earemike

Hi all, if you know of any second hand sets of rims going for the V11 could you nudge me in the right direction please. If there aren't any going around second hand I'll have to bite the bullet & pull the trigger on a new set IF manufacturers can be bothered getting back to me. I'm still having an internal debate about the aluminium vs magnesium issue. Thanks for your help, Mike

+1 I like the concept & I'd buy one

I'm probably too late, I bought my ohlins seals from a yamaha dealer. The 06 R1 LE ran an ohlins front with the same size seals. It's heresy to some people but the dextron 3? auto trans fluid did the job for me. I'm not sure if it's equivalent to 7.5w oil but whatever the exact spec the front feels pretty good.

#267 Australia

yeah I'm not kiding, came out of a left bend in second, straightened up and there was massive acceleration. Makes me want to cry, the guys who have ridden with me for years have told me to buy a jap bike, everyone else thinks I f@#ked up. I can't explain it and looks like I'll have to play for hours while running a video to try and recreate the incident. Of course it may then have to end up with a laywer and possibly a video on youtube. I understand the dealers skepticism but it did happen as described so I don't want to foot the bill. There was another case very similar: http://www.apriliaforum.com/forums/showthr...erated+throttle

Well the day after picking her up I took her back to the dealer as the tuono was running rough (split vacum hose). They fixed the bike but 10 mins later she spat me off, going into a corner she briefly surged, I rolled the throttle forward and all seemed well. Just after the corner she suddenly reved and spat me off. Not happy and it seems it will be hard to prove given it at best would be intermittent.

Hey Paul, I seem to cop a kick in the guts fairly regularly but there's no point getting too upset. I have my house and a job I enjoy, I'm still cycling through the I'm lucky to be alive thing too. So yeah I'm pretty lucky. I've always taken bike crashes well, even if I've felt like crying. I didn't walk away from my last race crash but was stoked to have gotten into second on the track (with some of the C&D guys). All the reports are done, I won't get the wreck but I've very sure what happened (combed over the site). I passed an R1 up the inside and was pushing the bike a bit hard, I over-reved her and think I saw 8500 on the tacho. Then the seal on the gearbox gave out (yup the one I pulled when changing the springs). Looking at the wreck I couldn't see where it had leaked but the redline shockproof heavy on my boot was a give away. There was also a light oil trail down the straight. So it was my fault for riding the old girl too hard, I do wonder why the gearbox breathers let the pressure build, perhaps something blocked it. On reflection I remembered on day hitting 180kph down that straight trying to outrun a 2 up 998. So with an estimated speed of 90-180 kph I'm a very lucky boy. Given that I pushed her a bit hard I've decided to get another Aprilia, Tuono with ackropovics this time. Thanks for all your help and advice, I'm still fond of the old girl.

27%

The clowning around kinda looses it's impact without the audio...

Thanks for the comments, the P-51 comment is probably more close to home than I realised. My brother died hitting the armco and a mate hit a post, both not going full tilt. You know the saying, it's not coming off that hurts it's the sudden stop. My light injuries were from the fence but I hit the wire and went under, probably washed of some speed there though. Think I've cracked a rib too, but thats ok. As for the failure I was pushing the bike fairly hard that morning (as most weekends) and might have redlined it. Normally I don't push it into the yellow but the young fellas were going well so I was on the hammer. A witness said white smoke came out the rear and he thought the engine went, the police decided the rear wheel locked. Felt like there was oil on the tyre but then again the skid is a double s pattern with no breaks so they could be right. I was sideways, caught it, then full lock sideways when I realised hanging on would only bring more pain (learnt that in my very last race ). I think the tank split and she just sparked up. I heard a bang after the crash and now figure that was the back tyre, there's not much rim left. So I've no complaints about the Guzzi reliability, it could have lunched itself at redline or something else, might never know. Now I wonder if I should have fitted those uni filters, the motor didn't last as long as it could have... Cheers I'm pretty happy considering.

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These are poor (my camera phone) but later I should receive some better pics via email from the emergency guys. I shouldn't complain about my sore knee, the Sidi boots, Kushitani Leathers, Dainese back protector, Held gloves and Arai helmet all did their jobs. might as well pimp the gear! I figure the exhaust might polish up allright.

Thanks Paul, I'll measure it in the morning. I'm a bit worried though because I don't break the little tab off at the end, I seem to break the long arm off at the coil. Perhaps it was installed incorrectly and the mistake repeated. Still I'll be measuring in the morning so cheers for that.

SUCCESS! It's now 1:40am here but it's off. A big THANKYOU for the advice. I can't say if it was the repeated application of acetone or my persistence (a result of your advice giving me something else to try). I laughed at Steve's comment, asking if the starter had been removed, put a smile on my face before round two. In the end I used the metal tab that Paul mentioned. I'd tried it earlier, the tab was flexing but the seal was solid. I was worried about damaging the cover as I can be a bit rough in the shed So thanks again, every now and then I wonder if I should sell the Guzzi but she's got a character that's grown on me and there is a pleasure in being able to fix her myself. If I have to change a gearbox spring every year so be it. Maybe I should just add it to my service schedule, 10 000km change the gearbox oil AND the spring. Thanks again I'd be lost without the great resource that is this forum. Mike

Hi all, I'm after some advice. In about an hour, including a couple of coffees and grinding a 5mm allen I was ready to pull the gearbox cover. For the next hour I couldn't get the bloody thing to budge. Last time I let the bike shop do the job because they wanted to try it, never having done one before (I'm regretting this now). They've used a grey non-hardening gasket/cement to seal the cover and I can't get the bloody thing off. Can anyone recommend a course of action? Does anyone know of a chemical way to loosen the cover? The shop is out of business now so I can't ring to find exactly what was used. Once I do get it back together I was planning on using a silicone based sealant, at least it won't be so hard to disassemble next time. If that's a bad Idea could you let me know, I sure don't want the job to drag out next time for whatever reason. Thanks I ride my bike all weather and the thought of driving my car to work everyday is making me sick... Mike

Yup, thats fantastic!

I'm finally on holidays and pulled the exhaust to do my valves. Wow, so much quicker without the *%&! cross-over pipe. I had my set of headers from Todd ready to go back on. Unfortunately I noticed two disconcerting points. 1. There were no exhaust gaskets! 2. Both exhaust flanges are warped. Question: Is this common? I have cracked both headers (this problem only started after the bike shop pulled the pipes to service her). I find it hard to believe that both exhaust gaskets went missing during the service. Do the flanges normally warp or would this be the result of over tightening? (just thought I'd ask while I'm here) I should also say thanks again to everyone on the forum, it's great to check posts here when I have problems with my girl. By girl I mean guzzi, although there seems to be a little advice on the other form time to time

Thankyou

...just adding my 03 made 04 balabio did this today. about 20 000km on her so looks like I've done alright...

...not the right thread to say I thought I needed to hang off more since I'm sometimes grinding my right pipe even commuting to work there's a couple of bends I like to "twist" myself off the saddle I agree the article makes sense though (I know when I'm riding like a *@#$!) PS during my brief attempt at racing I found it easy to find time under brakes as I was braking too early, so practicing braking later did help my lap times. I reckon you're pretty bloody quick if braking later can't help you. Then again I'm obviously immature and have much to learn from you guys

If it's water then a larger splash of metho will do the trick...