Lucky Phil

Dont be a girls blouse, and get on with it. Ciao

These are whats fitted to mine. I love the look of them in black and a side benigit is they quieten down the valve gear. Well worth it in my view. Ciao

Thanks for the responses I did not know the main seal is directional specific, that is a reason to choose the OEM instead of the one I found.Suggestion where can I get it in USA? Thanks Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk Try MG cycle or failing that Motointernational. I learned the hard way with regard to the seals. Guzzi use directional seals just about everywhere as do other automotive manufacturers on seals that are difficult to access. (ie crank, driveshaft and gearbox seals) If you look at a Guzzi rear crank seal photo on MG cycle or the HMB guzzi site you will see small ribs on the sealing lip face these are the directional component and the ribs slope one way or the other depending on whether or not they are clock or anticlockwise. Ciao

You would need to be mad to fit an underwidth seal considering the hassle if it leaks and considering the cost saving I would go with the OEM seal. Also I bet the generic seal you're looking at is NOT an anti clockwise directional seal as the OEM one is. As I said an under width and bidirectional seal where a wider anticlockwise seal is specified is a little misguided. Ciao

Brace yourself for a rant.....I think shaft drives are such a joke and the Guzzi version especially. All this weight,compexity and failure points to do away with an oring chain that for the last 35 years has been trouble free,light weight, simple,easy to maintain, bullet proof and in a WCS you can renew completely with about an hour and a halfs labour including pouring the glass of red. I understand the in line crank lends itself to the shaft solution but I'd rather have a set of bevel gears in the gearbox to turn the drive 90 degrees and run a chain final drive. There was an argument for shaft drive pre oring chains and when engines were less powerful but that was going on 40 years ago. The guzzi rear bevel is such a dog of a thing, massively heavy prone to leakage and when it does leak its a right bastard to deal with. I havent even gotten to the shaft and Uni joints yet. Rant over, I feel better now:) Ciao

Batteries are like lawnmowers docc, they defy all logic are annoying and the more you f*ck with them the more painfull they are. With the amount of vehicles I have I seem to be forever buying one of the little b*stards Ciao

Plus the seat doesn't line up with the tank. Maybe I'm a harsh critic but it seems these days people are easily pleased with regard to engineering stuff. Its all about it being "different" more than it being "right". I'm not against a backyard special or a stripped down bike but lets face it this example along with many others out there has no style, continuity or flow. No elegance to it, Just bits cobbled together, then the audacity to do a "look at me" piece on the web. If I had cobbled something like that together (which I wouldnt) the last thing I would do is publicise it. Ciao

No, not really feeling it.....at all I'm afraid. Bikes like this just make me appreciate how well the original designers did. Ciao

I owned a DB1 at one point. It was so small and compact that whilst riding you actually had no view of the bike at all, it was like scooting along a few feet off the ground suspended in mid air. Interesting experience for a 6'2'' person. I have also owned a BM R1100S, quite a good thing. At the time I was very much a sports bike guy and it wasn't sporty enough for me, but now I think i'd actually like it more. Ciao

Here you go Chuck some Akrapovic titanium welding porn. Same as you can buy over the counter. Apparently all the welds are done manually by expert ladies. A thing of beauty and I garantee would fit perfectly.

Damn Chuck, I was looking forward to one of your write ups on bevel box rebuild. I've got a spare one here if you want the experience:) Ciao

Nice work Ciao

What about before installing the front cover and oil pump drive you use a piece of rubber FI hose on a battery drill to spin and prime the pump, the oil cooler and at the same time check for flow to the heads. Then put the drive on the oil pump and the cam chain etc and button it up? Ciao

I am also wondering whether or not my pressure regulator got stuck open with debris from last years disaster. You mean after an engine failure you havent checked and cleaned the pressure reg during the rebuild?...tut,tut,tut Ciao

True Chuck, the Stucci welds are nothing to get excited about:) Ciao

Interesting, my Stucci fitted well and I'm used to Termi systems that fit horribly. Must have been a one off? As an aside my 1198 has a full titanium Acrapovic system and it not only fits perfectly but is also a work of art especially in the welding and the slip fit connections. Hard to believe you can build such a complex system and its absolutely a perfect fit. Akra are the #1 exhaust systems in my view and unlike Termi sell the same systems to Joe average as they do to factory Superbike teams. Zoom in and check out the welds on the Akra system Ciao

The squish area is basically the area around the piston circumpherence where it comes close to the head at TDC. The width and shape can vary depending on the engine. The purpose is to take that fuel air mixture around this area and force it towards the centre of the combustion chamber as the piston approaches TDC on the comp stroke and therefore create turbulence to promote better burning and concentrate the mixture in the smallest area for a fast burn and more effective ignition. To achieve good squish you are aiming at a slight wedge cross section with the tight area around the periphery to squeeze the mixture into the centre. To achieve this you need the clearance to be around 1mm or 0.040". You need to account for piston expansion and rod stretch at max rpm. Any more than around 1.2mm is ineffective and any less than around 0.8mm a bit risky. Most older road engines will have more than 1.5mm and/or no real squish shape so basically ineffective. On a Ducati or Guzzi you can adjust the squish by varying the base gasket thickness and you may need to machine the chamber and piston to improve the shape. Sorry, a quick and dirty overview. Ciao

The helicoil repair is a stainless steel thread, I believe it's stronger than the original thread into soft aluminum. I read somewhere that aircraft have helicoils installed from day one, can anyone verify that? I can confirm they come as std fitment on fuel filter housings on GE CFM56-7 gas turbine engines. I've had enough of them come out when pulling the filter cover to know. I prefer Timeserts myself. Ciao

Multi layered laminated steel are by far the best option over a paper/composite/gasket material base gaskets. The other option that I have used many times and works perfectly is sheet aluminium of the correct thickness to get the squish right cut to the cylinder base shape then simply use 3bond on both sides. Works perfectly and wont compress over time. I'm not a big fan of paper gaskets these days. Much prefer 3bond/Yamabond/Ducatibond for everything I can. Ciao

I think the general concensus is the Stucci cross over is the best. Equal top end or very close to it but large midrange improvement. Thats what I run after research a few years ago. Ciao

Yes the "special tool" is called a flat blade screw driver. Slide the blade into the ID of the seal and gently lever it on the shaft shamfered edge. It will pop right out and the shaft wont be damaged but the seal will obviously be toast. Replace with an OEM seal as it's special design. To install make yourself a simple seal driver or just do it carefully with a large flat faced drift and a hammer. Ciao

Yes, suspension does warm up and the settings are effected slightly. In the top shelf units not so much as the design of the bleed orofice and needles in the low speed circuit is compensate to a degree. If you want it set right then yes take the bike out and put a few miles on it before set up. Ciao

Yes all modern sports bikes will stand up when you apply the brakes whilst turning into a corner, some really badly. This is what catches out a lot of riders when they over cook it going in, grab a handfull of front brake and the bike immediatly tries to stand up and run wide. Then they panic and preservation takes over and they apply more front brake which compounds the issue usually until it washes out or they run out of road or hit something comming the other way. Yes, as I said the rear will do the opposite due to mainly to the large rear tire on modern bikes compaired to the front. Dragging the rear brake a little increases the slip angle of the rear tire and helps it turn. Because the rear tire is a lot wider as the bike leans over the rear contact patch moves laterally more than the front. This means the rear is always trying to steer the bike wide to an extent. Its why when you fit a larger rear tire the bike will steer slower and not be quite as agile. Its a tradeoff you accept and get used to for the extra grip. When you drag the rear brake a little mid corner it helps to negate this effect and tightens the line somewhat. You may notice some modern racers are using a thumb rear brake now ( as opposed to Mick Doohan that first used one years ago because of injury) so they can use the technique on R/H corners when they have the balls of their feet up on the pegs and they cant reach the rear brake pedal. Ciao

Yes docc when you have the suspension setup right and you trail brake all the way to the apex and get the bike turned as you release the brakes the front should stay planted so the transition from the forks being loaded by braking to cornering is seamless. As you release the brakes at the apex what you dont want is the forks extending again, unloading the front tire, losing grip and making the steering change. Watch some recent racing accidents( it used to be different ) and there are two types of front end crashes. One, the nasty type are on corner entry only just off the vertical at initial turn in, almost still upright. This is caused by not starting the breaking upright and loading the tire before you start to get it turned in. No load equals less contact patch and less grip and lower tire temps.Happens a lot to riders who's style is to use a lot of mid corner speed. They dont brake hard enought initially and it catches them out. The other type is the apex crash just as you get OFF the brakes sometimes before you open the throttle or just on initial opening and the front tire unloads and washes away. It's interesting stuff and I dont envy the modern racer these days as the window for everything is very small and the price you pay for getting it wrong high. Of course little of this aplies to the road as you should be nowhere near these limits but the understanding is interesting. I'll be applying these techniques on Monday at Phillip Island:) Ciao

Front trail braking is basically using the brakes from the point of application all the way to the apex or there abouts. It obviously means you can brake later because you get to use the brakes for longer. It also keeps the contact patch on the tire larger all the way to the apex because its still loaded and therefore you have more grip. It also keeps the front forks compressed which shortens up the trail and quickens the steering to help you get the bike turned. Forget the rear brake as a means of slowing down on a sports bike, on a sports bike its basically a decoration unless you're two up or carrying a lot of gear. Good for two things, holding the bike on a hill at the stop lights and helping the bike hold a tigher line on longer corners if it's running wide.A little rear brake application will help keep the bike on line. Some racers use it a fraction before the front brake to help the rear squat a little but even that's unusual these days. Other racers use it to help get the bike turned on the way in if they need to and also tame the drive a little on the way out. We are talking seriously good racers here, not me for sure. So thats a race track tutorial and in the real world you can basically forget it for the street. The key to safe and fast road riding is to get your entry speed sorted before the turn in and get the turn in point right. Dont use trail braking on the road as a means of trying to improve your speed. Leave the real trail braking for the track. I trail brake to a degree on the road out of habit but rarely all the way to the apex unless I've seriously misjudged the situation, not so I'm faster. However I've been road, track and dirt riding for a hundred years and didnt learn to do it on the public roads. My advice is to learn how to trail brake on ride days at the track and practice it very conservatively on the road, primarily so one day if you misjudge a corner situation you will know how the bike reacts to firm braking whilst turning and give yourself a little extra margin of safety. Ciao