Lucky Phil

Not with such a low res shot I cant. Looks a little like a slide hammer but with a turning function. Ciao

There's a reason for that. Ciao

Quite, but the bike and Prince thinking he looks cool on it is the one and only thing that sticks in my mind, cant remember what the rest was about. I'd love to meet whoever was responsible for choosing that bike for the movie. Its interesting how fragile the "cool" image can be. I mean David Beckham is most girls dream until he opens his mouth. Of course some people can never be "cool". Even in a skin tight flight suit and acing the Top Gun school Chads never going to make it:) Ciao

Dont even think about adjusting this on the bike,its a bench job. Docc is correct of course about the simple stuff but it may be a shifter plate off for a look see for you. Ciao

Yes its a wrench to repaint perfectly good paint just for a colour change. Ciao

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Moto-Guzzi-FRONT-FAIRING-V11-CAFE-COPPA-ITALIA-01575388-GU01575388-GU01575388/143552827012?hash=item216c6a4e84:g:-5gAAOSwr9ReaRJN https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Moto-Guzzi-FAIRING-RED-V11-CAFE-WITHOUT-SCREEN-01575488-GU01575488-GU01575488/133238608688?hash=item1f05a3d330:g:K4oAAOSw~aVd3~UO Not exactly cheap but if you really need one. Ciao

Even on a Vespa it would have been more epic:) Ciao

Some beautiful pieces there docc,esp the old style dividers and screw driver. I love the repair to the file handle,worth taking the time to repair skilfully. Ciao

Now that the V11/Daytona assembly is all but finished I decided to take a break and re group my thoughts and have a good tidy up before I get onto running it and figuring out the EFI. The process unearthed some old friends that engendered some memories and reflection. Principle among these was my grandfathers mechanical tachometer, such a lovely piece in its velvet lined box replete with various drive adaptors. I guess he used it for setting engine idle RPM on cars, dont know but it makes me think of him and holding in my hand something he used and valued is a nice feeling. I also came across this I made about 30 years ago to remove Ohlins fork caps. I am slightly impressed with myself as I remember machining this piece up including filing the 1/2 inch drive section by hand at my friends workshop The actual memories of that day and the people present come back to me as a pleasant time indeed. More than just tools........old friends and valued memories. And here's my next project, a tool to remove the oil pressure switch on the Daytona engine. A long socket is too long and a short socket is too short so I'll make my own extended short tool. Just need to weld it together. Ciao

My attention was drawn in that image to the wall art of "Prince" from the movie Purple Rain. Anyone that thought he was stylish or cool had their bubble burst when he appeared riding that atrocious abomination of a motorcycle. All the cool and style instantly evaporated, like gasoline spilled on a hot engine and he is revealed for what he was, a scrawny, weird little dude in high heals. If you want to know how cool someone really is ask them what sort of motorcycle they own or aspire to own. PS great song writer though. Ciao

Ticked another couple of boxes today,added gearbox oil and reworked the seat. I found with the tank raised and in a rearward most position dictated by the aft mount slot that the seat unit wouldn't latch down. Turns out I needed to trim 10mm from the front of the seat base so I removed the staples that secure the front of the cover and removed 10mm from the ctr tapering to zero about 50mm from the corner. Re-stapled the cover back into place and were're golden. I also shimmed the seat latch up a few mm so it latches nicely now. It always required a bit of a shove down to latch properly but its quite nice now. Seem to be getting close to the finish line now, refit the tail under tray and rear plate holder and machine up the final tank rear mount spacer and fit the oil pressure gauge for the initial start. I'll wait a little for that and collect my thoughts and go through a check list of double checking stuff. Ciao

Ha, sounds like a wise move docc. I re-checked the spare nylon covers I have on my spare really nice late model airbox and with all the grommets and spacers fitted you cant mount the cover without significant distortion to the cover which is what eventually causes them to crack it appears. One mount hole on each cover is a long way out. Once that is corrected then they fit up with zero load. Might be a project for the future,fibreglass covers with the holes in the right spots. Good to know the carbon ones dont seem to be an issue,although they are very difficult to find. I machined 1 mm off the tops of my new cover screws and they look a bit better now. Ciao

Is that the carbon ones Chuck? Yes engine cowls can be a challenge even hinged ones on high bypass jet engines. Light a/c ones are just a misshapen pile or wobbly tin foil until latched into place I would imagine:) Ciao

45-50NM Ciao

Some time today was spent resolving the side cover fitment. Since day 1 owning a V11 the fitment was rubbish which caused cracking around the mounts. Eventualy my LH cover front mount area lost a whole piece the crack extended so far. I dont know if this is typical( I suspect it is as I have 3 sets of covers and a spare airbox and the fitment seems the same) The RH cover here is a brand new factory unit and the LH is a freshly painted repaired one, both bought years ago awaiting their time in the sun so I'm keen that they dont crack. I'd be interested to know if the factory carbon covers fit any better because the Nylon originals are appalling. The only way around the problem that I could see was to elongate some of the mounting holes so the covers could fit without any loading at all. I achieved this and to assist with future longevity I machined up the heads of some aluminium 5mm button head screws I had laying around. I must say I'm not enthralled with the looks of the screws as i'd rather something small and discrete like the originals but I wanted some fixing area around the screw heads. I machined the buttons down from 16 to 14 mm head dia and took the roundness off. Like I said a bit too chunky but there you go. First image and this is whats required to make the LHS cover fit without any load on the mount points. Elongate the top hole 7mm. I mean this hole is nowhere near the right location. The LH cover didnt need any rework to this mount but required around 5mm elongation to the lower hole. Ciao

Yes I'm happy with the way it looks. Raising the tank seems not to have had a negative impact. I might leave the rack off, initially anyway as my wife cant get pillion for the moment. I only had it fitted as a really good pillion hand hold. Its a great looking engine that's for sure, a look that engenders a feeling that danger may exist here. Bit like a big radial aircraft engine. When you know whats thrashing around inside one of those thing its a little bit worrying and scary. Ciao