slug

I like to think of my Guzzi as one giant quirk

About six months ago I asked my insurance company to add towing insurance and the woman who answered told me "no problem". Talked to my agent on Friday about the tow and she said that they've never offered towing insurance for motorcycles. Had I known this I would have had a friend go pick the bike up in my truck. My agent then told me that the woman who said "no problem", no longer works for her because of things like this Fortunately my collision coveravge should handle this. As for dragging bits, my chicken strips were about 1/4" without ever dragging anything. Maybe our suspensions are set up differently... Thanks Bob, I spoke with the tow company today and they said when the authorities call for a tow they bill an hourly "emergency" rate of $182 per hour. Drive time round trip was about two hours plus 1/2 hour hook up time. They said that they gave me a "discount" for indoor storage of the bike, from $18 to $9 which "they could live with"

Dammit, I lowsided the Dirty Bird on Thursday Did it on the ride back from Sunrise lodge on Mt. Rainier. Good golly, that is an incredible road ! Some of the best twisties I've ever been on around here (the Chumstick highway is a distant second...) I rode up, hung out at the top for a few minutes, got some pictures and started to head down. About halfway down I went in to a super tight lefthand hairpin, and I'm not sure if I set up for the turn too late or had too much speed, but I ended up getting my front tire in the soft dirt and got sucked down in to a ditch (thank God it was soft, almost fluffy dirt ). While I know I messed up and I've only myself to blame and not my equipment, I'm still wondering if I could have saved this... I have the MotoBits foot controls and the footpegs are solid and don't fold up. Right before my front wheel hit the dirt, my left peg touched the ground, which I think prevented me from getting the lean I know the bike is truly capable of, and I wonder if the peg touching caused me to start sliding prematurely? Anyway, I got away with a broken finger and a couple of bruised or cracked ribs. No road rash and my helmet did its job well Dirty Bird suffered mostly cosmetic damage. Broken CF windscreen, fender, headlight, bent handlebars, scratched tank and tail section, scratched & dented valve cover, minor damage to fins on the head. The worst part was that I f**ked up my brand new Mistral cans Absolute worst part: I was billed over $500 to get the bike towed 60 miles. Doesn't this seem a bit high? The towing company didn't have to do anything extraordinary. All they had to do was roll the bike up on the truck and strap it down! Plus, I think they might have bent my right clip-on (can't be sure since I was strapped to a backboard in the ambulance when we went by...) Seems even more fishy because they didn't write the mileage down on the invoice. Anyone in Washington successfully contested something like this? Grrrr.

Here a link: The Link

I put my o2 sensor just a little further back from where Jens put his, and had a lot of trouble with overheating the sensor. I'm using the Innovate LC-1 as well. Fortunately Innovate sells a nice stainless heat sink (although a bit pricey) which has solved all my overheating problems. Innovate also gives instructions for a do it yourself heatsink out of a small sheet of copper, but IMHO it would look like a "farm fix" on our bikes. The LC-1 is nice because the controller can sense when the sensor is too hot and it does two things: 1. The controller won't put a signal because when the sensor is too hot. 2. The indicator LED (if hooked up) will show an error code (8 blinks.) This way you know when something is wrong (especially when running closed loop )

Hmm. The low beam on the Goose stopped working. The high beam still comes on with both switches. Bulb: checked, swapped & passed inspection. Relays: checked & passed inspection. Fuses: checked & passed inspection. Switches: no obvious shorts, I think... Bulb connector: found a spider inside with its web closed off like it was about to lay eggs (really!) The low beam lead (green/gray wire) at the headlight connector puts out 12v when the high beam switches are off, but the bulb does not turn on. When the high beam switch is on, the low beam lead goes to 0v and the high beam lead (brown wire) goes to 12v and the high beam turns on. All other electrical stuff seems to be working well. Anyone seen this type of behavior before, or any ideas? Thanks!

Alex, With your LC-1 and your 16M configuration, are you setting your target O2 sensor voltages to negative or positive?

Yeah, my map is far from sorted. Don't fret about the position just yet, I rode Dirty Bird in to work and the heat sink from Innovate that I installed yesterday seems to be doing the trick. I'll keep you posted. Also, my case is out of the ordinary. It's been somewhat hot here in Seattle and I've been making a lot of changes to the bike all at once (new ECU, crossover, velocity stacks w/pod filters, new Mistrals on the way ) I also had a couple of hardware/firmware issues with the ECU and Optimizer (which Cliff was extremely quick in helping get things fixed ) so Dirty Bird has been running kinda lean. I have dyno time scheduled in two weeks so everything should be sorted soon. Worst part is that I've barely put 500 miles on the bike this summer

The Innovate LC-1 controller has an output for an indicator LED (and doubles as a reset switch when shorted). If there's a problem the LED will blink an error code. After all the strange behavior I hooked up the LED where I can see it while riding and as soon as the bike started running like crap the indicator started giving the overheat error (the sensor body temp is over 900f). I put the heatsink on the sensor today and it seems to help, but I'm still going to relocate the sensor when I get a chance. I looked last night and found a good spot on the x-over (its an FBF crossover, so while I'm at it I'm going to weld some support tabs on it). It's about 2" past the joined section on the top of the pipe and the top of the sensor fits nicely between some of the sub-frame (all the tubes connected to the pork chops). Totally hidden Once again, I must remember to weld the bung on WITHOUT the plug screwed in all the way (if you want the gory details...)

Nah, they're pretty tough. I probably have more solder gobbed on mine than Hubert's and they're just fine.

Nice work Hubert! Good idea with the thermal paste on the two heatsinks. I think I'll squirt a little under mine next time I have the ECU out. I'm strongly considering moving my O2 sensor back around the area you put yours. My sensor is starting to overheat, and I'm afraid I may have cooked it already Before I move it I'm installing a heatsink on the sensor, hopefully that will help. Cheers,

Welcome! Guzzi fever is a good illness to have. Case issues aside, there's no huge difference between those years. The biggest one I know of is that the '04 (or late '03?) models have a crossover pipe in front of the engine. I think the gauge colors changed from white to black in '04 and the adjusters on the Marzocchi forks changed. As for things to look for / ask about: Shift return boss/spring upgrade or replacement. Relays replaced? Preferred brand is GEI. Rear wheel bearing spacer replaced? (Some are too short and can cause bearing failure) That's what I have off the top of my head, I'm sure others will chime in!

Very pretty! I don't see any prices on their site. Anyone have any info?

Don't be a dips**t like me and weld the bung on with the plug screwed in. You'll never be able to unscrew it.

Holy F**K. Uglier than a hat full of assholes.

For a minute I thought you meant this little Seattle graffitti gem: I've done a marathon ride like that too (2000 miles in four days) with badly balanced throttle bodies and an exhaust valve way out of adjustment . I couldn't join my left pinky finger with the other three for almost a week

Them sliders look nice! Has anyone had the unfortunate experience of actually putting these, or any other head protector of this style to the ground? My question is, are the four valve cover bolts that hold them on strong enough to support the impact and weight of the bike? Would the stress mangle the bolt holes on the head?

Found the problems: 1. Tail light wires were pinched against a sharp corner of the fender eliminator, and wore through the insulation. 2. Two of the three legs of that stupid reflector thing inside the headlight had broken, and one of the free legs was intermittently shorting out the circuit for the little pilot lamp in the headlight. I ended up using aviation shears to cut that little bastard up and get it out of the headlight. I also found that the 30 amp fuse for the charging system has been getting super hot, practically melting, just like Enzo has experienced recently. Not sure what's causing that yet... Enzo, if you're reading this, did you ever figure this out? To make life even more fun, while troubleshooting, I discovered a 1 1/2 inch cut/chunk torn out of the outer edge of my rear tire (right down to the cords ) Bummer is that I only had 2000 miles on them. Grrrr. Thanks for the help everyone!

Thanks, you know the specific numbers (hi/low voltage, ohms, flux capacatance) off the top of your head?

Today my dear beast decided it likes the taste of 15 amp headlight circuit fuses. I've already put in an emergency order for new GEI relays from Dan, so that is covered. I can't find any obvious shorts around the headlight... A new fuse will last about 10 minutes, and seems to blow (or maybe just coincidence) when I go in to some harder engine braking. Going to hook up the 'ol voltmeter tomorrow to get a better idea of what's going on with the charge circuit. Any hints, tips, experience? Mucho Thanks!

Simple, their stupidity stunting destroys their bike before the oil starvation can.

Rockwell Circumbobulator

Ick.

Q: You know why the British don't make computers? A: Because they haven't found a way to make 'em leak oil!

Do bicycles count?