Lucky Phil

The brakes on the RE are adequate even 2 up. They have ABS as well of course. I one or two 2 finger brake on everything I own and the RE is no exception. I just need to use more lever pressure on it. I never even use the rear brakes for stopping on any of my bikes. As with HP on modern bikes brakes are somewhat the same, a fair bit more than the average rider can utilise. A friend of mine and ex national A grade racer rides a basic Ducati 750 Sport from about 20 years ago that he's had from brand new. We used to ride together all the time, him 2 up with his wife and me solo, him always leading because he was faster than me even 2 up. The Sport was a single front disk bike and he said a few times he couldn't understand how all the road testers of the day complained about the lack of braking power from the single disk. This guy was an A grade road racer back in the day and competed in a few Castrol 6 hour racers. I like the power of a modern brake set up on my 1198 Ducati but it's way more than is needed on the road and sometimes can get you into trouble as it has a LOT of initial bite. You grab at the brakes in a panic and it's the brakes that will have you down the road before the actual situation. Ciao

Thats why I mentioned it. Guzzi apparently aren't smart enough to bring proper display stands to a bloody motorcycle show and need to shoo people off the bikes. A bike show display where you can't sit on the bikes, brilliant. Ciao

I own an Interceptor 650 and the gearbox complaints are rubbish, as it's a very good gearbox. Suspension is average but acceptable on a "value" bike and the complaints about the fuel gauge are from old duffers with their first or only new bike in 40 years that expect modern car fuel gauge performance from a budget bike or any bike for that matter. 99% of reviews on the 650's are glowing ( not that I put a lot of faith in that) and that's why they are one of the best selling bikes world wide. The parts that they have obviously cut corners on the budget are the things that are easily replaceable by the owner like mirrors, levers, indicators etc. Ciao

Notice how all the manufacturers have bikes on bolt down stands which is the "norm" for obvious reason at these kind of shows, except the new Guzzi. Just there on workshop stands! Somewhat risky. Ciao

I meant images of the modifications to your bike. Ciao

I see it has a Quickshifter fitted. Up and down hopefully. Ciao

Depends whether the pump feed check valve is functioning ok. Ciao

Images? Ciao

Electric fuel tap probably. Ciao

I'm more interested in what the dyno says docc and the dyno says the Stucchi loses nothing in the midrange to the Mistral and has a whole lot more on the top end (6-8 HP, gulp). As a matter of fact the Mistral has less top end than the std cross over. Both are better in the midrange than the std crossover. I don't mind sacrificing a HP or 2 at the top end for more mid range grunt but 6-8 is a bit much for me. You need to cross reference between the 4th last and 2nd last graphs. Check the HP dif at 3500 rpm. 4 more to the Stucchi. It's just the torque dip is shorter and sharper with the Mistral it doesn't make better numbers in the midrange and for this you sacrifice 6 or 7 HP on the top end. Nah. https://www.bikeboy.org/v11sport.html Ciao

Well the second best for cheap. Good deal though esp considering you can't buy the Stucchi anymore. Ciao

That's the first thing I would try. Ciao

Just get the spare keys you keep in a safe place and use them. Ciao

Just what I was thinking docc. Or the missus "bumped" it parking the car and seeing it didn't fall over presumed nothing was broken? Ciao

Yes an enhanced version of the system I made. Can't see it being used or should I say providing any benefit as you want as much dive as you can get as soon as you can get it on a sports bike or race bike more or less. Thats what flattens out the contact patch and provides the grip, the weight transfer from compression of the suspension and loading the tyre. No fork dive no significant weight transfer and a reduced contact patch. Ever see the GP riders crashing at 5 deg lean angle almost upright? Thats what happens when you start the turn in on the brakes before you've compressed the forks and loaded the tyre and why anti dive isn't used on race bikes. Interesting though. Maybe Aprilias engineers are too young to remember the 80's. Boeing had the same problem with their Newbie structures engineers when they designed the new Horizontal stab on the 737's. The engineering knowledge from the past seemed to have been forgotten or ignored by the new generation of structures engineers until they started having issues. The reasons were obvious to the older engineers. Thinking about it this system looks more like "dive control" than "anti dive". Maybe a way to isolate compression damping from the dive control equation although the explanation of it's operation seems at odds with that as you want the maximum dive initially to load the tyre and stop the rear lifting without upsetting the chassis too much. Riders currently can't apply max braking force initially and need to wait a fraction until the forks have compressed and flattened the tyre before they can ramp up the lever pressure. Time will tell and we'll see if it moves onto winning MotoGP bikes. Thats the test. Ciao

For what sort of bike? On a sport/race bike it's precisely the last thing you need. Promotes rear wheel lifting under brakes and stops the trail reduction under dive which helps turn in. A lardy electric bike may benefit from some dive control, maybe. Manufacturers patent all sorts of stuff that often never sees the light of day. Sometimes patenting is used as a commercial road block as well. Here's my version from 1985 Ciao

The key part in your post is "back in the 80's". Back in the 80's they thought anti dive was a good thing for a few years as well when in fact the opposite was the case and it was actually regressive and that's why it was abandoned 35 years ago. I made a mechanical system back then when I didn't think too much. Same for frame flex in the pitch axis, if it's flexing in the pitch it wont be stable on the brakes as the steering head moves the trail around like flexy fork stanchions. Controlled frame and swingarm flex is a massive and complex topic but one thing is certain, you need "some" lateral or roll flex. This is why modern GP bikes don't use cylinder head forward frame mounts anymore and use longer arms from the steering head area to the crankcases, the head mounted frames with no arms were too ridged and didn't allow any lateral flex. It's also probably why the Ducati Panigale isn't a more winning WSB. It uses cylinder head mounted box assembly for a steering head/frame support and there's not enough flex there so it works on some tracks but not on others because it's not rider friendly enough with less feel from the front tyre. This system was originally designed to use carbon as the material and you can tailor the flex with carbon but Rossi made Ducati abandon it. So we are stuck with the alloy beam frame for the most part. I'm actually wondering if wire spoke wheels will make a comeback on GP bikes in the future. In a much higher tech form than the past. You could possibly have different wheels with different stiffness depending on the track requirements and tyre carcase stiffness. You read it here first. Ciao

Yep. I've owned 3 MV's remember and I wish sorely I still had my 1000F4, the first model with the TIG welded frame. It was a thing of beauty and an engineers delight with the bodywork off. It lived in my lounge room next to the sofa. Royal Enfield are another company which has legitimate claims to it's 120 year history I think. Thankfully the Indians had the need for cheap and easy to make robust engineering to keep the production rolling along. The new bike is very very good, not fast but a very enjoyable ride none the less. Ciao

Yea thats common because you can't get all the oil out unless you disassemble the forks so you adjust for that. I thought you had the forks stripped. Ciao

It's a nice letter but the MV of today has zero connection to the MV of the past with exception of the name. So the side by side historical building of an industry is a bit of an overreach considering the modern MV has only been around for about 23 years or so. MV marketing taking the opportunity to bathe in a bit of reflected glory me thinks. Ciao

Flex. A little flex makes life easier on the tyre. Cameron postulated if the benefit's of the Ducati mono arm were more than just marketing. The race history of the Ducati mono arm demonstrates it's not a liability. Ciao

Well Kevin Cameron and I might have an interest with regard to that that statement. From a technical purists perspective you have an argument but the reality is Ducati have won quite a few WSB Championships with a single sided arm and as Cameron postulated the single arm may well have an advantage in some ways with regards to tyre wear. Not everything that's superior on the drawing board translates to the real world as KTM have proven with the unfashionable steel trellis frame that has become a MotoGP winner. As for your "my main point". I don't recall reading that before this quoted post. Remind me where you previously posted the tapped hole crack instigator as your "main point"? Seems something you've just become aware of to me. It doesn't matter what the engineering "weakest link" is the fact that it exists is what counts as I have experienced in over 40 years in aviation and motorcycle engineering. You don't have engineers staring into a smoking hole in the ground saying "but it was only a small engineering error" They all count. Ciao

The obvious questions, How did it fit in the first place? Is it the original fairing? How much misalignment is there? Has the bike been sitting around in the garage with the fairing off where someone could have knocked into it? Sounds like the support frame is bent to me. They are usually easy to bend back into shape. Ciao

Due I guess to the off road stresses and maybe a stiffer shock spring and greater swingarm loads? Ciao