GuzziMoto

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.

Jim Allen is a tire politician for dunlop. He can shovel it with the best of them. Every time a race tire gets hot then cools down, the rubber goes through a chemical change. This happen when molded using heat as mentioned earlier. It also happens to some extent each subsequent heat cycle. Typically the rubber gets a little harder each time it goes through one of these heat cycles. Different tires react diferently to heat cycles. Racing slicks tend to be the most extreme in this respect. DOT race tires also tend to change noticably within a few heat cycles. The type of tire and the quality of the rider both play large factors in whether this change is noticable.Rossi could probably sense a change in tire performance before any of us normal people could. But rubber compound is only one aspect of a tires performance. Constuction and profile can play huge in how well your bike handles. Some may prefer the feel of sport touring tires and that's fine. But lighter weight tires, maybe with a more aggressive profile, can wake up the handling of a heavy, long motorcycle. Guys pay lots of money for wheels that shed a couple of pounds. Lighter tires can achieve the same effect. Or if stability is what you want, pick a heavier tire with a rounder profile. The choice is yours. The only thing I know for sure is to stay away from anyone who says this blank or this type of blank is the best.

Make it stop.......

Some manufacturers make Qualifiers that are designed for one lap. But most race tires are good for about 6-8 heat cycles before the performance falls way off. However, the first heat cycle is usually( but not always) the best the tire has. Sometimes you will see teams putting a heat cycle on a tire in practice so they can use it in the race with one cycle already on it. However none of this changes the fact that race tires do not make good street tires. I would rather race on street tires then ride on the street on race tires.

Sweet. Makes me feel pedestrian with my DRZ-SM(tho it does have most of the standard engine mods, big bore, carb, TI pipe,etc). I do plan on getting a more extreme SuMo, but the reliability of the Suzuki, even with all the mods, just warms my Guzzi lovin' heart.

Sorry for the hi-jack. Gavin, what kind of SuMo?

Well said.

Touratech sells some nice looking, vibration damping, mounts. http://www.touratech-usa.com/

An unfortunate truth of Guzzi's is that bikes are shipped out of the factory "mostly done". It is normal for a few issues to crop up in the first 1k or so miles. Mine and my wifes were both like that. In addition, I believe you bought a brand new leftover "04. If that's the case then consider that it is no longer a current bike. They don't make them anymore(too bad, they are sweeet). Therefore the parts for them are not kept in stock as much as a new bike would be(you get the same issue with any brand) and there aren't others sitting around that a dealer could "borrow" the parts from. I'm sorry to here of your distress and hope you perservere. I think if you stick it out you will find that after the first few issues are resolved, Guzzi's are well made motorcycles that can out last many other "better" bikes. I will say though, that if you expect your Guzzi to be turnkey like a Honda and you aren't willing to put a little extra time into the relationship, it may be you are not going to be happy with your Guzzi. I'm not trying to discourage you, it's just that they are hand built Italian bikes. They will have issues. Some have more issues than others. But the issues are generally fixable if you're willing. Good luck. I hope you work it out.

I enjoyed it. But while the tire war did not rear it's ugly head too badly, the Bridgestone runners did not do as well as I would have expected. How much of that is just a reflection of the true state of things is hard to say. As far as the power wars, the only way Rossi was able to pass was on the brakes or with corner speed. It was closer, but all he could do to Stoner was draft down the straight and then pass on the brakes. Even the Hondas could only pull up along side the Ducati down the straight. Finishing the pass required using the brakes(or not using the brakes, depending on how you look at it).

I say give it a go. My guess is more top end and less mid-range, but until you try we won't really know.

MAF's have their own problems.Many cars use them because they are cheap and easy to pass emissions with. But cars like my Honda civic did fine without and motorcycles like my Buell which had the best fuel injection I've seen made due without. I would rather have a F.I. system without MAF's then one with. Give me a system with a quality O2 sensor, preferably wide band, that is capable of closed loop running like the Buell system. As for the dip in the powerband, it is probably caused by intake and exhaust issues, not F.I. issues and a MAF sensor would not make a bit of difference. Remember, an engine is just a giant air pump.