jrt

Pretty country. Thank you for sharing. I only had the pleasure of riding through PA once, and it was raining on me mostly. In spite of that, it was one of the more enjoyable trips I've made just because the scenery is so nice.

Inner, but I have been known to get frustrated and just cut a hole in the flat surface and use that to pull. I think one would have to try in order to damage the shaft. Have to agree with previous- it's probably a better idea to go ahead and remove the cover.

Dental picks are the way to go. They are incredibly strong and resilient. I used to buy them surplus from the dental school at the University...no more. You might find out what UCLA or UCSD or whichever dental school is closest to you does with their used ones.

I'm sorry, and I'm not laughing at your misfortune. That finding is just so amusingly typical.

Yeah, sounds like a pain in the butt and about what I expected. I've used the vice grips and the hacksaw methods before (not with loctite involved). Still, not much fun. I think the deal with either propane or mapp is that you need to focus the flame onto the bolt head, rather than flaming over the wheel. Good luck, Docc. Oh- hey, something occurs to me. I'm used to thinking about plumbing torches. WHat about using one of those tiny food-grade burners they use to make desserts?

Docc, have the allen heads been buggered up already? If so....what do you guys (Greg, Dan) do about that? Drill and tap?

Well, let's see- first, I don't think there is a definitive 'best exhaust' option. There are a lot of good choices though. Maybe (and I'm not sure) the Guzzi Ti pipes with a new computer would be one of the better options since they are optimized for each other. Check this FAQ: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=501 You'll probably want to open up the intake as well. Best two choices are K&N (or similar) directly on the intake runners or remove the lid on the airbox and run that. I put Mistral pipes, Stucchi crossover on my bike with K&N pods and I haven't felt the need to run a PCIII, although others report success with one. I just richened the mixture a bit and it seems to run just fine. I usually recommend piddling. Piddling is fun.

Even the Guzzi sender unit isn't too bad- MGCycle has one for $9.25. I do agree though that you ought to look into it. The consequences are just too high not to.

The valve covers on my Eldorado (850GT) are powdercoated and look fine after several years of riding. Maybe they don't get as hot?

http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1061

Well, I've got the brake system back together and it all works fine- brake light is nice and bright. So...I guess the switches were bad after all. Without taking them apart (and I'm not going to), I can't say what caused their failure. I think there have been a number of very good suggestions made and I even used a couple of 'em. OK, here's my admition of stupidity on putting it back together. I put the lightbulb back in, installed battery, etc. Put in a fuse, turned the key and the brake light is ON. Only I'm not applying the brake. Turn off the key, look over the wiring- it looks ok. Unplug the rear brake switch- didn't fix it. Unplug the front and it goes off. OK...pull the handle- I can't hear it click. So- I take the handle off because I thought I might adjust it. There's no adjustment on CRG levers. So I take the switch back out....and I installed it backwards. It's a good opportunity to grease the pivot and so I do, reinstall everything and it works perfectly. Thanks for ya'll's help.

Wow, I go away a couple hours and you guys leave more notes than I ever did. Dave/Ratchet- I don't use WD-40 for much of anything other than penetrant and sometimes lubricant for drilling. I use a teflon-embedded lubricant for the levers. When I have them off, I clean and grease them. It's an elliptical optusion. They are fully in and tight. Thanks for the heads up though- I just went down and checked them. They are holding in the oil bracket as well as a set of crashbars (that's the silver part). And if I had any sense, I would have done the same. Gary has been very generous to members here, but I can solder, so I don't think it's right that I let him do my work (although I'm sure he's cool enough not to mind). I think I'm just going to use spade inserts- the current is so small and this way if there is an emergency, then it can be put back to stock.

Naw, not when I got trees around. Seriously, I think you are confusing me with Carl. The "new" KLR has been "updated" to look more modern and aggressive: http://www.kawasaki.com/Products/Detail.as...;content=photos But it's mostly the same bike as far as I can tell.

I don't know what an HP2 is, but I support the idea of a dual sport. A KLR650 is tall enough for you, and if you gear it down a bit, then it will pop wheelies nicely. It's not exactly a hooligan bike, but it is fun to drive and fairly bulletproof, with a large support base not unlike other niche motorcycles.

I'm definitely a "spray liberally with lubricant" sort of person. That's a very good point, Mike- thanks.

OK, I've got new switches and bunch of wiring stuff. So far, I've got the brake switch relay wired in and while I was at it, I put in a power distribution center and a couple new ground wires (that's "earth" to you Triumph guys). Boy, the fluorescent lights and camera flash sure do something to the color saturation. This is a prototype of the power distribution center. I broke it, lol, so I made another with 4 outputs. It's rated for 30 A which is way more than necessary. here it is installed. Looks worse in the picture than on the bike. Looks like guts here. The tailpiece will cover everything up. I put a main's fuse on it, then the accessories (taillight power and relay, headlight power and relay, horns power and relay) are run off this. For the life of me, I couldn't find a decent place to mount the relay for the tail lights. The area under the seat is very congested. At least here it will be both accessible and out of the way. The tool pouch and a few spares still fit under the seat. The original brake light switch and ground activate the relay. I ran a new ground to the light. You can see it (it's the single black wire). Here's one of the new ground wires. This one will proved an auxiliary ground for the front forks and anything grounded through them, as well as a direct ground for the headlamps. Next up is new relays for the headlight. Do ya'll just tap into the existing headlight receptacle with spade connectors or did you cut the wires and solder (or crimp) the pigtail onto that?

+1 for Rich Maund. Excellent work. For long rides, I still use a sheepskin.

One's man's vision is another man's fevered nightmare...

Yes, congrats to Doug! Beautiful bike, there.

True, but both my switches went bad and the only reason I can think of is excessive current. Guzzi used pitifully high gauge wire on the system, so I imagine there is a fair resistance through it (I was measuring 11.74 V on the hot side. The bike wasn't running and the headlight was on...but still, not so good). I'm going to try to improve the ground in several places over the bike, and I'm willing to take the extra complexity of adding relays for what I perceive to be increased durability. Dan is a great source and I've bought a couple relays off him and a few other parts, but I had to order a rear brake switch anyhow, so for ease of ordering, I got everything from Cheesehead and Co. They bring a nice variety of Wisconsin cheeses to the WI rally every year, so perhaps I'm subsidizing that.

A fine suggestion. Neat looking machines 'in the flesh'.

I suggest you use the appropriate thread.

In the US, MGCycle.com has them for 10 bucks and shipping. I imagine the Usual dealers do as well as the unusual dealers. My (now) local dealer had the front switch for $40 and the rear switch for $70. No thanks. I would follow advice given in this thread and use the switches to activate a relay instead of running the full current through the switches themselves. I'll post a couple pictures, etc. when I get my parts in and get everything buttoned up.

You might check to see that the brake line isn't routed too close to that exhaust box.

That's my plan-I was going to use the original brake light wire to activate the relay. I did something similar with the horn a while back. I've ordered some relay sockets and some more fuse holders, so I was hoping to put them in near their comrades and then it'll look like I knew what I was doing. That's it- that's as far as I've thought it out. If it doesn't work out, I'll probably try to tuck everything (except the fuse) up under the tail section so's it looks neat and clean. I might use some of John's advice and wire in a power distribution center, just so it'll be easier on whomever adds electric fringe in the future. Ben.. The good, known hot that I ran through each switch pretty well confirms that the switches are bad. I did check the fuses though. Twice.