Lucky Phil

The most complex and contentious subject in the automotive and motorcycle world, tyres. In theory a wider tyre on the same size rim should have a flatter profile so put more rubber on the ground even upright so all other other things being equal less weight/square CM you should get improved tyre life but it's obviously far more complex than that. One thing I learned a long long time ago was the thing that truly kills rear tyre mileage is stop start traffic conditions. Every time you accelerate the mass of the bike from a standing start it multiplies the wear exponentially compared to steady state riding. And I don't mean hard launches either just the normal bike riders urban riding from a stop to 60kph or so. Add riding on our type of not so smooth B roads on the weekends in our hotter weather and rear tyre life is pretty poor. Cool European conditions, smooth B roads and Autobahn cruising makes for decent tyre life. Phil

The max voltage is too high. Is this figure with the headlights on or off? 14.6 volts will eventually cook the battery. As docc pointed out 12.6 is a little low at idle but then it depends on what the true idle actually is. Phil

Good info but modifying the std tap with Viton orings seems a more elegant solution. There's enough pipes and connections under the tank as it is for mine. I really dont want any more. Phil

You can't use this. The distance from the tap outlet to the pump inlet is so short and requires a curve in the hose that ANY section of stiffness in the inlet hose wont work. If it was this easy I'd have opted for a different tap assy instead of spending hours on making mine rebuildable. Phil

Oops I missed the fellow Aussie connection. Here Lambda and when? Not sure. Pete might chime in and let us know. Another reason for poor fuel economy in an old not ridden much bike....leaking fuel injectors. This would be my first line of action in the absence of the bleeding obvious other reasons. You could check them on the bike I guess as a back yard method. Remove the injector, reconnect the feed hose and wiring connector and turn on the ignition a few times and see if it leaks anything. The lines maintain pressure for a while with the ignition off and even a few drops/ minute would be bad. Phil

A 2001 Le Mans won't have a lambda sensor will it? Phil

Nope docc tool not required and re-useable. You can release them with a very small bladed straight screw driver and to secure them you can use a pair of side cutters or pincher pliers even multi grips if you have plenty of room. Thats how I did them for years until one day I was about to throw away an old pair of combo pliers and thought I wonder if I can re purpose these into a Cobra clip tool. Five minutes on the grinder and done. Phil

These are what you use on FI hoses. Norma cobra clips. Compact, easy to install, easy to remove, re useable, stainless steel, bullet proof sealing, colour banded for size identification. They sell a special tool to install them but it's not required in reality although I made up one using an old worn out pair of combination pliers for convenience sake. Purple banded size is what you need on 5/16 FI hose. I've been using them for many years and they work perfectly and look compact, professional and tidy. Worm drive clamps are horrible shit looking things. Bulky and just awful to look at. https://www.iq-parts-shop.com/en/norma-cobra-hose-clamp.html Phil

Well I'm darned if I know what my 24mm pins are off because the p/n's for the Centy and the later post 2002 v11's are the same Phil

I know for sure it's just the thread size docc. I'm thinking the 24mm ones I have are Centauro pins which means Guzzi made at least 3 different thread diameters for the same part that does the same job. Whats the sense in that. Before the days of "parts rationalisation I guess. Now wonder they were always in the red. Phil

I'm starting to wonder if my spare pins are off a Centauro. Phil

I measured the ID of the locknut at just under 20mm so the OD I guessed at 22mm. The other pair of pins I have are on the bench and I measured them at 24mm thread OD. In the recesses of my mind I have a memory that there was a 2mm OD difference between the old and later type thats why I went for 22 on the old OD. Phil

Corrections. Old size looks like M22 X 1.0 without pulling the locknut off. Later bikes definitely M24 X 1.0. Phil

It's pointless discussing fine tuning a Guzzi for the subtle operations such as fine throttle response, idle and coughing when you are trying or indeed running it on 100 octane race fuel. The higher the octane rating the less volatile the fuel and the more likely you are to have low speed throttle response and idling issues. Low volatility is great for anti knock but bad for pretty much everything else. The greater volatility of lower octane fuels also helps with intake temps due to better evaporation in the inlet manifold which also is the reason the higher octane fuels often exhibit poor low speed running. We ran some race engines on 100LL Avgas back in the day on injected Ducati Superbike engines and they exhibited poor low speed running especially when the engine was cold and the only advantage it offered was consistency. In the IOM years ago the guy in the next garage to us was using it in his Kawasaki production bike and it was a bitch to keep running properly on start up even with choke at 0430 in the cold weather before the 5am practice started. The Sunco 100 race fuel is actually 104 RON octane and the highest pump fuel we have here is 98 Octane, so it's a decent jump. America uses some average number of RON and MON for their ratings. So on a Guzzi engine I'm pretty confident the Sunco fuel will result in worse low speed running especially at cooler OAT's and poorer starting as well. It's street legal in the US but mostly used by massive boost road car nutters you have there.

Why Titanium? because the std ones are really quite heavy. Ti ones are on my list of things to machine up for my bike but I'd need to use a different method for holding them instead of an allan socket as i don't have a broaching tool. The thread will be MXX by 1.0mm I'm almost certain. I have a pair of large ones as spares that I can check later today. Important if you want to buy a replacement pork chop. Phil

Depends on what year. There are 2 different sizes. The earlier red frame bikes had the fine thread in from memory 18mm and the later M20. Phil

It's pretty easy to remove the ethanol from the Tainted stuff you get in the USA to keep corn growers in business. I wouldn't want to do it for commuting to work but for day rides it's doable. Phil

Why? Phil

An important component of gasoline is the Aromatic "top end" without this engines often won't start at all. The top end disappears with age and especially heat. It's a waste of time troubleshooting any starting and running issue with years old fuel in the bike. Replace the fuel and the next cab off the rank is an injector clean and spray pattern check if it's been sitting around as long as you indicate and what you've previously done. You can remove the injectors and connect them to a 5 volt battery supply to hold them open and run them in a small and cheap ultrasonic jewellery cleaner which is essentially what the professionals do but you won't be able to test them for flow and spray pattern. Phil

The advantage to the current system thats also been used in the automotive world for many many years in millions of cars is that it has it's own in built hysteresis. A magnetic float switch is subject to the vagaries of fuel sloshing and false indications or flashing warning light unless I guess you include a latching relay of some sort. The thermistor system is also ultra reliable and very compact and simple. The bulb lasts the lifetime of the vehicle essentially but the thermistor itself tends to drift or age to the point of failure after 25 years or so under the influence of fuel. The V11 issue is the instillation style of the thermistor due to the inaccessible fuel tank on the early bikes. It's tricky to design something other than whats original and the thermistor itself is pretty much impossible to replace on it's own. The later in tank bikes are easy and the thermistors are a dime a dozen, easily available and easy to replace. Phil

CWT's an commercial jets are a million miles away from a motorcycle fuel tank with a lot of various electrical components and wiring inside them and due to their vented to atmosphere nature in the past will possibly contain a flammable mixture. Now days CWT's often use purging systems to prevent the build up of flammable fumes during empty ops. I suspect the main reason the Guzzi fuel probe uses a plastic housing is to help mitigate any leak to earth/shorting to earth scenarios. Something I'm bearing in my mind when I make my own replacement. I've never heard of a car or motorcycle fuel tank exploding due to a sensor or in tank pump shorting issue and I've seen images of a few in tank pumps that were totally fried and melted and failed. Phil

You can largely disregard the lower number in so far as you should aim for the lowest possible for a Full Synthetic group 4 oil. The "it's too thin" thing is the opinion of people with no idea about oil. To get this point straight in you head and a perspective on it think of it this way. A 0W-40 oil is still a LOT more viscous at room temperature (so the 0 end of the scale) than it is at 100deg C ( the 40 end of the scale) or engine operating temp where the engine is designed to produce maximum rated load and power and the oil is designed to provide lubrication and cooling so how can a 0W oil be "too thin"? Answer, it isn't. It's true that the wider the spread of viscosity even in a Fully synthetic group 4 oil the greater the additives with regards to maintaining the VI but it's nothing compared to older mineral based oils which always started with a higher viscosity base oil to provide a safety floor viscosity wise for those that don't change their oil. I run my Daytona engine on 10W-60 for two reqasons, one because "some" of these engines have oil pressure issues at idle in traffic at high ambient temps. It's just a little headroom for these conditions here. The second is because it has higher zink levels for the flat tappet lifters. Should it be changed more regularly than a 10W-40 oil, probably. Like you I wanted to use a single oil in all my vehicles and I chose Mobil1 0W-40 and used it for years in everything including in my V11 Sport with the original 2 valve engine. Worked perfectly and didn't have any issues with oil in the airbox etc or OP light at idle. The SP rating is the latest spec but not relevant to our bikes because like the interim SN+ which was a fill in spec until the SP grading was released these latest 2 specs are primarily about protecting direct injection engines from LSPI nothing more. Grisos went to a 10W-60 oil ostensibly to help out with oil temp issues in the oil cooling galleries around the exhaust ports these engines use but I never saw the sense in this. I've never been able to find any data on the difference between a 60 weight oils ability to absorb and carry away heat over the capacity in the same circumstances as 40 weight but I can say for sure that a 60 weight would not flow as well as a 40 weight oil in those conditions and when you are trying to carry away heat from a hot source what you want is more flow not less from a heavier weight oil. I've spoken to powerplant engineers in aviation and at GM personally that had almost no detailed knowledge about engine oils believe it or not. I wouldn't be surprised if Guzzi wasn't pretty much the same. BTW I've never considered using Motul oils because they don't release a detailed enough TDS listing zink levels and anti wear, anti oxidation and detergent information. Phil

What fork seals are you using? I use these Ariete ARI.023 and the Y type dust seals with the spring on the outside. The dust seal will be something like 40x54.4x 4.6x14. It's written on the seal so you can X ref with Ariete p/n. I also use a very thin home made plastic sleeve for seal protection on the fork slider at the bush end to fit the new seal onto the slider. Make sure you tap the bush in before the seal and spacer. Don't fit them together. The seal should just push into the fork stanchion with a firm downward push on the seal driving tool. No need to hammer anything. Make sure your seal driver isn't a style that pushes down on the critical sealing lip area of the seal. I have a seal driver that I can't use on some seal s even though the driver is the correct size because it's OD isn't quite enough to not interfere with the sealing lip area. Phil

Yes we've had lane splitting for a while now legally. Maybe 7 or 8 years. Phil

No idea what you are doing here but if you have moved the selector "hoses" with the cover off then it's just a matter of moving them back with your fingers into a position equally between the fully selected positions on both gears. Then you have the selector in neutral and dry fit the cover to confirm the positioning then carefully remove the cover, apply sealant and fit. Phil