Lucky Phil

Probably because people that own bikes over 15 years old won't pay the going service rates and the work will usually be major and parts availability almost non existent. Then they will need to put too many hours into sourcing parts and probably have the bike taking up workshop space for months on end. A close friend of mine that ran a specialist motorcycle marching and race bike building business for 40 years had a customer leave him an Triumph twin aluminium head for a full rebuild. This was only a few years after he started his business in his garage. New valves, guides and seats, the whole 9 yards. The old guy came to collect the head and when he was presented with the bill told my mate that for that sort of money he could keep it, he wasn't going to pay that. My friend advised him of the hours he's put into the work but this guy was refusing to pay, obviously trying to negotiate the cost down. My friend confirmed that he wasn't interested in paying the bill and the customer then watched as he went to the bandsaw and cut the head in two. Apparently the look on the guys face was worth it. People don't like paying for the complex stuff old bikes often require to make them run well again. Phil

Yes I agree. These engines cracked heads even in normal use sometimes. Phil

Just buy yourself some nice aftermarket caps on ebay or something. They are a dime a dozen and are anodised as opposed to powder coated. Then just modify your old caps. Phil

I made some from old reservoir caps and QD air fittings as my Motive bleeder has a QD hose that I also made myself with with air fittings. Motive sell a bleeder with QD fittings but at the time I was saving money as the bleeder was expensive to ship from the US. Now you can buy them cheap on ebay or Aliexpress. I'll see if I can get an image of my home made adaptor. Phil EDIT... Here's the front adaptor I made complete with home made seal.

I agree with the last paragraph. Companies having their own "in country" representation also helps with regards to QC monitoring as well I think. Phil

Some US insurance companies won't insure your car without a separate tracker fitted. People have bought second hand cars and have battery drain issues and subsequently found a tracker wired into the system they were unaware of the previous owner was obliged to fit. Maybe the DD preppers and tin foil hat brigade aren't looking so silly now,lol.

So there is a very popular manufacturer that currently sells a sporty hatch and even give away a track day with purchase I'm told. Anyway about 3 of these things have actually caught on fire and either been severely damaged or written off. One owner had the manufacturer deny a warranty claim because they down loaded the cars previous driving record and found the owner had driven the car at 87mph at one point which was over the speed limit and therefore fell into the "abuse of the vehicle" category. It was pointed out to them that they provided a track day with the car and didn't seem to mind the owners driving them in the manner they were designed for then.

I saw nothing to suggest the filter was faulty in that video. The openings were open and would pass oil and the holes are unlikely to get "clogged" as he mentioned as the oil is cleaned by the filter media before it reaches the holes. You simply can't make assumptions like this unless you actually run a flow test on the filter itself and measure the flow rate and pressure differential across the filter. Branded filters can be made by different companies and Champion make quite a few brands I recall. So it may simply be supplier detail variations. Just because the inner ring holes are smaller on one filter than another doesn't mean they are "too small" or not big enough. The other filter holes may be oversize to requirements. Thats why a flow test is the only real way to tell. Phil

I've posted this before. This guy is worth listening to on the subject of not only cars but WW2 aircraft as well. His stuff is extremely well researched and he runs a side company in tuning cars as well as a writing a few books on turbocharging. His full time Gig is a commercial heavy jet captain. Where does he get the time.

No definitive answer from me John but one thing is I never leave an engine without oil in it mid oil change. Dump the oil change the filter refill and start asap. Even if the filter media was an issue the pressure relief valve in the filter would open and build oil pressure. Your pump just lost prime I suspect and starter cranking wasn't enough rotational speed to re prime it. There is far too much anxiety about engine oil pressure in general and LOP in particular. I've seen race engine data logging where the engine oil pressure goes to zero hard on the brakes into the hairpin at 9000rpm lap after lap and it didn't hurt the bigends. The shallow sump engine issues were always an acceleration over LOP issue. So hard acceleration at maximum engine load without oil pressure, probably repeatedly as the LOP light is hard to notice in daylight when you're gunning it down some suburban street or back road. I'm sure the big block Guzzi can tolerate zero oil pressure for quite a while at idle speeds building oil pressure after an oil change like 99% of engines without any issue. When it comes to pre charging the filter I'm not even sure that with regards to pump priming it's a good thing to be honest with you. If the pump happens to be on the on the edge of losing it's prime for some reason then having the filter full of oil won't help it's cause at all and just make priming the pump harder as it now has a resistance to overcome on the outlet side as well as trying to suck on the inlet side. I still prime filters when I can but then again I don't leave engines without oil during oil changes. Some engines you simply can't prime the filter as we all know due to the instillation and they never have any issues due to it. As for filling the filter observations, well it's amazing the fine details you would otherwise not notice or think about that are pretty normal until you have an issue and then the mind starts asking detailed questions you never even considered before. Mind games John mind games, don't worry. Occams Razor says..... pump lost it's prime. Phil

Spacer goes inside the bevel box. Phil

I guess you pick and choose your complications these days. Life's a lot simpler and just as satisfying when you "dont know what you don't know". As a kid in the supermarket I had a choice of 3 tomato sauces and was happy as a clam with that. Now when I go into the supermarket I'm faced with at least 50 choices of meat sauces and apart from choice anxiety there also the anxiety of thinking that maybe I made a wrong choice. All that matters is you enjoy what you now have.

It's funny I suppose, I have this position where I refuse to wear any "branded" clothing unless I get it for free. I'm not paying my hard earner for the privilege of giving free advertising to a corporate entity. I'm not talking about the consequential logos on a polo shirt or the tag on a pair of Levi jeans but the sort of Jacket the OP has shown and similar. Nope, you want me to be a walking Billboard then you foot the bill and I'll wear it, if I like it that is. It kind of started years ago when I was at a bike show and Australian Motorcycle news had a stand and on the stand was a pile of stickers and I thought I'll grab one of those for decorating my toolbox. The Journo at the stand then said that's $2 mate as I walked away. I turned around and put it back then let him know how I felt about me paying my money to advertise his rag at no cost to them. Baseball caps are another surprise these days. Weren't baseball caps giveaways at the start? They were here for sure. Then some corporate advertising clown found out that punters will hand over now, what $50 or more for the privilege of providing free advertising for a multinational or a sporting club owned by a gazillionair! To cap it off we now have the Guzzi lawyers trolling the world threatening Guzzi Forums with legal action for using "their" corporate property. So you pay to advertise their product for free and in return they crap on your good intentions from a great heigh. Not restricted to Guzzi I know. So it's the middle digit to them from me, lol.

Even with my old doser grinder I never ground more coffee than what I was going to immediately use. The beans are kept in a sealed container after opening and I dont fill the bean hopper, only about 1/4 full at a time. Phil

A little off track I know but interesting and one for Audiomick, right up his alley. Check out the other engine configurations as well.

Our Christmas present to ourselves. We've had them for a month or so but waited till the official day to launch. Phi

Set up today and pulling great shots. Phil

The best thing I ever saw done to an XJ6 was a Chev SB conversion. Even here on unsalted roads the body rusted in no time though. Phil

Id mod the taps for you John as now I have the mill the hardest part is easy but the postage would be a killer. Phil

What docc she has no time for "art"? Phil

Make sure you modify your new taps John with Viton/fkm seals or they won't last. I did a thread on it a while back. I don't think the float type sender will work in the v11 tank as the float diameter is too large to go through the std sender tank fitting. I may be wrong but if it's that easy then I'm on board as well. Phil EDIT..... I just measured to ID of the sender unit adaptor, 14.3mm

They do. https://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193&products_id=1698 Clutch pull will be highly dependant on the clutch cable condition esp if the bikes been idle for years. Phil