Nihontochicken

Replaced the valve cover gasket yesterday with a cheap and simple greenie item available off eBay. Test ride today indicates the oil boundary is holding. Will see what a few more miles and heat cycles do. As mentioned in another thread, most time was taken by cleaning off remnants of the old gasket. Didn't the Japanese solve the problem of engine oil leaks about fifty years ago?

Replaced the leaking left valve cover gasket today. Will smoke test it tomorrow. Just used a readily available green gasket, perhaps will invest in the high zoot metal item if this current entry fails. Of course, most of the time was spent scraping the old gasket remains off the mating surfaces. Noted that the cover mating surface does not seem to be very flat, may have to try the glass plate grind trick if it piddles again. Also temporarily replaced the aluminum front brake reservoir cap with a plastic one that will serve while I get the original recoated due to the brake fluid corrosion of the paint. Maybe do it in Italian fire engine red?

Thanks for the responses so far. Again, are all the cover bolts supposed to be the same size, and do any/all utilize washers? Inquiring minds want to know!

My first oil leak (I think, I hope!) just started recently, originating from the lower edge of the left cylinder valve cover. I checked the bolts, which were not loose, but not tightened very well at the bottom. I torqued them down, but no cigar, the leak continued. Removal of the cover revealed the problem: Close up of the culprit: It appears that with the lower bolts not properly tightened, the gasket edge migrated away from the mating surfaces to the inside until a flow path was opened. So this leads to a few questions. If repositioning the gasket fails (which I anticipate), where is the quickest and/or cheapest place to get a replacement gasket, or would I be as well off to cut my own from stock gasket material? Also, I noticed all the hold down bolts were the same size except the top rear bolt, which is markedly shorter. Is this correct, or a Bubba mistake? Also one and only one steel washer dropped free from one of the bolt seats. Should all, some or none of these Allen head hold down bolts use washers? TIA for any and all enlightenment!

Wow, would really like to attend, but too many miles in between, alas. Am particularly smitten by the pic of the only bike prettier than a MG V11 or Norton Commando (edit note: venue is up tight about hot linking images, guess they don't like the free advertising, so similar images substituted below): Never scored one of those, but did finally snag a V11. Also got one of these consolation prizes: Congrats to all those who will attend this event. Good beer and classic bikes, what's not to like?

In my neighborhood. That looks like the (rare) straight-as-a-string two mile stretch just south of San Carpoforo Creek, immediately north of which the road gets very twisty as it rises off the flat and into the coastal ridges. It was on this segment years ago when a bunch of us on sport bikes (Duc 750 for me) were on the way to view a Luguna Seca road race. A laggard whom we woke up on our way through Morro Bay passed me here in a red shift blur on his Yamaha R1. When we stopped at Gorda for lunch, I asked him, a road race instructor, how fast he was going when he blew by. He answered, "A bill and a half." I.E., 150 mph. So what happens when you smack a critter at that speed??? In any event, you picked a unique time to ride through the neighborhood, the first major rain front of the season, and a damned cold one to boot. Snow on the coastal ridges is a fairly rare event here. I for one am keeping Claudia (V11 Sport Naked) snug and warm in the garage, no chill rain or snow on her delicate parts. YMMV.

I think I see a Roper line: https://photohosting.azureedge.net/vmp/Dealers/71033/135817207/Photo/ZGUKTC029M111161-17.jpg Would be interesting if closer, but then I guess one temperamental Italian hottie is enough for me to handle.

As an aside. in the early/mid 2000s I bought a MG 850 LeMans that was shipped in a crate from out of state. I was told the shipping company would not help getting it off the truck. So I built a platform out of leftover railroad ties from the front retaining wall and used a come along to yank the crate out of the truck. I then proceeded to deconstruct the platform by hand, tie by tie. Well, on one lift I gave myself a hernia. Oops. As it turned out, the LeMans had two dented wheels (they were pretty soft in those days), and by the time I acquired two new ones (no small feat even back then), I lost interest and sold the bike on, alas. It was only a year or so ago that I filled the void (2004 Sport Naked). Just another MG trivia tale.

What he said. The MGS-01 was perhaps "a bridge too far". But there hasn't been a sport/touring bike yet out of Guzzi to match the styling of the V11. Power, yes. Handing, I suppose. Styling, no way. Strange that Piaggio should push the new path of adventure touring mis-marked by the Stelvio with the entirely new engine and chassis of the V85. Why not instead simply put the Stelvio engine in an updated V11 frame and body work? Maybe not ideal, but surely a cost-effective step in the right direction. Sigh.

So why can't Piaggio do something like this???????????????????

Just visited my old school buddy and got the answer. "Sophia" and "Gina" are Sonus Farber speakers, didn't catch the model, cost in the mid $30k range, so maybe only half the price of his BMW auto (M340i, he had an M4 but didn't like it).

I guess mine is properly termed a V11 Sport Naked, but I call her Claudia (as in Cardinale). Why? Because Sophia (Loren) and Gina (Lollobrigida) were already taken by my buddy's Italian stereo speakers that cost nearly as much as his BMW car.

Escaped West El Lay after high school in 1967, went to the San Diego area when it was nice. But then coastal North SD County was trashed by the developers in a metastatic southern migration from Orange County in 1976-80 while I was out of state in the Navy, so I then relocated to SLO Town (San Luis Obispo), at that time relatively unknown to me, but found clean air and low population density charm that had been eradicated in So. Cal. Been a great 40 years, but the cancerous real estate development feeding frenzy has finally hit here. Big developments used to be 50 to100 units or so, now the numbers are ten times that large. Sorry for the unrequested rant, but I'm really pissed off by the current So. Californication of this once beautiful community. Then again, by the time it's thoroughly effed over, I'll likely be past worrying.

Not looking to buy any longer, too old, too tired to wrench a lot (so why do I have a V11?), too little available garage space. Just look on them with nostalgic fantasy, kinda like the prom queen.

Not likely now to score any of the below, though I do have a 2004 V11 Sport Naked consolation prize in lieu of number three. My grail bikes in decreasing order of beauty: