Lucky Phil

There's a name for it Pete apparently, the Softail shuffle. Phil

It's just a video of a Harley going into a speed wobble on a straight piece of freeway and spitting it's rider off. You see far worse get offs in every MotoGP race. The reasoning makes this amusing. Just search "Harley death wobble" on youtube. Phil

Say no more.

Yes the Gearbox will bolt up to the engine but the clutch will be different for the 5 speed. The ECU is different as previously mentioned. Phil

Six speed won't fit in a Centauro frame without a lot of modification as Pauldaytona will tell you and outlined on his website. Yes the engine is offset in the V11 Chassis so the front engine mount frame is different. Phil

He lives somewhere in the Sutherland shire I reccon Mick, maybe Como. I "think" I recognised Sutherland shopping strip and the Princes Hwy near Engadine both not far from where I used to live in Sydney. Phil

Ditto

I think you're dreaming and they are exaggerating. Some stuff maybe "anything" no. And what they can get re made will need to be in quantities. It's why places like HMB manufacture aftermarket replacement parts. Phil

Yes it's extremely important you keep the shaft in alignment on the splines. You can separate without removing the front half and you can actually see the original alignment paint mark on the front half of the shaft assy.

It will be caused by Swiss cheese. It always is. Phil

It's feasible but you need to consider the airbox which would need to be modified (which I successfully did on my bike but the other way around) and ECU which would need to be re chipped with maybe a 1100 Sport chip that would get you close I guess. That or convert to a 15M ECU so you could map it with Guzzidiag. Phil

bingo, as is the final drive and everything else. The reversed negative. Phil

The Image docc posted takes me back a bit to the old days of images taken on film. Anybody notice the obvious issue with the image? Phil

If you wanted to convert a Centy into something else then the V11 Sport is the natural choice. Petrol tanks, seats, subframes and seat cowls are all pretty much readily available at somewhat reasonable prices. Thats the most popular and easy way of building a replica of my bike it's just you don't get the 6 speed gearbox and a few other things. Engine parts are a big issue though. Phil

One of these two bikes in the images was shaped by function and the other was a styling exercise. Guess which is which. Phil

There's an old saying that comes to mind "just because you can doesn't mean you should" These type of projects just about always end up going nowhere simply because the time it takes to try and assemble parts takes so long and the modifications so labour costly the person naturally runs out of enthusiasm. Remember the person here that was going to build the Titanium framed version of my bike complete with a Dynotec built engine? Never eventuated, as I knew it wouldn't because it just gets too hard and too expensive esp when you need to pay people for some of the specialised work. Better to pick a more achievable project maybe based on a Griso or something. I'd never attempt to build my bike again now if I needed to start sourcing parts etc. Phil

Buy a dye check kit to be sure. Cheap to buy and worth it. Phil

In practical terms, no. EFI versions need a different fuel tap with larger connection threads and also a return fitting for the pressure regulator which the carb bikes don't have. The fuel level sensor types are different as well depending on the model. Carb bikes have float sensor and EFI bikes thermistor so connection flange differs. Anything is possible if you throw enough money at it and can find an "expert at tank welding and fabricating but as I said not "practically" possible. Phil

Half the stuff you've mentioned is unprocurable these days and if you can buy it extremely expensive. ( Sport fuel tank, fairing etc) You'll need a rear seat frame or the equipment and ability to modify the Centy one. There's a million things before you get to the engine itself, the parts for which no longer exist in reality so it's buy bespoke cam gears, oil pump, etc. Remember Guzzi made less than 3000 of these engines in total across the Centy and Daytona models. The 8 valve engine isn't like the 2 valve big block engine with regards to longevity. The heads are a high wear item as are the cam drive and oil pump gears and oil pump. The project you're thinking of is about 10-15 years too late to be a practical, rational idea. I know I've half done it and am currently building a 95mm bore 8 valve engine which makes so little sense I'm considering abandoning the idea. By the time it's finished it will probably have cost me $8000 in parts and thats with me doing all the machining and labour with the exception of a crank re grind. Read this.

Makes sense. The lever always seems to remain solid indefinitely after the procedure though. Phil

Yes thats right Mick, not my bike and no I wouldn't use heat bandages. My friend that ran the DDT for a few years wrapped this same bike and header system just like the image. The carbon mufflers lasted 1 practice session before exploding literally due to the heat they now had to absorb. Wrapping headers is for hot rodders and to keep under hood temps down not Superbikes. Back in the day before they had a total handle on 2 stroke expansion chamber harmonics they wrapped them as well for some theoretical advantage or change. Then they invented exhaust valves. Phil

Well it's 12.7 actually. I'm fully conversant in both and can do the smaller calculations in my head. By instinct I measure something in fractions of a mm say .24 and immediately say to myself "oh yea that's 9.6 thou. Don't know why, no idea but my equipment in the last 20 years has been metric. I'll stop it one day I guess. Metric still makes more sense to me. Phil

Not sure if I've mentioned this before but I've been trying to understand why tying the brake lever on overnight significantly improves the lever feel after bleeding. I've had the question in my mind for a few years but never had an answer. My only thought is that the constant brake pressure over a longish period dissolves any formed air bubbles back into solution in the brake fluid where they don't have an effect. In other words the compressibility of a formed air bubble is different to the same amount of air suspended in solution in the brake fluid. Naturally this has to be within reason but I wonder if it's like the fuel drain checks I used to do on jets earlier in my career where the water suspended in the jet fuel wasn't a major issue until it was enough to separate out of suspension into straight water with a dividing line with the fuel. Same concept but different. So the question is does a quantity of dissolved air or air molecules suspended in a given amount of fluid in a sealed system have less affect on the compressibility of the fluid than the same amount of air in a formed bubble within the same system. It's in the realms of a scientific question and I've not been able to find an answer. I need a physicist. Any takers to answer this? Enquiring minds need to know. Phil

The logical version. Metric Phil

Bought one of these recently. Brilliant tool. Makes setting up a lot easier and measuring how flat and straight things are. Phil