Lucky Phil

Phil

I'd be more amazed if there wasn't a "slight rattling noise" I suggest you fit and oil pressure and oil temperature gauge to the bike before you do anything else. Phil

No the reg should come out. I's going to be hanging up on an old oring. Phil

Bookends are beautiful Chuck. Phil

Ok cool, thanks. I "think" USPS "priority mail international" is back now for Australia from the website. Can you please check and confirm at the post office and the shipping costs? Naturally as small and light as possible ( Guzzi owner style ) I'll mod the taps and maybe have a charity auction or lucky prise dip or something. Ideas? Maybe a sale and the proceeds to the website. Phil

Those are magnificent. I'm always on the lookout for that style of art deco lamp mooching around antique shops. Even the repro ones are nice. I had a lovely one at one time but the ex got it years ago in a settlement and I've been looking ever since. Phil

It's cool docc, I just look at things like modifications and subject them to the rationalisation test. I've seen people fit mechanical OPG's to the handlebars with a plastic tube carrying oil from the oil gallery under pressure to the back of the gauge with all the vulnerabilities and risk that entails. Sure you can get away with it on a car where if the tube or connection to the back of the gauge fails you'll just have a massive mess to deal with but imagine a plastic flex hose flexing every time you turn the bars and if you have a failure it's hot oil under pressure straight at the riders face basically or at the very least showering hot oil over the rider and bike. The other issue that amuses me is the same people that fit OPG's and oil temp indicators then start to wonder "what's normal" indication. They get a variation or indication thats a little different and they're on the internet seeking answers to issues they don't really need to be aware of in the first place. There's a good reason motorcycles dont use OPG's and oil temp indicators. Its because your attention is far better allocated to watching the road and things that may kill you and a simple effective LOP light is all that's needed to warn you of impending engine problems. Someone here years ago had an OPG mounted on a V11 Le Mans down on the horizontal face of the fairing side so to see the indication you had to basically look at your left knee! Cars on the other hand mount their gauges at somewhere approximating eye level or close to it however even the car world acknowledges the bullshit most engine gauges are with the exception of the coolant temp. My Focus RS has a 3 gauge cluster mounted on top of the dash in the middle pointed at the driver. Oil temp, oil pressure and boost pressure. All of them are ECU controlled indications not actual. So they are derived and calculated indications because the last thing Ford want is the punters comparing and questioning indication differences between owners. This is common practice in the automotive world. Give them gauges to make them feel good but because the average owner has zero mechanical expertise and is unable to interpret what they are seeing indicated and the reasons for variations we just let the ecu present an indication based on general parameters. So oil pressure indicated will be a function of engine coolant temp, engine rpm, and oil temp. Zero to do with the actual measured oil pressure. Cool, a semi faux gauge cluster. Personally my only justifiable additional gauge is a clock. I fitted one to my bike and the location I hate so next time the tank is off I'm moving it to a more discrete location. Why a clock? One reason only, we have 3 hours of school zones a day here and they aren't always indicated by flashing speed signs and are Policed so you need to know the exact time during certain periods of the day or risk a heavy fine or loss of licence. Phil

I've spent a lifetime Scud watching people do things that make them "happy" at the time that in hindsight with a little amount of forethought they definitely should not have done once the consequences had manifested themselves. Phil

Because there're to dumb to articulate or understand the word "warning" Phil

Probably because "it's not a car". This subject is the province of those who are basically "car people" in mindset. What's wrong with you? Your DNA is that of a "car guy". You can't do anything about it I'm afraid you're just stuck with hanging extraneous crap and additional failure points on your bike together with being bombarded with information you in all likely hood won't fully understand and will therefore spend time worrying about. Phil

Yea I agree Pete but like removing the airbox and fitting Pod filters it's pointless discussing it. Some people don't want rationality to get in the way of flawed logic. It's like putting a CHT sensor on the muffler outlet. If I want a battery of gauges to tell me every detail of the engines operation I'll just drive my car or go flying with friends and sit in a cockpit. Phil

Plastic or rubber? Rubber would be fuel hose lining and plastic would be from the pump. It's not from inside the reg. Phil

This is what got me to create the shift lever extender. I measured my GSXR1000K7 and it's travel was 25mm and the V11 was around 35-40 from my dodgy memory. The extender reduces the V11 to around the 25mm mark but just as importantly increases the shift lever effort. Hows that improve the shift action you may ask. Well a higher lever effort via less leverage by the foot means that when the detent mechanism does release there is more pressure/force being applied which translates to a faster action. A week detent spring also leads to poor shift action as well. This is why loading the shifter makes the gearbox shift much better on all bikes but the V11 especially because loading the lever with the clutch engaged increases the load on the lever via the foot which translates to a faster action when the clutch releases the load on the gearbox dogs and allows the foot pressure to overcome the detent spring and detent roller. The effect is the same as increasing the detenting force. The V11 could probably use a slightly stronger detent spring than stock in reality. Another interesting affect on shifting action is gearing. My Royal Enfield has a pretty decent shift action but It can still be improved by the exact same way the V11 shift has been by a modified shift lever to reduce the foot leverage. The other thing that improved the shift action esp in the 1st to second shift was upping the overall gearing by adding 1 tooth to the CS sprocket, a 7% taller final ration. This means that you have more road speed for a given gear and motorcycle constant mesh gearboxes always shift better the higher the road speed. So now esp in the 1st to 2nd shift the road speed is significantly higher for the same rpm so the gearbox naturally shifts noticeably nicer 1st to 2nd. Phil

A critical part to using the V11 gearbox is to pre load the lever before pulling the clutch on the up AND down shifts. Seems like common sense, right, but the amount of riders I see on the road riding around using the "pull the clutch and stomp on the lever" method is amazing. Of course the Japanese have designed gearboxes for these type of riders for decades. The Italians not so much. Phil

This issue has closed quite a few tracks over here. Tracks built and run for 40 years miles from any housing then the developers move in build housing and the people that buy them in full knowledge the track's there then get together to get it closed down due to noise issues. As the old song go's, "Money ruins everything" Phil

I understand the concept that there's no money for motorcycle racing in the US it's even worse here but as far as the tracks go it's the car racing money that keeps them in business as well as corporate track days, driver training, car and bike track days etc. You would think with the amount of money sloshing around in the car world over there some of it would find it's way to upgrading and maintaining the tracks. I watched every bit of footage available on the Petrucci incident and ignored Danilo's time on the ground comments. No way should a rider be wandering around after a big get off like he had unassisted for that sort of time frame. I also take an interest in the marshalling around the world in all the racing I watch. With all the money involved in MotoGP these days they still rely on local Volunteers for marshalling which seems incongruous to me. Most is acceptable but you still see marshalling that's totally amateur even at that level. MotoGP uses it's own PR and television production crews these days and I think some money would be better spent on it's own professional marshal group myself. Local racing is another thing I agree, no money's available so it's volunteers.

I watch racing from every place in the world. Irish, British, WSB, MotoGP, Aussie Superbike and Moto America. The thing that stands out to me considering the amount of money sloshing around in the US is how "amateur hour" US racing seems to be. It's like club racing really. It's the same here in Australia but we have the excuse that there's not much money about. The US tracks have almost always the worst looking track surfaces I've ever seen. White bitumen and usually bumpy with patchwork everywhere, they look like they haven't been resurfaced in a hundred years. Then we have COTA and the complete mess they made of the original track and in previous years the total farce of MotoGP bikes riding through a cloud of dust from "track grinding" to remove the bumps just before the event. Couldn't even be bothered to vacuum up all the garbage after the track grinding exercise so the first 2 days looked more like a desert race on the back straight. Not sure whats going on over there with regards to racing. Some beautiful track layouts but poorly surfaced and appointed it seems. As I said money abounds but where it being spent? Petrucci was right to be annoyed after his crash at VIR. He lay on the ground for 35 seconds or so then got to his feet and wandered about for god knows how long before assistance. After a big off a rider being unattended for any amount of time greater than 5 or 10 seconds is unacceptable. Just because the rider is on his feet and walking doesn't mean the incident is over and the situation is under control. A rider can get to his feet and be concussed and confused and wander onto the track and get hit by another competitor even on the cool down lap. I remember a superbike race in the US about 10 years ago where a rider crashed and ended up off track and then actually ran back onto the track and lay down on purpose to bring out the red flag! Probably the most crazy racing thing I've seen. Ciao

If it's that bad then you've got more issues than CO at 21. Phil

You need to go to logged faults and clear any indicated before you can change the CO as well. CO at 21, no big deal. It may run better that way. There is no gospel rule that says it needs to be at zero. Phil

Yes thats right docc. Read and write are for mapping purposes and loading alternative maps. All you need is the Guzzidaig programme to access the ecu and see the parameters in real time and adjust the CO setting. You can also adjust the CO directly in the Eprom but I've never done it that way. That way has the benefit of not even needing to start the engine to change the CO as apposed to getting it above 60 deg C Ciao

What he means docc is that as is tradition with an air cooled race engine you can use fuel to assist in controlling engine temp to a degree but in a street engine that needs to meet emission and economy targets this strategy is not acceptable. One of the many reasons a water cooled engine is so far superior to and air cooled one. Ciao

Yea I'm hearin ya. This Kuga(Escape) a year ago at 85000klm ate its centre tail shaft bearing! This is essentially a FWD SUV with rear drive on demand. So I drive around with the dash set on an image that displays which wheels are getting the drive in real time. It uses the rear drive around 10% of the time so the tail shaft spends 90% of it's life spinning freely without transmitting any torque. It gets an easy life this car and still the centre bearing fails! So off to Ford because I'm in a situation where I can't fix it myself at present and the car needs to be on the road. New complete tail shaft required for a $50 bearing because now in the Lego car world the $50 centre tail shaft bearing is not replaceable. Total cost parts and labour $2000. The learnings? Buy a car with the longest possible warranty, Prioritise reliability and a quality track record over everything else for your DD. If your car ever has a serious technical issue just sell it and eat the costs because even with a warranty 98% dealer techs are so inept that they will butcher most seriously technical or involved repairs anyway and you'll end up in the repeated horror story of endless issues caused by them and repeated returns to the dealer. Don't buy a Ford. Ciao

I'm now sworn off Fords, forever. Ford Australia are total wasters. I've had 3 new Fords in the last 5 years from the same dealer, 2 focus RS Mk3 's and the wifes Kuga(Escape). 2016 model with 95,000 klms up. Two weeks ago the Kuga failed me visiting a relative in the country. Long story short the selector cable end fitting on the transmission had popped off the selector lever because the 50 cent plastic bush on the end fitting had fallen apart. Managed to get it going again and got home. Tie wrapped it in place the next day and took a run to the Ford dealer I'd bought it and the 2 RS's from and explained the issue and their response? Yea mate that's a new shifter cable, $156 and 3 hours labour and half the dash apart to fit it and the broken clips and dash rattles etc that go with that for a 50 cent plastic bush! Total cost $720. @#!#$# that, I'll machine up a bush before I'll pay that. Back home and 15min on the internet and source a Ford USA tech service bulletin for the updated plastic bush ($1.05) and the new protective cap which is a mod to keep oil off the bush, order from the States and it arrives 12 days later. Fifteen mins work to fit and it's done. Ford Australia are more than happy to ignore the US TSB and rip off the customer and the dealer is happy to go along for the ride. So pay the dealer $720 or do it yourself for $3.50. We are close to updating the Kuga and although I like the car I'll never buy another Ford, ever, period. The fish rots from the head down and here it applies to Ford Australia and it's dealers. BTW if you guys think I've accumulated some knowledge on Guzzi V11's it's nothing to what I've gained on Ford Ecoboost engines after the Focus RS Mk3 head gasket recall issue. But that's another story. Phil

You need Guzzidiag. Strap yourself in for some learnings and use a translator where necessary( these people invented it). No garbage about "I'm a luddite" and don't know computers. Neither did I and I'm conversant with it now. If you can't figure out Guzzidiag you may as well sell the bike, seriously. Without it it's maintenance with both hands tied behind your back. http://www.guzzi-forum.de/Forum/index.php?topic=16809.0" http://www.guzzi-forum.de/Forum/index.php?board=76.0 https://www.von-der-salierburg.de/download/GuzziDiag/ https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=96957.0 Phil

Here's you answer. Fuel injected, 270 degree crank with balance shaft, ABS, the cheapest spares in motorcycling, and dirt cheap to buy. Quality? outstanding. Phil