GuzziMoto

Without seeing the size of the baffle tube / muffler output it is hard to know how loud or quiet it will be. In general, two into one collectors add a certain amount of sound reduction, so you might be surprised at the sound levels. As to power, a two into one, if properly designed and made, tends to make more mid-range. A two into two system tends to have an advantage on top. But that is a generalization, length and diameter of tubes can alter things. As an example to sound levels, My Griso has a two into one set up with a pretty f'ing large muffler baffle tube. It is only a little louder than the wifes V11 with the standard Mistrals (no db killer) with their smaller muffler baffle tubes. Power wise, her bike makes more max power on top but the griso holds its own in the mid-range. I say throw it on there and see what you think. Sound levels can often be adjusted by fitting some sort of db killer. The big difference between the two into two and the two into one is the WAY it sounds. The two into one tends to be less "thuddy" with more of a snarl. I personally prefer the sound of the two into one, but the wife prefers the thud of the two into two.

All those circuits, especially if the tail light is going out as well, are also on the same relay as I recall. If the relay drops, those will all go out. There may be something about turning on the high beam that drops that relay.

They are probably referring to the restrictors, sometimes called db killers, that are sometimes fitted to straight through mufflers to make them noise compliant. The mufflers do not always come fitted with them, depending on the manufacturer, the market they are sold in, and sometimes the way they are sold (some are sold as "Off Road Use Only").

Doing the rear brake pads on the V11 is easy thankfully. These Brembos are pretty nice to work on. Small though. I am amazed how they threw on such a small caliper on a 550lbs bike. Can't wait to get my Scura with the 4 piston caliper from a V11 Jackal. Should of had a 4 piston from the start. Who the hell uses the rear brake for slowing or stopping on a sports bike anyway. A four piston caliper would be a ridiculous overkill. Ciao When I am hard on the brakes the rear wheel is barely on the ground. The rear brake is mainly for parking lots and the like. On a big twin like a Guzzi, if I want the rear wheel to drag to control my speed I just down shift. That has the advantage of sounding great.

I see a picture.

OK, I will throw my two cents in this as well. We have, among other Guzzi's, an early red frame V11 and an '07 Griso 1100. Neither of them is "stock" but the V11 has more work done to it, including increased compression, improved squish, and porting. The V11 is a more raw motorcycle. It is more exciting to ride, and it is faster. The Griso, by comparison, is a couch. It is more comfortable, and while it is not much slower it is easier to ride to its limits than the V11. I like my Griso a lot, and if I did not have the V11, along with a '93 Daytona, to compare it to I would not have any issues with the Griso. And it is a seriously cool looking bike, even 15 odd years after it was designed. I do wish I had an 8 valve motor in mine, but the 4 valve motor is not bad. Mine has a full exhaust with a right side exit pipe and it looks and sounds fantastic. I am happy with my Griso and can recommend them to others, but I don't think I would want to give up a Rossa Corsa to get one.

The discharge warming up and better starting that goes with it is all to common with the Lithium batteries. There it really can make a large difference. I don't think it makes quite as big a difference with lead/acid batteries, but it certainly can make enough of a difference if you are marginal.

I think both heated gloves and heated grips have their places. I think heated gloves are going to be warmer and work in colder weather. But there is a convenience to heated grips. And they do work better when combined with guards or other covers (but then there is the "ugly" factor). In the past, I have personally used a heated vest and gloves, and found that worked well. But now I simply don't ride when it is that cold out. That seems to work better for me. I respect those that ride when it is below 40 degrees F. But I don't envy them.

This could be the best information in this thread. There are so few people who know how to make Guzzi motors go fast. Perhaps a thread about that instead..... Mike Rich sounds like he is seriously backed up last I talked to him. It actually put me off sending my Griso motor to him.

If your main concern is starting when the temps are low, that is one of the inherent weaknesses of lithium batteries and may be an issue for you. I find the ratings for lithium batteries very optimistic. Buy oversize. Their ratings don't really seem to match eye to eye with AGM battery ratings. Being in Texas you may not have the same issues with temperature that I did. But I was having issues when the temps were in the 40's and the bike was cold from overnight, having been in the 30's. Good luck with the lithium battery.

Setting / checking sag will tell you if your spring rates are correct. This applies to both the front suspension and the rear suspension. If you set the sag with you on the bike (race sag) to the correct, desired, amount of sag you can then check how much sag you have under just the weight of the bike. If the amount of sag there (free sag) is within range your springs are of the correct rate (or at least really close). If you have too little free sag when the race sag is set correctly your springs are too soft. If you have too much free sag when your race sag is set correctly your springs are too stiff. Adding or removing preload does not change the rate, or stiffness, or straight rate springs. If your springs are too soft, adding preload will not make them stiffer. It only really changes the ride height. But setting preload / sag correctly IS the first, and most important, step in setting up your suspension.

I have had three Lithium batteries from two different manufacturers. All three were modern latest gen lithium batteries. I don't really want to call out names of the manufacturers, I don't want to sound like I am bashing. Maybe I can get away with saying that the two brands were two of the top brands currently in the market place. All three of the batteries lasted for less than two years each. All three of the batteries had issues at times starting the bikes they were installed in. One of them was in my Griso and, while it worked well at first, as soon as it got cool temp wise it would not start my Griso. My Griso was not one of the latter gen Guzzi's were you could hold the starter button down to put the battery under a load. Maybe it will work better on bikes that allow you to do that. And finally, all three batteries had issues holding a charge long term. Part of that may have been due to the motorcycles the batteries were installed in, like the Griso has a low draw from the electronics, but part of that seemed to be from the batteries reduced capacity. I don't have issues with the same bikes using AGM batteries. I like the idea of a lithium battery. But, for me, in actual practice I have had better luck with quality AGM batteries. The AGM batteries last far longer, have more power, and are more reliable, at least in my experience. The extra weight of an AGM, or the light weight of a lithium battery, is certainly a factor as well. But to me, saving a few pounds on a 500 pound motorcycle is not something I can get excited about. I could not tell by riding it that my Griso had a lighter weight battery any more than I can tell that the fuel tank is 3/4 full or 1/2 full. This is all just my experience, and clearly others are more impressed than I am. I just hope you, or anyone else here, have better luck than I did. I will probably try one in the future, but it will likely not be on a Guzzi. I have an Aprilia I am building, it weighs just over three hundred pounds, and the light weight might make a difference there.

Good luck with the Lithium battery. I have not tried that particular one yet but the two different brands I have tried left me less than impressed.

I am also partial to straight rate springs. I tried a fancy dual rate spring set up once, it was not a good idea. Straight rate springs are the way to go if you can get a spring rate that is right for you and the bike. The only real advantage to dual rate springs is it allows a "one size fits all" mentality. The biggest issue with progressive springs is that spring rate and dampening should work as a team, but with progressive springs and straight dampening they really don't. They can't.

My wife's V11 has the Penske with reservoir at the rear and the forks I modded to actually give them compression dampening. My wife's V11 is an early red frame bike so its suspension may not be the same as yours. But the way hers were stock they had zero compression dampening until the forks were about 3/4 through there travel. At that time the bleed holes were covered up and the oil had to actually go through the valving in the piston. But until then the oil just went through the two bleed holes and not through the valving. I blocked off one of the two bleed holes and that gave me dampening. It meant that oil had to go through the valve stack. That said, if you are not a tinkerer type sending them to someone who knows them well, like Todd, is a good idea.

You can get all kinds of aftermarket clip-ons, including some with a rise so they can be mounted below the triple but bring the bars up above the triple. I think 1 cm is a pretty large change to geometry. You can try it, but it will do two things. It will speed up steering by increasing the rake. It will also decrease trail, resulting in lighter steering but less stable.

That is some good advice, Chuck. I have heard of more than a few people with dragging rear brakes on their V11. Sometimes it is bleeding, sometimes it is dirt / crud around the slave piston. It could also be from poor adjustment of the linkage not allowing fluid to flow back into the reservoir as it heats up. That could also result from the riders foot applying just enough pressure on the brake lever to move the master past the point where it is open to the reservoir. It could also be from old fluid with water in it. I typically ride with the balls of my feet up on the pegs, my foot isn't able to apply pressure to the brake lever unless I move my foot to a different position. Then, when I am done I put it back.

That is true, the Chevy is rear wheel drive with the motor mounted North/South. I did not think about that. I do think that the K75 is a neat motor/bike, but they needed to develop it further. It got killed before it fully developed.

The size of the caliper has little to do with fade. That is more a matter of disc size, pad used, and fluid used. Condition and function of the brakes can also play a major role in fade. Brakes that drag can easily overheat and that can cause fade. But the caliper is not a heat sink in a disk brake system. How big the caliper is does not really affect how much heat the system can handle. The cost to go from DOT 4 to DOT 5.1 can be a matter of a few dollars. It depends on what fluid you choose. All brake fluids are not created equal. They may all meet the same basic DOT standards, but that is where the similarities end. A high quality DOT 5.1 fluid can be pretty expensive, with some fluids going for $20 a liter or more. And I see people who are determined to save a dollar or two on their oil filter, so it would not surprise me to see people who don't want to spend more on brake fluid than they need to. But those high end fluids aside, I would have no issue using a DOT 5.1 fluid. I think the point being made was that it should not be required to use DOT 5.1 fluid. If you have an issue with brake fade something is likely wrong. Using DOT 5.1 to cover up an issue with your brakes is a band-aid, and a poor choice at that.

You certainly can use a DOT 5.1 fluid in your Guzzi. But I would look deeper than just the rating in big letters. The DOT rating for brake fluid is a minimum rating, "you must be at least this tall to ride this ride" type thing. There could be DOT 4 fluids out there that are every bit as good or better than DOT 5.1 fluids. In my opinion, cost is the only reason not to use DOT 5.1 fluids. http://www.stoptech.com/technical-support/technical-white-papers/brake-fluid But I do agree that if your rear brake is fading something my be wrong. As mentioned, we do not have that issue. And we are not THAT slow.

YMMV. I had to take the brass holder off to get my Sport running right. Me too. I think it had too slow of a heat-sink effect, meaning it took too long to heat up and cool down under different conditions, so the ECU was always a little behind in fueling and ignition changes. It ran much better when I put a new, OEM blue plastic holder back in. While it is clear that having (or not having) a brass temp sensor holder can change the way the V11 runs, I am not sure about the notion that it slowed down the heating up and cooling down of the sensor. Having the plastic sensor holder, as opposed to the brass holder, more likely slightly insulates the sensor compared to the brass holder and allows for the sensor to always run a little colder than it may otherwise run with the brass holder. The brass holder would obviously better conduct heat from the head to the sensor but is incapable of being hotter than the head it is attached to. The plastic holder would likely insulate and slow heat transfer from the head to the sensor, resulting in a lower temp reading. A lower temp reading could result in a slightly richer mixture, often a good thing but not always. Thus, some run better with the brass, some run better with the plastic, depending on whether richer is better or worse.

My current set of cars.... I have a Chevy Colorado which is a company owned pick up truck. Then I have a Smart car, an american Brabus version of the FourTwo. No turbo, yet. The wife is currently shopping for a new car. Her short list so far includes a new smart car (not her favorite), a Subaru BRZ, a Mini Paceman, and a Jeep Wrangler. Yes, her short list is varied and contains an odd mix. And she is still looking.

A nice looking BMW K series? Sorry, not possible! Wait, but the motor is shaped almost exactly like your Volvo! Touche. Least common mass-produced engine configurations: Motorcycle - BMW horizontal inline 3 cylinder Car - Volvo transverse inline 5 cylinder Not in this country. My Chevy Colorado pick up truck has an inline 5 cylinder engine. There are many thousands of them around here. The three cylinder car engine, like in my Smart car, is way less common. Although there have been a few other cars with triples.

I agree with Lee Parks. But, that said, I am still not sure how well a larger caliper is going to help with heat fade. A bigger caliper allows for larger pads, and it does have a larger amount of fluid behind the pistons. Either or both of those might help a little. But the best cure for brake fade is a larger disc.

Around here maximum octane varies depending on location. In one area / neighborhood premium might be 91 octane. A couple miles away premium might be 92 or 93 octane. We used to have some Sunoco stations that had 94 octane, but they seem to have phased that out. On a side note, I know altitude has an effect on octane requirements (at higher altitudes octane requirements go down) but I wonder if temp has an effect on octane requirements.