pete roper
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Posts posted by pete roper
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(Gurgle! Froth!!!!) You want a list of what??? For What?????? A 2,000 mile road trip???? Pfffft! Good God man! what the hell is wrong with you????
You have a virtually BRAND NEW motorbike and you plan to take it for a canter around the block and want to know what you need to take????
Look you nutcase, I'm about to come on a 'See how many of the natives I can offend in six weeks' tour of the USA, (Parts of it at least.) and I'm picking up a shitty old V1000 Convert of completely unknown provenance from a shop in Detroit. This machine is nearly 25 years old and has probably spent most of it's life in a chicken coop in Arkansas being used as a guano repository. Do I care? be-f@cked do I care. It's a Guzzi, anything that can go wrong can be fixed with a couple of feet of bailing twine and a FB hammer, don't kid yerself, the new ones are exactly the same, they just don't suffer from the guano problem.
Pack what you'd usually take for a weekend ride, (2,000 miles sounds like a weekend ride to me, 3 days or so??) and take a credit card in case something goes tits-up but that's unlikely as long as you check the bike over before you leave, (Heavens, the gearbox has even got a silly little poofterish window to check the level now, how hard is that?) then put petrol in it and ride it till it stops.
Good God, you V11 owners are sounding almost as soft as bloody Ducatisti, or worse still BMW owners, (Oh! Heavens! My GPS says I'm more than 20Km from a dealer! We'll have to turn back!!!
)Start engine, engage gear/s, flog the clacker off it, come home, repeat as often as necessary until you understand!!!!!!
Pete
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In my beloved State, (NSW) they are actually FAILING people on car driving tests if they slow down using the engine rather than the brakes, even if they touch the brakes to indicate to following traffic they are slowing. These complete fuckwits who have instituted this program say that the safest way to stop is to brake in a high gear, (4th/5th) until such point that the engine begins to lug at which point the clutch should be depressed and a full halt achieved by brakes alone. Only when the machine is either stationary or at it's lowest possible speed should a lower gear be selected!!!!!!!! I'm sorry but this is dangerous cretinism of the highest order. What happens if the driver suddenly needs to accelerate and they are in a high gear? What happens to the suspension and transmission loadings when traveling in 'Angel Gear'?
It is trully a frightening example of unskilled and non understanding people being allowed to make the rules.
As for motorbikes? The differences between a light, chain driven, repli-racer with a high F/R bias and a machine like a Guzzi are many and manifest. trying to ride a Guzzi like an RGV is not only stupid, its fruitless too. I still maintain that the best way to get a Guzzi, any Guzzi, round a corner fast is to hit the picks as late as you can and use a combination of rapid downchanges with engine braking, missing some gears if neccessary, to get all the slowing down done BEFORE you tip it in. Make sure you're in the correct gear for your entry speed and then wind it on and use the torque to push you out of the corner.
I can't imagine that any correctly set up V11 that hasn't been modified or extensively lightened would be able to break traction in the dry with *most* riders on board unless they are super-keen or the bike is set up wrong. Steering with the back just isn't an issue, lets face it it isn't for most people on the road. I know that I have to get really stupid to break traction with my old hot-rod and it runs a skinny 120 crossply on the back, and , no, I don't pretend to steer it with the rear wheel. Shit myself when it lets go? Yes! Steer? No!
Like it or not a Guzzi is an old fashioned motorbike in just about every way, including the way they steer and handle. To me that is a bonus. I think a repliracer or overpowered pig is a stupid thing to try and take on the road. If you want to go racing go to a frigging race track. Racing has no place on the public road. That isn't to say fast riding doesn't have a place, my licence will attest to my flaunting of the stupid road laws, but racing is a recipe for disaster!
While not usning engine braking *may* have merit is some situations,most particularly on a racetrack, removing the drive forces from the handling and roadholding eqation is an unmitigated disaster, especially with a comparatively heavy, rear wheel drive, single track vehicle! You can play biggus-dickus, play race/pysicist till you're blue in the tits but I'm telling you you'll get round corners quicker and have better overall control of your vehicle if you keep the engine connected with the back wheel as much as possible, be it under drive or on the overun.
Pete
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Which would mean that rods would break on the over-run rather than under load
I think not! Generally rods will let go at high RPM and under power. It's the accelerative and decelerative forces that will do the damage. (If the rod is inadequately designed or has some sort of stress raiser in it.Rods usually separate just bellow the little end eye simply because in most cases this is the weakest part of the rod. Once the operator is off the throttle the motor will start decellerating immediately and stresses will be reduced so unless you are very unlucky and the rod had already started to separate it is highly UNLIKELY that it will actually fail on the over-run. It's important to remember that things are happening VERY fast inside your engine, at 6,000RPM the piston is being asked to stop dead and accelerate in the opposite direction 200 times a second, the rod on't just snap in 1/200ths of a second, it will happen over a number of cycles but since load is heavier when the piston is being forced down by 100 atmospheres of pressure on the power stroke than when it is simply fighting a low gas pressure in the cylinder on the over-run and the only slightly over 1 atmosphere in the crankcase if it's going to snap it'll snap under power!
If you want evidence of how ineffectual engine braking is try rolling off the throttle on a steepish hill. You'll find that with the throttle closed the braking will be there, but not particularly strong. Now try hitting the kill switch and opening the throttle to WFO. The braking will increase markedly because now the piston is having to compress a lot more gas than it does if the throttle is closed. Note, if you try this DON"T then whip the kill switch back on with the throttle still fully open unless you want to risk serious damage or fall off the back!
Pete
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I've never heard such utter piffle!
Loads on any of the engine componentry that is affected is much less on the over-run than it is under load. Some pistons are designed with a side that is more cabable of taking thrust and this is ALWAYS the side that will be taking the power loadings, not the compression loadings. Guzzi pistons are not usually, to the best of my knowledge, thrust face critical.
As for other parts? Oil pressure is constant dependent on revs. It doesn't matter if the motor is under load or not. Gearboxes on the other hand have to cope with power loadings and compression loadings and I think that it will be obvious to everyone who has looked at a helically cut Guzzi five speeder that the shaft that floats in these boxes only has one thrust bearingand that is for taking end thrust under load. at the other end it has a weedy little single row ballrace to take the thrust on over-run.
With a racing two-stroke there is bugger-all engine braking anyway but it is a bad idea to spend too much time with the throttle closed fro the simple reason that when the throtle is closed the crank bearings and piston will be getting insufficient lubrication. With any pressure fed four stoke it simply isn't an issue!
Pete
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While this doesn't sound like it is your problem it is worth remembering that because of the shared crankpin the firing interval on a Guzzi is not even. Power pulses occur at 270 and 450 degrees of the 720 degree cycle of the motor and this promotes a *lazy* cylinder that runs richer. This was such an issue with some of the later *old* smallblocks that Guzzi had to use different pilot jets, (Remember them
) in the left and right carbs to get them through the Californian emission regs!Running much hotter would indicate leanness rather than richness to me or perhaps a mechanical problem rather than an FI related one. Just my 2c. I'm not an FI expert. Have you run a compression test on it?
Pete. (Sweltering at 39 degrees C and hating every minute! The only way to combat this is to replace ALL my blood with beer! Cold beer!!!!!!!!
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Typical trick of most manufacturers. They won't sell you a bush or grommet separately, it comes as part of much larger and more expensive assembley.
Good lord, not even Honda expect their customers to fall for that old chestnut!
Take off your tie rod, take it to you local machine shop and explain the problem and leave it to them.
Alternatively, you could buy a cheap set of verniers, clean out the rubbery munt from the eye of the rod and measure it and then go to a 'Wotta-lotta-crap' auto store and ask for a bushing with the same ID and OD as the original bit that was probably lovingly crafted out of the shite of the former, (If we can belive what Greg sez!) engineers who were responsible for the recen't wonders of the single plate clutch, the hydraulic lifters and the six speed selector dogs made out of play-dough!!!!
It's a rubber bushing for God's sakes! My rubber chicken collection is more sophisticated, and that doesn't include the one with the nozzle for KY jelly!!!
Get a grip!!!! Or a Sinclair C5??????
Pete
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Docc, after many years of working on queer european motorbikes I always go completely over the top with earthing
Why. Simply because in my experience 99.9% of all prblems are earth related!The way I do it is to simply run extra wires, (They don't have to be a heavy guage, I just use standard 1 or 1.5mm cabling.) from one of the instrument mounting bolts to an allen bolt on the crank case and another extra one from a mounting screw for the reg/rec to the same bolt. In both cases I use a simple 5m eye on each end. This can be done very unobtrusively. Then by using a sodding great earth strap, (Available from 'Napa' or any other 'Wotta-lotta-crap' auto shop.) I attatch one end to a bell housing stud, (Once again this can be done unobtrusively up by the bracket on the top two studs.) and connect it straight to the battery earth.
This ensures that the block and gearbox are the main return path. While as i said, the V11's are better in respect to earthing than the Sport 1100's, (where the earth path is positively bizzare!) the earth strap on the V11's is a bit weedy and is bolted to painted bits with very little effort having beenput in to ensuring good contact. If one bolts the major return paths securely to clean metal on the block it is a lot less likely that the electrics will play up.
I hadn't actually thought about the relay earth wire at all! Given the propensity for early relays to go tits-up at the drop of a hat perhaps running an alternative earth wire from there to the block too wouldn't do any harm, but that is probably overkill and will have the electrical engineers amonst us grinding their teeth!!!!
Pete
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Paul, I honestly don't think the problem is related to Guzzi or even Aprilia directly. Yes, they are Italian companies so they do things a bit differently, but I don't honestly think that they really don't give a shit about their customers.
While I can't talk about the situation in the USA I have observed the bizarre antics here in Oz with a mixture of disbelief and increasing frustration. The last proper distributor we had in Oz was back in about '96. Up until that point Guzzi was distributed by Ted Stolarski in Perth. Ted ran a tight ship and his head mechanic, Mario Pugglioli, (Sp.) bought up the business when Ted retired and then, shortly thereafter died, in about '97. Mario remains one of the most respected sources of guzzi lore in Australia. The only real problem with Ted's operation was that it was in Perth. Perth is the most remote major city on the planet. Sydney is closer o Jakarta than it is to Perth so communications were sometimes difficult, (Although I can get parts from Mario overnight in an emergency!).
Since then there have been at least three importers and as far as I can make out the standard of service, information and product support has been laughable with all of them. I really don't think that anyone in Italy actually knows what is going on here, it's not like Holland or Germany where you can send a factory representative over on a plane in a morning if you hear rumblings of discontent from customers. It's a 24 hour flight from Europe and even ifyou fly first or business class it is a real gruel getting here. Maybe they do get lots of e-mail, fax and written communication from deeply dissatisfied customers, the thing is if they do what happens if they contact the distributor and they just make all the right, soothing, noises about customer service and improved standards? There is no way the Beggio mafia can check it out easily so the situation continues to slide.
Simple geography is one reason why this sort of situatuion exists here but it's not the only one. Australia is a Federation and all the states are nominally independent. The situation vis a vis representation by Moto Guzzi in different states varies wildly. Victoria has always had a very active club, good workshops, although most of the good ones are small independent outfits, and at least the marque has been visible in a dealership network. Queensland too has always had a good workshop in the Newells, albeit in the south east corner of the state, the rest is a bit of a wasteland. South Australia has a couple of good people in Adelaide, Western Austarlia has Mario. Tasmania has at least one good shop but they aren't a dealer, the Norther Territory? Nothing. and finally, NSW, the most populous state has a couple of dealers in the bush, North Coast V-twins in Coffs Harbour on the North Coast who have a good rep and Sydney, the largest city in Oz has, to the best of my knowledge ONE dealer. There are only 20 million of us in Oz, 6 million of them live in Sydney,the largest and most affluent city on the continent and they have ONE shop about which I can say nothing. In the Australian Capital Territory, a few Km away from me we have an official dealer who is periodically without a mechanic.
I don't think that Beggio or the Guzzi management are getting anything like the true story of how dire the situation here is. Nobody would want their product marketed so badly! It's not just that in doing so word soon gets out that the product back-up can't be trusted, it's the fact that everyone associated with the marque is labled as a crook and a liar. Fly-by-night, is the term most often associated with dealers in NSW and needless to say Guzzi sell next to no motorbikes here.
I'm convinced that if the marque got the proper support that it deserves and especially if the importers had someone on the books who actually had some product knowledge half of the problems would evaporate overnight but when you have dealers saying that curing an oil leak from the bell housing requires *Special Tools* that are unavailable in the country and the so called *mechanics*
are so lacking in skill and imagination or are so fearfull that they cannot improvise or simply build their own tools there isn't really an awful lot of hope is there?I can't stress strongly enough how much I like and admire the Guzzi product, you'll not find me slagging the marque off, not after living with and loving 'em for 25 years. What enrages me is that such a good product can be so undermined and white-anted by stupidity and greed on the part of lazy people who simply want to milk prospective purchasers of money and offer nothing in return!
All power to Guzzi for sending you the new Scurra donk and box Paul. I'm sure if we had someone in this country who could COMMUNICATE with the factory and who the factory trusted to know what they were talking about and not try to rip them off we would be able to get similar results, even here, at the arse end of the earth. My problem is that i think it will be a cold day in hell before we get to that point. And that makes me very sad and very angry!!!!
Pete
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Yup, it's the older five speeders that benefit from shimming. While I haven't yet had a six speeder in bits the fact that the selection is taken care of by geared cam plates rather than a drum means that you'd effctively be dependent of the plate channels being accurately machined at the factory as there is, as far as I can see, no leeway for fine tuning. Having said that all the V11's I've ridden have selected well as long as the boxes were in good condition and well lubricated, (With oil rather than mayonaise!).
Other things I'd recommend are running an extra earth from the regulator/rectifier and the instrument binacle to the block, (I know that there is now a separate earth wire from the reg/rec, I just don't trust it
) and adding another, more substantial earth strap from a bell housing nut/stud to the battery negative. While the V11's have their batteries located in a far more sensible position than the 1100 Sports the earth path is still pretty crappy and I like a direct run from block to battery.Pete
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Are we talking paddock stand or centrestand here?
I can't help with the centrestand but I have a stand made by Anderson's in Oz. It's not as good as the Guzzi stand but I can't seem to get a reply from the importer about such things, (Or anything else for that matter.) so I went for the Anderson.
It's like a huge paddock stand on steroids and picks the rear of the bike up from a bar slotted through the passenger footrest hangers. Personally, while it will do the job quite adequately and very securely, (The bugger will never fall off in a month of Sundays!) it does require the removal of the mufflers before it can be used. I don't mind this as it's onl a five minute job and I don't have many customers with V11's but I do think if it had been made 50mm wise it would of been more sensible.
If I had the choice again I would of gone for the Guzzi stand I think but when I was in the market I couldn't find any info on price or availability for the Guzzi item and I needed a stand! Like so many other things with the new models, when I try and get information from the importer I'm met with a deafening silence which is thoroughly enraging
Pete
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Sorry, I still reckon Ed Milich's advice was the best I've heard.
"Oil should come in a sealed container with the name of an oil company on the front"
Some of the best advice on oil I ever saw.
Pete
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Hello, unlike most people on this board I don't actually own a V11 six speed variant of the Guzzi marque but I've been around Guzzi for over 20 years.
I currently run a small workshop in rural NSW, (Australia.) that deals almost exclusively in Guzzi and do have a couple of customers who have V11's, most of my work is with the older Tonti framed models though, of which, for my sins, I own four.
I'm also a cyber slut and spend far too much time on the 'pooter discussing Moto Guzzis and seem to have built up an international reputation as an overbearing, one eyed, cynical, opinionated rat-bag. While entirely justified the reason why I'll always put up a forceful defence for moto Guzzis products is because I honestly believe that they are one of the best on the market. Strong, robust, long lasting and fundamentally well engineered. I'll argue their merits till I'm blue in the face and the person I'm debating has slipped into a catatonic state from boredom
When the V11's start getting crashed or are old enough for impoverished uni students to buy them and paint 'em matt black with spray cans then I'll probably buy one. Until then I'm more than happy with my prehistoric collection of fossilised Tontis. Having said that there is so much that is in common between *old* and *new* Guzzis that I'm sure I'll be able to offer some meagre advice, or at least totally biased subjective opinion, on any issues that arrise with the newer bikes.
Pete
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Carl Alison has wiring schematics for just about every model built since the dawn of time on his website. You'll probably find he's also got a schematic for the wiring in the Ark!
Pete
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I may be quite wrong, I don't have a 'Broad Sump' model in the workshop now, but I don't think that the Harpers unit will work with the Daytona/V11 'Broad Sump'
Apart from not actually fitting physically I believe the whole pick-up/strainer/delivery system is very different. I could be wrong, as I say I haven't got anything to check my theories against right now but I'm pretty certain I'm right.
The Raceco V sump was originally designed to help overcome the problems with oil surge and pump cavitation. It also has the added benefit of offering better cornering clearance, always an issue of Datona RS's, dunno about V11's.
Pete
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but I will say, categorically, that if you swap from a Non Synth to a full synth after any period of time using one or the other you greatly increaee your chance of leaks. I'm not saying anything more.
Please don't Pete!
Geez, I wish the old wife and her tales would die already!!!
Leaks and synthetics: This old tale started WAY back when synthetics did not have seal swellers in the formulation. After awhile the seals would shrink and cause leaks.
Today, all synthetics have the seal swellers and do not cause seals to shrink.
The only problem is that modern synthetics clean your engine much better than dead dino oil. After awhile, all the crap is cleaned away from the seals and small leaks can appear.
If synthetic leaks, you have a leak! Fix it!
I had three new Guzzis running synthetic from day one. They even say that synthetic is in the sump from the factory and all new bikes are recommended to run synthetic.
No leaks. Even my freshly rebuilt sport engine is completely leak free.(Completely.)
Modern "stone age" Guzzi engines put out maybe two to three times the HP of the old round heads and run much harder. Synthetics benefit these old dogs that are run hard. Even old Guzziology concedes that synthetics are the best oil to run.
Back on topic: My dealer drops the pans on all sport motors after seeing the "manhole cover" get cross threaded and ruin the whole oil pan. Must get a new one at big bucks.
Drop the pan, clean out the crap, have a look at the insides, change the gasket, (they don't cost much, sheesh) Button it back up and enjoy! Life shouldn't be this hard, it's just an oil change!
(required smile thingies) John wrote;
*I had three new Guzzis running synthetic from day one. They even say that synthetic is in the sump from the factory and all new bikes are recommended to run synthetic.*
Re-read my post John. I didn't say that using synthetics would cause leaks. Simply changing from a mineral to a synthetic after a period of time greatly increases the risk of leaks. I'm not just talking seals here, I've had 1100 Sports, ('Modern' enough?) that have started leaking like sieves after their owners have changed over.
No, I don't want to start a bloody oil thread either. But neither do I want people to SWAP from one type of lubricant to another without being aware that there can be problems. Run with it from day 1 and the problems don't seem to occur. Why? FIIK????
Pete
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ARRRRGH!!!! Please! Don't make me say it again!
OK, I'll leave alone the subject of whether synthetics are better than boring, stone age, oils and whether a boring, stone age engine needs anything better but I will say, categorically, that if you swap from a Non Synth to a full synth after any period of time using one or the other you greatly increaee your chance of leaks. I'm not saying anything more.
On the subject of the filter? Surely you had it changed, and the sump dropped as part of the first service? This should exclude Guiseppe the Wog, who is guilty of lots of crap with Guzzis, from the equation.
The fact is even the service book sez that the sump should be dropped for the forst filter change to *examine* the screen. While the one or two *Broad Sump* odels I've done this to have been OK tales are leigion of swarf and crud in the sump, especially since Aprilia waved their magic wand over Mandello.
As Al sez, don't worry, it's fixable, probably a lot cheaper than *factory* if you use a bit of common sense. But Don't risk fart arseing about and not doing the job properly.
When installing filters the gasket should be oiled and the filter put on *hand tight* no more. If you put it on dry and tighten it up till you fart you've got no-one to blame but yourself if the bastard won't come off next time!
Having grown up with earlier bikes where you had to remove the sump to get at the filter, (Which I never found a big chore.) and the docuented occurence of oil starvation caused by the new pick-up system. I find this new fangled whining about filters silly! Good God man! Grow up and take your sump off like true 'Leather-clad God of Speed' rather than whining about your leaky tube!!!!!
Are you mouse? Or Moto Guzzi rider!!!!!Pete
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Just on this subject one of the very few V11's I have anything to do with belongs to a short, hairy, wog from Yass about 60Kms away. Due to warranty issues etc. he's tied into having his work done by the clowns who sold him the bike. Last weekend he dropped over and told me the source of the mysterious gearbox leek he had was that the clot who'd given it its first service had filled the oil to the bottom of the window with the bike on its side stand!
With this level of advanced product knowledge and undertanding Guzzi will go far in Oz!
He drained off the excess and? Voila! No more leak! Jesus H christ on a bicycle!!!!!!!
Pete
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Oh Gawd!here we go, I promised myself I wouldn't join this forum for two reasons. 1.I spend far too much time on the bloody 'Pooter anyway and 2. Most of my limited knowledge pre-dates your newer models and while I like them I have no real desire to own one, (yet, they ain't cheap enough yet
).On the subject of crabbing the frame though, (I haven't done it on a six speeder yet.) I usually find it easier to take both the sideplates off. it only takes a couple more minutes but I find it allows you to see more easily if you've disconected everything and you can clean up the rotten earth paths while you're in there.
No doubt though there are a million and one far more skilled and experienced people here than me so I'll bugger off back into my burrow.
Cheers.
Pete
spare parts for road trip
in Technical Topics
Posted
Good point Tex. What use is a clutch cable on a bike with a hydraulic clutch
Pete. (Who has an automatic with a clutch???? There's a dumb idea!)