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The longer I have my bike the more little flaws I notice, like the fairing being a bit crooked when I had to put the damn thing back together! Turns out after looking at pictures I made before it's been like that since I bought it, and it definitely annoyed me a bit. But then, I saw pictures of a mint condition, all original Ducati Supersport 750, and the fairing on those bikes are even more crooked! Even despite that they're priceless classics. If it doesn't matter on those bikes, why would it be a big deal on my Lemans?

I drilled half of the pucks in my bike back in Mar 2018. Six drilled pucks, with the remaining cavities empty. The difference was barely noticeable, but I liked the idea of lowered shock loads on splines/gears/dogs. I have not felt the need to revert to standard over the last 6 years. An odd effect of rubber is that it does not compress much. If you squeeze it, it will bulge out somewhere, without the volume changing (Poisson's Ratio for rubber is 0.5). This tells me that the pucks will be cushier if they could squeeze somewhat, and squirm in in their pockets easily. Dry lube in the puck pockets is helpful, and Klüber Staburags NBU 30 PTM grease (or equivalent) on the rear wheel drive spline is essential.

No issues with drive spline wear at these miles. And I engine brake and rip out of the curves like a jackrabbit on hot lava. Pretty sure @MartyNZ did the cush rubber drilling. I would trust his opinion of the outcome. Regarding maintenance and lubrication, I am a big fan of Klüber Staburags at every tire change . . .

More "patina" talk . . . > Auto Anthropology < . . . https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/auto-anthro-the-power-of-patina/?hashed_email=b4b94022c1bd45a1fa61becf3ab2e64665eaea4bd3297978c54e145dd672e019&dtm_em=b4b94022c1bd45a1fa61becf3ab2e64665eaea4bd3297978c54e145dd672e019 Historian and archaeologist Shannon Lee Dawdy quite literally wrote the book on the topic, researching Patina: A Profane Archaeology in New Orleans in the years immediately before and after Hurricane Katrina. She writes: “Two desires coexist: for the youthful, replaceable commodity and for the old, well-worn object … most new commodities lose resale value as soon as they are purchases, but eventually… an object that begins as a generic and replaceable commodity transforms into an idiosyncratic possession with little shared worth, and later into a collectively valued treasure.” And this, Dawdy, again, has the answer. She explains, “[we] value things for the way they transcend their own commodification.”

What sort of lunatic advises on avoiding engine braking! I mean seriously. Avoid "engine braking" to save your drive splines. How are you supposed to ride the bike? Every time you get off the throttle you pull the clutch in? Docc your bike has done a lot of miles, hows the drive splines look? How many have you needed to replace? This advice is up there with not blipping the throttle for downshifts. Maintenance and lubrication is the issue not engine braking which in fact is a minor load on the splines compared to the loads from accelerating the mass of the bike. As for drilling holes in the cush rubbers, well thats a stick your finger in the air and have a guess backyard hackers solution. It's not hard to measure the shore hardness of rubber and if you need something less hard then you can buy liquid Polyurethane in the hardness you desire make a simple mould and mould what you "think" you need. Phil

Had the bike on the lift replacing the plugs and doing the valves, decided to investigate why the neutral light was deciding to illuminate when it damn well pleased in neutral. Ultimately, added a M8x12mmx1mm crush washer and with ~20 N-m of torque found the sweet spot statically. Picked 12mm since it seemed to correspond with the boss on the neutral switch doing the crushing.

I can assist with postage if required docc. AUD as well so about 10 cents USD:) https://motociclo.com.au/product/neutral-switch-moto-guzzi-6-speed-and-small-block/

Try adjustment docc with a thinner crush washer first. The contact is internal and can't be accessed without switch disassembly and you ruin the potted switch assembly dissecting it and trying to JBweld it back together. Phil

Rest easy, @docc that's honest to goodness bona fide patina on that cover. I'm impressed. The Cadillac just looks contrived. What a co-incidence that the patch of paint under the name is intact, and all the rest is rusted away.

Hey! Don't be talkin' 'bout my wank like that!

When a price like that pops up on a bike like that, sometimes it's tough to move fast enough.

Nice article, thanks for the link. I like this: That is something that I like. A "sleeper", if you like. Pay attention and effort to the way it works, and worry about how it looks when that is all sorted, and there are still some resources left over. Much better than renewing the paint, and then running out of money for making sure it all works properly, and maybe making it work better. PS: the Cadillac wing with paint around the Logo and the rest rust is wrong. That has been sand-blasted or acid-etched to induce a forced "patina". Otherwise, the rust would be all the way to the letters of the logo. Bit of a wank, I reckon.

Although I strictly refuse to be involved with that mob, I could see this. The site apparently "knows" that I am in Germany, but I have translated: Here are some pictures. They are linked from the facebook site, so they may become unavailable in the course of time. For that eventuality, suffice to say that they show a Greenie, but no details of interest. EDIT: regarding "details of interest", it has a fairly ugly bikini fairing, but that could no doubt be easily relegated to "things that once were"...

For those of us who cannot see fb content, would someone kindly share some details (mileage, price, whatever) . . .

Wow ! I forgot what I was gonna say. Hop-up(good) = modify , make better , increase horsepower & performance Hop-up(bad) = an attempt to do the first instead fu@king it up and ruining it making it useless.

@PJPR01 you should read this thread by old Guzzi hand @Greg Field if you’re interested in learning more about our V11’s cush drive.

Still kicking self, I missed it by a couple hours.