GuzziMoto

No doubt some motorcycle prices are up there. But a couple years ago the wife and I bought two brand new motorcycles for less then $15k. And they weren't low budget off brand bikes, they were Husqvarna's. If we wanted cheaper bikes in that range there are a few available from Japanese manufacturers that would have probably been under $10k or $12k for the pair. While some models are amazingly expensive, there is also a large number of smaller bikes on the market for very reasonable prices. Back in the 90's and 2000's if you wanted a smaller bike you could typically only find a few options that were all oriented towards beginners. Now you can buy really nice sub 500cc bikes for reasonable prices. So, I think we are in a great time for motorcycles.

Lesson learned, I hope. Never use worm gear clamps on the high pressure side of fuel injection. Hope once that is sorted things go smooth.

Dude, some of us haven't seen that race yet. Thanks.....

By the "Lead Issue' do you mean the odd behavior you got when unplugging one sparkplug lead and then the other? I am not sure what that test was meant to show. I would have expected it to run on either cylinder, although poorly. It does seem to indicate that one cylinder runs worse then the other as one cylinder kept running with the other one off while the other one did not. I have not done that sort of test on purpose, but I have accidentally made a twin run on just one cylinder. I did not learn anything from that, however. With your fuel mileage as poor as it is I would expect you can smell fuel, it is using near twice as much fuel to run as it should. Honestly, that could be a real problem as that much fuel going through the motor could wash oil off the cylinder walls.

Your right, it is specifically the brake light function of the tail light that doesn't work when that relay is not relaying. Thanks for the correction. I was following the wife through Pennsyltuckey and was impressed that she was never hitting the brakes. Turns out her relay was not relaying. It is possible you have an R/R issue, but I suggest you make sure it is not one of the more common issues that plague the V11 Sport first before shelling out the coins for a new R/R.

New quality relays is always a good idea. Also, make sure the bases where they plug into are clean and tight. A quality relay with a bad connect doesn't work any better then a cheap relay with a good connection. Back when we would travel on motorcycles we would always carry a spare set of relays for the wife's V11. We only needed them a couple times, but when you need them you need them, and you aren't going to find them in the middle of Pennsyltucky. A classic sign that the relay was not working was also the lack of a tail light as I recall. We did run into situations were the relay would stick and only work some of the time. The clues that the relay was not working were a weak headlight (because the real headlight would not work, only the running light worked), the tach would act up, and the taillight would not work.

Yeah, I try to buy quality whenever possible. I would rather only buy it once.

Before you do that, make sure the headlight is working. In the headlight there are two bulbs, one standard low beam / high beam headlight bulb and one running light bulb. It is easy to mistake the running light bulb being on for the headlight working. If the headlight bulb isn't working the regulator won't properly charge the battery. Because it uses the voltage on the headlight circuit after the headlight bulb to measure battery voltage. The bulb can be burnt out or the circuit might be off (blown fuse or faulty relay). You may need a new regulator, but make sure before going that way.

To be fair, even if Marc had not fallen down it seems like he wasn't going to win anyway. He may or may not have finished ahead of Acosta, but Mav was on a roll and was faster then everyone, including Marc. Marc never looked comfortable, and seemed to be looking for a place to crash. And he found one. He was running near the front, but he never looked like he was in the zone. Mav was in the zone, and even some bumping and banging on lap one wasn't going to deny him.

Mav has a long history of being hot and cold. I don't think anybody thought he could never win a race on the Ape. But I think most would doubt he can be consistently fast over an entire season. I am enjoying his success while it lasts, though.

23 miles per gallon would be very bad fuel mileage. You should be getting near twice that. I would start with a basic tune up........

That was probably the best racing ever at COTA.

Without getting off into the weeds about octane and the pro's / con's of running 100 octane race fuel in a bike not made for it, I would agree with docc that a good place to start when you are having running issues is the Decent Tune Up that he linked to. Has it always done this or is this new, @Daveguzzi1 ?

Also figure I would add that in metric bolts the thread value is the distance between each thread. So, the larger the bolt the higher the value all else being equal. And the smaller the bolt the lower the value. A larger diameter bolt will have a larger gap between threads when the thread is at the same pitch / angle.

I think M20x2.5 is considered coarse thread, and M20x2.0 is considered fine thread. M20x1.5 is considered extra fine thread. I don't know if there is a M20x1.0 thread.

Perhaps, but it also highlights the danger of a disc spinning as fast as the flywheel is spinning. It isn't just a question of how much damage it can do to your Guzzi if your aluminum flywheel lets go, it can do damage to you. There is a reason why drag racers have to use SFI rated bell housings. Anyway, feel free to delete the post.

Not totally on topic, but has anyone here seen this story about a saw blade that made a run for it? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/man-narrowly-escapes-saw-blade-barreling-oregon-rcna145784

Good to have as many datapoints on batteries as possible. I do not take my one bad experience ages ago with the Shorai, or the one bad experience almost as long ago with the Ballistic, as a condemnation of Lithium batteries. I think both bad experiences were a combination of early in the tech and quirks of the first gen Griso that made it less suitable for the battery in the cold. Newer Griso's allow you to override the start abort by holding the starter button down. But the first gen did not. One strong point of Lithium batteries is that they will hold a charge better and longer when sitting, when not in use. And as you note, they are also typically able to put out more current at a time for their size rating.

To make it even more confusing, my wife's V11 manual listed octane required using the Euro numbers. So that added to the confusion. Europe uses the RON number, the US uses an average between RON and MON. That results in the European number being higher.

Interesting thing about air springs, they are not a straight rate spring. A fixed volume like the air gap in front forks of a V11 would have a progressive rate. The more it is compressed, the higher the rate. If you have too high a fork oil level in your forks the air volume is too small and it will mean the air spring part of the forks is too stiff. The first place you would see that is at full compression of the forks, with higher oil levels increasing the spring rate further into the stroke from there. So, a slightly to high oil level in your forks would affect the forks near full compression. But as the fork oil level was increased the effect would creep further into the normal range of suspension travel. Way too much fork oil in the forks and they would essentially hydro-lock. Air will compress, but fork oil does not for all intent and purpose.

I have an old Odyssey battery I pulled out of the wife's V11 years ago because we were going on an extended motorcycle vacation and I didn't want to take a chance. It sat around for a few years after that, then when my lawn tractors battery died some 4 years ago I put it in the lawn tractor. It just started my lawn tractor this past weekend for the first time this spring, and a few times since, despite receiving none of the care listed in docc's write up on how to take care of an Odyssey battery. It gets nothing except what the Briggs and Stratton engine in the tractor gives it. It is dying, but it just won't die. My one experience with a Shorai battery a long time ago was no where near that good, it lasted a couple years and would not start my Griso if it was cold out. Part of that issue was the Griso will abort the start if the battery voltage is below a threshold. Because of that, and other things, the Griso won't let you do the various tricks people do to get some heat into their Lithium battery. I am seriously looking at getting an electric zero turn lawn mower. And we have an EV car. I like battery tech. But my actual experiences have not been 100% great. I had bum luck with the Shorai, and I also had bad luck with a Ballistic Lithium battery. But I put that down to teething pains for the tech.

Come in @Daveguzzi1 Any news? He has not been on site since March 22nd. That is only a couple weeks, though. Likely not enough time to resolve the 3k stumble.

That is pretty accurate. Less air gap means the compression curve of the air that is there is steeper, so it will have a higher spring rate quicker. Keep in mind that a fork is, for all intent, a sealed system. The oil doesn't compress, so all the compressing has to be done by the air above the oil. That means the air above the oil acts like an air spring. Less air above the oil means that compression curve of the air spring is steeper. More air above the oil means the compression curve of the air spring is more gradual. If the air gap is small enough it can make it impossible for the forks to compress all the way. Been there, done that. A little more oil / less air can make the forks stiffer, especially towards the end of their travel. Less oil / more air can make the forks softer, especially towards the end of their travel. The effect of different oil levels / air gaps will be most noticeable towards the end of the forks travel. It can be a useful tuning tool, either on the track or on the street. It is as important in my opinion as getting the right spring rate.

As docc said, the air gap is the more important measurement for fork oil. Whatever amount of fork oil it takes to get the air gap where you want it is what you need. It is entirely possible the factory volume spec for fork oil is right for someone. But it could easily be wrong. For me, standard practice when taking forks apart is to measure the air gap, and add fluid to set the air gap back to that measurement when re-filling the forks.

We have an Anti-Gravity battery on the wife's Ducati Monster. Not a Guzzi, but it uses the same style charging system the V11 does. So far no issues. And no need to swap the R/R. I do like the Re-Start feature.