jrt

That's a long drive or ride. Mandello is a couple hours ride north of Milan.

Kind of a long shot, but also look for vaccuum leaks at the intake manifolds.

Yes, but if the pins are offset, they can put undue pressure on the frame. I don't know about the spine frames, but on the Tonti frames, there is a fair amount of play and you could have a straight rear wheel, but offset by 1/4" or so. J

Go on, decoke your MZ. Set up your isolation cones for your turntable. Digital vs. analog audio is as inflammatory as oil- you're right. I have both, running a homebrew amp setup and it just really depends on the quality of the source as to which I prefer. I actually enjoy the ambient background of vinyl, and the more lush sound that is associated with some recordings. Some of that is lost in CD's, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sure there are digital amps that are also great, but nothing beats the satisfaction of listening to something you made that sounds good too. J

Well, it's not a *good* situation. Dry splined shafts wear much faster. Do you need to have the transmission recall work done? If so, then that is the time to do it. If not... Try to find the source of the squeek before dropping the gearbox, though. Before doing that much work, you should be sure of the source. J

Guess ya' better stock up on batteries, then. And who needs carbon fiber...I'm going for the raw, agressive look...of tassels. J

The old tip I got for straight edges is use a long fluorescent light bulb. J

'Clunkier' is de facto a word. I use it all the time, and my wife will kill me if she found out Sorry, just kidding about that last part, dear. Try using a heavy, shockproof, full synthetic. Red line is just high quality oil- nothing magic about it. Moly might help a bit too- that stuff is pretty slippery. I use BMW gear oil in mine, I found out (my dealer put it in). Works just fine, but nothing special. Maybe I'll try the red line stuff just to see. Speaking of gear oils and such, where does one by AMSoil? I wanted to get some of the spline lube mentioned in the MGNOC news, but don't know where to buy it. J

Dammit, you guys are going to make me do this now, aren't you. Sheesh, I got enough projects, then the Jones' come up with some widget and now I gotta keep up with...

On my last trip to Maine, I kept some records. The average was 39mpg (16.6 Km/L). This is averaged over 3000 miles (I have 14000 on the bike now). Speed is generally 75-80 mph, mostly 6th gear so 46-4700rpm. I run premium. Mostly highway, but quite a bit of secondary roads. The best I got was 48 mpg (strong tailwind in Ontario), the worst was 28 (spirited mountain road). I'll report all this in a better format when I write up this trip. May be a couple weeks, though. Jason

Well, ok, I can't really argue your point. Your bike seems to run fine without a velocity stack. I have the RU-whatevers on mine and kept the stack and my bike runs pretty well. The stack is a fine looking piece of plastic, though. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

They (Le Volpi Ciccione) did not rent Guzzis as of 2 yrs ago, but they are quite nice to deal with. FWIW, I used a BMW and while it was a fine bike to ride (a bit droopy, but hey...) they are a little wide for Italian roads. Think thin- makes travelling in towns easier. The Breva 750 would be absolutely ideal. Too bad Agostini is not available. J

Pros for the airbox mod- easy, weather resistant, sounds good, works Pros for the pods- easy, looks cool, sounds good, works, saves wear and tear on the side panels Cons on the pods- you have to cut the intake runners (velocity stacks) to fit the pods. Re: weather- I've driven mine through a bunch of rain, and it's not been an issue. They sit behind the cylinders and inside your legs, so the intakes are reasonably well protected. This kind of thing has come up pretty regularly, and everyone has their own opinion. Al has concatenated a bunch of threads here: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=461

After reading about fuel level indicators (booorrrinnngg), I'm thinking more and more that Gary is right. I bet that it's either a Hall effect (I doubt this one) or a thermistor (my bet). I'm thinking it's not a Hall effect because of the very low voltages (and moving parts and cost) involved with that setup- but I could be wrong. I am NOT an engineer and I suspect Gary and some others know more about this stuff than I do. A thermistor makes more sense to me because it is a variable resistor based on temperature. A constant voltage/current is passed through the thermistor and a lamp in series, and when it is cold ( thermistor under fuel) it has a high resistance (no current to lamp), when it heats up (not under fuel) resistance drops, and the light comes on. If this is what is used, then it's going to be more troublesome to set up an LED as an indicator, but it can be done. I'm lazy, so here's a web page that gives some schematics and explains everything very well. Apparently a Toyota uses a thermistor setup so that would be the one to follow, only the Guzzi would be on-off, not a continuum. Here's the link: http://www.westol.com/~beaurega/gas.htm Sorry Al. You could try a simple benchtop set of experiments that would allow you to work it out. Do you have an extra fuel level sending unit that you could play with? Can Charlotte do soldering yet? J

You're absolutely correct about the behaviour of an LED vs a filament bulb, but let's figure out what the detector (indicator?) is before anything else. The wiring diagram is a simple circuit, but does not say how the 'low fuel level' indicator works. I can't find anything in the manual (the CD one). I'm not really inclined to pull the thing off my bike- sorry Al-, but I'll keep looking. It occurs to me that the real solution to this would be a cascade of LED's that would more closely mimic the behaviour of a filament bulb. That's a little too bulky for what you want, though. J

Thanks for the info Emry. One clarification- it's probably "hydrophobic" . J

I'd try to find an agrotourismo instead of a hotel. Very funky and cool. J

No good deed goes unpunished, eh? My first thought is that the circuit is constantly powered. Low voltage at a full tank of gas slowly goes to higher voltage at low fuel. A thermistor is one way to do it, a float valve is kind of old fashioned. Due to the binary nature of LEDs (on or off), as long as the voltage is higher than some threshold, then it will be on. I think we know what that threshold is . You could try to put a resistor in series with the LED- that'll drop the voltage. I'll look into how it works when a get a copy of the wiring diagram in front of me. Cheers, J

I just had a nice email conversation with a fellow from New Zealand- he informed me about Neptune mufflers, which he runs on his bike. They look pretty darn nice, and looks like they set up higher than stock. I don't know if that's a consideration. http://www.neptunemufflers.co.nz Check out their MV Augusta mufflers. Coool.

I drove my V11 sport down the same MO rally as Bill (thanks for the Grappa). Bicycle shorts are nice- much as I hate to say it, a sheepskin seatcover is fabulous. I wear an aerostich, so I tend to slide around on the seat a lot (synthetic fabrics...shoulda bought dino fabrics ) Anyhow, the sheepskin keeps you planted pretty well and is cool in all the places you really want to be cool. I'm fixin' to drive the V11 from IA to ME; I don't forsee any real problems there either- on the way out, I'm planning two 700 mile days. Things you do need to take into account- make sure your arms are in decent shape, your abs are decent, and you take some ibuprofen. At least I have ibuprofen. Cheers, Jason

But I have seen pictures of an alternator mounted off axis- usually mounted on a crash bar. So you could still have the spine frame. It would look goofy as hell, though. J

One more, slightly larger.

And the underside. I wanted also to keep the protective piece of plastic so crap wouldn't get slung up into the tail. I put a small amount of silicone sealant around the edges. I may be cheap, but I do love caulk. Drives Sonya nuts.

I know this has been beat to death lately, but here's a couple more photos of my solution. I wanted to keep the techno bag mounts, and I am cheap like cheap is cheap. So I bought a used fender and cut it down. From the back:

Here's a picture of one mounted up: BTW, I ordered it from streetfighters usa, and they were great- got the part to me post-haste.