Lucky Phil

I'd be interested in a seat cover but any I'd need to see some examples of the quality of their work. Any chance of some detailed images of the stuff they do? The side covers will need separate moulds for each side. Ciao

Well reading Joes email and what Peter mentioned it seemed to be the other way around. I'm not familiar with the round engines crankcases docc. BTW the "sludge" issue is another overblow thing as well. Just because areas of the engine hide a bit of oil that eventually ends up black is of no immediate concern. If you can wipe away the oil with your finger and see the crankcase metal this isn't sludge. Sludge is stuff you need to scrape off with mechanical means. It may eventually get there one day if you're slack with your oil changes but black stained oil isn't sludge. I've seen a bit of this sludge silliness on youtube lately by supposed experts. Ciao

Ok docc. I think for steel gears and this is an overkill personally and probably even alloy gears. Daytona alloy gears shit as they are dont exactly wear out at the drop of a hat. The other thing to bear in mind is oil levels that high promote a lot of "churning" of the oil and frothing and heating AND drag. It's one of those things from a backyard mechanics perspective seems a good idea but in engineering terms probably doesn't hold up. The oil pump drive gear will distribute more than enough oil to the other gears for lubrication. You can have too much oil around the gears. Think about your gearbox gears. They dont have the gearbox half full of oil do they because it's counter productive and not needed. Pratt and Whitney experimented with a "geared fan" on their jet engines years ago, so it had a reduction gear assy to drive the fan on the front of the engine. They had big issues with overheating oil and gear failure as the gears were half submerged in oil. All this churning did was overheat the oil. The cure? get ride of the gears swimming in oil and provide a limited amount of oil directed to the gear faces where it's needed. It's a bit like oil pressure requirements. You only need sufficient pressure and any more is not only a waste of power but also has other compromises you don't need. Ciao

Any excess will just overflow into the sump docc. Ciao

Here's an image docc of the timing chest. Note the lower drain back hole on the left of the image and the other 2 vent holes. Note in the second image the oil pump gear is below the oil level and picks up oil and distributes the oil to the crankshaft gear and also the cam gear along with "Vent" lubrication.

What were Joes concerns?. I looked at this gave it some serious thought. Remember the Daytona engines use the wide sump with gear drive and the same crankcase drain system as the 2 valve engine. The V11's retain some oil in the bottom of the front timing chest area due to the location of the drain holes some way up the front wall. It's no big issue though as there is a lot of oil flowing into this area from the front camshaft bearing overflow, the front main bearing and the oil from the oil pump bearing. This oil simply raises the level until it overflows into the drain holes and the oil pump gear is low in the timing chest stirring up the oil there. I didn't see any great issues with sludge in my engine after 42,000klms. This is why I recommend after after the gears and front cover are installed that 300ml or so of oil is poured into the front timing chest vial the ignition sensor hole to provide some gear lube until the bearing overflow fills the area. I also give all the gear faces a very light coat of grease on all the teeth with a brush. Ciao

Ok thanks. I'm just updating my forks with later units now and was interested in what other models would fit with minimum modifications. The Guzzi V11 forks are a bit unique in that they are quite long and have different guard mounts and the triple clamps are also around 15mm wider than most bikes which makes substituting different forks while maintaining the V11 style front guard more challenging. A V11 front wheel hub is also around 10-15mm wider than most bikes which makes a front wheel swap using the original forks more difficult as well without spacing the callipers or using different offset disks. Ciao

Ok sure, my issue was mostly resolved by warming up my wrist or tendons I guess. Same as when I visit my dentist I do some jaw exercises so I can more easily spend time with my mouth wide open. Cable or Hydraulic clutches are fine with me but I'm often amused by people going to massive trouble to do hydraulic clutch conversions to make the clutch "lighter" when they could more easily just extend the clutch pushrod arm on the gearbox. Hydraulic leverage ratio is exactly the same as mechanical leverage ratio with only the friction drag of the cable the difference. Modern high quality clutch cables are pretty low friction these days. Maybe even no more than the drag of clutch master and slave cylinder seals and fluid friction through the lines. Ciao

Out of interest what details can you provide about the Mille forks and what was necessary to fit them to the V11. PM if you like or post. Ciao

I don't have a particular issue with my left wrist but when I started to do track days years ago after maybe 4 20min sessions my left wrist used to start seizing up. Not using the clutch for the upshifts relieve it of half the work to do and solved that issue. I would suggest anyone with your sort of issue either buy a high quality quick shifter for the road of when they are looking at a new bike look for one with factory fitted quick shifter, one that preferably works on up and down shifts. Squeezing a squash ball befor track days started would also help with the left wrist issues and is also worth doing while you have breakfast before a ride just to warm up you wrist. It helps. Ciao

I've got a colour matched one on my bike. Not a terrible deal for a carbon one with the mounts. Ciao

My favourite Groove Amada song Ciao

My previous experience owning 3 Triumphs and multiple Ducati's 2 of which I still own the Ducati's are much better quality. I was so appalled at Triumph quality and engineering I vowed to never buy another one. Ciao

The rear shock action just adds to the force of a high side, even with ridged rear suspension a high side would still happen. The only way to control one is to back out of the throttle well before it gets away on you or use the throttle to keep the slide going and either let it lowside OR use power to maintain the slide and ride it out so to speak. Thats a High side ON the gas. MM suffered the more difficult to deal with OFF throttle high side and the only way out of that is to get hard on the gas and ride it out which in the real world would be pretty much impossible. Once it lets go in that scenario you don't have the reaction necessary to get on the throttle and modulate it to ride it out and save it. See how speedway riders ride and what happens the moment they shut the throttle. The bike either straightens up and heads for the fence or high sides them. The process is the same. It's the mental barrier you need to cross to be a speedway rider. The more you're running wide and the fence is coming at you fast the bigger handful of throttle you need to correct the situation. Ciao

The primary initial cost is in making the mould. Like bespoke shoes, the cost of the last needs to be spread across the number of units produces. Ciao

Does this price include the mounting brackets and hardware? Ciao

Yes it's like picking up a large Titanium nut or bolt your brain has a hard time computing the size to the weigh after years of handling other materials. My friend surmises this is what makes these sort of things so tactile and almost impossible to not pick up and just hold and play with. Ciao

I've been around CF professionally and hobby wise for more than 40 years. I had factory Ducati carbon fairings and fuel tank on my 888 Corse race bike and they were the real deal compared to most aftermarket stuff. The fairing panels had honeycomb strengthening panels in the areas where needed to prevent oil canning and provide stiffness and it was all pr preg and hence autoclaved. At work we had big autoclave ovens to cure repairs to aircraft parts and rolls of pre preg in freezers plus all the vacuum gear to use. Interesting process and results. CF doesn't like lightning strikes I can say that. It can also take a major hit and seem undamaged until you look at the back side of the panel and find the displaced carbon filaments. Important things to be aware of on the fin of a commercial jet that's made entirely of CF. Ciao

That's a new one for the "book of excuses" for running out of fuel which I've done twice. "It's not my fault it's the circumference of my tyre" I like it To the question of wheel colour for your yellow bike I would personally go for a "bright silver" or maybe a bronze gold. Black rims are so "yesterdays colour". The correct type of Gold looks good on any bike in my experience. Ciao

Carefully watch the front forks just before he tips into the corner, maybe 50m before and you'll see them compress sharply and rebound which isn't normally what you'd expect at that point as it upsets the bike just before entry. The highside mechanism is a pretty straight forward one. The rear tyre loses grip and begins to slide which tightens the line of the bike to varying degrees and the rear suspension extends once again to a varying degree. The rider or the traction control then backs the power off and the tyre grips again, the rear suspension compresses and depending on the degree of the above mentioned dynamics plus the speed the lean angle and quite a few other factors the resultant potential energy created is released in one violent event for the bike and rider. The rest is the dissipation of that now kinetic energy into altitude for rider and bike and friction when they hit the ground. Modern traction control systems are supposed to mitigate the event well before the attitude of the bike is allowed to create the potential energy however there isn't currently any protection for an "off throttle" highside Marquez experienced. Ciao

Yes the used the old rear to cope with the expected high track temps. Ciao

I love an optimist And No. Ciao

There's nothing new here, new tyre constructions favour different bikes and riders. Stoner had the same issue in 2011 or 12 when Bridgestone released a new front carcase during the season and it was a disaster for the Honda and him on corner entry. Same in later years also a few times. The spec tyre is costly for the bike manufacturers as they need to revamp frames and swingarms to suit changes in tyres. You can vary tyre construction at the drop of a hat for pretty much zero additional costs but if they release a new construction that doesn't work with your bike then it's a frame/swingarm redesign and construction. The reality is these days that racing is now all about the "show" and money so Dorna dont care about fairness really. The more unpredictable it is the better for them if it makes the "show" more interesting and exciting. I'm more "the sport is primarily about the competitors and the spectators are secondary to that" If someone or some manufacturer dominates then that probably because they deserve to and the others need to step up. Do I want the Mick Doohan show again, No but the racings a bit of a lottery these days where the rider simply can't dig deep and make up for a less than perfect bike setting or tyre choice or poor starting position from a bad practice or qualifying. Add to that most of the races are a tyre conservation strategy with everyone riding around for 2/3rds race distance nursing tyres waiting for the last 1/3 for when the real racing begins. The more it evolves the closer it's getting to F1 which is to me the most boring motorsport around. Ciao

Something a bit weird about this crash. Did anyone else notice the front forks dip about 20mm and then recover just before he turned it in? Look at the side on replay if you still can. At first I thought he had applied a bit of front brake to load the front tyre before entry but the forks reaction was a bit too aggressive for that. Then my mind turned to a mechanical issue like it's lost a brake pad or something and caused a momentary hick up to the front end just before he turned it in. Interesting and once you've seen it side on you can notice it from the bike view as well. I'd love to get a look at the data just before the crash. https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2022/03/21/marc-marquez-on-one-of-the-biggest-crashes-he-s-had/411741 Ciao