pete roper

We had on in recently that had done the same thing with the retainer nuts on the intermediate shafts. The nuts and lock washers are standard SKF items. SKF can supply a socket for tightening/removing them as well but I have a complete set for all the Tonti/V11/CARC nuts made for me by Rolf Halverson twenty or more years ago. They’ve been a godsend. Michael has inherited them now.

Yeah, that’s it.

On the subject of flat tappet inspection there is a video in my YouTube feed of me pulling the left hand cambox on an 8V Griso that I made after some poor bloke on another board was told that his shop was going to charge him $2,000 just to inspect the tappets! A figure so mind numbingly absurd I felt compelled to react! The video from the point where I started on the motor, (Having removed the ‘Wing’ before the filming started. The ‘Wing’ is retained by three fasteners.) is thirteen minutes long to the point where the cambox was disassembled on the bench! Working on the dodgy shop’s pay scale that would put me at being able to bill myself out at $8,000 per hour! I would have liked that! I’ll see if I can link it up here later. I wasn’t rushing either.

I think my definitive guide to rollerisation is posted here. It covers which models the factory say were flats but experience says some later than listed 2012 engines were still flat tappet. I’ve never heard of a 2013 plated bike with flats. In my experience unless a flat tappet motor is really ‘Ridden to Death’ rollerisation fixes the problem safely and effectively. For the layman I would say yes, seek out a post-‘12 model but as someone who has more experience than most of this issue I would say there is nothing to fear from a flattie engined bike as long as it was addressed when first the problem was detected via either noise or inspection. If it’s just some poorly maintained and neglected dunger that has been owned by Cletus the pig-f*cker and maintained by his seven toed cousin from the next holler over I’d say run a mile but there are numerous ‘Tell Tales’ that are easily checked on inspection that will enable you to easily identify if it’s likely to be a ‘Good-‘un’ or a ‘Bad-‘un’. Probably time I did a proper write up on that. Personally my opinion is that if you’ve ridden a properly tuned and mapped 8V you’d never look at a 2V the same way again.. And don’t get all ‘In my face’ over the odd numbering nomenclature. It’s just the way it is. Get over it. Even I’ve managed to…..

Yah. It’s the Ducati permanent mag Alt. One thing I can think of is was the stator or rotor removed and the rotor not stuck into the stator as a ‘Keeper’ for any length of time? If so it’s possible it may of lost its magnetism which will hinder charging.

Whenever I see things like that I always think there has to be something wrong with the bike? I mean? It’s a Harley, it’s got a wheelbase a mile long, its rake and trail figures are enormous, it’s travelling on a seemingly smooth road and it’s not even going very fast! Even shitty motorbikes don’t usually go bonkers if their fundamentals are sound. Tyre pressures, steering head bearings, swingarm and wheel bearings etc.

Michael can do it I’m sure. He’s taken over my biz, was my understudy for best part of a decade. Best Guzzi mechanic I know. Knows enough about V11’s to do a clutch easily enough. Might not be the fastest because of the chair but I can guarantee it will be done right. PM me and I’ll give you my phone # and then I can text you his details. We’re just outside Canberra. Pete

Yup, I had a customer from Gunning, a few Km away, that had a red one. The red is very striking as well.

This board has some weird censorship. Since when was d-i-c-k a word so gratuitously obscene it needs to be tipexed!?

Very underrated the V9. At one stage they got within a bee’s @#$$#! of building a ‘Budget’ V85 with the V9 powerplant and MUIG 3 controller and to be honest I think I would have preferred it to the V85. I think they were going to call it something uninspiring like the V85-X? They even did promotional videos but then it just vanished. (Shrug?)

What exactly are you looking for? Most parts there are either manufacturable, like the bush for the lever, or substitutable for parts from other models. Stuff like the selector pawl is universal to all five speeds.

I’ve only ever seen one Harley doing what it was designed for with both style and aplomb. Back about twelve years ago now I did one of my ‘Big’ tours of the USA, how lucky am I? On that trip I was on my Mana GT and after buggering about in the Deep South I headed westwards. Towards the end of the trip I took one of the interstates across the deserts of either UT or AZ. Can’t remember if it was 15 or 40, it matters not. But somewhere out in the wastelands, (Which I love by the way.) a bloke on a Road King joined the highway at some god forsaken ‘West Frecklepork’ type of hamlet and we droned along for probably a couple of hundred miles or maybe more together. We both stopped to fuel up at a servo in the middle of nowhere and exchanged pleasantries while we got drinks, (No need for a piss! It was HOT and we both necked about a gallon of water and took more in reserve! Place filling our jackets with ice from the soft drink machine!) and then went on our way. I followed behind and the burble of the, not overly loud, Road King was a joy to hear. It was probably the perfect bike for just casually eating miles in the Desert West of the US. Eventually he pulled off down an exit to another bumfuck hamlet that probably the people who lived there had never heard of but he gave me a cheery salute as he did so and I returned it as I and the little Aprilia soldiered on for another couple of hours until I cried uncle and rested overnight in yet another tiny, shagnasty little town where the food was terrible, the bed uncomfy and the most memorable thing was the barmaid at the dive bar I went to had the most astonishing false tits I’ve ever observed in my life! Made even more fantastic by the fact that they were obviously several decades younger than the rest of her! No judgement from me. I’m no oil painting or glittering Adonis. But as an example of anthropoid artifice she was a stunning beacon of, well, something! She was also utterly charming and drove my slightly pissed self back to my motel and wished me happy travels. It’s memories like those that make a life worth living. And are also a reason not to totally despise Harley’s.

I think you are correct. Memory loss is a thing……who knew?

‘Gambalunga’ means ‘Long-Legs’ I believe and from memory was the name that was given to the 120* V-Twin GP bike. ‘Gambalungino’ means ‘Little Long-Legs’. The 120* twin was very innovative for its time and used offset crank pins for perfect primary balance. Something not used by other manufacturers until the 1980’s I believe.

Centy was granddad of Griso. How could I not like it? Certainly it’s appearance was ‘Challenging’ when it was launched but it was a brave move by a cash strapped company. Certainly it would be easier to start such a project from one of the ‘CARC’ platform bikes but because of their large, long swingarm all such ‘Specials’ end up looking like shit in my book. I still haven’t seen a ‘Custom’ CARC bike that looks better than a stock or lightly modified Griso.

If the dash is blanking out it means voltage is marginal. The dashboard has a built in failsafe protection that if the battery voltage drops below a certain figure, (9V? Can’t remember off the top of my head.) it will abort the start and kill all power to the ecu to protect it from voltage spiking if the engine does start. The ‘Service’ warning will sometimes appear if the voltage drops to close to that critical point and it may also trigger various error codes in the dash and ecu. The voltage drop is due to the current demand from the starter which is very high and if there aren’t sufficient CCA in the battery it will drop below criticality. Usually when the dash re-boots after this event you’ll get a code appear on the LCD screen ‘AMG’ something or other which will appear before the tacho does its ‘Sweep’. Off you’re getting any of these symptoms it is most likely just a very tired battery and hopefully the ecu isn’t fried. It’s unlikely but not impossible. Thankfully ECU’s aren’t terribly expensive on the Bay of Fleas.

Any odd behaviour from the dashboard? Does it blank out when the engine is cranking?

That’s a weird set of faults. The fact that it’s saying the phase sensor has failed is interesting. Didn’t you say the injectors are firing and the plugs are sparking?

As I said. NGK have ceased production. The end! No more! Any at any shop will be NOS. I don’t know about Champion.

I have done a useful video on throttlebodies I recommend you watch. it covers some important stuff about the 50mm TB’s and the W5AM system.

The problem with a lot of gear sets that have been, and in some cases still are, offered for the venerable 2V motor is that they are utter shite. Shite material, shite production, shite tooth form or a combination of any or all of the above. Twenty years ago I ended up being abused and sometimes physically threatened by people who swore by the wretched things . I was told all sorts of guff, the funniest being that I had ‘Installed them wrong’! It’s three wheels on sticks! How hard can it be??? There were various commonly available types. Full alloy sets, sometimes made of Ergal, which is a particularly tough form of aluminium alloy, but often just seemingly any old cheesy junk. Then there were alloy/steel composite sets with a steel crank gear and aluminium oil pump and cam gears and finally a set with a nylon crank gear and aluminium pump and cam gears. Now ‘Back in the day’ I too was a dyed in the wool ‘Gears are best’ person and indeed, if made correctly from the correct materials, they really are. I spent several years exploring the different options but unlike many of the ‘True Believers’ I didn’t just fling them in and forget about them. I’d put them in and then regularly reopen and examine them for wear and damage. What I found was very disturbing. They ALL started failing almost immediately! Even when I tried modifying the timing chest so that the pump gear ran in an oil bath to assist in lubrication of the teeth they all failed. I actually have a ‘Rogues Gallery’ of a few failed sets of different types in my Flickr gallery, these include some pics taken by Joe Caruso of similarly buggered sets he’s removed. These include some of the Ergal sets made by Agostinis that some of the more wild-eyed swear by! I have terrible trouble getting pics to post on V11 LeMans.com but I can probably send a link to the gallery if anyone is interested? The end result is I refused to install them. They were and are, engine wreckers. No ifs or buts! This doesn’t mean I don’t think gears are ‘The Best’ solution. Simply that these comparatively cheap commercial sets aren’t it! FWIW back in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s you used to be able to buy helically cut steel gears with quite a fine tooth pitch. I shelled out for a set of these way back when and they were brilliant. I clocked up an astonishing distance with them in my ‘Primary’ bike and used them in my short stroke hot-rod. While the helical cut meant they would sap a bit of power it also gave you the advantage you could shim the cam gear to finesse the cam timing to a ridiculous degree and with the cams I was playing with every bit helped! I ended up giving them to a bloke called Steve Harney, (I think?) who was racing at the same time as Rob Johnson and I were in the early 2000’s. I’ve no idea where they are now! These weren’t common, have long been unavailable but if you want gears Joe’s are certainly the only ones I’d be bothered with. For most everyday riders though keeping the chain and running a Valtech blade type tensioner is perfectly adequate. A new chain and tensioner will probably be required every 140-150,000 Km in normal use. If you throw a new set at your engine at 100,000 your sprockets will probably last until the sun shrinks to become a white dwarf so longevity isn’t really an issue! The cost is also paltry compared to Joe’s gears. So really, it’s down to choice really, and the depth of your pockets and how obsessive you are. As for the noise? I love the noise!

If I were going to be building another 2V engine I’d be all over these like a rash. For *ordinary* people who are just riding their bikes gears are really a bit of overkill, but like the fact that twin throttle bodies appeal to my sense of ‘engineering purity’ rather than a single one I’d have to say I’d like gears. I am though, a complete twat!

One thing I often get is some wild eyed idiot telling me that his shitty, poorly maintained, Cali 1100 can out handle my CARC bikes. Even better I’ve had people saying their early LeMans is faster! I’ve even had these people challenge me to a ‘Race’ to prove their point! What sort of lunatic is going to respond to a challenge like that FFS? I’m knocking on the door of seventy! These toothless imbeciles are usually older than me! And they expect me to engage in a ‘Race’ with them? On a public road? With all of the associated imbeciles and road furniture mixed in? Nah, they’re right of course. I’m just too pusillanimous to engage their visceral manliness and their wheezing bags of shit are just too good for my crappy ‘Modern’ motorbike with its plastic tank that has been strangled by government legislation and overreach! Give me f*cking strength……..

Caps. http://kandstech.com/productreleases/sprc.pdf Note. This will be useful for V11 owners too as you will probably need new caps after you bin it. From memory the NGK’s were SB05’s caps.

They are copper core wires and yes, resistor caps. The resistor can be damaged by careless prying but in this case I’m pretty certain the problem is down to the rubber of the cap being torn. The fact it was raining when the problem arose is one indicator. Thing is when damaged the caps quite often don’t start arcing immediately. It seems to usually take about five to thirty Km for the problem to appear. Just far enough for it to be bloody inconvenient! Once the arcing happens though it’ll form a carbon track through the crack in the rubber and it’s all over red rover! Taking the plugs out and putting them in the caps and testing them against the heads is fine. You’ll still get a spark at the plug because the crack in the cap is away from the head and the spark isn’t being stressed. Electricity takes the path of least resistance and outside of the engine jumping the plug gap is easy. Once the plug is in the head the conditions, heat, compression etc. are far more hostile and so the spark looks for an easier route to earth. A nice damp crack in the boot of the plug cap is perfect! Wham-Bam-Thankyou-Mam and it’s all over bar the shouting. It’s really important NOT to ride in this condition as the uncombusted fuel from the dead cylinder gets pumped through into the exhaust where it can combust in the catalytic converter. That as you can guess is when the fun really starts!