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I guess it's no mystery how this old nugget got stuck in my head.

Have you performed a full tune up on it?

Tonight it is this: It is interesting to watch that and see if I can recognise anyone. That orchestra plays in the opera where I work. The recording is 12 years old, but there are a couple in there that I definitely see regularly in the opera. EDIT: a note for the non-musicologists: Beethoven was functionally deaf when he wrote that. A bit annoying: it would seem that the capsule on the right of my headphones has just shit itself. Annoying, because the headphones are only about 25 years old. The good bit: they are Sennheiser HD25 headphones, and you can get just about all of the bits as spare parts. EDIT: false alarm: pulled all the plugs, checked left against right, put it back together, and now it is working correctly again. Just wanted some attention, I reckon.

My V11 Le Mans 2004, allegedly 38k miles pings under hard throttle opening. My V11 Quota, 38k miles too, does not. In previous discussions about octane quantity in US Gas, and using 87 octanes instead of 93 octanes (RON+MON)/2, I thought my engine pinging came from low octanes or poor mapping. After a tune-up, and new map for my Stayintune mufflers, the pinging is still there. I don't know what is the real mileage of my Le Mans, since I purchased it with 8,800 miles on an odometer that was no longer working. Today, I have 30,000 more miles on it. I suspect I have a lot of carbon deposit on my valves. I started looking around for fuel additives and literature about the so-called Top Tier fuel label that you find in the USA. I found this study about fuel by AAA: https://www.aaa.com/AAA/common/AAR/files/Fuel-Quality-Full-Report.pdf My question to you experts, is, should I take down the top end of my Le Mans and clean the valves, or should I use a fuel additive which should long term improve the situation. Are any of you using a fuel additive? Are any of you using Top Tier gas in your motorcycle? I use Costco Kirkland signature gasoline, which is in the list of TopTier gas. Should I open the top ends and remove the carbon, or should I trust an additive, and if yes, do you have any recommendation? I realize that opening the engine is the most effective solution. Just getting opinions and input.

Not saying you shoud try it, water in a good pump can with fine spraying possibilitys does for sure the cleaning job well. Look how clean a cylinder look if you have to change a headgasket. Yes I have done it a couple of times. See what comes out of the muffler of an old tired V8. Caution is #1, we don't like bend rods. Seems your bike is on the run for quite some miles, so woudn't think to much carbon build. Thinking you are trying to get the best gas available all the time. Did the heads on my 1100 Sport at 95000km, not much carbon. Some here like sea foam treatment. Cheers Tom.

Some insist that lean mixtures lead to pinging. Dirty injectors can certainly cause that. As the mileage racks up, the injectors will certainly pick up some crud. I use 92 octane and regular spritzes of Lucas or RedLine F.I. cleaner and no problems - but I am only look at 12K on the bike. These are essentially 1930s Pratt & Whitney combustion chambers and need some octane to function as intended. As to carbon, a port fuel injected engine should not suffer from excess intake carbon like the direct injection engines do. Maybe a cocktail of FI cleaner and octane booster will help.

It is easy to check if it is good or not. That is described in the first post in the "decent tune-up" thread that docc linked to. Interpreting the results of your check is also easy: either the resistance through the TPS changes continuously and smoothly as you turn it, or it is broken and needs replacing. PS: have you already done some research into using GuzziDiag? If not, do so. It is quite easy to use, and can show you, among many other useful things, a graph that shows what the TPS is doing. Quite apart from your current issues, look into it. It is worth the effort.

Dark Art dragged into the light . . . --->

Yes, I know. I lived where the orange dot is for about six years from January 1996 onwards. https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/119942092#map=16/48.12638/11.58873 A bit over 10 minutes walk to the Deutsches Museum.

Speaking of Munich Mick the next time you are there it's worth a whole day to visit the Deutsches Museum of science and technology. I was there 40 years ago and if you are interested in anything of a mechanical nature it's the place to visit. The aviation section has everything German and in the basement they have full sectioned Uboat. Quite amazing. I really like Munich and have been there a few times to collect new motorcycles and look around. Phil

PM me your address Mick and I'll send some over. We can work out the postage later. Phil

The bloke who was interested apparently encounterd domestic stress when he mentiong the idea. @Lucky Phil if you're not dead set on off-loading yours, I'll get one from Scud if it goes through. If you want to get rid of yours, you put your hand up first, but I think it is a good thing if a couple are "in stock" in the southern hemisphere. @Scud can you remember what the total cost, including shipping and so on, was to Europe? The bloke in question needs to know that to continue negotiations in the domestic context. Another thing, if you have a lot left, I might consider taking a couple extra, just in case someone else over her wants one.

Although Dvořák no. 9 "From the new world" is pretty hard to mess up. Incidentally, the concert hall that that video was filmed in is the old Gasteig in Munich that I have mentioned previously in a couple of posts. For those who happen to not be Musicologists, the "From the new world" bit relates to the U.S.A. Dvořák went to New York in 1892, and the piece reflects the musical inspirations he found there.

Just for the sake of completeness, the muffler has found a new owner.

Look, as I keep saying. If you want confirmation? Just pull the bevelbox and pull out the pinion carrier and pinion. You wouldn’t hesitate to pull the back wheel if you had a flat tire would you? Well it’s the same deal and then four more nuts that hold the bevelbox on. Once it’s on the bench all that is required to pull out the pinion carrier is to separate the flange from the casing. Sometimes it will simply pull out with a tug on the pinion. Sometimes you need to give the flange a couple of biffs with a hammer and drift to get it to separate a bit and then you can pry it forward until it comes loose and you can pull it out. Once it’s out the head of the pinion is staring you in the face. All these bevelboxes are essentially the same. All the way through from the T3 to the last of the California 1100’s. Yes there are differences in the lengths of the spacers in the box and these are easily swapped, then there was a change in about 2002 to the depth of the spline spigot in the crownwheel carrier, your Quota will need one of the earlier type. Apart from that the earlier Tonti boxes had 7/33 gear sets rather than the 8/33 of the Quota and of course the case has a shock mount on it whereas yours has a rubber bung filling the hole. Older Cali bevelboxes must be ten a penny in the US. Mark at Guzzi Classics probably has a dozen of them! If this had happened to me I’d just be buying a Cali box, checking it was sound and sticking it on. There is no need for it to be a Quota bevelbox. I can’t stress strongly enough. If you did ride 200 miles without oil there will be serious damage and you are taking a great risk riding it further. It will not of escaped unscathed.

A saying from old timers who worked on Pratt and Whitney radial engines; "if you can read a part number on chips in the filter, its time to pull the engine" Not helpful I know, but a great story. 😀

Just for fun, besides the misspelling (and I don't mean PORBETTI for BORLETTI ). Poor Betty . . .

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. https://ebay.us/m/UUIQQD

I am happy w/my schizophrenia and I like the voices in my head . This is not a matter of taste This is Jocelyn Wildenstein on 2 wheels

I think it is unanimous ,the owner had a brain tumor , drug issues or schizophrenic .

OMG , I looked at that bike to see what all was desecrated and did not notice the frame painted black . At least this is the MOST desecrated V11 of all time !

As challenging as the V11 Sport/LeMans tank shape is to fathom whilst integrated with the rest of the original design, it is quite an abomination all by itself! Might as while mount up a Quat-D exhaust for "balance" . . . And the battery and the relays and the fuses and the ECU . . . oh, my!

Do you think my tank looks too big?

Nawww . That is ugly PERIOD

Unfortunately, Europe has become a very different place from that of my infancy memory. During the 60's, France needed man power to get the manufacturing going, and there wasn't enough available to go around. Bringing people with many differences, including social level, educational level, introduced inequality. Furthermore, I have lived in places where your apparent difference automatically makes you a target. It feels weird to me that it now happens in Paris, where there have been multiple attempts to kidnap cryptocurrencies management individuals or their family in broad daylight, the last one only a few days ago... this could never happen here! the kidnappers would not survive the attempt.... I appreciate that here, in Texas, I am not confronted with the same problems which I had to affront in other places. I am not saying that everything is perfect here, far from it, but I appreciate that I can park my bikes anywhere, and not worry about finding them again after.