Lucky Phil

Looking at the assembly diagram they do what I typically do with rod end bearing and use an appropriately sized oring to stop the component flapping about in use. The oring of course deflects when needed but helps prevent unwanted movement. I use an oring on my aftermarket reaction rod so the spherical bearing isn't wearing itself out unduely.Try assembling the part in question without the orings and see the result and if there's the bolt tilting. The orings will probably partially mask or make more difficult to see what we are looking for. I've seen images of the Bitubo damper and it also looks nice but I think all of the "name" dampers including the Ohlins seem way overpriced for what they really are. Even the dampers alone are approaching the cost of a decent rear shock. EDIT....I came across this image I had saved on my computer when doing my own Ohlins damper conversion of the Standard V11 Sport Ohlins damper instillation and body bracket. Note how the Ohlins body bracket is a simple lug with a threaded hole and no spherical bearing. I couldn't buy one of these and the clamping bracket was too complex a shape for me to machine and it look decent so I bought the Ducabike one with the spherical bearing and then machined a triple clamp lug I could do half decently instead. Phil

Ok spherical bearing. When you bolt it up check to see if there is any rocking motion of the bearings mounted together that causes a small "dead zone" each side of centre. In other words does the clamp bolt tilt from side to side as you initiate steering movement from the centred position and delay slightly the stroke of the damper. Phil

Dimensions of the replacement? If you've ridden without one for 1500 miles then I guess you've answered your own question, lol.

That would be great. I'm only interested because I buy a lot of aftermarket stuff for the bikes and cars and find especially with the Guzzi because it's pretty old now a lot of aftermarket stuff isn't really suitable as in the wrong design to start with. Companies look to utilise something they already make for older machines to broaden their market and don't bother too much about the details. The Andreani cartridges were an example of this ( and a $200 loss to me) and so were the PVM wheels I bought for the bike. Can you believe their are literally hundreds of outlets on the internet still listing the Andreani carts as fitting all V11 Sports 1999-2006 even though the non fitting issue for the early bikes has been known about for 5 years! The wheels cost over $4000 and when I got them I had to disassemble them and re machine the bearing bushes because the front wheel brake callipers wouldn't fit. The rear disk carrier itself had over .2mm runout which required me re machining that as well. Probably why the German company that retailed the wheels no longer sells them. Because the world is full of reseller now with no idea and also people that CAD design stuff in their spare room and send the file to China for mass production trial fit it on their own car/bike, do no testing and then start selling on their website. I've also recently had issues with some car stuff I've bought and it's the same. 99% of people don't even realise the stuff they are buying is sub standard. Because it looks nice and it's "billet" then it must be good right? Phil

Ha, not on my bike. I never use the back brake. Phil

Because to me it looks like a spherical bearing was used in the damper clamp and I therefore asked the question and the response was "yes" and the the discussion went from there. Phil

They are very common here in the building industry and available just about everywhere. The fact that they don't use them commonly or at all in engineering that I know of probably tells you something. Personally I have no issues with Torx screws. Better than Allen heads for stripping out. Problem is generally with shallow head fasteners but you get that with Allen head as well in button head and countersunk screws that have a reduced slot depth. On a Guzzi lots of fasteners were installed with Loctite because Guzzi don't care about future maintenance requirements so you need to use lots of heat on those fasteners and then throw them away. I've never used loctite on any brake part on anything in my life. The classic is Loctite on the 4mm throttle body screws! Madness. Phil

Sounds good. Have a look the the seals on the needle bearing outer as well. Phil

Scotchbrite and WD-40 Phil

My Ohlins and doccs shindy have 2 spherical bearings. One on the shaft and one on the male rod end bolted to the lower triple clamp. The question was if the Hyperpro has an additional spherical bearing fitted in the damper BODY clamp that attaches to the lower triple clamp rod end fitting the same as my Ohlins body clamp. Therefore you have a spherical bearing in the body fitting another one on the triple clamp fitting and another on the rod end 3 in all. If the Hyperpro damper body clamp fitting does have a spherical bearing fitted then you can't use the std lower triple clamp spherical bearing set up and need to either have a solid triple clamp fitting such as the one I made up OR replace the damper body spherical mount with a solid bush. Phil

Use Titanium and you never need to concern yourself with the surface finish ever again. If the bike was dumped in a salt water lake for 100 years all that would be left would be pristine titanium fasteners. Phil

Yea thats why for expensive items you need to contact them and ask if they actually have it in stock before you pay. At the very least they then need to contact their supplier and check availability. It's no fun paying up front then finding out they didn't know the part is no longer available. The refund takes days and you lose out on exchange rates and charges. If they don't bother responding it generally means they don't have the part.

Because the tool receptacle is shallow and they are thread locked you need lots of heat directly on the fastener. A fine tip on the oxy torch is the way. Anything else is fraught with danger. Then replace them with something sensible.

Swingarm....satin black. It's an agricultural piece on a V11 you don't want to be highlighting it. Phil

Your set up and mine are fine docc. Yours is the same as the std set up and mine is also just the std setup reversed with the spherical bearing in the damper body mount and the solid fitting on the triple clamp. I debated whether or not to press out the spherical bearing on the damper mount and fit a solid bush but it was staked in so made up the new fitting instead. If the one in the centre has a spherical bearing in both the damper body point and the triple clamp point then it won't work correctly. As you turn the steering the spherical bearings mounted face to face rock over until the mount bolt or the mount faces contact before the damper will stroke. The further apart the bearings are located the worse the effect. I have a bush between the mounts and it was very noticeable when I tried to use the std spherical bearing mount on the triple clamp. This is why I machined up the solid mount.

This method of attachment doesn't actually work on a V11 mount set-up. If you have 2 spherical bearings mounted one on top of each other there is going to be a dead spot in the centre of the steering range for maybe 5 degrees each side of centre as the bearings rock over. This is why I made my own solid fitting to replace the original spherical bearing on the steering head when I used an aftermarket damper mount that came with a spherical bearing in it (see image). I didn't make it because I wanted to but because I had to. The std Guzzi mount whether an Ohlins or a Bitubo does not have a spherical bearing on the damper mount for this reason. Guzzi chose to use the spherical bearing on the triple clamp fitting. They could have chosen to use the spherical bearing on the damper mount instead but they didn't but you can't use one on both. Will the damper still move? yep. Will the damper have any damping effect on each side of centre for maybe 5 degrees with the double bearing set up? nope. It's important the damper has no dead zone of influence each side of centre.

This relates to my problems with the Andreani fork cartridges they they say fit's all models 1999-2006 that have 3 different type Marzocchi forks alone. Add to that the fact that re sellers have parts and accessories on their websites they don't actually stock and have zero idea on availability of that item until they themselves put in an order with their supplier. Phil

What you say is correct in that the difference between bikes is infinitesimal as it is with riders pretty much. But both are still enough to have an impact on results. All these guys and bikes are pretty amazing but it's gravitating more and more into a technically weighted sport. The riders ability to "make the difference" is diminishing fast. Have a think about this. The average GP race track has around a 95 second lap and 14 corners give or take. These days if you are 1 second behind in qualifying you're nowhere, in a different race but in reality you(or maybe the bike) is literally 1% slower than the guy on pole. Now think about the guys that are 1/2 a second off the pace, 1/2 a percent slower or 2 or 3 hundredths of a second per corner slower each lap. I does my head in, I don't know how riders cope with that. Everyone is on the limit all the time. Not sure it's ultimately a great thing in reality long term.

Does the Hyperpro damper bracket that clamps onto the damper body have a solid bush or a spherical bearing in it? Phil

You're right Mick I just measured my Ohlins. There's 35mm of shaft sticking out of each end. I'm pretty sure you can re seal the Bitubo dampers. Recall seeing something about it not too long ago. Mine was leaking as well. Phil

Sorry Mick I don't. The damper is generic and you purchase by the stroke length which means you can shop around. The only part that is V11 specific is the mount that clamps onto the Ohlins damper body. I didn't have one so I used a Ducabike one and made an adaptor because my bike is a bit different due to it's later triple clamps. The easiest way is to try and source a second hand V11 Sport Ohlins mount and then shop for the correct length stroke damper. 120mm stroke rings a bell from memory. Phil

Personally I think the best bar option with a V11 Sport is the later clip ons that mount on the forks above the top triple clamp. They are higher and less susceptible to magnifying engine vibration. Anything with an extended swan neck style mount such as the early V11 series bars aren't going to help mitigate engine vibes through the bars. Only issue is you would need to run fork extensions to use them or use the later longer forks. Phil

The Ohlins still work and are readily available and a competitive price these days as well. More because the other high end options are more expensive and not because Ohlins have reduced their prices.

Whatever the bike is I know one thing for sure. It's definitely NOT cool. Bit like the Prince music video from years back with Prince trying to look cool riding some appalling Honda faux chopper thing. Phil

I'm currently awaiting delivery of my 3rd small container of touch-up paint to get a decent match, sigh. I'll soon have enough variations to mix and match to get it right the way things are going. The problem with touch up paint now is it's not mixed in large 100 litre batches and bottled and sold but mixed individually in 50ml bottles. Mixing 100 litre batches means the slight discrepancies of a gram or 2 in the pigments don't really have an overall affect on the colour but trying to mix a 50ml bottle down to 1/10 of a gram in weight for 3 pigments is pretty much mission impossible. I watched the guy at the local auto shop mix the paint and he got the weights spot on but who knows how accurate the scales are. It can be done as I have had touch-up paint that's been a perfect match on more than 1 occasion in the past. Phil