pete roper

Fox, when you get your Guzzi bring it up to Bungendore for a visit and we can check that it's been pre-delivered correctly and I can probably point out some things that are worth fixing or checking. No charge, just interested in making sure that owners of new bikes are getting looked after. Pete

All the best from 'Down Under' too. I'll probably thake the 'vert for a bit of a canter before lunch and before the roads fill up with pissed people heading to the beach, (Bungendore is on the road between Canberra, the Capital of Oz, and the coast. Canberra drivers are a dozy bunch at the best of times, you can imagine what they're like when they're all hurrying to the beach to get sunburnt and stuff their faces with food and grog!). Weather here yesterday? A warm 33*C, humid and thundery. Today? It's cooler, about 24*C and overcast but not raining. Ideal riding weather really Anyway, have a for me and don't ride if you're . Enjoy lots of and enjoy your holiday whether you're a Christian or not. Tex, I hope your gay pal gets a nice new frock. Don't be hard on him, remember, it's an exciting time Christmas Pete PS. for all you poor souls stuck in the frozen midwest if you really want to feel sickened you can always visit. http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR403.shtml and see what we're having to put up with

I know I've used the word once today but I've since gone and flagellated myself with hot barbed wire but THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "SUCK"!!!!! You can increase the pressure differential between the cylinder and the inlet tract but you acnnot "SUCK" anything into your engine. All the gas and fuel that gets in there is pushed in from the outside, not sucked in from the inside. There is a difference. Pete

You have to remember that pressurisation only happens at, (I think, ask Will, he'll give you the good oil.) at the cube root of speed. What this effectively means is that you will percieve no real benefit under about 120MPH so who gives a fat rats arse? Rossi and all those knobbers in GP can benefit because most of the time they are in that sort of speed band. Us mere mortals? Forget it, especially on a turdbox like a Guzzi with it's breathing compromises and weedy little 2 valve combustion chamber . Where I do think there is a LOT of merit is moving the air intakes from just behind the exhaust headers ( What f#ck-head thought that one up????) to somewhere else where there is a chance of ingesting air that isn't already hot. Could this perhaps be a weirdo Guzzi answer to the endemic problem of the wretched things running rich in winter???? Suck in hot air and fool the ATS into giving a mesage to the 15M that it's hotter than it is to lean out the mixture? (Bangs head on keyboard!) Sounds like a typically half-arsed Guzzi solution ! Before anyone asks, no you can't reverse the heads and use forward facing ram tubes Cali owners seem to find big benefits from opening up the airbox. I'd expect V11 owners to get a similarly good result, but only if the FI can be adjusted to suit as the important thing is to keep the stoichimetric (????) ratio correct at *about* 14.7 to 1, Yes, you may gain slightly more outright power by going slightly richer but that will depend a lot on the cam/breathing and where you want the go. Cool, dense air, and a proper ATS and ETS plus an EGA to set the poxy thing up on a Dyno are the only real way to sort out this sort of crap to get it to work properly. This takes time, knowledge and skills I don't have, (Did I ever mention I like Carbs ) but others do. The simple fact that the motor is having lighter, less dense air pushed into it though means that performance will be compromised even if everything else is set up precisely so it works right. More oxygen atoms in the cylinder means that you can add more fuel so the chemical reation when ignited makes more heat which will expand the gas in the chamber more exerting a greater force on the piston which will cause more torque at the crank, (Torque= Force x Distance.). Power= Torque x Revs. There are a lot of other important issues to consider but that is the basic bottom line. Increasing the pressure at the atmospheric side of the manifold by the weedy amounts you'll get below that *rough* 120MPH mark will achieve nothing. Getting dense air in will make a significant difference!!!!! Pete

Fritz's point is very valid. Quite simply you aren't going to get huge horsepower out of an air cooled V twin with a shaft drive with the capacity limits we can play with and only two valves per cylinder. The reason why most people ride Guzzis is because they feel so good. I don't even own a V11, I own a crappy old 1980 Convert, a crappy old 1980 SP and a little green hot-rod that is based on, surprise, surprise, an 1980 model I love them all dearly and don't *want* a V11 because my older bikes do everything I want and I find that even the weedy 44 rear wheel BHP of the 'Vert is more than adequate for my needs, (I managed to round up a couple of be-clown-suited nongs in South Dakota on the 'vert with full touring gear and they were on Buell 'Neckbolts' or whatever they're called!). I'm not suggesting that improvements can't be made, remember the V11 is the same as any other motorbike in respect of the fact that is a production machine assembled by assembley workers on a production line with ALL the compromises that in involves but simply because it's 1050CC doesn't mean it's possible to build a tyre smoking monster out of it. If your expectations are realistic then you can have a lot of fun but I'll say it again, GET THE SUSPENSION SORTED FIRST!!!!!!! This will gain you many seconds at the track or on your favorite bit of 'Bung-hole' road. Fritz's points are all very valid. What I would say though s if you want a track-day bike get an RGV250 or an Aprilia 250. There's nothing like the smell of 2-stroke in the morning Pete

Probably the best thing to realize is that any modifications to the motor are going to require serious work on the FI. Since you're in Canada probably the best bet is to contact Todd at Guzzitech about a PCIII as these seem to be the go and have namy satisfied customers. The V11 donk is in a fairly high state of tune, (for a shitty old pushrod hemi anyway.) I'd be leeery of trying anything to radical. You have to remember that if you go chasing HP you'll compromise lower speed running, no way around it. There's another bloke who has posted here recently who was looking at a whole load of probably very expensive mods for not a huge gain. In the new year we're going to be twin plugging his heads and using one of Cliff's computers as a starter and he's already spending money getting the suspension properly sorted by an expert, (Frank Pons, ex- Cagiva GP, now lives in Sydney.) After that we can continue to play but performance increases are both expensive and incremental. You aren't just going to be able to bung a wad of cash at it and get an RI beater, sorry, but it isn't going to happen. I'm intending to report here on gains we get with the V11 I've got coming in so perhaps if you bide your time we can be more helpfull. At the moment though information on major work is a bit thin on the ground. I'm certainly not suggesting that I will be able to build a huge, 'Biggus Dickus' type engine, I'm not into that off of the racetrack, but I do think we'll be able to at least get *some* substantial improvement over the stock unit. Pete

The difference, the *gap* between lower gears is bigger. This means that the various shafts, dogs and the rotating mass of the crank have to *adjust* more, essentially travel through a greater arc, before the dogs can slide into engagement and it's also happening a lot quicker in lower gears so there is less chance for the slow, human motivated, engagement to take place. I do agree that you have to understand how a constant mesh box works before you can fully grasp what you are trying to achieve with a gear change, clutched or clutchless. It's intersting to note that in an attempt to improve, ie, speed up changing on the 5 speed box the Carb Sports and some of the early i's had only 3 dog engagement on the pinions. This, aong with the lack of a rear wheel cush drive is responsible for almost all Carb Sport gearboxes going tits-up at low mileages. A gearbox, any gearbox, in this sort of application is a huge series of compromises. Whether you change clutching or clutchless won't make wear and strain go away, but both can be used if you know wha youre doing!!!! Pete

Virtually all motorbike gearboxes since the dawn of forever have been constant mesh. As I said it's the difference between ratios that makes clean changing with the five speeder so much more difficult but the six speeder is a far more precise tool in almost all ways, you just can't adjust it as accurately as the old 5 speed and are depenedent on them having ensured it was machined correctly at the factory . On the whole they seem to do a much better job with the CNC cutter than Guiseppe ever did with the shim box Pete

While it obviously does work I don't much like the idea of running a gilmer belt, even if it's supposed to be able to take it, in oil and everyone must know how much I despise the commnly available gears The V11's all have the *late model* tensioner picured above. Now while I tend to think it has a bit of a pissy little spring and looks a bit inadequate the imfamous Ken Hand has covered some absurd mileage on his '98 EV with the same tensioner and the whole thing is still quiet and the timing accurate so I suppose that is a fairly good indicator that it's a good unit that does the job. Certainly if your V11 has done less than 80,000 miles/120,000 Km I wouldn't worry about swapping out the chain. I use a lot of the 'Valtek'/ Stucchi 'Blade' type tensioners. Both my SP and the Mighty 'Vert have them in and I see them as a great way of ensuring that a chain will last in excess of 120,000Km, I've seen many go a lot further! If you do replace the chain and tensioner I really, really don't think it's worth trying to do it without removing the sprockets. Doing so isn't a big job and if you do you can pull the oil pump while you're in there and check it too. Like so many things on a Guzzi people try and save themselves the hassle of removing some part during a service operation and them make the job about ten times more difficult and time consuming. Don't bother. It's not rocket science and when you've done it you'll wonder why you were ever worried!!!!!! Pete

This is a real can of worms. As Januz says constant mesh gearboxes, (Mind you most cars now use CM boxes too. I only found that out recently as the last car box I had apart was some horrible Leyland thing fron the '50's and that was about 1980, I don't like cars ) are very different from car boxes as the selection mechanisms are quite different. The main thing is that the wider the *gap* between each gear the more parts have to accelerate and decellerate between changes of gear to allowfor the smooth engagement of the dogs to enable the clean engagement of the next gear. With the old five speeder the lower gears have a very wide *gap* between them and consequently clutchless changes almost always result in horrible noises and a lunge for the lever if you try it between 1'st and 2nd and to a lesser degree between 2nd and 3rd. the heavier the flywheel the greater the chance of you f#cking it up . 3rd-4th and 4th-5th are pretty much a case of preloading the lever and giving the throttle a twitch, even if, like me, you have a HUGE flywheel off an Eldo in your bike . That's up changing. Downchanges on the 5 speeder are a different matter. No, it's not impossible but it is bloody hard to get it right all the time. To be honest, I find no real advantage in not using the clutch, even on the hot-rod which has a CR box, no flywheel to speak of an is always operated at high revs. Even if I'm playing 'Mr boy-racer-tryhard-wanker' I find that because I'm concentrating on changing gear so hard I tend to muff up other things but as I've often stated I ride like Gumby! I know that Rob doesn't use the clutch much on upchanges on the racer but I think he uses it for downchanges because when he's on the picks for turn 2 at Eastern Creek, (He can now take turn one flat out which to me indicates he's off his crumpet, thats about 220KPH, the Tonti steering stability and skinny tyres help a lot here! ) he'll be going down more than one gear and trying with all his might not to loose the front end and have one of those bloody Honda's run over his head, (again!!). The various ratios in the V11 six speeder are a lot closer together, the flywheel weight is a lot less allowing the crank to accelerate and decellerate quicker and the change is a lot more rapid and precise so clutchless changing will be a lot easier. I haven't had enough experience of the V11's to know which gears you can *safely* start clutchless changing from so I'm not going to offer any real advice. Januz is right though, if done properly clutchless changing will do no harm. Muffing it up though gets expensive fairly quickly. Of course if you're sensible and civilized you ride a Convert like me and all of this silly gear changing nonsense becomes immaterial Pete

If tyou do 'em one at a time tou increase the risk of warpage. Far better to crack 'em all off then remove all four of the *inside* ones and retorque them after dabbing your finger in the oil in the tocker area ad smearing a bit on tthe studs. When those four are re torqued to say 25 pounds then remove the sleeve nut and the one under the plug and lube their threads before re-installing and torquing them to 25. Then just go round in a crosshatch pattern and bang 'em all down to 34. When rebuild I start the motor, allow it to get good and hot. Leave it overnight and then re-torque when it's cool. Then I repaet the process at 500miles/800Km and forget about it. On my hard used, high mileage dungers I'll tend to re-torque every year or two but only probably because of force of habit, they probably don't need it. Pete

Since the dawn of time the correct torque has been stated as 32-34 ft/lbs. Given how tight most modern Guzzis are torqued down my guess is that they over-torque 'em nowadays to preclude the need for re-torquing prior to a motor rebuild, (ie, not at the first service or as a yearly maintenance item.) and this might explain why there have been cases of studs snapping when the heads are removed on 1100's. Don't forget that if you wish to re-torque the nuts must all be released in a crosshatch patern and then the threads lubricated before they are re-torqued, if you want to do it properly. Pete

When I was in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago I and the reptilian Mr. Denny spent a considerable period of time examining one of the *aftermarket* RAM units and while the actual *back* of the flywheel was, I'm pretty sure, the same thickness I still feel there were differences. Look, I'm going to Melbourne again on Thursday. Perhaps I should take the shitterclutch down with me and take some photo's so people can compare for themselves. Moto One is, of course, a long way from where I'm actually going to pick up the 'Vert but if enough people are intersted I'll try to fit it in. No promises though..... Pete

Bill is, without a doubt, one of the most decent and honourable men I've ever met. This would seem to be reflected in the transactions he performs and the service he therefore recieves. I think there's a lesson there for people who go chasing the cheap Pete

OK already! I'll post the pic(s) to Jaap I got one of Cliff on his Corsa too so you can see what 'Da Man' looks like. Saw a new Breva owner today, guess what? she wants me to do the PD on the bike because she doesn't trust the dealer she purchased it from Jaap, what';s your email again Pete

Whoops! I knew they were fairly big but I'm completely doltish when it comes to 'pooters so I wasn't sure if they were enormous or simply VAST! Ireally like the one of the Eldo and Corsa together it shows the heritage and similarities to great effect. If Jaap want me to mailone to him I can but it ain't a V11 so it may not be the right place. Pete

Yup, I couldn't agree more, if Rob could get to the stage where R1 riders wouldn't talk to him by lunchtime at race schools when he was riding his slightly warmed over Mk I Lemon a well set up V11 and you shuld be able to have a ball!!!! Kev Foote takes great pleasure in sticking it up 'Bussas and Fartbloods on his 48BHP Pantah, this is where the real fun is!!!!! I can't ride for toffee, so it means little to me, and sad though it may seem what I really enjoy is swallowing large lumps of horizon on beasts like my SP and 'Vert, (It finally got here, even though the shipping bastards broke the screen !) but I really *do* like the new Guzzis, I just don't need one, that's all. I really hope that this bloke can get the parts for the gearbox job off the dealer as I'm dying to get inside a six speed box and so far haven't been able to. I stand by my comments though. keep engine mods to a minimum until you've got the handling ridgey-didge. Then add as much midrange as you can, and then a bit more . Then go mad and add a flywheel that weighs half as muh as the bike.... Whoops, wrong forum Keith, if you can stick up one of those pics from the workshop of the 1100Corsa and the Eldo. I know they aren't V11's but they show the heritage nicely and I think it important for Nuovo Guzzisti to appreciate that Pete

Got an e-mail from a bloke in Qld with a 2000 V11. Apart from the fact he's still waiting for the parts for the gearbox recall he's interested in doing a bit of performance work. I've tried to disuade him from too many engine mods, telling him to go and get the suspension fully sorted by someone like Frank Pons first, but he *is* interested in a few bits and bobs including twin plugging and one of Cliff's 'Pooters. I've explained that I don't rate lighter pistons or rods as a first option and until the clutch starts to slip don't f#ck with it!!! So hopefully we'll be doing some twin plug work with a tuneable, closed-loop system on an essentially *standard* apart from twin plugged motor. Note. I've deliberately tried to disuade him from hideously expensive super-duper-bigus-dickus' type mods because I honestly believe that if you want track performance for a fraction of the cost you can get far more track-bike with a 3 year old CBR600 or RGV250. Love a Guzzi for what it is, not what it's not!?!?! Oh, Enzo, if you have a template for your V11 style windage plate I'd like to copy it, I'll do a run if there is enough interest and pre-orders, as I do believe that it would be one of the first and most sensible mods you can make on a V11. Pete

I believe that he's currently got one running on a bike in Sydney but I'm sure Cliff monitors this board so you can probably ask him, if not email him direct. Pete

Bzzzzzt!!!!! Bzzzzzzt!!!! Hello? Can you hear me??? This is Australia calling(Crackle, crackle!!!) What Paul sez is 100% right. The recall you refer to is due to the sliding muffs on some early gearboxes being made of latex. It has sweet FA to do with the clutch and was addressed with a worldwide recall several years ago, nothing Oz specific. The con-rod bolts were anoher issue which once again was addressed yonks ago. Look, if you want to start scare mongering at least do your research first. I personally want to find one of these shitty V11's that hasn't been properly modified so I can buy it for a song. Not because I really want a V11 but because if I get one then I have an excuse to fit one of Cliff's 'pooters and get him to explain it all to me while I stand with glazed eyes and a slack jaw trying to grapple with concepts I don't understand properly Pete

Nah, I did a run of them and they're all gone. If you have a competent machinist though the designs and instructions are all on the AIGOR site in Oz. Pete

Well I never! Pete

Yup, As I have said a true windage plate would have scrapers and screens but I've always seen these sorts of plates reffered to as windage plates so that's what I called 'em. If people would prefer me to call them a baffle plate I'm quite happy with that. I'm more interested in what it can achieve and just to repeat the main advantages are that it helps the breather system cope and secondly will help prevent oil surge and exposure of the pick-up under hard acceleration and braking. The fact that my machine runns appreciably cooler with a plate fitted surprised me and was simply an added bonus. Once again, I DON'T claim that it's some sort of miracle cure for all ills, it's simply something I've found successful on older models and the principle would seem to be similarly useful on later models. Incidentally guzzi323 sent me an email via the forum and Helicopter Jim has done so in the past. How the hell do I reply to these as they don't seem to include the poster's email address? Do I just reply as I wuld to any other mesage and the miracle of technology takes care of the rest of it????

And thereby hangs the nub! Over the last few years I've done several short production runs of not only my own interpretations of things but also stuff that people were clamoring for. Tapered roller steering head conversions for smallblocks! Real ones, not the shite only one taperered roller on the bottom because that is where the stress is ( ) with inserts and a longer stem to take 30205's at a fraction of the price of the Guzzi-crap cup and cone bicycle bearings. I was told people would slaughter their mothers for such a thing and they stayed away in droves!!! It took me a year and ahalf to get rid of 'em and I didn't turn a cent! With the trays? I made a run of 50 and still have at least a dozen! I've given several away. Kev got two! One is going on our Mille and if he wants he can stick the other one on his MkV. I gave one to Greg, Enzo and Cam, Wayne and Bill also got them for nix. I sourced and offered to supply the Fiat springs I recommend for hotter motors and once again I ended up with stock on the shelf that I ended up puting in customers' motors just to get rid of 'em. "Rev your T3 to 9,000 Sir? No worries!!!" Look, Guzzis are such a weird and eclectic field that everybody is going to try and skin the cat differently. In my tiny mind there is nothing wrong with that, but it does mean that it is highly unlikely that there will ever be a.) agreement on what is the *best* way of doing things or b.) an easy and guaranteed way of turning a quid from it. If you want a simple example just look at the arguments about sorting out or altering the fuel injection! Daggers drawn at two paces on that one and the thing is all the solutions work but their protagonists get all hot under the collar and protective about *their* speciality! Look, I'm all in favor of people modifying their machines. I personally see any factory product as just that, a factory product, built down to a price and compromised at every step of the manufacturing process. Anything from adding shiny bling to modifying the f@ck out of the engine, gearbox, driveline, chassis, is FINE by me but I'm afraid I'm no longer naieve enough to beleive that any of us are going to be able to retire to the South Pacific and have nubile young titters wait on us hand and foot for the rest of our lives on the profits from manufacturing weirdo parts for obscure, obsolete, Italian motorbikes. If I read about something that I see as actively dangerous or damaging mechanically, (Poxy alloy timing gears f'rinstance! ) I'll rail against it with all might but otherwise I say live and let live. We're all experimenting and with experimentation there is always an element of risk. If you can't hack that I'd suggest selling your bike, (Any bloody bike!) and buying something simple and trustworthy like Toyota Camry. The downside to that is that travelling in a Toyota Camry is like travelling in a hearse without actually being dead. In fact being dead in a hearse is probably considerably more exciting AND enjoyable than a Camry! Me? I'll continue to bugger-arse around with my poxy old 's because a.) I can and b.) they deserve it. And so should you, because without striving for betterment we all might as well give up and start watching 'Reality TV' and personally I'd rather stick my @#$$#! in a blender Pete

I was planning on doing the calcs when I had a spare moment but you've got in first, thanks. It's alsp worth remembering that the crank itself is a bloody great irregular shaped piece of steel that is in no way aerodynamic so drag is going to be *up there*!. Yes, ideally a propperly designed plate to maximise the efficiency should have web scrapers and screens but this would require a lot of farting about. A large amount of the benefit can be achieved simply by 'dry-sumping' the engine with a plate such as Enzo's, this isn't a new idea, it's been around for many years on Guzzi big blocks and is known to cure the breathing problems on older machines. The baffling effect of the plate will also be very iseful on the broad sump models, (And yes, the Sport Corsa is essentially the same internally as the V11 motor.) which have the nasty habit of exposing their oil pick-ups. Pete