be more than happy with a new bike if I could get the track withing 1mm. More important to make sure the pins are snugged up and locked down and there's no side to side movement. Phil

Seems decent with 1 cylinder low on comp for whatever reason. Looks like the guy who's selling isn't an "engine guy" more a chassis aesthetics guy so isn't prepared to go inside the engine. Your question isn't answerable without knowing what the asking price is. Also you haven't mentioned the mileage believable or not. As for $175/hr labour well that's in the luxury/rich persons bracket isn't it? I had to laugh at the working environment, budget quality tools and cheap old rusty compression tester, working outside in the dirt. Probably best he left the engine alone. I often look at the background more than the item to get an idea of whats on offer. A plus is he hasn't been inside the engine but the reality of old bike restos is if you need to farm out the engine work to someone else the risk is high and your pockets need to be deep unless you are exceedingly lucky. At your mechanics rate i'd estimate a simple top end flex hone job with new rings and valve seat lap and re assemble would be 8 hrs work at least plus parts. So you can see how the costs can blow out if anything else crops up. Phil

Without a doubt. I've seen and heard one run and ride in the flesh. Impressions? massively overweight, and chunky. Poorly engineered. They had perennial issues with oil leaks from the cam drive covers and an appalling gearbox shifting action that was never really addressed. I learned quickly in the mid 80's from being in Britain and hanging out with the industry people a lesson about the English speaking motorcycle press. They were so parochial in those days you could pretty much dismiss all their opinions on British made or British involved anything. So they pumped this thing up a lot but the reality was disappointing. Bit like those horrid Janus things made in the states now. Phil

True but they don't bang on about how home grown they are. There's not a lot in a Ducati that's made outside Italy come to think of it. Phil

No docc C3 just refers to the bearings internal clearance. The V11 wheel bearings are the classic single row deep groove ball bearing as an example. Phil

What a total wanker. The bike was rubbish years ago when it was first released and still is. As for British made wank? Well, Wheels and suspension aren't just for starters. Foot pegs and carriers that look like something I made in my workshop. Rubbish sold on "Britishness" that doesn't exist and poor quality, masquerading as rawness and simplicity. Phil

I don't back them off docc, too much chance of introducing freeplay. All single/double groove ball bearings will accept a decent amount of axial load and commonly do in practice. It's when it becomes excessive it's an issue such as when the wheel bearing spacer is too short and the amount of torque applied by the axle nut has to be tolerated. Remember even in that case the wheel bearings still last quite a while. In the case of the massive double row ball bearings at the pivot a small amount of preload is preferable to zero or clearance. When I say small I mean "nipped up" to coin an Aussie phrase. Maybe 1 foot pound or so. Think about ball races in a car gearbox main shaft and layshaft for example restraining the lateral force imposed by helical cut gears and 5 or 6 hundred foot pounds of torque generated by the engine. The Koyo bearing catalogue also backs this up for deep groove ball bearings and advises if axial loads are large to increase the shoulder radial depth in the housing. So they accept that significant axial loads will sometimes occur. Phil

Well my 40,000klms riding experience around Germany was 2 up on K100rs's fully loaded with panniers, tank bad and rear rack. Yes my Autobahn speeds were usually around the 120-140 mark. The rear tyres on both trips easily lasted without any thought of needing replacement and I was still riding on them at home when the bikes arrived back in Aus. Rear was only a 130 x 18 from memory as well in those good old days Phil