pete roper

Sorry Al, I thought I'd posted up a list of shipping prices before I left for the UK? If I overlooked it I'm sorry but as I'm currently in Cambridge waiting for my Mum to die the sheets aren't exactly my highest priority right now. I apologise for this and will get back to it as soon as this sh!tfull situation is resolved. Pete

Because I'm having such a sodding awful time here at the moment I've flick-passed the sloppage sheets to Keith Baldini who has kindly offered to distribute them for me. He'll no doubt post up details of where and when to send money. Sorry about this but I'm basically not in a position at the moment to do anything but cope with family issues. Pete

While the box on my griso is still a bit clonky in the lower gears the problem has diminished greatly since the bike was new. When new it really was in the 'Dropping a brick in a bucket' category but that has largely disappeared at whatever Km's it now has on it? About 7,000 I think. My theory is that the clonkiness diminishes as the rubber of the silentbloc type rubber shock absorber in the drive shaft *work softens* with use. I could be quite wrong but it makes sense to me. Things can, I'm told, also be improved by making sure the TB's are ballanced and the TPS is correctly zeroed with either an Axone tool or the Technresearch package. Pete

I don't remove the engine, simply crab the frame. On a '70's early '80's Tonti without bags and stuff I usually takes me about an hour to get a gearbox on the floor. Pete

The whirring sound when the clutch is pulled in is the intermediate plate rattling in the flywheel splines and the friction plates rattling on the hub due to the uneven power pulses 270 and 450 degrees apart. It's perfectly normal. \\\\the symptoms you describe are typical of disintegrating clutch pltes, either the friction material un-riveting and de-laminating of the centres cracking out of the plates. Stop trying to pretend that there is an *easy* solution and don't even THINK of going on a long trip until you've been in and checked it out. You can risk it if you like but I think you'd have to be nuts! While not as easy to do as an old Tonti clutch replacing the clutch on a V11 is not tremendously difficult or time consuming. It's a bit over a day's job at best for someone who knows what they are doing. Pete

Your going blind Field! We've told you before about that! Try sleeping with your hands on top of the bedcovers! Pete

Jesus! Youse blokes just *love* to try and overcomplicate things. Why not try re-inventing the wheel instead? hours of fun with that one Pete

Dunno about old beemers but the smallblocks also only use a single Hookes coupling rather than the double used in the Tontis or the twin UJ's on the Spineys. On them, (The smallblocks) the loadings were accomodated by a very much softer cush drive arrangement in the rear wheel hub/bevelbox. Next time you are near a smallblock stick it on it's centrestand and pop it in gear then rock the wheel back and forth. after the backlash between the dogs is taken up you'll feel that the driveline is really *spongey* that's because of the soft rubber used in the cush drive rubbers. Pete

Steve, the ballance is barely an issue. If the trunnions are not aligned as the suspension works as the shaft is spinning it winds up and down like a bloody great torsion spring exerting very large forces on the driveline components that can strip splines, damage pinions or even twist the end off the pinion of the bevelbox. this, I was told, is known as a 'Sinusoidally Varying Output', which is a cool sounding, techie-type name for winding up and down like a sodding great torsion spring! Pete, (Taking time out!)

The Centauro I stuck the first proto in has the same stand fittings. The plate slipped in with no modifications to anything . Oh, John, and anyone else who has tried to send me paypal payments, I'm sorry, I simply don't have the time at the moment to do anything about processing them. Pete

DON'T FORGET THAT IF YOU SEPARATE THE PARTS OF THE DRIVESHAFT, FRONT UJ,SHAFT AND SPRING AND REAR UJ IT IS VITAL THAT YOU RE-ASSEMBLE THE SHAFT WITH THE TRUNNIONS ALIGNED WITH EACH OTER OTHERWISE SERIOUS DAMAGE WILL ENSUE. P

Sorry, I tried to post this before and it seems to have gone west. People in the UK wanting sheets my Phone No. is 07748631136. Try between about 8.00PM and 10.00PM as I'll be in the hospial with my dying Mum for most of the rest of the time. Sorry about this but obviously busiess is't partcularly important o me right now. Pete

Just had a phone call from my brother. It seems Mum has suffered a massive stroke. Needless to say this will change plans a bit. Please bear with me and I'll be in touch. Pete

Blokes, I'll be leaving in about 14 hours and arrive in the UK on Friday morning. While my mobile/cell phone does have global roaming to use it will be prohibitive cost wise. I think I'll look at one of those phone-hire jobs or see if I can get a pre-paid sim card for mine at the airport. Anyone who is interested in a plate? I'll probably be bringing about 12 of them over, that's about the max I can get with the luggage allowance. I'll post my Ph.# up when I know it and I'd be more than happy to meet people in the evening for a jar and yack, (As opposed to Yak!) about Guzzis, the world, etc. and if people want to collect the plates then that's all well and good and I can give detailed, drunken, verbal instructions on how to install them . Keith, can you PM me your phone # and I'll give you a bell as soon as I've got over the jet-lag Graham, I'll bring you one of the Tonti plates too Pete

Hi Al, I didn't use aluminium for precisely that reason. Bruno Scola used to make plates out of 1mm alloy for earlier bikes and they were terribly fracture prone. Mine are made of 2mm stainless and weigh in at about 700 grams I think, (I weighed 'em yesterday to judge postage so I should remember ) While the stainless is heavier it won't rust and leave streaks down the sump, it won't fracture and lets be honest, if you want to loose 700 grams have a big sh!t before you go for a ride and no, I don't want to enter into a debate about the weight of faecal matter! Pete

Yes, but that is one of the advantages of a *modern* cylinder head design with a very narrow included angle on the valves. Both the Guzzi and the BMW have the disadvantage of not being able to have straight ports with a direct tract to the valve head/s but having a narrow included angle does mean that you can make the combustion chamber very compact AND have large valve area, the only serious problem is likely to be dumping of waste heat due to insufficient matterial around the seats. The Guzzi, which still uses the old two valve hemi design is much more limited and therefore will always be defficient in power compared to a *modern* 4 valver of reasonable design. Incidentally while I'm sure Mike knows far more about combustion cahmber design than I do I think that the squish band on his slug looks too small for my liking. In many ways it resembles a 'Big Valve' piston which are a truly horrid thing, although his are forged and no doubt a zillion times lighter than the horid cast Guzzi big-valve pistons. Pete

The holes around the outside are what holds the spacer in place. The five at the front are the oil galleries for the front main and the clamp bolts that also hold on the oil filter etc. housing as are the three at the back. The six to the front on the left are return paths for the oil as this is where most of it ends up being flung. The *Big* hole is a cutaway for the top of the oil filter housing and the rectangular hole allows for the *lump* of the oil pressure relief valve and also for return of oil that *slops* from above the plate to the sump. In an ideal world the OPRV slot wouldn't be there and there would be some sort of scavenge pump at the back of the case, above the plate, to return oil to the sump. In our less than ideal world we have to accept that some oil will slop up through that hole but the plate will still inhibit the rearward slop of oil enough to prevent the oil starvation/ cavitation problem. The *final solution* has now been engineered by Guzzi for the Griso/Breva models. I've not seen ANY suggestion of starvation on my Griso but I don't think that the later sump can be installed on V11's without a.) ground clearance issues and b.) a LOT more expense. In designing this plate I've tried to give people a cheap, easy, alternative and I really do think it will "Do the business!" Pete

See if this works?

Picked 'em up today. I've got a pic and tried to upload it but it's too big so I'll have o try and make it smaller but I simply don't have time at the moment! Cost will be 155AU per plate and shipping costs are as follows. 1 Plate to USA= $21AU air mail including bag. 2 plates to USA=$37AU inc. 3 plates to USA=$54AU inc. To Europe? 1 =$25 2 =$45 3 =$67 All prices are air mail, sea mail takes a lot longer and doesn't save a lot in terms of expense. These prices don't include insurance which would probably be $5-10 I'd guess. I'll try and get the pic up later on today and I'll be getting a plate out to Greg Field and Mike Haven so they can have a squizz and see if they can spot any problems, I can't and the proto has been running successfully for many Km now with no problems. Note that I'm about to go to the UK so I won't be able to post the plates out to people before the beginning of October. I will, as long as I have enough luggage allowance, bring some over to the UK which should cut down on postage costs appreciably! Pete

Ahhh! No, not that simple. The T5 heads are smallvalvers, that isn't so much an issue, the problem is that the combustion chamber is much, much smaller and even if there aren't any valve to piston issues the compression ratio would be way too high. Then there is the fact that the T5 heads have piddly little 30mm ports on the inlet side and smaller, (Dunno by how much!) exhaust ports. Without a lot of opening up you'll end up with all sorts of horrible charge and exhaust reversion problems if you try to fit the unmodified heads to the V11 motor. BUT! If you have the T5 heads they are actually probably a better starting point for someone like Mike Rich because they are as good a blank castings! He can machine a custom combustion chamber and then the ports can be opened up to whatever he thinks is best. Bigger valves? Smaller valves? Even re-angle the little sods if he thinks it's worthwhile. The T5 heads would be almost like a blank canvas. I'm pretty sure Mike has loads of Guzzi experience so he'd know what the nominal CR of the stock V11 heads would be. With the T5 heads he could up the compression ratio PROPERLY by re-designing the combustion chamber rather than this piss-fart HC piston route which, as you know, I'm not a great fan of. Give the man a ring and ask his advice, I'm not a sh!t-hot tuner, just a bonehead mechanic. I'm sure he could give you the good oil. You could get them twin plugged at the same time and get a My15M from Cliff and start heading towards a REAL hot-rod V11 Pete

Pierre, I'll price up postage on Monday, while there is a chance that any people who pay me before Wednesday I can get the sheets out to it may well be that I'll be so over-run with stuff prior to my UK trip that I may not be able to get them out so I'd advise hanging off until I get back from Blighty in early October. Graham. Yes, I'm still coming. Yes, I'll be bringing some plates and I'll bung a Tonti plate in for you too. Once I'm in the UK I'll get a pre-paid account for my mobil and will psot the number up here and we can catch up. Pete

I have just set up a paypal account linked to my email. Now I don't fully understand how this all works but youse blokes may know. Anyway, my email is; motomoda@optusnet.com.au If you know how to pay from that then please go ahead and then email me notification, (If paypal don't email me automatically.) The cost is essentially going to be $155AU per plate, plus postage. Until I get to the PO on Monday I won't know for sure how much that will be and obviously it will depend on where you are. I'll try and work out this paypal thih this evening, I reckon it's at least a three beer job Pete

Sorry, but I think they are not only pointless but they have all the appearance of having been hand crafted by mentally defective dwarves on the dark side of Pluto, (N longer a planet !). They look like they were carved out of dried fish droppings by Mr. Ugly, owner-operator of Mr. Uglies Ugly Thing Emporium in Ugly-land Make them go away, hopefully a long way away! Pete

Well, yes, I hope so, In some ways at least. While my trip to the UK is NOT going to be pleasant as I'm going to have to speak some plain truths to my Mother and Brother which will make me about as popular as herpes the biggest issue is that my Mum in Law, who is a national treasure, is having big problems t the moment here.We aren't sure exactkly what the problem is yet, (She's going in for an MRI scan this afternoon.) but it's unlikely to be alstheimers and may be a brain tumor. If it is there is NO WAY I'm going to the UK. Pete

I haven't looked too closely at the MGS01, does it use the 'Broad Sump' like the V11 and Daytona RS/Sporti/Centauro? If so then the answer is almost certainly yes. Pete