pete roper

The one Scura clutch I've seen was definitely made by RAM. Dunno about the Tenni. All the twin platers will rattle when the clutch lever is pulled in, (I'm not game to start an argument about when a clutch is 'Engaged' and when it isn't ) because the friction plates and intermediate plate are then free to rattle in or on their respective splines as the power pulses of the engine cycling cause the wheel to accelerate and decellerate throughout the cycle. It's for this reason that it's imperative that the idle be set highish at around 1200rpm or the splines get flogged out remarkably quickly. The problem is exacerbated by the very light nature of the V11 flywheel and if the throttle body ballance is out and you should really try to avoid sitting stationary at traffic lights or the like with the clutch pulled in. Pete

My Mate John is selling his V11 LeMans 'cos he hasn't got time to ride it One owner 03 V11 LM, 5,700kms, Black, Staintunes + stock pipes, warranty + NSW reg to Jul. Best Guzzi ever made! $18,900 ono. Is his words! I know this bike, it's a very nice unit and the reason is genuine. John is a long time Guzzisti and will still have his Falcone! Contact me if you're interested. In Australia obviously. 0417 462 440. Pete

There should be a gasket in the port, asbestos wrapped in(?) Aluminium? If they ain't there it'll pop and fart like a good'n. Pete

Wrapping pipes? Oh boy! OK, so the idea is to keep the exhaust gasses hotter for longer. More heat = more volume= higher exit speed= greater gas inertia= better scavenge. Look, I'm sorry but we're talking about a simple 2 valve hemi-head motor with a cam profile like a Briggs & Stratton lawnmower motor. I don't know if the difference would even be detectable? Perhaps, just perhaps, when we've exhausted all other tuning possibilities, we *might* try it on the race bike but probably not. Just because some of the Top Fuel types and top of the tree race teams use something does NOT mean it is sensible, practical or even useful on a road going machine. Now whether this has any bearing on your running problems I don't know, but I doubt it. Given that standard header pipes are stainless steel which is more prone to being affected by heat than crappy old mild steel I'd suggest that the downsides of this mod probably far outweigh the upsides. Pete

I used my SP for courier work in London in the '80's. All the lags told me it would be no good, they were wrong, it was great! I'd think that a V11 would be harder work and Sydney's hotter than London so if you got stuck in traffic it could be painful. Being honest I'd say that there would be a zillion other more practical machines to use for courier work, you need something super-reliable, cheap to run, moderately comfortable and easy to repair or have repaired. My SP fitted those criteria back in the '80's, whether a current model V11 would I dunno Pete

You can machine off anything you want as long as you don't cut through into the actual *inside* of the box. Having said that while the earlier boxes are very easy, you just have at them with a hacksaw and a smooth file, I can't imagine that the new V11 box would be either a.) as easy or b.) look anything like the earlier boxes, the whole casting is very different I'd advise caution. Also by removing the flange you increase the oportunity for the ingress of dust and dirt to the splines which will accelerate wear. Given that the crwnwheel and splined centre are one-piece on the V11 bevels you really don't want to do anything that will encotage spline wear because when the splines are shot you're up for a new crownwheel and pinion which is big $$$$$$ Pete

Oh, I dunno. over here I tend to go for a 'Flogette' The thing is that this often turns into a straightforward 'Flog!'. Having said that I usually do it on the 'Vert but I did manage to keep up with a couple of try-hards a couple of weekends ago on the SP. There is something very nice about rounding up a boy half your age on a 600cc supersport while sitting bolt upright behind a huge lump of fibreglass and lexan. The real trick is to not show that you're actually shitting yourself because you know that you're behaving like a complete prat Pete. (Who has said it before but I'll say it again. I ride like Gumby. I'm continuously astonished that there are people who are actually worse riders than me! I truly believe that I ride like , but without the talent!)

As I mentioned elsewhere the crazy thing is that Hi-Cams, be they RS's or any of the other itterations are NOT common motorbikes. These morons obviously can't sell it in one piece so it's got to be parted out. The *special* bits, if you can give us some idea what they are should be easy enough to spot and I'd bet a bundle of blunderbusses that ANY Hi-Cam that starts getting wrecked on ebay world-wide would be worth getting the local filth to go and have a squizz at. As Will said on one of the other forums, RS owners are a fairly rare breed, how many did they make? A couple of hundred? If we can't as a community at least find out where it's gone it'll be a bit sad. No doubt there are dodgy Guzzi wreckers around, but anyone who knows the bikes would realize that trying to pass off bits like that would be poison. If you can get pics, even if they are of *similar* bits to the special mods them I'll circulate them in Oz and put the word about here and in NZ. pete

So that's how you bastards do it! Look, I really admire what you youngsters are doing, it's great to know there are still people who have enough faith and belief in the product of a small companny in Mandello that they're willing to go to this much trouble. I dips me lid! I really do. I think that all of these creations are lovely, (Why I can't warm to the MGS01 I dunno, it just seems ugly to me and there's no point in having the fastest Guzzi on the block if it's as ugly as a hat full of farty arseholes, you'll still get your arse reamed by a decent kid on a 600 supersport from Japan but you can beat them every time on style, looks and panache!!!) I like the Guzzila a lot. Bags of class there. I still drool every time i see Paul's bike though, I hate the Quat-D muffler, (Or whatever it's called but the rest of it just sends shivers up my arthritic spine!!!!! Have fun boys, and try not to bin it too early Pete

Titanium rods are a disaster. We looked at Arrow rods for our racer and found that every few HOURS they have to be returned to the factory for testing at 400 UK POUNDS a pop for the tests!!! Nah, forget it. The Carillos are identical to the ones I got them to make for my hot-rod and they are a lovely rod but you have to realize that if you shorten the stroke you can't use any standard pistons and keep a decent compression ratio. When you start farting about with stuff like this you open a whole can of worms, they aren't just 'Chuck em in and ride' propositions. I'm currently building a second string engine for our race bike using my short stroke crank and these rods and to get the CR up I'm going to have to go for 'Big Valve' LeMans pistons and a while lot of lather work to get them to give us what we need with my stage II heads. I reckon I'll be able to build a corker, but it'll be a lot of time, effort and work Pete

Goran, do you know how to post pics? If so I'll send 'em to you and you can fling 'em up to save Jaap the grief! Just ping me an email to motomoda@austarmetro.com.au and I'll reply with pics as attachments, I'll try and keep 'em small J-pegs but I'm hopeless with pooters so I apologise if they are big. Pete

A few weeks ago someone mentioned the fact that the late model Guzzi pistons seem to have some sort of teflon coating on and I scoffed as to it's long term durability. Well, I stripped my little hot-rod down (Again!) yesterday as I've decided the short stroke crank and Carillos belong in a race bike motor not in somethng for a fat old gumby like me to ride on the road and the RAM big bore kit I put in a few months ago, which had teflon coated piston skirts now has non-teflon coated piston skirts just as I expected. How many hours has it taken for the teflon to wear off? Well, I wouldn't of done more than six hours riding on it since I built it, (I know it's sad but I far prefer my 'Vert and SP to the hot-rod!). Anyway, if anyone would like to see some pics I can post 'em to somebody, Jaap has done this before for me but i won't bother him unless there is interest. Oh, has anybody here got a spare 88mm big-valve piston from a Mk IV/V/1000S knocking around. I need one to make the second string short stroke race engine work as it's CR is currently 6.4 to 1 Pete

I was going to make some silly comment about always using a mix of about 70% Nitrogen, 20% Oxygen, 2% Carbon di-oxide and a *secret* formula of other trace gasses but Jason beat me to it!!!! Some bicycle racers use Helium in their tyres forweight savings and I suppose that if you looked like this and/or worked for Honda you might think that the savings in unsprung weight might be worth worrying about but hey! We're talking about a Moto Guzzi here, it weight about half as much as a house, no, make that a small palace! Savng weight by filling the tyres with Helium would be about as effective as trying to empty the Pacific ocean by carrying it across the Panama isthmus one teaspoon at a time and emptying it into the Carribean! I love these stupid ideas, they're like those geniuses who periodically con the press into believing they've built an internal combustion engine that runs on water or some sort of perpetual motion machine powered by thought waves! Brilliant! I wish I was that imaginative. My secret trick is that I find that my bike goes ten times faster if I ride it wearing a wet-suit full of custard and enclose my head in a goldfish bowl full of warm beer, hang on, that sounds just like riding in England in winter! Pete

What a pity it's so ugly and doesn't have an automatic transmission No, really, it looks sweet. I'll be very interested to hear an honest opinion on it, there has been so much hyperbole, misinformation and plain, downright bollocks talked about the bike it will be good to hear from someone who is a.) an enthusiast and b.) Honest enough to give a decent assesment of what it's really like. Jim's obviously someone who could have any damn bike he wants. He just happens to be barking enough to want an MGS01 He's got nothing to loose by talking it up if it's a piece of shit and nothing to gain by paning it if it's a good'n. I expect an essay of not less than 5,000 words but none of them over two sylables please 'cos I'm a bit dense........ Pete

If you want to see what oil starvation does to the bottom end of your motor take a squizz at these pics. http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=5byetdcf.6as4iikj&x=0&y=ktp5rz This is the remanents of a Cali IIIi I had in that blew up. If you want the whole sorry saga I can post up the damage report I wrote for the customer. Good news is that the shop responsible have put their hands up and admitted fault. Pete.

Don't bet on it Carl. There have been a number of lawsuits brought, won, lost on appeal and then re-instated on counter appeal in Oz for people who have hurled themselves headlong into the surf, sometimes from quite high rocks and sometimes while pissed! The prosecutor's argument is that the council had not erected signs to say that throwing yourself off a rock platform into shallow surf while under the influence of alchohol might not be the brainiest idea since some ape hit a flint on a stone when there was some dry moss lying about!!!! And the judge and jury bought it!!!! God give us strength!!!! Also it may be noticed in civilized countries people who are reasonably well educated and inteligent have learnt that since the latter part of 20th century controlling one's fertility is pretty easy. Bright people don't breed much any more meaning that the population is being taken over by religious nut-cases and epsilon-minuses. I want to go and live in the very far north west of Tasmania, It may rain the whole time and blow a gale, (Of the freshest air in the world mind!) 364 days a year but there are bo f*cking people!!!!! Pete

Fair criticism Jim. I still don't like it though Pete

Yup, youre absolutely right! I am! How embarassing! If you see the man please buy him a drink from me. I had no intetion of wishing him dead I understand Todero was responsible for the Hi-Cam motor? So all you Daytona and Centauro owners, you especially have reason to remember him. Pete

It comes to us all but it's still sad. I believe he spent most of his final years designing racing yachts. Black armbands Guys! We lost Tonti a couple of years back. I think Todero was the last of the *Guzzi* men. Nowadays the engineering is done by faceless minions in Aprilia/Piagio I'd imagine. Guzzi needs another Tonti or Todero if they want to go ahead. Pete

OK, as mentioned by someone else, (Paul???) this isn't a RAM or any of the other lightweight, single plate units used in the 1100's. What it is is a replica flywheel made of alluminium that has been around for yonks, if you look at the recesses for the springs there are only eight of 'em. All the 1100's I believe use the 10 spring unit so this wouldn't fit, (well it would but the pressure plate wouldn't and clamping force would be marginal.) I don't know if it's common knowledge by I and another bloke, Rob Johnson, race a Guzzi over here in Oz, (When the bugger doesn't blow up!!!) and for three seasons we ran one of these wheels. I got it second hand from Dave, "Thrasher' Mildwater, an old mate. He had it in a Mk I LeMans he blew up chasing an M series BMW down an autobahn in Germany. When that bike got out to Oz we tarted it up and on-sold it but I snaffled the flywheel as part of the deal and it then served for several tens of thousands of KM in my short stroke hot-rod that got revved to nearly 10 grand regularly. After I got one too many invitations to empty my wallet into the NSW government's consolidated revenue and told to walk once too often I took it out of the hot-rod and it went into the racebike. Last year, (Almost a year ago exactly!) we threw a rod at Eastern Creek and as the crank stopped, (Like it does when a half rod lodges in the side of the crankcase!) the inertial forces were great enough to shear the flywheel bolts We have since fitted a super-lightweight single plate clutch but the alloy wheel *will* be going in the 'B' motor I'm building. I've checked it as carefully as I can without X-raying it and it honestly seems fine!!!! Whatever the anodising process that is used it's as tough as buggery. There has been NO damage to the teeth of the flywheel at all, and this wheel has copped a LOT of abuse. One important thing is that it is NOT a good idea to use Schnoore washers on the wheel as it does cut through the anodising. Schnoores on top of flat washers is what I use. Also because of the added thickness of the alloy wheel the thrust cup has to be machined or the clutch pushrod is too long. Whether this wheel was an abberation, whether it was wrongly fitted, or whether it was maybe a cheap copy from a less reliable supplier I don't know but in my experience these wheels are a happy thing. One failure shouldn't put people off completely. Mind you, all you sods with the late model 10 springer or the RAM single plater, (Not the one modified by Guzzi for fitment to the Scurra!) don't really have to worry as your clutches and flywheels are about as light as you can get anyway. Me? I like the Eldo flywheel in my SP Pete

I have a set of RAM barrels and pistons in my little hot-rod. They too have a teflon coating on the pistons. Will I expect any of it to be there on the thrust sides after a few thousand KM???? Probably not I can understand the thinking, low friction material, used in racers, etc. etc. but people forget that racers, *real* racers are designed to get maximum power etc. for a very brief period of time. After they are over the finish line it doesn't matter a toss if they fall into a billion tiny pieces!!! Much though most of us would like to think of our bikes as 'Racers on the Road' they ain't, and I tend to think that teflon coatings and the like are a load of old wank in normal, everyday, applications. I'm not fussed that my pistons have a teflon coating, my engine is adequately protected from it by an oil filter and a sludge trap, but to be honest I'd prefer it not to be there. Your opinion may vary but things like teflon coatings, asbestos exhaust windings, sodium filled valves and all the rest of the crap, (Dare I say Desmodromics???? ) are just a stupid waste of money. I haven't noticed reputable piston manufacturers like Wiseco rushing onto the bandwagon? Look at the FBF pistons for the V11, as far as I can remember no silly teflon coating there. Pete. (PS. I did a 1,200KM run oa Albury and back up through the Snowy Mountains opn my shitty old 44 BHP 'Vert over the last two days. My speed NEVER exceeded 85MPH and it was the best fun I've had in a fair old while! Then I found out the Race Bike has dropped a valve seat! Talk about a downer ) Pete

INA bearing info noted Thanks mate, look, I make no claims to knowing squat about V11's but having been around Guzzis for longer than some riders have been alive I'd be more than happy to believe that Guzzi would cheap out on bearings One of the problems we have in an age whre you are expected to pay $20,000 for a 'Consumer Durable' that is not Pete

Al, when you say just the crank and rods in the block I take it that the timing chain and sprockets weren't on??? The thing is that unless you have the timing gear on there is nothing to set the end float on the crank so it will move fore and aft until the web faces biff into the bearings. Once the crank sprocket is installed the crank is pulled through the sprocket as the nut is tightened up and because it is all made pretty well the end float is set by the difference between the depth of the front main bearing and the crank journal. As Keith sez there are no tollerances listed in the manual, never have been. If you ensure something is made right you presumably don't need to list a tollerance . 4 to 8 thou, 0.1 to 0.2mm is IMHO fine, you can go a thou or two bigger but no lower. Also, for the benefit of JuhaV, there *IS* a thrust face on the front bearing. If you pull it out and look at it you'll see that the back where it faces the crank isn't flat, there are two, *channels* machined in it and it's through these that lubrication gets to the thrust faces. It is very important that the crank doesn't *float* too much, there is a strictly limited amount of side play in the rods on the crank-pin and in the little ends on the gudgeons. If the crank was able to lurch back and foward under the influence of acceleration and/or braking enormous side loadings would be imposed on rods, pistons and bores and believe me, they wouldn't last long!!!!! Generally speaking, because the design is so simple, people tend to think that it's manufacture is also slapdash and inaccurate. In fact Guzzis are, generally, very well and accurately machined compared to many products and a lot of thought went into ensuring that by accuracy of manufacture repair and maintenance would be simple and easy. Setting the end float by doing up a nut on the end of the crank is a fine and splendid thing, it's common to most cars and many modern motorbikes but when the Guzzi motor was concieved most motorbike engines were still running rolling ellement cranks and some, like the appalling Ducati designs were so poorly made you had to shim absolutely everything to get it even roughly the right size!!!! The Guzzi motor may well be a box with a couple of sticks in it, but they're well made sticks!!!!! Pete

You'd have to admit that the Combat Wombat manufactured by Hodaka was pretty silly! V-Strom I think just about takes the biscuit at the moment though, what's that all about????? Pete

I dunno what clutch your bike has in but the last of the 10 spring, twin plate units are about as light as you can get them. OK, you can drill a few holes but apart from that I'd suggest that you might compromise their reliability if you take too much out. There is the RAM single plate option. Lots of people swear by it, but Having seen a few I reckon their weight is too far out from the centre of rotation to make much difference. I'm quite happy to be wrong on this though, after all, my favorite bike is a heavy flywheel Convert, (Currently spread from arsehole to breakfast all over the workshop Pete