Lucky Phil

Nice one. Ciao

I thought the linked brakes had been assigned to the scrap bin years ago. I need to get out more. Ciao

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about I'm afraid. Ciao

The other point I forgot to mention with regard to linked brakes was that at the time I think the manufacturers were also responding to the fact that a lot of riders under used the front brake due to inexperience or poor technique or learning to drive a car then converting to a bike and it was seen as a safety related move. If their primary response was the rear brake then we will ensure they get at least some front to stop the thing. I think riding skills are generally better these days and a lot of those linked systems were mechanically complicated, plus anti skid systems make them redundant now anyway. Ciao

Neither the original K100 (of which I've owned 2) or the V11 Sport have linked brakes. Naturally the the rear braking is more effective on the Eldo and Cali as they are both effectively cruisers ( in modern terms for the sake of the argument) and carry their C of G much lower and further rearward than a sports bike. As I pointed out earlier with these type of bikes the rear brake is a genuine aid to stopping as they transfer much less weight to the front wheel under heavy braking. For this reason they will also generally skid the front tire in a panic brake scenario even on grippy tarmac without any steering or lean inputs. On the other hand a modern sports bike under the same conditions the front wheel will simply stop dead and it will throw you over the bars. It wont skid or slide under extreme braking because the higher C of G is the limiting factor not the ultimate grip from the front tire. So push it to the max and the front wheel will simply stop dead, rotate around the front contact patch and you're on your way to a painful encounter. Don't think this is only at low speed either its the same deal at very fast speeds also as many track accidents have shown using road legal and slick tires. In my view linked brakes were a "fashion trend" with theoretical advantages that weren't born out in practice, like forks with anti dive. They were actually counter productive to braking because they reduced the transfer of weight to the front wheel and reduced fork dive which actually helped stop the rear wheel from leaving the ground due to lowered C of G. Lasted a couple of years on the track and riders realised it was useless. That's why I mentioned earlier that if your wearing out rear pads on your V11 and the braking system is in good shape then you have a riding style issue you need to address because you are either unconsciously dragging the rear brake or over using it. Ciao

How does "chatter" relate to an engine issue? The term "chatter" in the motorcycle world relates to suspension related performance issues, generally more on race bikes. Ciao

Here's the wildguzzi link. If I could re post it here I would, probably should have in the first place but I had a brain explosion. If you're going to do nothing else do the shift lever arm lengthening mod. Its easy and very effective. http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=80481.msg1275500#msg1275500

If you follow my gearbox selector rework you wont have anymore issues with non returning gear lever or the "tap on the toe" issue. It was posted a while back on wildguzzi and I posted the link here. Ciao

Here's a picture of the rear brake setup on my old 888 Corse. The disk and caliper carrier were machined up by me and its effectiveness was minimal, just how I like it. Look at any newish superbike/sportsbike rear brake setup and you will see the priority they put on rear brake power and stopping ability. The question to ask yourself is why....the answer is that they don't really expect you to use it for stopping which leads to the obvious question for those riding sporting motorcycles and wearing out/overheating their rear brakes...does my riding style need reviewing? Current V11 setup Ciao

You know in 45 years of continuous riding and bike ownership, sports riding, track riding,dirt riding and literally dozens of bikes from BMW K100's to RC30 Hondas and the present fleet of 1198 Ducati,V11, GSXR1000 track bike, SS Ducati etc I have never replaced a set of rear brake pads due to wear.The only time I have had to deal with overheating rear brakes was with racers due to unconscious dragging of the brake (they all swear on a stack of bibles they don't do it but that was always the reason) The only use I have for a rear brake is to hold the bike on a slope at the lights and tighten the line if I'm running a little wide in a turn and don't really want to get fully off the throttle. Don't ever recall using one on any of my sports/sports touring bikes for actually stopping or slowing. If you were talking cruisers then I might see the reason but on a sports bike...sorry I cant see the need. BTW 1800' in 4 miles is not a huge gradient 8.5% average or so. About what it takes to get the attention of a serious cyclist. My regular ride used to be 2230' in 7.75 miles or 5.4% and I never even considered brake fade as likely, that's without using the rear. Ciao

If you're boiling the rear brake fluid on your V11 then you have either an issue with the rear brake system maintenance wise or your riding style. The std rear setup is entirely adequate. Ciao

At that mileage you need to pull the front engine cover off and check the oil pump drive input shaft for wear. When worn they take out the aluminum drive gear and all hell breaks loose. Also check the aluminum cam drive gear for wear while you're in there. I suggest you fit a replacement pump from a V11 or the German made aftermarket one I have with a needle bearing on the pump input shaft. I love the Daytona/Centauro engine and have one on the bench rebuilding it for fitment to my V11, but they are a bit prone to wear in the previously mentioned areas as well as cam followers and valve guides. Ciao

An admission here, somewhat embarrassing but there you go. I recently replaced both rear wheel bearings on my V11. The disk side one was totally shagged to the point that it would not have survived another 100klm ride I don't think. I had been having an unusual clattering feel through the l/h foot peg for about 2000klms only on a floating throttle, on the gas and off the gas was ok. First thing I suspected was a wheel bearing so grabbed the wheel and gave it a good push pull laterally and no issues. To cut a long story short it can take more than this to get the movement in the bearing that shows its worn. Try a lever between the top of the wheel and swing arm and look for movement at the rim. The other interesting symptoms I had for worn front wheel bearings on my ST2 was variable front brake lever travel. Pull up to a stop in a straight line and the lever travel was back to normal ride around a few corners and it was long lever travel again. Reason being that cornering with worn bearings allows the wheel to move around and the disks push the pads back into the calipers, next stop a long lever. After the stop the pistons push back out again and the lever feels fine for a few klms and the repeat happens. The front bearings were shagged. Ciao

Yep, that's pretty much it. Hasn't done many miles. Just tow the bikes around with it and Sunday drivesCiao

5.7 Litre Chev, 6 speed owned since new still love it.

It doesn't necessarily mean the odysseys, caused the failures I know, but the fact that Ducati Energia won't guarantee the VR if it is used with an Odyssey does concern me. On the basis of what I've gleaned so far I'm going to replace my battery with something else (probably Yuasa, as this is what Guzzi now specify for the V11) asap - VRs cost more than batteries. Here in Australia the battery costs more than the regulator! Ciao

My bike a little while back was eating Odyssey batteries which I initially put down to a faulty std reg overcharging. After research here and advice from Roy I traced it to the headlight wiring voltage drop issue and wired the headlights direct to the battery via relays and the Reg output voltage went back to the 14.2 volt range. I had already purchased an Electrosport reg ( plug and play version) which I never bothered using as I had solved the issue so cant comment on its performance. Doesn't hurt to carry a spare as it will fit the ST2 as well I think from memory. Ciao

Yes Roy headlight pin 30 has power with the ignition off. Ciao

This I believe is just a small manufacturer covering their arses. AGM and LI batteries are very sensitive to overcharging and they don't want the hassle of warranty claims for bikes with dodgy wiring designs like the Guzzi has or finicky LI batteries that require very tight charging current control. You are far better to under charge an LI battery than leave it on the charger after it has reached %100 charge. Old wet cell lead acid batteries are a lot more tolerant to overcharging. Ciao

Roy is this a poor choice in wording or the actual case? My wiring the headlights direct to the battery via relays solved the overcharging issue and I have no undercharging problems. Ciao

If you want to improve the shifting of your V11 out of sight and lessen the issue of the lever hitting the pork chop on down shifts then extend the shift lever arm and drill another hole for the rod end 12mm center to center from the upper hole. This gives the gear box return spring more leverage over the shift lever and also means the lever has to move less at the toe peg for a given input on the shift rod. So you can adjust the shift lever down a little more and it will still select the gears, if that's what you need. It also Means that the shift action is slightly heavier and this makes for a more positive shift action. So a reduced shifter pedal throw ( now in line with a Japanese gearbox) more positive shift action and better shift lever return after you shift. I supplied a link here a while ago for the full process as well as the internal selector mechanism tuning I did on the wildguzzi site complete with photos. The lever extension is a huge improvement and I have covered enough miles on my bike now to confidently recommend doing it. Ciao

From memory it was somewhere in the middle, and didn't feel particularly different to the original Scura single-plater (which only had about 3,000 miles on it, and which I only replaced due to paranoia about exploding flywheels). From which I assumed that the swap had been completely straightforward. Ok thanks, was just thinking that if the actuating rod was a bit long for the ram unit then you would expect the release point would be closer to the lever fully out(relaxed) position and the slave cylinder piston would be pushed back further towards it end point and therefore not be able to compensate for wear as well. Looks like you may just have a worn friction plate. Ciao

moscowphil, out of interest when you went to the Ram clutch on your bike (new friction plate etc) at what point did the clutch dis-engage/engage when you pulled the lever? So when you pulled the clutch lever at what point in the lever travel did the clutch release or conversely at what point did it begin to bite? Did it release very early in the lever pull or did you need to get it nearly all the way back to the bar before it would disengage and then the engagement would also be close to the bar of course? Or was this point right near the fully relaxed end of the lever travel? Ciao

Well you are right in thinking that I can't have measured the thickness of the plate very accurately - short of removing the clutch the only way to do it was using a caliper through the inspection hole. It looked pretty much un-worn but I wouldn't like to put a figure on it. However, I'm unconvinced that a friction plate can be worn out after less than 1mm wear. In theory the thickness of the friction material should be of no consequence providing there is some friction material left. The friction material does not provide structural strength to the plate, this is the job of the inner steel core, so loss of friction material as the plate wears should not cause any problems apart from the lack of adjustment one I've experienced. After all, a similar single plate diaphragm design is used in virtually all car clutches, which regularly last 100,000 miles, despite being given a much harder time than my clutch ever gets. I wonder whether the reports of clutch plates being "worn out" at low mileages are actually other people suffering the same lack of adjustment problem as me? What you fail to understand is that clutch slippage from a worn friction plate is due to the fact that the pressure plate travel reaches its limit at the engaged end of the travel and therefore cant apply the same degree of spring pressure.This is usually signified by slipping and running out of actuating free play which is what you have. Clutch fiction plate thickness reduction of 1mm would be a worn out clutch. Ciao Why would shimming the slave make any difference then? Well if it is indeed a worn out friction plate and it may not be, I just think its a likely possibility having high wear rate for these units mentioned by a well known and respected Guzzi mechanic/dealer in Australia. I also am aware that there are later Ram specific friction plates available that are advertised as being of greater durability ( see MG cycles, version 4 I think and they are up to and it is 6.68mm thickness as opposed to 5.5 for the old version). The later plate also requires a shorter actuating rod. So put it all together and you have a possibility. The question here is when the Ram plate is worn out is it the pressure plate/diaphram that reaches its limit of effectivity or is it the actuating system, ie the piston travel on the slave? That I don't know. If the limiting factor is the slave travel then either shimming it out or at some point in the life of the clutch you go to a shorter rod and get extra wear out of the friction plate. Maybe the Ram unit doesn't have a high rate of wear its just a case of the actuating system isn't well matched to the diaphram design, don't know. As is often the case though in these forum posts its impossible to tell what parts were used in the clutch conversion so that also a factor. I have a new single plate Ram unit in the workshop to go into the V11 when I fit the Daytona engine and was debating with the previously mentioned knowledge on the wear rates of the earlier versions which mine is whether or not to even use the original new plate or just buy the latest version with the greater durability. Upon reflection I wouldn't be surprised if the original 5.5mm plate though is too thin for the operating system and that is the limiting factor. I was surprised when I saw the new version 4 plate was over 1mm thicker than the original, i was expecting just a material change. Also 1mm of wear or there abouts will be a worn out clutch in most cases. The friction material on all single plate clutches I have ever see car or bike is generally only around .5mm above the securing rivets so that amount of wear on both sides and the clutch is gone. Ciao

Well you are right in thinking that I can't have measured the thickness of the plate very accurately - short of removing the clutch the only way to do it was using a caliper through the inspection hole. It looked pretty much un-worn but I wouldn't like to put a figure on it. However, I'm unconvinced that a friction plate can be worn out after less than 1mm wear. In theory the thickness of the friction material should be of no consequence providing there is some friction material left. The friction material does not provide structural strength to the plate, this is the job of the inner steel core, so loss of friction material as the plate wears should not cause any problems apart from the lack of adjustment one I've experienced. After all, a similar single plate diaphragm design is used in virtually all car clutches, which regularly last 100,000 miles, despite being given a much harder time than my clutch ever gets. I wonder whether the reports of clutch plates being "worn out" at low mileages are actually other people suffering the same lack of adjustment problem as me? What you fail to understand is that clutch slippage from a worn friction plate is due to the fact that the pressure plate travel reaches its limit at the engaged end of the travel and therefore cant apply the same degree of spring pressure.This is usually signified by slipping and running out of actuating free play which is what you have. Clutch fiction plate thickness reduction of 1mm would be a worn out clutch. Ciao