pete roper

If the poor child gets down this way there is always a safe place for a bit of R&R here. If he's in the 19-24 sort of age group I'm sure that my daughter would be more than willing to take her out and corrupt her with the nightlife of Canberra Pete

They should do. Try turning one of the yokes through 180 degrees and seeing if the alignment changes, it may of been taken apart before and reassembled wrongly. I'm comming over again in March, towards the end of March, fo finalise my Mum's estate and sell the houses in Cambridge etc. Pete

Look you swivell-eyed, bog-trotting git. At least I don't have to equip my bike with water-wings to float it around like you'd have to in Ireland . Actually, you're right, the main roads from Bunged-end are on the whole straight and boring. If you follow the road east to Braidwood though and thence to Nelligen and Batemans Bay you'll see that things get pretty good, pretty quick. Biggest problem with that road, commonly known as Clyde Mountain, is that during the summer especially at weekends it's full of sub-morons on two and four wheels. The four wheeled types all crawl along at 50kph and when there is an overtaking lane one will pull out to overtake and crawl past as 60 taking the entire 2+km of the lane to get past one car! Even if they do get past before this they feel it incumbent uppon themselves to remain in the overtaking lane blocking any and all other traffic. The two wheeled numpties all ride it like a race track but unfortunately, since most of them have done zero chassis set up, when they over-cook it they have no hope of keeping everything together. One of my mates dropped in two days ago haveing just come up the mountain and half way up there was a big delay cause by a fleet of ambulances and the care flight helicopter blocking the road, (they all had their engines turned off which is never a good sign.). Seems some young turk on a TOTR sportsbike had exited off the road on a left hand bend crossing the centreline and the other lane and shooting off the road. Since the escarpment was really steep at this point he would of hit the trees at crown height, my mate sez you could see the hole he'd punched through the branches of a couple of trees about 40 feet from the base of their trunks! The bike, and presumably the rider, were invisible, w-a-a-a-y off down the escarpment in the scrubb somewhere. Nah, don't like riding it when they're about! Within a couple of hundred Km of here we have some truly stunning roads. Some on the South Coast are great but there are also the Snowy Mountains just inland and apart from being heavily policed they are beautiful and spectacular in a gaunt and barren sort of way. Even around here there are some good little minor roads, some of the Yuppy estates have a few nice twists and turns but the people who live there do dumb things like feeding and encouraging Kangaroos so you have to be super-alert if you don't want to spear Skippy while you're having fun! Pete

Actually, rather than it occuring at a tyre change my guess is that it occured when the gearbox recall was done in 2003 or whenever! It's probably been running misaligned for years! All it really tells us is that Guzzis are incredibly tough! Luckily it was only out by one spline, (And why the hell can't Guzzi just cut a hunting spline on the shaft so thet not even complete numbskulls can get it wrong!?). Even one spline out though will impose large sinusoidal variations to the loadings on the shaft/trunnions/ gearbox and final drive components, I've seen 1100 Sports with the ends twisted off their pinions by these forces, it's no laughing matter! No wonder it was handling a bit wonky . Anyway, there seemed to be no harm done here and it's a fifteen minute fix so . Made me a case of beer anyway Pete

The cheque's in the mail, along with the enormous pair of comedy breasts you wanted me to pick up in Fyshwick 'cos you were worried about the missus 'Finding Out'! Pete

Alex, I'd have to say that getting 100HP at the crank on a Guzzi big twin is never going to be *easy* and it's going to radically tax various aspects of the engine, never mind the rest of the machine and reliability WILL be compromised. Dave, surely all the benefits from the titalium, ceramic etc. bits will immediately be negated by the extra weight of any frame bracing? Look, you and anyone else are obviously free to do anything you like to your machines but the originator of this post asked for cheap tuning options. Few, if any, things will get you the immediate improvement in point to point times that getting your suspension sorted will, I think that's really all I and probably Hackster, were trying to say. Pete

There have been so many rumours about the Stelvio floating aroud I wouldn't be the least bit surprized if there wasn't *some* sort of prototype running around Mandello. By all accounts there have been some new/strange looking bikes in the vicinity. Whether this is a photoshop or not the idea looks pretty close to what you'd expect. 8V engine, Aprilia-esque styling and the typical 'Parts-Binny' look of a Guzzi . Pete

Sorry Nigel, I completely missed this one. Hopefully you found all the info you needed in the gearbox strip article? When ou replaced the input bearing did you also replace the output shaft one? This is always a good idea, as is using AC3 bearings as these have more balls per race and a serpentine metal cage rather than the plastic cage of the bearings Guzzi chooses to use for cost purposes. Pete

Buggered if I know? I suppose it's because a lot of folks believe all the bollocks they're fed about suspension tuning being a 'Black Art' . All it is is pushing oil through holes and bending bits of metal but it's all seen as some sort of 'White Man's Ju-Ju' There is also the fact that everybody *knows* that to go FAST you've got to have a powerful, highly tuned, (Prefferably to the point of unreliability!) motor that is noisy and cantankerous and it's worth spending HUGE amounts of money to get that! I suppose that's why Moto Morini were able to humble MV year after year in the 1950's with their crappy single cylinder shitbox when MV were racing with a high revving DOHC four Pete

Not unless it's something strange they're building *Over the Hill* at the new 'Joint Defence Headquarters' in between here and Queanbeyan Our answer to the Pentagon so my town is going to fill up with no-neck wastes of space with IQ's in single figures! And you wonder why I'm moving to the coast and etting up a scooter hire business???? Pete

Spend money on suspension, not motor. I ought to just put this up as a copy and paste so it can go in on every nquiry of this sort Pete

To be honest it's very, very rare for the fitting of O/S tappets to be strictly neccessary. It's usually only if the bores have been comtaminated by metal particles that one needs to bore the case and yes, the way I've done it is with a hand held reamer just like in the pics in the manwell! The condition you describe sounds a bit odd. I can't remember ever having seen chatter marks in a bore? Better safe than sorry and put in an oversize. One side benefit wou will probably experience is a dimunition in top end rattling. Many people are convinced that all the rattling is valve lash noise but I've found that over-boring the tappets also hs a marked effect on how noisy the motor is, for a while anyway! Pete

You're nuts! Where do you think the yokes and trunnions of your driveshaft is made? There are dozens of bits made in boxhead land, nippon and heaven alone knows where on V11's. Surely this sort of peculiar snobbery should be confined to the dustbin of history? Pete

Be warned. My daughter is currently in Amsterdam and believe me, you don't want to meet her! If you see a skinny, blonde, shrieking Scold accompanied by some poor hen-pecked bloke with a silly hat? That will be them. Run away, Run away!!!! Pete

No, you live in Minnesota, to get drugs as good as Dave's you *have* to move to Ca. Pete (Or Scunthorpe.)

And WTF is wrong with 'Santa's Helpers' being black for heavens sakes??? Is someone saying they are somehow inferior God, (if you believe in Him.) give us strength! So the fictitious Fat Bloke has black helpers in Holland. How long do we all have to hang on to all the BS from hundreds of years ago. Sure there are still racial and religious issues but Buddha on a Bike, it's a celebration of either a faith based or non faith based holiday. Surely we don't have to haul all the guilt and baggage from our great, great grandparents generations into it The whole 'Politically Correct' thing is insane. What next? Santa's helpers all have to be non-gender specific single parent creatures of more than single cell form? Bring back the 'Gay Whales for Nuclear Disarmament' I say. Ahhhh! That's better . Anyway, all the best to all of you, regardless of race or creed, just as long as you're not ugly! BTW, isn't it time we got some more Hooters? Pete

I'd strongly advise against using an FM oil in any air cooled engine. The FM's are a major contributor to bore glazing in air cooled donks, I have no idea why but as I said, I'd advise against 'em in our bikes. Pete

On the one hand I'd agree, but on the other I wouldn't The thing is that the Guzzi combustion chamber is a horrible anachronism that can't possibly continue to comply with polution regs. Pushrods are also noisy, the fact that current motors have ceased to rattle fills me with both awe and suspicion. The earlier Hi-Cams are/were lovely, but they were designed by a race engineer. The Nuovo Hi-Cam will hopefully be not only quieter and cheaper to produce but will also keep all we love about Guzzi without sacrificing anything as well as giving more power which is what people want. Personally my 'G' goes more than fast enough for me on the road but if you could give it 10-15 more foot/pounds of torque in the midrange I'd be rapt! I reckon that's possible with the new design (If it's what I think it is.) Pete

No detailed specs have been released yet but the pics I've seen would see to indicate it is another Hi-Cam design. The mentioning of *pushrods* is confusing. Quite a few people describe the *old* Hi-Cam as having pushrods, I wouldn't, to me it simply has followers that operate rockers rather than rockers that operate directly on the cam. My guess is that it will be very similar in design overall to the previous engine but usning Morse chains to drive the cams from roughly where the distributor drive used to be on the camshaft of earlier models. This will be considerably cheaper than the previous Hi-Cam system and I really can't see the beautiful vernier system being seen as either neccessary or cost effective on a *production* motor. I think it will be a nice thing, not as technically exciting as the earlier Hi-Cam but clearly a step forward. As for the question of power? I have a 100HP DAytona RS is my workshop at the moment, it's far too much bike for me. My boring old 2V Griso will make probably about 75-80 at the rear wheel and honestly that's plenty for me. I'll be buying an 8V when they are released but not because I really need any more than I already have. pete

Most citizens of countries that don't play cricket wnd many of those who do can't understand the game. That's cool. I have absolutely NO idea about either Baseball or American football. Good cricket matches between well matched teams are incredible demnstrations of tactics and endurance but you have to have some semblance of an idea what's going on otherwise it just looks like fifteen blokes standing in a field and throwing a ball about. One of the huge problems at the moment is that the Aussies are SO dominant that the games are usually boring. The second test in this series was an exception, I simply don't understand how the Poms could give that one away?? It really was very poor but it was great to watch. Generally speaking watching us get thrashed in India or test series between us and Pakistan are the best bet since the Windies are no longer really a force which is a shame. At least now with the microphone in the stumps you can hear the sledgeing which makes even boring periods more entertaining Pete

As far as I can make out they're useless anyway, never mind in an impact like this. Jude collected a huge 'Roo this morning and wrote off the Toyota. The rad and air-con evaporator have been pushed right into the block and the airbag didn't deploy! So much for this wonderful *safety* technology Pete

Is the setting clearance different? Personally I'd be very surprised if there was a huge difference between the cams. Certainly if I was going to cam-up a V11, (Which isn't something I'd bother doing for the road.) I wouldn't be using an 'Out of the box' grind. Pete

All the 'oles should be empty of the cut bits. Sorry, I must of missed that one. Yes you simply biff it out and dress the side of the holes with wet and dry or whatever to de-burr them if needed. Pete

The wheel itself looks like a very heavily machined example of one of the common 'Ergal' wheels offered by numerous purveyors. I don't know who actually makes 'em. Does this unit use ten springs? Looking at it it looks as if there are drillings beneath the spring seats in the wheel and there are ten holes but the ring gear is held to the wheel by the *older* eight x 8mm bolts rather than the ten x 6mm ones used on the later ten spring unit's ring gear. I've used alloy flywheels for years and weirdly they actually seem to be LESS prone to spline damage than the steel ones! Go figure! I dunno what the coating/anodising process is but it's tough as buggery! If the supplier hasn't told you so make sure that when you mount it you install flat washers beneath the bolt heads as well as lockwashers with the flat washers against the alloy wheel. The only failures of these wheels I've heard of have been due to cracking around these holes and the most popular theory for the failure is due to the surface of the wheel being damaged at these points by the fasteners 'digging in' to the alloy through the hard surface. My own feeling is that relieving the alloy wheel itself to such a degree will tend to weaken it for very little gain. The ring gear is another matter. Getting as much weight off that as you can will pay big dividends. Pete

Well they are promising us mid to high thirties centigrade by early afternoon so I reckon I'll nip down to the coast and see how badly I can get the Griso to detonate coming back up the Clyde. I think a lot of the problems I've had down there are down to bung fuel but receint information I've recieved tells me that detonation *is* a problem in high temperature conditions especially if the intake and exhaust have been de-restricted in any way. I'll fill up with 100 octane in Batemans Bay and see if I can get back up the hill without blowing a hole in a piston Pete