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68C last won the day on May 18 2020
68C had the most liked content!
About 68C
- Birthday 01/30/1952
Previous Fields
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My bikes
2004 V11 Le Mans Rosso Corsa with MyEcu (sometimes)
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Location
southampton, UK
Profile Information
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Interests
Tinkering, motorcycles, simple electronics, lawnmowers, gardening, DIY, people.
Norton Commando 750
Guzzi V11, T3
Yamaha FZ750
Yamaha DT250MX
BSA Sunbeam 250 twin
Royal Enfield 750 bitza
Triumph Trident 900 with sidecar
BSA 500 M20
Harley Davidson 883 Sportster, kickstart
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68C's Achievements
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Yes, second that clearance issue. On my first ride on the new to me V11, I pulled onto the main road and nailed it, great fun. At about seventy I rolled back the throttle....and it just kept on accelerating. My first stupid thought was to brake, probably not a good idea, visions of an exploding engine stopped me pulling in the clutch. Finally my little brain thought of the kill switch, never used one in anger before but it saved the day. To think I used to bypass those on some of my earlier bikes. Yes, the white knob had hooked around the reservoir cap, shame Guzzi never fitted a proper two way pull throttle cable setup.
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Those side outlet exhaust pipes do look vulnerable. I see the V Twin layout as a way of having improved balance to control vibrations and give good air cooling. Perhaps modern parallel twins and triples with balance shafts and liquid cooling are the best layout now. All academic soon as the discussion will centre around where to put the battery - will it need to be quickly removable as a 'swop' refill. Motor in the wheel, simple but high unsprung weight. Conventional brakes or some form of electric retarder with regen.
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How dreadful? As bad as having more than one Apple product, wearing Levi Jeans despite their markup, buying coffee from a cafe that writes your name on the cardboard cup, joining a one make bike club - do you dump those people if you change your bike? Yeah it can get even more dreadful.
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Life after knee replacement.
68C replied to 68C's topic in Special place for banter and other silly remarks
Thanks for all the encouragement, stuck within this body so just have to make the best of it. At least it is wet and cold outside so not missing much I suppose. -
I am now at day fifteen after a left knee replacement due to arthritis, once healed expect to get the other one done. I am starting to get dark thoughts about my ability to continue to ride the V11 once fully healed in perhaps a year to eighteen months time. How have others got on with this one, I will admit I was becoming nervous riding the bike in the last few months before surgery due to worry my arthritic knee may collapse at any time as the V11 is a little wide and top heavy. I am 69, reasonably fit and do like to ride.
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Remember the first time I ducked down behind the fairing while going fast. It was all so quiet and strangely dreamlike, not real. Then I imagined the broken leg would feel very real if I did not concentrate.
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It is the charging circuit I am more interested in, being able to raise the voltage so the admittedly small battery can be properly charged. Of course, unlike my motorhome when on electric hook-up, the bike alternator does not run for hour after hour so we perhaps need to not concern ourselves too much with ensuring we have a full multi level charge profile with protection to ensure no fluid loss/excessive gassing but would like to ensure battery does fully charge. I am being careful not to quote any specific charge voltages here as depends on ambient temperature and cell type. I suggested the DD-DC converter to protect the ECU and any other sensitive equipment that may be connected such as GPS, LED lighting.
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My motorhome has a solar panel which outputs from 0 to 18volts depending on sunshine. The Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) controller drops the voltage to a safe battery charge level, then converts the excess power to raise the amperage. As the sunshine varies it tries to keep the charge voltage constant while altering the amperage. Like most battery chargers it also senses battery voltage for the relevant bulk, absorb and float requirements. I imagine the voltage regulator fitted to our bikes does something similar however it will not raise the voltage to the commonly required 14.4volts to fully charge a battery. I assume this is because everything else on the bike is happier at a slightly lower voltage. The DC-DC converter takes in any DC voltage and converts it to the required DC voltage, lets say 13volts for arguments sake. So by using an MPPT controller we can take the raw frequency and voltage wild output from the alternator, rectify it and apply it to the MPPT controller to facilitate battery charging with a sophisticated charge routine, then apply a constant smooth voltage to the DC circuits through the DC-DC converter. I wonder if anyone else has done this, these are not that dear and can handle 20Amps or more easily.
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Some live in cold areas, some live in hot. Some open the throttle, some do not.
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Come off it docc, diaphragm? That's not even a real carb. God invented the flat slide for a reason
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Aircraft/ piloting analogies
68C replied to docc's topic in Special place for banter and other silly remarks
T and B? -
These are the casting that make up just one cylinder head. I think there are twenty castings all told and about the same number of ball bearings, the only plain bearings being on the gear selector mechanism and kick start shaft. Makes the V11 rather simple.
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Sorry to open an old thread but thought I would carry on with the story. So, it's now 2021, Covid and retirement has given me time to get back to the Ducati 750GT motor rebuild. Some inheritance money has enabled my brother and I to spend a little more than we intended on the bike. Bought a Machine Mart bead blasting cabinet and started to clean up the castings. The raised threaded section on the LH case for the clutch adjuster was broken. Also the RH side case support for the kickstart was broken off. Took them to a welder who complained about my using glass beads as they remain embedded in the metal and ruin his weld so he will have them vapour blasted. Lesson learnt I have now bought some soda blasting medium and recleaned the rest of the parts, at least that just washes off with water. Then found the bevel gear fitted to the crank had chipped teeth. It seems it is a weak part on the 750GT design, any wear and then play in the main bearings mean the bevel gear loses its precise engagement and causes the damage. The later 860 engine has a different layout with a conventional spur gear driving a lay shaft with the bevel gear, any crank endfloat just makes the spur gear slide in and out without upsetting the bevel gear. Luckily managed to get one from Australia, Bevel Heaven put me in contact with Vee Two who kindly parted one out for me. Now waiting for the cases to come back from the welder.