jrt

But they are different- the Guzzi bolt pattern is 3:3:3 and the RAM is 2:2:2 ???? J

A RAM clutch is what's pictured in post #99, by guzzi323. Anyhow, that's what I bought and installed on my Eldorado. It's got a stamp somewhere on it of a rider on a bike (RAM's logo, I guess). BTW, it comes pre- put together and centered, so you don't really get to see the inside bits. J

Aw, man that is great! Let me know when you go next year. I'm in. I'm probably hell of slow, but I'm in. Jason (Iowa City)

Nothing says 'success' quite like excess.

Plus, the aluminum foil hat was chafing, right? Do you fellows have the stock airbox? Is under the tank a viable option or too far from the ECU? J

Use locktite on the bolts when you reassemble, just to be on the safe side. For what it's worth, 200 miles and counting on my RAM clutch in the Eldorado. Yeah, that's a punisher. Actually, I have a question about these two bikes. The RAM needs a much longer pull to engage than the old stock clutch- at least it does on the Eldo. It is sufficiently long throw that a dog-leg clutch lever off a new machine won't fully disengage the clutch. The older, straight, lever works just fine. I guess the hydraulic clutch in the modern machine has enough pull (?) because the lever is definitely dog-legged. J

I understand your wanting to upgrade, CFC. I own an Eldorado, and after riding one of these mighty beasts, the V11 sport just feels anaemic. Al and helicopterjim have higher compression pistons; they seem to like the effects. There are two options as far as I know: Mike Rich Motorsports and FBF. I can't say much about either one, though. Cheers, Jason

Does look nice (the Coppa), but the owner should do some maintenance. The kickstand is leaking

You have a Rabit Transit fairing? I'm jealous, Carl. Those things are so weird as to be extra cool. I wish you luck in fitting up the daytona fairing. It looks great, and in that blue will look even better. My only criticism is that I like round headlights...single round headlights. Not that I'm opinionated or anything. Cheers, Jason

I'm biased toward my R90S fairing. The Stucchi fairing looks pretty good too, and several sizes of screen can be fitted to address how much protection you want. I think Carl Allison was threatening to mount a Daytona fairing on his. Lot's of options. J

I put a BC800 on my bike, and I have also fitted handlebars. The lead is just barely long enough. I epoxied the sensor on the front, right slider underneath the fender. The wire runs up the brake line, under the fairing and the BC800 is mounted on the handlebars. I had to remove the fender to mount the sensor, but now the fender mosty hides it. For a magnet, I used a Radio Shack rare earth magnet and glued it under one of the 'cut-outs' on the brake rotor so centripetal force won't rip it off. Rare earth magnets are highly directional, so you have to orient them properly or they will not set the sensor off. Properly oriented they work much better than stock magnet. Amusingly, the speedo and the speedo seem to agree with each other. I would never have predicted that. Cheers, Jason

Well, part of it is the weather. It gets, um, moderatly hot in the great midwestern region. J

Tom, I think you're special. Don't listen to Al. J

Heh heh. You've been hooked. The Le Mans is a great bike to work on. It's even better to ride, of course. Nicely engineered for the most part, and the services are very straight forward. Enjoy your ride!

Wow. Bummer. Sorry to see that. I looked at my bike last night- no sign of anything wrong. Are you running the stock crossover, or a stucchi/mistral? The stucchi I put on my bike really was a tight (read- stressed) fit, and I'm wondering if that had anything to do with yours? J

As it was once put- 'the kind that comes in an unopened container'. Put whatever makes you happy in your bike. If you like dino, use dino. If you like synthetic, use synthetic. Really doesn't matter a whole lot unless you do some extreme stuff with your motor. Mine doesn't use much, if any, oil. I still keep an eye on it. I would replace oil and filter, set valves to Euro spec (sorry- I don't have the numbers on me). Maybe change the transmission and rear drive oil just for fun. 4) Pods or an open airbox lid. Either work, and seem to work just as well. Depends on what look you are going for and how much stuff you want to remove from under the tank. You do need to adjust the mixture in either case- richen up the bike a little bit. There are numerous writeups of how to adjust the TPS (see www.guzzitech.com and also search this forum). You may want to add a PCIII. 5) Yes, they look really cool. Some people love them; there has been one complaint very recently that the mounting brackets broke on their fairing. Enjoy your bike! Jason

You'll be able to check this when the engine is pulled. A shudder in the clutch is often indicative of oil on the plates or a plate that has separated. Ask me how I know..... Really, it does sound like you are getting your bike all sorted out. As you get more time, you'll be able to ride more. Now that school has started again, my riding time has dropped considerably. Cheers, Jason

ouch.

Too bad Enzo doesn't frequent here anymore. I think he has a two into one fitted on his bike. You might want to post this same question on the MGNOC website- I know he still ocassionally posts there. I've *heard* that 2/1 exhausts don't work well on Guzzi's. I have no personal experience so I can't say. I'm also kind of interested in it, because I would like to fit a 2/1 onto my sidecar rig, but don't want to if it really works against the motor. J

The part number for the V11sport is different than the tonti frame, but it is available. Same price at MGCycle. http://www.mgcycle.com/clutch.html J

I'm not sure I understand where this crack is. Is it on the flange that sets inside the head or does it run 'down' the exhaust header? J

That's my understanding. J

Lever action IS very light- I agree. It is also a 'longer throw' so it works well with my straight lever, but wouldn't work with the dogleg levers. I've seen a guy machine a spacer so he could use his stock levers- this on an 2000-2002ish EV. Yes, I also noticed that the locating hole looked a bit larger than the old piece. This might be a good thing so that the actuating rod doesn't spin on the throwout bearing as much. We'll see. I gloobed 'er up pretty good in there with heavy grease. Hope it stays. J

Ballacraine, I can't really address your specific questions, but I do have a related comment. You'll note a couple of posts up I mentioned that the clutch on my 1974 Eldorado (same as 850GT) was starting to act funny. I took it apart, and one of the riveted clutch friction plates had come off. Completely. I replaced the entire clutch and flywheel with a RAM clutch that I purchased from MGCycle. The weight savings is tremendous. The stock flywheel/clutch weighs in at 23 pounds (or 1.6 stone for you metric types ). The RAM clutch weighs 10 pounds, and comes fully assembled. It's a bolt on affair once you've gotten to it. Anyhow, the point of all this is that I have a RAM clutch now, with all of 100 miles on it. So far, so good. I'll let you know if I have any issues, but it looked quite substantial when I was putting it on my bike- I really doubt it's going to come apart. Granted- I won't be exploring the same rpm range as I do on the sport, but after looking at it, I also wouldn't hesitate to install one on my sport. I put up some pictures on a website: http://www.avalon.net/~jrt/clutchjob/clutchjob.html Cheers, jason

Those are some scary pictures, Paul. J