GuzziMoto

Glad you found a work-around, and hopefully you're on you way to correcting the problem. But I don't understand how the neutral switch could be all the problem. The bike only needs to be in neutral to start if the side stand is down. Maybe there's more then one issue. Maybe the side stand switch or the relay is not working correctly. I'm just sayin'...

What are the symptoms? You can't just tease us like that.

I like how steady the A/F is, but in my experience 14.7:1 is optimum for low emissions(when coupled with a cat) and somewhere between 12 and 13 to 1 is where max power lives. And for reasons that are debatable air cooled motors like Guzzi's and older Ducati's make max power with air fuel ratios a bit richer then modern liquid cooled motors do(and seem to be happier as well).

This is so F'd up it's fun. Ilove that expression and wonder where it came from. Wasn't there a point to the thread? Isn't somebodies Guzzi in need of help?

Sorry for polluting the post. I've known many a professional mechanic who don't adjust valves to within .001". That may have something to do with the fact that most specs call for valves to be adjusted to within a range, not to a specific value. I suspect that would be infering that it's not that critical, that there's some margin for error. If you are going to adjust them to exactly a given value, you would be better off using a dial indicator as suggested rather then a feeler gauge in my opinion.

Your relays may not be the cause of the issue, but do not assume that because you replaced them recently they are fine. Brand new electrical components are always a possible source of trouble. And it sounds like your current issue is different then the original one. Whether it's a completely new problem or an evolution of the original is hard to say, but don't assume one way or the other.

Decreasing the current draw by switching to LED's speeds up the flash rate on mechanical blinkers. The flasher is probably bad. Easy fix.

All H-D's are 45 degree Vtwin's except the V-Rod bikes that have the new(for H-D) 60 degree Revolution engines. Have not ridden a V-Rod, but the 45 degree H-D's vibrate like crazy. That's why women love them. And for vertical twins, while most fired the cylinders 360 degrees apart, some old british twins fired the cylinders at the same time( nick-named Twingles ). And some jap twins used 180 degree cranks.

That may be because in a two stroke lean or rich doesn't just affect the cht, it also affects whether the engine has enough oil to lubricate it. But while I heard about the lean/rich temp thing before, I always heard that the temp curve on the rich side was much steaper then on the lean side(ie, a little rich was cooler then a little lean). But I'm no expert.

In relation to your engine failure, I have heard of issues with the use of the newest spec car oils in engines with bearings other then plain bearings. Supposedly the decreased friction properties of the oil don't get along with roller and ball bearings. How big an inpact this really has I don't know. But I have heard that it is a reason to avoid the new spec car(they use mainly plain bearings) oils in bikes(lots of roller and ball bearings, especially in european bikes). I would be curious what experts say.

One difference is air craft engines run steady state, no accellerating and decellerating all the time like a motorcycle. But I'm sure there is still some that applies. As far as lean burn tech, atleast some of it uses stratified charge technology. Honda is big on that.

Most of the "spun bearing" stories I've heard involve a plain bearing. If a plain bearing spins, among other things the hole that it's oil is pumped in thru no longer lines up so it loses it's oil pressure and fails. I'm sure any type of bearing can spin, and most if not all will have problems as a result. But plain bearings pretty much instantly fail when they spin.

Just remember, you asked. I've always heard that each had it's advantages. Plain bearings are cheap, quiet, and as long as oil pressure is high enough, low friction. Ball,roller, and needle bearing are low friction all the time(oil pressure be damned), handle higher loads(that's why they're used in twins and singles), and longer lasting. When I raced Ducati's with Gotham Racing in the 90's we blew up top ends, but never lost a bottom end. I'm told they use expensive Timkin bearings(a type of caged ball bearing I believe)

I wish I had some valuable insight on this, as it is one of the more entertaining threads I have seen on this site in a while. But sadly, my knowledge is not well versed enough to be of use to others on this subject. I know enough of bearings to have my own opinion, but not enough that I expect others to want to hear my opinion.

Maybe your forks are different then the ones on my wifes '01 V11. But increasing the damping in the initial part of the stroke acually smoothed out the ride. Before it just blew thru the stroke and slammed into the stiff part at the end. Now it is more controlled. Try putting a zip tie around your inner tube on one leg to measure fork travel. When I did that I found that even on a smooth road it was using most of the travel. While I don't think you should just blindly do what I(or anyone else) says, I do encourage you to experiment with your forks. I put mine back together with no springs and you could see what the damping was doing without any trouble. Good luck.

My experience was that when I blocked off one of the holes in the damper tube the ride quality improved. The forks no longer just blew thru the majority of travel only to slam into a sudden increase in resistence. I don't believe my solution was perfect, but it was an improvement in the action of the fork.

A wheel shop should be able to fix them. In Maryland, we have "Ye Old Wheel Shop". But any quality shop should be able to fix them.

It's fixable, but stock from the factory the adjuster did nothing. Because the oil doesn't have to go thru the valve. It just goes out the holes in the side of the tube. When I was trying to figure out why it did'nt seem to work well, I put the fork back together without the spring. And you could really feel what was going on. Funny thing, the adjusters on a Buell I used to own were the same way. They made no difference.

On my wife's V11, I was changing fork fluid and noticed the same thing you are talking about. After some experimenting with the forks, I decided the holes in the damper tube were to blame. I blocked one of the holes off so that more fluid had to go thru the piston and valving and it made a world of difference.

I would replace them personally. I have done more damage to a bike in one of those "WTF?" moments when let down by old tires then I saved by not replacing them. Plus, tire tech is constantly improving and even average tires now are better then great tires from 8 years ago. And new tires always seem to make a bike feel better, like new sneakers.

Don't know about spacers under the bar risers, but in the dirt bike world they have spacers that fit right under the bar in the riser clamp. These are used both to adapt to a larger bar or to raise up the bar for taller riders. Hope it helps.

Ram mounts will work, but Touratech(and probably others) makes locking anti-vibe mounts. Not cheap, but nicely made.

Speeds Cycle, in MD is a dealer that sells rizoma. I'm sura there are many others. I would look at Ducati dealers. They would be likely to sell them. Speed's does stock them. I think they run about $160 for the set of two. I would call around.

I am not an expert on Buell F.I., but this is what I've experienced and been told. As stated, the F.I. system uses not only the O2 sensor but also air temp, air pressure, engine temp, etc. to decide how much fuel to add. The main time the O2 sensor comes into play is under lower load, lower RPM use.The system goes mainly off a fixed map under high load. But that fixed map can be skewed up or down depending on what the O2 sensor is telling the system when it's being used. Thus, if you swap out the stock pipe for a free flowing aftermarket one, the system will adjust the fuelling accordingly. It's not exact and it's not perfect but it does work well. Far better then my Wifes V11 works( in fairness her bike works better then most Jap injection systems).It does depend on the base map being right to begin with and that is where my Griso comes up short. My old Buells F.I. was much better.

It can work. It works very well on Buells. It does not work at all on Guzzis with no O2 sensor and it works fair on new Guzzis like the Griso and Breva in that it corrects the fuelling. But since the fuelling was not set well from the get go, it only returns it to the original target value, or as near that as it can get. Not to slam my Guzzi but that's one area that Buell has up on most others.