Lucky Phil

I experimented with a wheel guard attached with clamps by that method 5 years ago or so but for me it looked a little too busy and inelegant. When I can summon up the motivation I'll weld some tabs to the swing arm for the guard I think. Ciao

I suspect the bubbles are water that leaches all the way through the tank material but I honestly dont know definitively. Why dont you prick a bubble and see if any fluid comes out. If the paint bubbles and you wrap over the paint then obviously you will have the wrap bubbling as well. You cant wrap over an unpainted tank because the only way to get the paint off a plastic tank in reality is to media blast them and thats what I've had to do in the past. Then the tank surface is too rough to wrap. My main question with the wrap and I've seen a bit of it done on youtube and its amazing stuff and the guys are skilled is, is it fuel proof from the point of view of spillage during refueling and the inevitable constant exposure to slight fuel vapors around the filler cap fitting etc. Ciao

Way too much fuss over this bike for mine. Personally I like it but, at the end of the day its just a V11 with different body work. Does it look better than the std V11? for mine no. It looks different and it looks good to my eye BUT before I'd consider it on a serious level I have 2 major concerns. A...its a solo bike now and needs to stay that way to maintain the style . B... I suspect that it probably doesn't hold much fuel after the under tank mods required to fit the V11 spine frame. If it holds any less than the current V11 then its just another in the long line of interesting but ultimately impractical bodywork customs. Ciao

Moved on to the heads today while I wait for a new OP relief spring. I have 2 brand new l/h camshafts so I'm good for that head but I wanted to check the cam lobe taper to be sure I'll get the lifter rotation I need when the engine is running. I had heard a long while back that the factory cams can be ground without any taper due to poor quality. So I chucked up a new L/H can and dialed it up. The manual says it should have and 8' angle on the lobe so a 20mm wide lobe by may calculation should have a .046mm taper across the face. The std new cam came up at .040 so close enough. The R/H lobes are another matter. The exhaust isnt too bad, its got the taper but some wear in the center of the lobe. The inlet however isnt quite so good. No taper and center wear. I'll have a more comprehensive look at these and see where on the lobe the wear and lack of taper begins and ends and decide what action to take. Hopefully I'll be able to use a diamond lap and correct them by hand. Ciao

Images added....thanks Jaap. Ciao

Cant add images at present. I've uploaded some but like the currently stored images they dont appear in my albums. Probably the switchover to the new system. Ciao

Not much of any consequence happening really. I'm looking at the oil pressure relief valve at present and calibrating it. Its leaking badly and wont hold much more than 50 psi (manual says 70psi) It wouldnt cause an issue in reality but I'm trying to get it better than that. I've lapped the valve face to the body and checked it with engineers blue and its faces look good but it still leaks and if you shim it to a point where its getting acceptable then there's too much spring preload and very little travel left. I looked at Chucks old Aero engine thread as I remembered something about this and it turned out we arrived at the same testing procedure and solutions but not the same outcome as yet. I looked on Harpers at a new spring and interestingly their image with a rule next to it shows the new spring is around 1/8" longer than mine so it may well be that the spring has sacked out. I've ordered one so hopefully that sorts it. I find it hard to believe by virtue of its design that this valve wont have some leakage past the seal face before crack pressure is reached. Here's the inner sealing face(the blueish line at the bottom around the hole) And again. The valve sealing shoulder after lapping (The matt face on the flange after lapping) The inner and shoulder faces have complete contact after lapping. The whole assembly with spring preload washers and shroud. Oil enters from the threaded end of the body and applies pressure to the inside of the sliding valve which is held on the inner shoulder sealing face by a spring pre loaded by the threaded cap on the other end. Crack pressure is in theory adjusted by preload washers. Ciao

Dont worry too much about the valve stem seals. Ciao

Yep. Ciao

all the factory tanks are painted?? the only bubbling I'v e seen personally is the Rosso Corsa graphics, a film applied over color and (I think) under clear coat. Clearly this is complete rubbish as std tanks are painted and mine is 20 years old without bubbling paint. I've also had plastic Ducati tanks painted without issue. Ciao WRT paint damage, my Norge and Griso tanks have had the pox. The swelling of the tanks is a greater concern than the cosmetic "bubbles," as it's difficult to impossible to bolt the tank back in place. Ethanol is evil. Make bourbon from corn, not ICE fuel! I bought "spares" and swap them out after a year or so. After removing, I rinse them well with water and allow to dry. Have not tried the various internal coatings as they are co$tly and, it seems, also problematic with mixed results. My "fix" isn't cheap, but it's weasy and works. All bubbles disappear and the tanks shrink back to original size. WRT "wrapping," I have used the Plastidip https://www.dipyourcar.com-- assume this or similar what Walter means by "wrap" -- on Norge panniers and fairing after a gravity experiment went awry. Interestingly, the Plastidip red is almost identical to the Norge's red and with a the clear-coat Plastidip follow-on, the result isn't bad at all, especially for an on-the-road hiding of one's riding incompetence! That said, my level of application skill was, at least when I tried it last, insufficient and I have had those items repainted bu folks who knew what they were doing. It is nigh on to impossible to "feather" the stuff for a blended finish, so one must apply several coats over an entire surface to get the coverage and removal benefits. Hope the above was lucid, but no time to reread for accuracy. My "supervisor" wants breakfast; must go or pay the price. Bill Next time Bill leave this step out. It's not the Ethanol that causes plastic tanks to swell its the water it attracts. The tank material isn't totally impervious to water and that's what causes the swelling and that's why drying them out brings them back. It leaches the water back out of the tank material. Its also why straight petrol isn't an issue because it's not hydroscopic like Methanol Ciao

Pha....what, better looking than this Dave?