pete roper

Rollers.

Nope, secondary timing is always going to be belt dependent.

Phil? Ate you making a tool for the pinion ring nut or do you want to borrow mine? I’d give it to you but Michael might need it later after I’m fully retired, (Or dead!🙄).

It's a bit more complicated than that. It's essentially a four track TPS that constantly compares the readings against each other and a known baseline to regulate throttle opening. Being RBW there is no direct connection between the twistgrip and throttlebody. If the ECU sees a discrepancy between any of the parameters of any of the four tracks it will throw the bike into limp mode. If it sees a discrepancy between two or more tracks it will shut the engine down and, thoughtfully, put on the brake light!

And that from a man who builds aeroplanes from scratch. ignore the wisdom at your peril.

What year Cali 1400 is this? If it's throwing an 'Urgent Service' warning and going into limp mode it is most likely the demand sensor. If it's an early bike it is even more likely. There was a duff run of them at the very beginning. RSV4 Aprilias had the same issue. There was a recall for them.

What people choose to do aesthetically or 'Artistically' to their bikes concerns me not a jot and I fully agree with your assessment that such things are subjective and if people want to do such things? Knock yerself out! That doesn't mean that I can't mock them as ugly and most importantly it doesn't mean that what they have done will be either 'Special' or indeed work in an engineering or mechanical sense. So many people make absurd and impossible claims about performance and functionality it just shits me to tears. I've tried to explain many times why the 8V 'Nuovo Hi-Cam' can't be made to make power and torque figures that can genuinely only be made by much more sophisticated engines but this is either ignored outright or some picture of a 'Dyno Chart' will be produced to 'Prove' the point! Sorry, but trying to use the laws of physics to argue against ignorance and stupidity is a fools errand. Dunno why I even bother apart from the fact I don't want the gullible being taken in by charlatans. With the old pushrod lump it's even more frustrating. Especially when stuck in a Tonti frame with a five speed gearbox and pre V11 final drive. You can, reliably, make mid eighties RWHP from an 1100. The factory erred on the side of conservatism and the donk makes about 76 in the V11. Yes you can get it to make more, but at a price. Now imagine what it's going to be like putting that power, or more, through a clutch, gearbox and driveline designed to handle not much more than 50? Its life span will in the words of some nineteenth century philosopher, be Brutish and Short! So what does that mean? Either these people have managed to change the laws of physics and the sciences of metallurgy, and engineering! Or? They are full of shit! I reiterate, if people like these things as 'Art'? Fine. Knock yerself out. To me they are obnoxious gobshitery! NOBODY HAS TO AGREE WITH ME!

Esperia. A bit 'Ducati-ish' but still a damn fine looking motorbike. Compared to the asking price here for a V100 it looks like a bloody bargain!

Not 'Covered' John but I've built a couple, and by 'Built' I mean built. They weren't just a 1400 motor stuffed into a 1200's cycleparts. The 1200 and 1400 motors are two very different animals. Apart from the radically different cooling systems for the heads the 1400 heads use much smaller inlet tracts. It's one of the reasons the 1400's make less power than the 1200's. My 1400's used big port, single spark heads and have the heads machined for oiling purposes. They both make phenomenal bottom end and midrange torque but not substantially more power. That is down to the side draft head design and camming and they are both outrageously thirsty! Mark had to go to higher flow injectors as the stock ones just couldn't pour enough fuel in at higher RPM. The 8V is absurdly greedy and wasteful, it's one of the reasons it was canned. If you made it meet €5 it would be a gutless pig of a thing! As it is, mapped and piped right it's a lovely thing to ride but *Efficient* and *Modern* are not really two words that should be used in any sentence that has Guzzi 8V in. There are some parts of it that are modern in design. The combustion chamber is very nice, but one swallow does not a summer make unfortunately. That's why they had to go to the 'Ugly as a hat full of farty arseholes' V100 motor for the next generation bikes.

Agree about the V7's. Disagree about modern sportsbikes, some of which are awesome! Sorry if my long winded rants offend you. Pieces of rolling munt like that offend me.

The CARC platforms don't lend themselves to anything like this. The wheelbase is too long so they always look like they've had an unfortunate arse-accident! The exhaust on that thing is absurd, it will be a blubbering mess below 6,000 and then it'll take off like a cut cat for 1,500 rpm before falling flat on its face again. So it's both ugly and ridiculous and we won't even begin to talk about how long the throttlebodies will last with the woeful air filtration.

Yeah, yeah. The same stuff that everybody does. Most, if not all, available 'Off the shelf! A lightened flywheel? A 'High Torque' cam? So a mm ground off the base circle of the 'Lawnmower' cam or perhaps a B10 or P3 type grind? Twin plugging? Vital with such a shitty combustion chamber design. Even the facory did it at the end. The oil condensor system has to be improved over the system used on Low Head Tonti's or they puke their oil out and run their mains. None of this is exceptional and has been common practice and well known for forty or more years! And boring out a set of PHM's to 41mm? Wow! Colour me bored! As I said, I'm glad the people who build these things are happy but the Oooh-ing and Ahh-ing is laughable and makes me want to puke! But that's me. I'm not the arbiter of your or anyone else's taste. I am though entitled to my opinion and being an irascible old bastard I'm more than happy to state it!

It's a bastardised Tonti with some sort of squarefin 2V motor in it. So what? These things are like locusts. I used to love a 'Cafe' Tonti, but they have become, like this unit, 'Cookie Cutter' items bought from a catalog just the same as any 'Screamin' Eagle' Harley. OK, the aftermarket suppliers may be independent, unlike the 'Screamin' Eagle' catalog suppliers but it's the same thing. They may well be 'Independent Builds' but they are all terribly boring and formulaic. The naked frame triangle, or coy copy of a V7 Sport tool box. The battery under the gearbox. The clip ons and rearsets. The absence of any suggestion of practicality and funniest of all, these things often are based on old roundfins and they STILL wear shitty 30mm VHB carburettors! What do these idiots not get about the name they adopt 'Cafe'? OK, that sort of has some sort of oddball reference to a mad cult in the south of England sixty plus years ago. Perhaps if you stretch the point you could say that an engine and frame that didn't go into production between ten and fifteen years after the 'Cafe Racer' thing could be made to look relevant but basically it's a load of tiresome, irrelevant, wank! But then they don't do anything to increase the performance! So where in the name of holy F*ck is the 'Racer' part of the equation??? Look, I'm glad these people have built these things and they make them happy. At the end of the day though fawning over them is like wanking to AI porn. YOMV. (PS, I have a picture, not a good one, that I can't post on this site of a much younger me with my little green hot-rod. It looks like a T3 but it made 81 rear wheel BHP out of 891cc. It torched its big ends frequently because to make that I had to rev it to 10,000 indicated by the Veglia. It was stuffed full of twenty years experimentation and a lot of money. Then I bought an 1100 Griso which made a bit less power but did EVERYTHING better and didn't blow up regularly. @#!#$# 'Cafe Racers'!)

Remember the crank rotates clockwise when viewed from the front.

This is a simple and easy explanation of how a four stroke engine works. I suggest you leave sound off so you don't have to listen to the irritating music! https://youtu.be/TEIhXNwfkL8

Errr. No. I'm about to go to sleep. Let's revisit this in the morning.

TDC compression is when, if the motor was running, the ignition was about to light the flame. Not being rude but do you understand how the cycle of a 'Four Stroke' engine works? Nobody is born knowing this and there is no shame in saying you haven't a clue as there are loads of folks who will be willing to help you understand if you don't. Without this basic understanding though there is a good chance you will screw something up badly so please. If you don't understand? Swallow your pride and say so. I'm sure that whatever you do for a living would be complete anaethma to me because I'm a spud thick motorbike mechanic so don't be afraid, nobody will laugh at you. Well not unless you nave a neck-beard and pervy socks but if you did you'd be riding a BMW not a Guzzi V11.

It doesn't have a choke. It has a fast idle lever and it's purely mechanical and would not be affected by a blown fuse. I don't believe thatV11's have either TDC marks or 'S' and 'D' timing marks as ignition and injection are controlled by the ECU with the triggering function being done by a missing tooth on the tone wheel on the camshaft. To find TDC use the rear wheel and fifth gear to get close and then just pry the teeth of the ring gear through the inspection hole to get the piston as close as possible. A few degrees either way makes no odds. All you have to do is make sure both tappets are on the base circles of their respective cam lobes.

I'm imagining that it's fairly warm now where you are being high summer? Being, (Principally) an air cooled motor it will dump heat less effectively if the environment it's operating in is warmer. Hotter engine? More expansion, and on the old 2V lump the valves *Grow* more than the head and rocker support casting so the valve clearance will close up. This is exacerbated if the motor has been working hard and then the bike slows down so it is no longer travelling as fast through its cooling medium. A condition called heat soak back occurs where the head may actually heat up more when the vehicle slows even though the engine is doing less work. The result is that all the clearance can be taken up by expansion so there is none in the valve train. This means that firstly the valves, usually the exhausts as they run a lot hotter, get held slightly off their seats. At higher engine speeds this makes little difference to the engine's ability to run but at idle enough of the charge may be able to escape through the lifted valve to lower compression to the point that the mixture is incombustible leading to an erratic idle or stalling. Secondly, with no clearance in the valve train the tappet will 'Ride' the cam making it impossible for oil to get between the tappet foot and the cam lobe at any point during its rotation. The effects of this can be dire with rapid damage occurring to both cam and tappet. In this case I'll lay odds on the valve clearances being too tight. Regardless of what they are set at I'd suggest checking them using feeler gauges as a 'Go/No-Go' inspection and whatever they are set at just increase the gap by 2 thou. If the problem goes away, and I reckon it will, you can call it good for now. Get a pair of Valpolini rocker cover gaskets as well to save yourself some heartache down the track and remember the piston reaches TDC twice during the engine's 720 degree cycle and you want to set the valves at TDC compression. Not overlap.

This just sounds like a classic case of the tappet riding the cam and holding the valve off the seat though.

Valve clearances are too tight. Check and set them at 4 & 6 thou inlet and exhaust. Tech probably set them to 2 & 4.

Flick me your address again in a PM and I'll box it up.

Phil, while clearing out the shop I found that disassembled V11 bevelbox again. Are you still interested?

From memory it was an issue with the gear selector dogs but other more V11-y people will probably have a more accurate idea.

Oh quite, but it seems a lot of people don't give a shit. They seem to start a business, rip off their customers and staff, go into receivership, shut the doors, rinse and repeat! It seems to be a very 'American' way of doing business. To outsiders it's weird.