GuzziMoto

Sadly, Guzzi has made worse errors, like the 8 valve engines that ate their tappets. And that seems like a matter of getting the valve spring rates wrong. But I don't think we will ever know for sure what they messed up to cause that issue. Some issues with Guzzi's are quality control issues, where a certain number of them are just poorly made, perhaps using poor quality parts, that didn't get caught in QC. But sadly other issues are basic design issues. So, an aluminum oil pump gear is not surprising. They may have simply had some alumnum oil pump gears laying around, and while the engineer may have spec'd steel, if they had aluminum gears laying around leftover from something else they may have just decided to use them.

As Pete said, the Joe Caruso gear set for the Daytona and Centaro doesn't get rid of the belts that run the cams. But he does offer an upgrade for the gears that run the oil pump, along with the oil pump itself. The stock gears were aluminum as I recall, and were known to sometimes blow up. Also, the better oil pump helps.

If you remove the cable, be careful with it. The inner part of the cable that spins is not fixed inside the cable and can slide out. Not a problem if it does slide out, just be careful as you don't want it to fall out and get damaged when you weren't expecting it. Not a problem if you slide it out in a controlled way to verify the cable is not broken inside.

A broken cable is the most common issue with the cable driven stock speedometer. But to check the cable you need to do more than remove the cable from the speedometer and crank the engine over. An easy test is to remove the cable from both the transmission and from the speedometer. Then you can check to make sure the cable is not broken. Also make sure that one end isn't broken off. It is easy for the end of the cable to break off and not be noticed.

The manual has the original pressures, for the original tires. There should also be a sticker on the chassis that lists those stock pressures. Reality is by now no one should have the original tires still on their V11. So, while the original pressures make for a good starting point many will find that they prefer slightly different pressures with their current tire of choice. Generalities; less air pressure = more grip = more wear / more air pressure = less grip = less wear. Also, I find handling is lighter with more air pressure. That can be a good thing to a point, but too much air pressure beyond that happy middle ground tends to lead to a lack of confidence with the bike feeling "flighty".

The short answer to the OP question; No. I don't add moly to my gear oil. In my opinion (which is worth exactly what you payed for it), if you use the right oil no additive is required. Sure, you can use a lower grade oil and add moly to it, or you can just use a better grade oil. There is no magic in a Guzzi final drive, it is a pinion and ring gear set with some bearings. There are plenty of vendors that make gear oils suitable for those needs without adding anything to the oil. But everyone should do what they want to do, what they feel comfortable doing.

It is easy enough to measure your sag. If your sag says you need springs to really get your sag numbers right, springs are a great first step. Odds are, you need springs. But, as mentioned, you can measure your sag and see if you need different springs. In a nutshell, if you set your sag with you on the bike and that leaves the bike sagging too little without you on the bike your springs are too soft. That means you have to add too much preload to get the sag where you want it, which results in not enough sag under the weight of just the bike. Too much sag with you off the bike is the other way, the spring is too stiff.

We used to have two gas stations in town where I live. Now there is just one. Sure, there are other stations 15 to 20 minutes away, but only one local station in town. I realize my scale of distances is nothing like what it is out west, though.

Yeah, it is not normally a high pressure situation, so the intake pipe does not need much to stay on. It is actually normally a low pressure / vacuum situation between the head and the throttle bodies. It should not take much to keep it on. But you can see one of the slots in the metal intake spigot that the rubber boot grabs in your picture. Something went wrong to pop that off.

Those are nice cars. Especially the styling. But they perform well also.

This most recent race in the UK, at Silverstone, Marc didn't do so well. But he seemed up beat about how the weekend went. Bigger news was how well Aprilia did, including Aleix. All four Apes in the top 10, and three of four in the top five. Was great to see Oliveira have a good weekend. I have high hopes for him an the Aprilia.

Good for PJ. He has been at this a long time, this is his first win in ages. It has to feel good. Beaubier needs to get his head on straight. That was a costly mistake. He has the talent, but he needs to ride smart.

The notion that a motorcycle can't be art simply because some non-motorcyclist might not think it is art is laughable and misses the point of art. If even one person thinks something is art, it is art. That someone else, or even everyone else, would not call it art doesn't matter. Such is art. I appreciate the art side of motorcycles (and cars, that E-type is certainly art). But my favorite part of motorcycles is riding them. Side note, I have a guitar hanging on my wall that is art. I do play it periodically. But more often I just look at it. It is beautiful.

I have mentioned this before, I will mention it again. The air density affects the octane requirements of any non-forced induction gasoline piston engine. As air density goes down, octane requirements go down. So, at higher elevations a given motor will have lower octane requirements. I have been to some higher altitude places where the fuel available was 85 octane. That isn't even an option where I live. People riding their V11 closer to sea level will need more octane then people riding their V11 in the Rockies will. I figure the generic octane requirements published are likely to be worst case, higher air density, higher engine temps, etc. The wife's V11 manual says 91 octane (95 RON), but I have no doubt it could safely run on 89 or even 87 octane in many situations. But I am also pretty sure in some situations that lower octane could be an issue. Safer and easier to run it at the higher octane.

TDC for valve adjustment is when both intake and exhaust valves are closed and the piston is at top dead center. Being a four stoke engine, the piston hits TDC twice for every combustion cycle. The other time the piston hits TDC is when the intake and exhaust valves are open during overlap. So, piston at the top with both valves shut is when you set the valve clearance (as Pete said, you just have to be close on that). If the piston is at the top and neither valve has any clearance odds are you are at the wrong TDC and you do not want to set the valve clearances there. The term "choke" has become generic, engines mostly do no use "chokes" any longer. A true "choke" covered the intake to restrict air going into the engine. First came enrichener circuits that didn't restrict air as a "choke" does, instead they added extra fuel. That is what you would have, for example, on most motorcycle carburetors. The fuel injected V11 uses something even simpler, a fast idle lever that simply opens the throttle slightly to allow the engine to idle fast. It is purely mechanical in function, opening the throttle by mechanically acting on the throttlebody itself.

I would think of it as better to have the additional margin of safety you would get running premium. Since if it is an issue, you would not necessarily know it until it was too late and the damage is done. I would rather have extra safety margin. But to be fair, the V11 mill is fairly low compression and likely could run just fine on regular. But in certain situations it could become an issue. But true detonation is hard to hear, and the damage it can cause is serious. To me it is not worth taking the chance. I burn so little gas relatively speaking in my bikes that paying a little more per gallon is no big deal to me. Also, the octane requirements are greatly affected by air density. Lower air density means lower octane requirements for the same engine.

The symptom of a poor idle is typically valves too tight, if it is indeed something to do with the valves. It could be that it was also temperature affected. The tightness of the valves may have become more of an issue when the temperature got to a certain point. It is also possible that the valves are tightening up on their own. It is easy enough to check the valves on a Guzzi, and then you will know.

Good. The number of clicks doesn't matter, the suspension can't count, how the suspension works is what matters. It is a matter of more or less dampening to get it where it needs to be. Once you are happy, knowing where that happy point is is a good idea. But obsessing over numbers before you know where that happy point is is a waste of time in my opinion.

Yeah, much simpler to only use the 5 pin relays. That way all relays are interchangeable, and if you carry a spare or two you know it will work in any position.

It is hot here, 90 degrees F or so, but not like much of the country is experiencing. We are just normal hot, thankfully. Side note, the entire planet hit a record high the other day.

It seems MotoAmerica is in a really good place right now, with three different manufacturers up front and a fourth close, and a number of riders with pace capable of winning. It seems like Mathew Scholtz is struggling to match the increased pace that Cam B has brought to the party, not sure if that is on him or his bike. Hopefully they will rectify that soon. But clearly there are three different guys with enough pace to win on any given weekend. That is a good place to be for a racing series. And just below those three are a few more trying to make that last step in pace. Will this shut up all the MotoAmerica naysayers? Also, have you seen the bracing added to the BMW frame on Cam B's bike? Wow.

Not all needle valves flow the same, but generally any needle valve will see the biggest changes in flow when it is near closed and as it is further open changes in the valve opening have less and less effect on flow. As the needle gets further from the seat, a given change in distance from the seat has less impact on flow. The same amount of change when the needle is close to the seat has a larger percent impact on flow. But to be honest, that isn't that important. It's main relevance is that if you need to adjust your adjusters to near the end of the range of adjustment you may need to fundamentally change the valving instead to get the adjuster back into the meat of its range. Also, while I am fine with guzzler basing his counts on how far from fully open, general consensus on needle valves is you start from fully closed and count from there. That is because fully open can be different, it is not a set and specific point. But fully closed is a set and repeatable point to start from. A fully closed needle valve is the same point every time, even between different bikes.

I will point out that adding preload does not make a spring stiffer. If the spring is too soft adding preload will raise the ride height but the spring is still too soft. Start with the basics. Set preload to where you need it to get the desired ride height. Then see what sag with you off the bike is, and that will tell you if your spring is too soft, too firm, or right. I don't run as much sag as most do, I am closer to Pressureangle with what I run for sag. I don't need a lot of droop available in a street bike. A dirt bike, sure. But not a street bike, especially a sport bike. But setting sag doesn't change spring rate. If the spring is too soft, add preload and it is still too soft. It is easy enough to replace the rear shock with a higher quality unit, especially if you have the Sachs. Upgrading the front forks is easy if you have the newer forks, they offer cartridges' that drop in and improve the performance of the stock forks. If you have the earlier front forks you need to fix the internals of the forks to even have proper dampening. Without that, the adjusters are meaningless. Add either an o-ring on the fork tube or add a small zip tie to the fork tube so you can see if your harshness on large bumps is the forks bottoming or the fork valving not letting the fork absorb the bump.

Doc has excellent advice. My two cents; Installing a free flowing exhaust is generally not going to fix any fueling related issues. If anything it will probably make them worse. If you have fueling related running issues I would either fix that or install the free flowing exhaust you want and then fix it, as installing a free flowing exhaust will typically require additional fueling corrections. No point adjusting things twice, if you want a better sounding exhaust run one and fix the fueling as required. GuzziDiag can allow you to make the required fueling corrections, after you have set all the basics as mentioned by doc in the "Decent Tune-up" comment. A better sounding exhaust isn't going to make your bike noticeably faster or more powerful. It can sound and feel faster and more powerful, though. And in the end, isn't that what matters?

For the longest time the area next to tracks wasn't paved. There were not high numbers of injuries due to that fact. Heck, I used to race pretty seriously and never crashed because the pavement didn't extend past the edge of the track. I did crash periodically, but never because of the grass next to the track. That said, plenty of racers have pointed out that paving the area next to the track only encourages racers to take bigger risks as it becomes easier to get away with it if you over do it. No one is suggesting racing without rules. But paving next to the track and then making a rule saying racers aren't allowed to use that pavement is stupid. If you don't pave it you would not need the rule.