audiomick

Ah, ok. This: https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/moto guzzi/moto_guzzi_california_special 98.htm Even so, I can't quite come to grips with "California" and "Sport" in any kind of correlation.

The petrol stations here (mostly...) have E5, i.e. 5% Ethanol and generally just called "Benzin" (Petrol, Gasoline) and E10, i.e. between 5 and 10% Ethanol and always designated as "E10". Here are some Wiki links. Use deepL.com to translate if you're interested: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol-Kraftstoff https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/E10_(Kraftstoff) Here, it seems to be based on an EU directive https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richtlinie_2009/28/EG_(Erneuerbare-Energien-Richtlinie)

Looks like a clean bike, but I have to say, I have never heard of a California "Special Sport" before. Can anyone identify from the photos what it really is?

That Prouty is amazing. Never heard of him before, but his ability to ignore logical and plausible scientific opinion is astonshing.

Which might easily be an explanation for the modification on the bike in the picture. Who knows...

Keeping the sausages warm is obviously the real reason, but I have to say, I really like the way the first Sport 1100 looked with that hole in the footpeg carrier.

Funny, the press here liked it (the Toyota). As for it being a shitbox: an acquaintance had an iQ. He put lots of miles on it, including regular trips on the german Autobahn. He was perfectly happy with it. I haven't driven either, but I've sat in both. The Toyota made a considerably better impression on me. At the end of the day I'd take a Toyota above an "entry level" Daimler every time, particularly one that is in the end not much more than a cynical marketing exercise. I did enough Daimler annual stockholder's meetings to know that that is exactly what the Smart is.

If I was looking for a (very) small car, I would be looking for a good one of these: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_iQ I had a look at the time. Seems like Toyota looked at the Smart, and made a better one. PS: I've seen that Renault here a couple of times. Not for me. For all that it offers, I think I would prefer to stick with a motorcycle.

I'd be prepared to consider a Suzuki. I would still like to have a Katana. But that over-weight chook chaser, no.

I wrote it further up: the trick is, apparently, turn the ignition and the lights on, and let it stand for a couple of minutes. Completely contra-intuitive with a "flat" battery, but the load warms the battery, and it then works better and can deliver the required grunt to start. At least according to everything I have read on the subject. PS: also according to "everything I have read on the subject": yes, a dedicated charger is apparently a good thing. What is to be avoided at all costs is a charger the does a "de-sulphate" routine. That seems to be fatally detrimental to a lithium battery.

The video: the bloke is a professional smart-arse, as far as I'm concerned. Not that he is telling fibs, but the "I have understood it" is hard to take. Gore-tex: in Germany, Gore-tex is "Sondermüll", i.e. hazardous waste. It can't be re-cycled, doesn't bio-degrade, burning it is apparently not an option. I prefer waxed cotton or leather, and wool underneath. Or Sheepsking, when it is not likely to rain. Heavy, but probably better for the environment. Maybe.

To find out what the ultimate lean angle on a V11 is, or on any bike, you'd have to do some laps on a race track. Or be slightly insane. I found the limits on my 1976 Z900 (about 30 years ago...) on a race track after I had owned it for several years, and thought I was pretty fast on it. I had never touched anything down, and on that day, after about 6 laps, I found out the the first thing down was the headers. After that, I got to ride a TZ 350 for a few laps on the same track, more or less a contemporary of the Z900, but a pure race bike running slicks. Everything was better, frame (yes, I know the Z900 wasn't famous for the quality of the frame...), brakes, suspension, tyres, handling. Everything. The bike was in a completely different frame of reference to my Z900 street "suoerbike". So, while I find it a very interesting question what the ultimate lean angle of a V11 is (and I also don't think the cylinders are the limiting factor), I don't think comparing with what a Moto GP bike can do is particuarly pertinent. The bikes are just too different. My aim is simply to reduce the unused stripe on the edge of the tyre to a minimum. Since I am rapidly becoming an old fart, I doubt that I will ever get right to the edge of the tyre anymore.

Can I use that? As someone who isn't exactly at the "zero" end of the OCD scale, that could prove to be a useful euphemism for me.

Indeed.

What's that in sensible units? No, kidding. I looked it up for the Europeans here, well, in fact on behalf of most of the rest of the world : 2.032 mm.

Suck it an see, mate. They're sold as drop-in replacements. Generally speaking: I've read that they get sulky below about 5°C. Somehow I can't imagine that you will be setting off from where you live all that often when it is below that temperature. Even so, the trick is, apparently, to turn on the key and let it stand for a couple of minutes (with the lights on). The load warms the battery, and it becomes more willing. I've read of cases where the Li-ion Battery got too hot and started letting out the magic gray smoke. My guess is, mostly they installed a battery that was at the bottom end of the "enough kick" scale (4AH was mentioned by one of them); presumably "planning by budget". I reckon the battery was getting run half-flat by the starting procedure, and getting too hot through the re-charge process. A bigger battery would master the start more easily, not have so much urgent need to re-charge, and presumably be much less in danger of overheating in the process. But that is just a theory.

You obviously need more titanium. And maybe a bit more carbon fibre. Seat base, perhaps? Titanium reaction rod? Seriously though, thinking about it, nothing springs out as an obvious place to save weight. In contrast, for instance, the V35 Imola (which would really benefit from saving a kilo or two on account of the moderate power output and already fairly low weight) has a number of really obvious points: the seat is far too heavy, the bracket for the seat is steel (could be drilled out a bit, could be aluminium or carbon or titanium), the steel tank could be replicated in aluminium, the foot-pegs could be replaced by aluminium items, the list is long. On top of what you have already done, @Lucky Phil, I can't think of many more obvious possibilities to save some weight on a V11. A Lithium-ion battery perhaps, if there isn't already one in there. Otherwise...

What do you mean by #1 cylinder?

I'm quite sure there will be panniers available. A bike in that segment that doesn't have them would not sell very well at all.

Bad for the rubber bits, I think. It sweats out the plasticisers. Think about what a newish car smells like on the inside when it has been standing in the sun all day.

For the sake of clarity: I gather you mean it didn't release because the new clutch is thicker, and the system didn't provide enough reach without the 3-and-a-bit extra from the spacer?

Tyres probably.

About 1988 or thereabouts I rode from Melbourne to the Gold Coast on my Z900. There was a girl on the pillion seat, and the reason for the trip was that she wanted to visit someon there. Three days to get there, 4 or 5 there, and then back to Melbourne on my own. The bit with the girl didn't last long, which is no doubt a good thing. The trip was perhaps not "life-changing", but very much a "forming experience". PS: not many curves when one goes up "through the middle", but slowly watching the landscape change over the course of 500 km. is definitely a meditational experience.

Well done, that man. Please let us know what you find out about the pushrod.You know, longer, shorter, whatever...

Yeah, I took a while too. I grew up with the Stevie Nicks era, and sometime much, much later I found out that they were, before that, one of those british blues bands that were perhaps not better than USA blues, but different, and equally good.