pete roper

Moto, running the 50mm throttlebodies without adequate filtration will kill them stone dead in next to no time. Believe me, after working with them for fifteen years I have a lot of experience in this. TB damage is one of the major Achilles heels of the 8V CARC bikes and the problem is, I'm certain, one of the reasons the Cali 14 went to a single throttlebody with plenum system.

How cute! It's got tiny bellmouths and no air filtration on the 50mm TB's so they're buggered before you've ridden it more than 1,000km. It also has a wheelbase that dwarfs a stock Griso! It would be like riding a hearse! A flexible hearse with a hinge in the middle!

Another really important thing is to make sure you actually have a 20AH battery in good condition. With the bikes that use a YTX 20-CH BS a common problem is that owners, and shops who should know better, fit a dimensionally identical 16AH battery instead of the 20. This works, for a while, but once the battery begins to deteriorate it can end up causing arcing at both the relay and solenoid contacts and you get the dreaded no-start problem. I don't believe this is an issue with Norges and Sports as much as they use a different 20AH battery but it would be worth double checking what you have installed.

Yup. What makes you think it's the relay? What is it doing?

Thing is, since the adoption of crank/cam triggered timing sensors the marks are essentially completely irrelevant. You can establish top dead centre, or close enough to set valve lash, by observation or, if you've done it a few times, simply by *feel*. All that is required is the cam lobes be on the base circle while you are checking the clearances. What are the clearances for after all? On bikes with points or a distributor of some sort you needed to know where TDC was and where the static and full advance marks were on the flywheel when you were strobing them but since the advent of electronic ignition and ECU's all that is unnecessary because all the needed data for engine management vis-a-vis spark and injection timing is controlled by a phase wheel behind the cam sprocket,(On V11's and the like. Why the persisted on still marking the flywheels right up until the advent of the CARC bikes I have no idea? Force of habit probably! Ignore any marks. They are utterly irrelevant!

Engine temperature sensor. It's the blue thing screwed in to the back of the RH cylinder head in a plastic holder.

The ETS is notoriously fickle as it sits in a plastic holder and usually has an air gap between its tip and the base of the holder meaning it gives a shitty reading. You can, with care, add some sort of thermal paste beneath the sensor but one has to be careful as it can expand and crack the holder. If you can replacing the holder with one of the brass ones used on machines like the Daytona and Sport-I and packing that with paste is a safer option but a full tune up and ascertaining if the ETS signal is even remotely right would be the first port of call.

Rollers.

Nope, secondary timing is always going to be belt dependent.

Phil? Ate you making a tool for the pinion ring nut or do you want to borrow mine? I’d give it to you but Michael might need it later after I’m fully retired, (Or dead!🙄).

It's a bit more complicated than that. It's essentially a four track TPS that constantly compares the readings against each other and a known baseline to regulate throttle opening. Being RBW there is no direct connection between the twistgrip and throttlebody. If the ECU sees a discrepancy between any of the parameters of any of the four tracks it will throw the bike into limp mode. If it sees a discrepancy between two or more tracks it will shut the engine down and, thoughtfully, put on the brake light!

And that from a man who builds aeroplanes from scratch. ignore the wisdom at your peril.

What year Cali 1400 is this? If it's throwing an 'Urgent Service' warning and going into limp mode it is most likely the demand sensor. If it's an early bike it is even more likely. There was a duff run of them at the very beginning. RSV4 Aprilias had the same issue. There was a recall for them.

What people choose to do aesthetically or 'Artistically' to their bikes concerns me not a jot and I fully agree with your assessment that such things are subjective and if people want to do such things? Knock yerself out! That doesn't mean that I can't mock them as ugly and most importantly it doesn't mean that what they have done will be either 'Special' or indeed work in an engineering or mechanical sense. So many people make absurd and impossible claims about performance and functionality it just shits me to tears. I've tried to explain many times why the 8V 'Nuovo Hi-Cam' can't be made to make power and torque figures that can genuinely only be made by much more sophisticated engines but this is either ignored outright or some picture of a 'Dyno Chart' will be produced to 'Prove' the point! Sorry, but trying to use the laws of physics to argue against ignorance and stupidity is a fools errand. Dunno why I even bother apart from the fact I don't want the gullible being taken in by charlatans. With the old pushrod lump it's even more frustrating. Especially when stuck in a Tonti frame with a five speed gearbox and pre V11 final drive. You can, reliably, make mid eighties RWHP from an 1100. The factory erred on the side of conservatism and the donk makes about 76 in the V11. Yes you can get it to make more, but at a price. Now imagine what it's going to be like putting that power, or more, through a clutch, gearbox and driveline designed to handle not much more than 50? Its life span will in the words of some nineteenth century philosopher, be Brutish and Short! So what does that mean? Either these people have managed to change the laws of physics and the sciences of metallurgy, and engineering! Or? They are full of shit! I reiterate, if people like these things as 'Art'? Fine. Knock yerself out. To me they are obnoxious gobshitery! NOBODY HAS TO AGREE WITH ME!

Esperia. A bit 'Ducati-ish' but still a damn fine looking motorbike. Compared to the asking price here for a V100 it looks like a bloody bargain!

Not 'Covered' John but I've built a couple, and by 'Built' I mean built. They weren't just a 1400 motor stuffed into a 1200's cycleparts. The 1200 and 1400 motors are two very different animals. Apart from the radically different cooling systems for the heads the 1400 heads use much smaller inlet tracts. It's one of the reasons the 1400's make less power than the 1200's. My 1400's used big port, single spark heads and have the heads machined for oiling purposes. They both make phenomenal bottom end and midrange torque but not substantially more power. That is down to the side draft head design and camming and they are both outrageously thirsty! Mark had to go to higher flow injectors as the stock ones just couldn't pour enough fuel in at higher RPM. The 8V is absurdly greedy and wasteful, it's one of the reasons it was canned. If you made it meet €5 it would be a gutless pig of a thing! As it is, mapped and piped right it's a lovely thing to ride but *Efficient* and *Modern* are not really two words that should be used in any sentence that has Guzzi 8V in. There are some parts of it that are modern in design. The combustion chamber is very nice, but one swallow does not a summer make unfortunately. That's why they had to go to the 'Ugly as a hat full of farty arseholes' V100 motor for the next generation bikes.

Agree about the V7's. Disagree about modern sportsbikes, some of which are awesome! Sorry if my long winded rants offend you. Pieces of rolling munt like that offend me.

The CARC platforms don't lend themselves to anything like this. The wheelbase is too long so they always look like they've had an unfortunate arse-accident! The exhaust on that thing is absurd, it will be a blubbering mess below 6,000 and then it'll take off like a cut cat for 1,500 rpm before falling flat on its face again. So it's both ugly and ridiculous and we won't even begin to talk about how long the throttlebodies will last with the woeful air filtration.

Yeah, yeah. The same stuff that everybody does. Most, if not all, available 'Off the shelf! A lightened flywheel? A 'High Torque' cam? So a mm ground off the base circle of the 'Lawnmower' cam or perhaps a B10 or P3 type grind? Twin plugging? Vital with such a shitty combustion chamber design. Even the facory did it at the end. The oil condensor system has to be improved over the system used on Low Head Tonti's or they puke their oil out and run their mains. None of this is exceptional and has been common practice and well known for forty or more years! And boring out a set of PHM's to 41mm? Wow! Colour me bored! As I said, I'm glad the people who build these things are happy but the Oooh-ing and Ahh-ing is laughable and makes me want to puke! But that's me. I'm not the arbiter of your or anyone else's taste. I am though entitled to my opinion and being an irascible old bastard I'm more than happy to state it!

It's a bastardised Tonti with some sort of squarefin 2V motor in it. So what? These things are like locusts. I used to love a 'Cafe' Tonti, but they have become, like this unit, 'Cookie Cutter' items bought from a catalog just the same as any 'Screamin' Eagle' Harley. OK, the aftermarket suppliers may be independent, unlike the 'Screamin' Eagle' catalog suppliers but it's the same thing. They may well be 'Independent Builds' but they are all terribly boring and formulaic. The naked frame triangle, or coy copy of a V7 Sport tool box. The battery under the gearbox. The clip ons and rearsets. The absence of any suggestion of practicality and funniest of all, these things often are based on old roundfins and they STILL wear shitty 30mm VHB carburettors! What do these idiots not get about the name they adopt 'Cafe'? OK, that sort of has some sort of oddball reference to a mad cult in the south of England sixty plus years ago. Perhaps if you stretch the point you could say that an engine and frame that didn't go into production between ten and fifteen years after the 'Cafe Racer' thing could be made to look relevant but basically it's a load of tiresome, irrelevant, wank! But then they don't do anything to increase the performance! So where in the name of holy F*ck is the 'Racer' part of the equation??? Look, I'm glad these people have built these things and they make them happy. At the end of the day though fawning over them is like wanking to AI porn. YOMV. (PS, I have a picture, not a good one, that I can't post on this site of a much younger me with my little green hot-rod. It looks like a T3 but it made 81 rear wheel BHP out of 891cc. It torched its big ends frequently because to make that I had to rev it to 10,000 indicated by the Veglia. It was stuffed full of twenty years experimentation and a lot of money. Then I bought an 1100 Griso which made a bit less power but did EVERYTHING better and didn't blow up regularly. @#!#$# 'Cafe Racers'!)

Remember the crank rotates clockwise when viewed from the front.

This is a simple and easy explanation of how a four stroke engine works. I suggest you leave sound off so you don't have to listen to the irritating music! https://youtu.be/TEIhXNwfkL8

Errr. No. I'm about to go to sleep. Let's revisit this in the morning.

TDC compression is when, if the motor was running, the ignition was about to light the flame. Not being rude but do you understand how the cycle of a 'Four Stroke' engine works? Nobody is born knowing this and there is no shame in saying you haven't a clue as there are loads of folks who will be willing to help you understand if you don't. Without this basic understanding though there is a good chance you will screw something up badly so please. If you don't understand? Swallow your pride and say so. I'm sure that whatever you do for a living would be complete anaethma to me because I'm a spud thick motorbike mechanic so don't be afraid, nobody will laugh at you. Well not unless you nave a neck-beard and pervy socks but if you did you'd be riding a BMW not a Guzzi V11.

It doesn't have a choke. It has a fast idle lever and it's purely mechanical and would not be affected by a blown fuse. I don't believe thatV11's have either TDC marks or 'S' and 'D' timing marks as ignition and injection are controlled by the ECU with the triggering function being done by a missing tooth on the tone wheel on the camshaft. To find TDC use the rear wheel and fifth gear to get close and then just pry the teeth of the ring gear through the inspection hole to get the piston as close as possible. A few degrees either way makes no odds. All you have to do is make sure both tappets are on the base circles of their respective cam lobes.