belfastguzzi

They do group holidays. Must pass this on to V11UK Chris before he gets too deep into planning next year's activities. This could be the way ahead for V.11 rallies. It might even tempt Baldini out. 'Saga has been organising group holidays for more than 50 years and has a team of specialists dedicated to creating the perfect holiday for your group. If you are planning a group holiday, why not let us take care of all the arrangements? You only need nine people or more to enjoy the benefits of booking a group holiday with Saga. Whether you are planning a holiday for a group of friends, a convention for your club or retired staff or an ex-servicemen reunion, our dedicated team of specialists will be on hand to create the perfect holiday, allowing group leaders to relax and enjoy themselves along with everyone else.'

Yes. You might fall down a mine. Bring a rope.

A thorough investigation of sag quickly leads our man into... the SAGAzone. Yes, life is good

Ratchet flexes his fingers and heads to the computer room for another V.11 session

I fear for your eyesight Soren: how many fingers am I holding up? I know 2002 Scuras are almost flawless, but surely there must be something slightly amiss, somewhere? Anyway, just wanted to say that my 2002 Scura showed the same signs as Greg reports, when I did this disassembly at fairly low mileage. The good thing was that I was able to get it apart, but when I tried more recently, in order to inspect the greasy situation, It was stuck tight. That was despite the prior anti-seizing. Must try heat next time, as suggested. For that reason, be cautious when you give it to your mechanic because the job could be more prolonged than expected. As for rubber, while it pains me greatly to agree with Ratchet , it seems to me to be the flexible and shock absorbant and relatively cheap stuff for this basic job. More expensive urethanes may put up with more extreme stresses but that's not called for. The design of the wedges could have been beter tuned, but as with other Guzzi parts, fine tuning is left to the end-customer (and his box of mallets). Oh, a terrible headache has just come on: where's my tub of Ratchet-salve?

Thanks for looking this up Bruce. Can I suggest that if anyone has further info / stats or corrections that they be sugested and I can then amend the first post to keep it as up-to-date and accurate as possible? I must look and see what settings I ended up with. The Scura is definitely a good ol' bike both to look at and on the road (with the caveat that, like Baldini's, mine is, ahem, sitting outside the house awaiting parts and work-time).

Is it an inflatable? Could be filled with helium to aid mass-negation.

HP2? You could check YouTube: HP2 diggin' the dirt More with Christian Pfeiffer Don't bother with the plodding stuff from ordinary guys. 100hp off road needs a bit of whizz-bang This one has BM boffins getting under-excited about the design concept in a Germanic manner.

You suspect (etc) right. It all depends on the alignment of the postal service, the stars, my ability to create a parts list and make orders, the weather, TIME and various other things. This is all pretty complicated, so I suspect the seal may stay (his time).

He might have removed the footbrake lever

I keep my tools in the wheel hubs. Is that not what the hole in the middle is for? Only problem I have found is sorting out the socket set, 'cause you got to feed them in one by one. Am I doing something wrong?

John O'Sullivan has made a fantastic offer to send me a timing cover from his replaced motor. Brilliant – it's great to have generous Guzzi chums about the place. Now what do I need to get? A crank seal and a gasket?

Hey, I never suspected that this could be The New What Time Is It? thread! You left out 6. exploding fuel tank and 7. Global Warming I did NOT build a heavy brake lever! I can see that I'm going to have to weigh the thing at some stage

Constant rain here. keeps the rear brake cool anyway

QUOTE(dlaing @ Jul 5 2007, 07:48 AM) not braking forum rules ROTFLMBumO?

Yes....I know I was hoping that no-one would mention that... Now the story has just got complicated again. But seriously, whatever the cause, the basic thing is that I'm just interested that the caliper can get so hot that plastic melts. I didn't realise this had happened until later, at home, when replacing the pads. However at the time I did notice that oil was baked onto the brake disc and thought, gosh that must have been pretty hot, considering that I wasn't deliberately using the back brake. The oil was coming back from the cracked timing chest cover. The attempt to fix the pedal could have caused the drag that I was unaware of at the time, on that particular long run. Mind you, the pedal wasn't depressed enough to cause the brake light to come on, as in Leafman's interesting example of another meltdown. Jaap was riding behind me most of the way and his observation was the opposite – the brake light wasn't coming on at all. That was because of the damaged microswitch at the front brake lever and all the braking was being done with the front. For that reason I then sometimes used the bodged rear brake lever, not to brake (especially as I could hear the metal grinding then) but just to give a warning brake light. Leafman is right about the unintentional foot pressure on the pedal being another possible cause. Others have admitted to that habit, especially certain people with policemen's feet. I don't ride with my foot that far forward so I'm pretty sure it wasn't the cause here.

In the end I got an off-the-shelf switch from Maplins. It was a few quid. It doesn't have the seal of course. Bizarrely, the standard switch was more expensive than the exact same unit with an added metal lever extension on the switch button. Later I did find a microswitch with the seal, in a bike parts store. It just needed an extra bit of the body with electrical leads removed from the switch terminals in order to fit with the V.11 connections. It was over £20 though, so I'll stick with the standard microswitch until dirt/water ingress wrecks it.

If I come can I burn my motorbike? Hmmm, on second thoughts, the ritual of self-gratification would be a fine thing at the time – but how would I get home? Is there a Honda shop nearby?

Ok chaps. I suppose that I should point out the one pertinent defect in these speculations. – Er, ahem, etc... the melt-down occurred on the run home from Scotland – when half the lever broke off and before the massive appendage was constructed and applied. Since the repair (or bodge, if you will) and fitting of new brake pads, careful adjustment of freeplay etc, etc, the rear brake (with lever as pictured) operation has been as spiffing as ever it was. However I will check it at some point, particularly the condition of the seals – and to see if it may be dragging / not fully releasing. And as a new rear caliper seems to be relatively inexpensive (compared to the price of the blessed brake levers), I'll try to get around to ordering one to be on the safely precautionary side. PS I'm quite keen to post some more pictures of the glued-up timing chest saga. I'll endeavour to do so before the summer is out.

Hey, is that a satellite shot? Are you in the CIA? Medical opinions are beyond the expertise of this Forum You're confusing me with Mike Wilson

Good one, Gj and Guzzirider. DL and Ratchet: LOL Seriously? I think you're doing the right thing. It's pretty frustrating using it when you really want to accelerate.

Colonel Belfast's Scottish Fried Goose indeed. I don't believe that it was dirt, as I do keep it clean. Seals? The thing must have been right hot, so if the seals weren't fried before, they might be now. Hope not. The fluid was fairly fresh. I have been meaning to bleed the caliper properly, with it dis-mounted. I can't honestly remember whether I ever did do this. The rate that these pads wear at and the well-known the brake moan, plus this extreme manifestation of friction, could indicate that there is always a degree-too-much of drag in the rear brake. Just an unfortunate and difficult to remedy combination of poor caliper location, air/moisture...?

...which bit of reality are you facing?

It turned out that I needn't have bothered doing a temporary repair to the broken-off rear brake lever on the Highland Fling trip. When I applied the brake, I could hear a bit of 'unpleasantness' – my rear brake pads had worn out. The metal must have been dragging on the disk during the long run home, because when I went to change them later, the black plastic cover was gone – all that remained were lumps of melted plastic. Must have been hot! Has anyone else seen this happen?

Yes, the top coat is not black. It definitely is a black base, or number of blacks(?), plus a clear coat of some description.