callison

The part number for the petcock from a Sport 1100i is: 29105460. I think they're about $70. I believe the electric one is rebuildable. Mine is apart on my bench right now. I pried loose the cap, chipped away the epoxy and the two coil terminals can be soldered to again. Just haven't done it. Now I'll feel compelled to to see if it works.

I made mention in an earlier post that there used to be a FAQ at Sterns Lighting, but that it was no longer there. I searched my hard drive, and I actually have the entire website archived. If any of you guys want the skinny on all of the various lights and manufacturers claims, I'll zip it up and email it to you. It's copyrighted stuff, so I won't post it here (besides, there's and unbelievably large quantity of information. In short though, he (Daniel Stern) thinks very little of the PIAA lights - and then goes into extreme detail as to the validity of their (PIAA) claims. Good reading. Covers HID lights and conversions and a host of other things as well.

Just passed 30,000 on the 2001 Sport. No spring failures although the transmission does tend to hang in second when trying to upshift to third. My V65C does the same thing. Birds of a feather I guess. What is it with these 2002 models though? Nary a word about spring breakage for any other years that I can recall.

Did you check the two bullet connectors under the tank on the left side that go to the clutch switch. I've had those give me problems. They're near the last thing in the electrical chain to the starter relay.

Al, my Mike Rich heads are doing the same thing. Must be something about airflow efficiency. Nothing I've tried drops it below 1500 rpm.

They're the same, so it probably comes down to tighter tolerances on the pivot for the later models. The only spring action is that of the master cylinder - and that isn't much. My V11 Sport rear brake pedal tended to stay down. After I cleaned and lubed the pivot point (while replacing the brake lever after my accident, which BTW, left a really clear brake lever bruise on my foot before it broke off. Very clear... ouch) and now the lever returns to the appropriate position rather nicely. Take it apart and clean it periodically, it's subject to all of the weather elements.

It would take someone with a knowledge of calculus and the properties of the tire, but there ain't no way a stock street tire is going to expand very much at the speeds our bikes are capable of. The race boys have more info on this. http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/gearspeed.html Street tires are assumed not to expand enough to account for, other tire types are. These radial tires we use are very well constrained by their material. Searching on the web is fun... just not profitable. Culled this from the thunderace guys: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re:Top Speed Accuracy - stock vs Sigma Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 16:23:43 -0800 From: Lance_Keigwin@alliedtelesyn.com (Lance Keigwin) Subject: Re:Top Speed Accuracy - stock vs Sigma I doubt tire growth is responsible for more than 1% BC800 error. Someone on the R1 list did the math on this a while back and it worked out to about that (based on what some authority -- Dunlop? -- said about 207GP tire growth at very high speed). The BC700/800 is known to be extremely accurate to 170+ mph. (Within 1/10%, according to a radar test.) So you can conclude that: - your BC800 tire circumference measurment is off (but you said you verified its accuracy at 35 and 63). Or, - your gearing is not what you think. Or, - Mark's nifty program is faulty. Or, - Your tach is wrong. Or, - your BC800 is faulty. Or, - Tire growth at speed is enormous! Since the stock speedo is off about 8% (according to your statement that stock 80 is really BC800 74mph) I suspect that the stock 168 is probably about what the BC800 said it was: ~153. This is consistent with my measurements too. Lance. R1, 996, ZX6R, 400RR AFM #805 ____________________Reply Separator____________________ Author: loki@iaonline.com (Michael J. Hand) Here is the situation: Stock (engine/pipe wise) '97 YZF1000R Dyno'd at 125hp. (at 6,000 miles - has 13,500 now) Gearing change has been performed putting on a 530 chain, at same time going up 2 teeth on the rear sprocket (stock size front). I am running fairly worn (5,500 miles) Dunlop D207 tires. (being replaced July 1st right before I take CLASS on July 6th). I have added a Sigma BC-800 cycle computer and tested it against radar at 35mph and 63mph - dead accurate at those speeds. BTW - at 74-75mph sigma speed, stock speedo is reading 80. According to the handy little gearing program that Mark Panos has on his site, I should be geared for about 171 at 11,500 rpm (red line) in top gear. Was on a straight road, flat, no wind - mirrors were folded back running flat out. pulled to 11,200 (or so) RPM before my road was getting short quickly. Stock speedo was reading 168 (or so) Sigma read my max speed at 152.7 What gives? which was accurate? Is it possible that the sigma did not compensate for tire growth and the stock speedo was more accurate at that speed? What do you think???? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And Metzeler's input, but no speed specified: Metzeler says the 880 was built in response to a request from American Iron Horse, a small-scale bike manufacturer of big V-Twin customs. It uses Metzeler’s patented 0-degree steel belt construction that limits tire growth at speed and aids stability. The limited tire growth, adds Metzeler, means that custom builders can mount a fender as close as one-quarter inch from the tire’s maximum-diameter specs, perfect for that low-riding look. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm just going to go with tire slippage as a function of the horsepower required to go fast encountering the road surface/tire interface traction coefficient. Wow! That almost sounded like I knew what I was talking about.

You might be able to get a rear disk upgrade from Spiegler. Das Mototec sells a complete rear brake replacement caliper and disk (much smaller) that might be a full floater.

Tubeless are way easier than tubed. You need a good bead breaker, a handful of rim protectors, a pair of tire irons, some scraps of wood, a can of spray cleaner (I use 409) and a plentiful supply of swear words. A good balance rig is useful too. Mine is good to 1/4 gram.

One of the forums I read had a posting a few years ago about European specs for speedometes. +7% fast, -0% slow. Making a speedometer that reads slow allowing you speed is just plain verboten. But you can make a speedometer that reads 7% fast meaning that you're careening down the road thinking you're going 70 and you're really doing a tad over 65 mph. An it's a legal speedometer! But not a technically accurate one. So, given that the speedometer can be anywhere within a band of 7%, tire circumference changes as the tire wears (and the rear tire changes most, and the most rapidly [typcially], and that's the one driving the speedometer) and rear wheel slippage that translates into a higher speedometer readout, it should be a relative no-brainer that a bicycle speedometer driven by the front wheel will be much more accurate than the one that comes on the bike. Especially since you have control over the calibration. So, if a guy says his bike goes 220 mph and the allowable error is 7% (and I'll almost guarantee the bike manucturer pushes it this way because it allows for market specmanship for top speed), then his top speed is more likely to be somewhere just over the 200 mph mark, which is dead on for a stock Suzuki Hayabusa. Too damn fast for me. I'll stick with the Guzzi's!!!

Daniel Stern Lighting used to have a great web page with an ind-depth FAQ about all of these things. He still has a great web page, but the FAQ is unlinked for "updating". Basically, what I remember from reading it is that the PIAA bulbs merely shift the filament further (forward?) which concentrates more beam intensity into the center of the beam pattern. After that, they make lots of high claims with no substantiation. Still, for a bike like the Sport 1100i, which has a miserable beam pattern from the rectangular bulb, concentrating more light in the center is an improvement. If you think the headlight on a V11 Sport is bad (which I don't agree with), you should try riding the Sport 1100i at night. Or my California - even the V65 has a better light than that one. Best light I've ever seen on a bike? The 8 1/4" flamethrower that was on the 1982 Yamaha Seca 650. Big headlight, works very well indeed. I'm totally turned off by the appearance of the projector lights, and I really hate the blue arc lights when I see them, but if someone really wants the things, they can take a look at some at http://www.spieglerusa.com/body_pages/mig_lights.cfm.

I think you're going to have a hard time attaining a speed that will dramatically change the circumference of the tire and maintaining that speed long enough to create a substantial error. Five years ago, I got to witness an LSR bike tire rotated to 275 mph. It grew 4" in diameter overall!!! Scary to be near. Our bikes aren't likely to attain half that speed for any appreciable length of time and I kind of doubt that the tire growth is very much anyway. I have these Sigmas on 3 of my bikes and they're orders of magnitude more accurate than the one on the bike. If they don't drop under 1% error in the final measure, they're still an improvement and I couldn't care less about the difference at that level as the Sigmas are so flexible and useful in other ways. I use them to track total tire miles and a bunch of other things.

I will concur on your evaluation of the Marzocchi LeMans forks Al, since I have your old ones. They're, uh... not too good. In fact, they don't even work as well as the Marzocchis fitted to the V11 Sports prior to 2002. Serviceable, but little more. I have a full set of WP suspension components on the way from England from a Guzzi "breaker" (salvage guy) that had a 97 Sport 1100i in the disassembly stages. I'm going for the front and rear components. This ought to result in less "culture shock" when changing between the Sport 1100i (which came with the full WP bit - and the purchase price showed it...) and the V11 Sport, which ought to have cost somewhat less because it didn't have WP suspension, but priced out at about the same level. Maybe the difference in 1997 dollars and 2001 dollars accounts for the difference. If you want really, really bad shocks, go ride an MG cruiser bike from the late 90's with the Bitubo crap. A straight strut has about the same ride. I put some Works Performance shocks on my 97 California. Better, but still quite harsh - even with the softer spring set. Next time it will be Hagons for that beast.

I don't even have to take photos or explain it. Just look here... http://more.sportbikes.com/reading/cycle_computer.html or here... http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/3.../3772/Bc700.htm and here too... http://www.fmack.org/mc/cbr_mybike/index.html and a not so good set of pictures... http://www.geocities.com/toms_toys/bc80.html

I built up a new wheel for my V11 Sport (or Sport 1100i, whatever) today. The first thing I had to do with the Marchesini rim I got off of eBay was to remove the Ducati? wheel bearings. There were no rotors on this rim revealing three semi-slots on the hub on each side. A 1/4" socket drive extension about 10" long is perfect for inserting in the slots sequentially and tapping the bearing out. I needed to recycle the rotor bolts from the old (bent) wheel as well to mount the (used, got them from a guy in England and pray they aren't warped) rotors. I don't have a torch. I do have a paint stripper gun (a hair dryer on steroids) and placed so that it heats the rotor bolt head, the carrier and the hub immediately under the bolt. It only takes about 90 seconds or so to apply enough heat to soften the LocTite. No sign of paint blistering on the hub either. Some inventive positioning with wooden blocks enabled me to align the new bearings properly so I could drift them in with a large socket that only impacts on the outer portion of the bearing. It's rather less fun to change the tire, but I'm getting pretty good at that as well. LOL, but I'm cheap!

I wouldn't glue the magnet to the rim for a number of reasons. Mine is mounted to a short piece of aluminum that sits under one of the rotor bolts for the front disk brake. It's 1 A.M., so I'm not going to run out there to take a picture, but tomorrow I'll give it a shot. There was a web site for sports bikes a few years ago with some very good explicit instructions on mounting these gadgets. It may still be out there.

I got the injectors back from the NAPA guys today (again). The bench guy said they now spraw evenly and flow well. Not a very calibrated reply, but then again, they didn't charge me. However, the screens in the injectors had problems, one was falling apart (and clogging the injector) and the other one was full of particulate garbage (and clogging the injector). So they threw away the screens leaving me to find a replacement set. These are not you standard size screens so I had to order some from the place I should have sent the injectors to in the first place, a firm called G & B (NOT Ghezzi & Brian) near Moto Guzzi Classics in Long Beach, California. While the screens were cheap, there was a minimum order so I'm going to have a few spares - about eleven pairs of them after keeping some for my bikes. When you guys start hitting some reasonably high mileages, let me know if you need some and for a nominal fee (pink slip to your bike, a Ferrari or a Maserati, home in the Bahamas) I'll send you some screens. Normally, they probablly don't need to be changed too often. I don't know how the particulate matter got into mine or what it was. It will be interesting to see how the other bikes fare. I have > 57,000 miles on the Sport 1100i, > 30,000 on the V11 Sport and > 28,000 on the California. They all use the same injector too. Nothing like parts commonality. FWIW, I officially passed the 100,000 miles on Guzzis mark while at the MGNOC National in July. Not too bad for a five year riding period when I was off the bkes for a total of 14 months.

The speedo can be 3 - 10% off from the factory just from calibration. Since the speedo reads relative to rear wheel rpm, it will be even more inaccurate as the rear wheel attempts to transfer the increased power required to go faster to the pavement surface. The rear wheel will slip some and that reads as speed that isn't there. Put something like a Sigma bicycle speedometer on your bike that is using the front wheel for it's input (less slip there for sure), properly calibrate it and you'll be amazed (or dismayed) at what's real and what isn't. What's really nice is that with the Sigma having a peak speed memory feature, you won't have to look down at a crucial moment. The best I've seen that I believe is real is around 131 mph on my V11 Sport (with bags and gear) and 134.5 on my Sport 1100i. There was still a bit of room left on either bike, but I wasn't comfortable with the speed and the road as it was, so the experiments were terminated before something negative occurred. Sigma's are dirt cheap, the older BC800 model is going for about $13 these days, have a number of very useful features and are good to 183 mph. Unfortunately, they do not have interior lights so illumination at night is awkward.

They'll spill alright. Done it twice. Pressure from the seat. The batteries used in the Sport models starting in 1997 and eventually in all USA MG's (because dealers kept overfilling the lead acid ones and doing expensive warranty damage) are "dry cell" batteries only in the sense that there isn't fluid sloshing around. They are "starved electrolyte" batteries, meaning that there is electrolyte in there, but not much and it is normally confined by the case in the dampened material between the plates. Crack the case though, and the electrolyte will find it's way out. Stick with the Odyssey or Westco and try to remedy the pressure on the case problem.

3 bar is the reference pressure level that flow is measured by for the industry. Two years ago at the Prescott Ralley, there was 1997 California 1100i that had a Sport 1100i cam in it. The cam was a bit much for the stock fuel flow, so the owner upped the regulator pressure and all is well. I borrowed the injectors from my California for the Sport 1100i. Before I can actually put the bike on the street, I'm going to have to get the fuel mixtures set and that probably means a trip to SoCal to Dyno Dudes. That won't happen for a while because of a lack of funds. I'm still waiting for the dual tower coils to arrive from Moto Internationa as well since there would be no point in doing the dyno runs for anything less than the full up configuration. I haven't even bought the usb to serial adaptor for my iBook to drive the Cliff Jeffries ECU from his program under Virtual PC yet. This ought to be interesting...

Tolerances in injectors are unbelievably fine. Do some web searching or googling or something to some of the firms that "rebuild" injectors (they're sealed units, you typically cannot actually rebuild them) and check out some of the specifications. They're pretty expensive too, about $400 each! On a separate note, the Bugswatter engine is actually running. How very odd that it runs extremely poorly on the Weber Marelli computer and when switched to the Cliff Jeffries unit, it actually just sits there and burbles happily, albeit at a somewhat elevated rpm. There are a lot of things to be done yet, but progress is being made. I haven't put together a front wheel or modified the Ducati footpegs to fit yet, so it's a ways from being roadworthy. Meanwhile, the real front wheel from the Sport 1100i is on the V11 Sport. This wheel has the Centauro/Daytona disks on it. I had forgotten how nice cast iron was until I borrowed this wheel.

Teo Lamers lists three springs: 042382000000" SPRING GEARBOX V11SPORT 2.28eu $2.69 USD 042383000000" SPRING GEARBOX V11SPORT 2.28eu $2.69 USD 042392000000" SPRING GEARBOX V11SPORT 3.04eu $3.58 USD Somehow, I don't think the spring is $171, so there must be an error in how it was looked up.

KB. Just pass it on to the next guy with a broken spring if he's in dire need. We all stand together with these bikes. If only we could all ride together.

Well, I wonder if the zeroes in the center are real or just place-holders. My 2001 V11 Sport falls handily into the range: ZGUKR00001M114639, but only if the center zeroes can be another code, in my case, it's: ZGUKRAKR21MXXXXXX

Hank Blackstock made the spring. It doesn't have the 90˚ bend which breaks according to him. I don't know if he has any left, he ditched his Lemon LeMans (maybe another Guzzi later) so he hasn't been to this site since last year. He may have some springs left, but if you're trying to contact him, be patient. It took two months or so for him to reply to me recently. He's busy hunting and fishing etc. I paid $5 for the spring and $5 to mail it to Wales, so KB - if you're not going to use it, pass it on to the next needy MG owner.