pete roper

Imagine the end two cylinders sawn off a chev smallblock and air cooled. The camshaft runs in the valley of the V, (Driven by a chain that also drives the oil pump.) and the valves are operated by pushrods working on rockers with screw and locknut lash adjustment on the pushrod end of the rocker arm. The Guzzi motor has changed very little since 1967, it is also incredibly strong and very, very easy to work on. Most of the other componentry is similarly robust and although if you peruse the forum you will find recurring problems there are no more or less than with any other manufacturerand the fixes, especually if you are capable with tools, are usually quick and easy. There are a few models that had glaring faults, the Scura for exmple has a time-bomb flywheel, and all V11's can suffer from oil pck-up exposure during hard, sustained, acceleration in lower gears but they are generally a happy, happy thing, but someone on this list, even thugh he doesn't own one, would say that wouldn't he Pete

A lot of it is down to personal taste. I have to admit I was never a great fan of the V11 series, that isn't to say I don't like them, simply that I didn't like one enough to buy one. I far preffer the Griso because it is, to me, more comfortable, it certainly has better suspension than the V11's at the back and considerably better than most of them have on the front and the overall package is much more refined and IMHO fun. THat's NOT to say that the V11 series aren't on the whole good machines, If I had one it would have to be an early 'Short Frame, simply that I think that in most ways the Griso is superior and to me a much nicer package. Incidentally, I went to visit Haywards this morning in Cambridge. I find it amazing when I go into bike shops and the people who work there describe the V11's as 'Old Stuff' . While I'm happy to accept bikes like my 'vert and SP probably fall into the 'Old Stuff' category an V11? Even the very oldes of them can only just have cracked a decade on the road. Shows the differences of attitude between the UK, (And probably the US?) and Oz I suppose. There again I don't really think of anything as 'Old Stuff' until it is irretrievably broken and/or you can't get/make parts for it any more Pete

Nip over to Guzzi tech or Guzzitech dk. Rolf is a *known identity* in the Guzzi world so he's obviously seriously mad His tools, especially the peg nut sockets, are the dog's nuts. well worth the, honestly, paltry sums he asks for them. Yes, you canm probably get away with some of the cheap fleabay shite if you only use them once in a while but I've ben using Rolf's tools for several years in my workshop and they still work, first time, every time. Bl;oody bargain in my book! I'll see if I can find his contact details! Pete

Van, either you've been using the site to download cyber-porn or you're very popular! I tried to reply to your PM and was told that your inbox was full Empty it! Even I can do that! anyway, here's the text Van, it's DEFINITELY gone. It went out on the same day as a set of six for DaveG (Dave G? I think so ) If it DOESN't arrive? Let me know and I'll get another one to you, if you wnat to ask the board if their plates have arrived, albeit sometimes with a delay, you'll find that the answer is always yes. I've also refunded money for things like ripped gaskets and stuff that happened in transit. I'm not here to retire on my enormous wealth from ripping off V11 owners . Please though bear in mind that I am going to the UK next week so if there ARE problems with a disappearance I won't be able to do much about it untl I get back, hopefully about mid April. Once it arrives? either get someone to paypal me $175AU if you don't have paypal or simply stick a cheque for that amount in the mail. It'll get here eventually! Pete Sorry to bore the rest of you with this

Awww, c'mon Steve, OK it was a bit sanctimonious and lachrymose but it wasn't *that* bad . Pete

99.9% of all posts to any internet board about bikes seem to concern *problems* and *issues*. The exception being Harley and BMY sites where they either talk about their arseless chaps or how reliable their bikes are on their weekly 20 minute jaunt to the local Cafe Being sensible Guzzis have sometimes had problems because of cost cutting at the factory but, (Crossed fingers!) these seem to have been pretty infrequent in the last few years and I've heard of NO endemic problems on post '03 models. Ask the owners here about there experiences. I can only give mine as a service agent. Thing is that most of the problems I see have been the result of the bike being *serviced* by slack-jawed, gurning, oafs who are not fit to call themselves trades assistants, never mind mechanics! Once a late model Guzzi is set up it should need VERY little attention beyond regular servicing. Just make sure you keep the servicing up to it. On a bike that produces 120BHP out of the crate you probably won't ever notice if it's out of tune and running like a Munter. With a wheezy old 80HP Guzzi you WILL notice and it WILL punish you if you treat it like an appliance. Stop fannying around! You know you love it. Put yer hand in yer pocket. You won't regret it. Oh, and Tommy knows his stuff if you do have problems. Pete

Rolf makes a wonderful set of special tools that incude one specifically for the peg nut on the input shaft. If you plan to do this a lot then buy the tools, they're worth it. if you don't plan on doing it a lot? Well, I'm about to go to the UK so I could lend you mine for a couple of weeks just to get you off the hook BUT!!!!! I'm probably going to be doing a five speed service school in the UK for the Guzzi Club and will need the tool for that. If you can gaurantee that you can get it back to me for that then I'll stick it in a bag tomorrow for you. Pete PS. My best guess is that if you and Jim and a few other Cannucks club together you could BUY a set of Rolf's tools for less than it would cost you for postage! His tools are great AND if you buy the set you get the other sockets for the other V11 peg nuts!

Lex's post brings up a whole host of interesting issues. I essentially think he's perfectly right. At the end of the day the vast majority of people nowadays are more than happy to accept mediocrity as long as that mediacrity doesn't challenge them and allows them to do wat they want to do. To go to the other extreme you can look at the current range of top Jap, (or Italian to a degree.) sports bikes. These are blisteringly powerful, incredibly light and have suspension that can be tuned for virtually anyone from an anorexic stick insect to the morbidly obese. Do many people EVER try anything but the most rudimentary changes to their suspension set up? The answer is NO! A BIG N-O! It's the ONLY explanation for why there are so many dreadfully slow, evil handling, if not downright dangerous! piles of almost new shite on the road. Perhaps it's because I came from a generation, (Cue violins!) where I could only afford complete sh!te? Therefore you could get it going to the absolute best of your ability and it would still be sh!te! As time went by the 'Sh!te Quotient' of what I had to ride wnet down, but every step *up* was so astounding! So MIND BOGGLINGLY good that you kept hoping for more and always tried to get the very best. If you start out from a perspective that what you really want is a 'Lifestyle' then it doesn't matter a tinker's cuss if the bike handles like a block of fermented guano, doesn't go, doesn't stop, doesn't really do anything! As long as it fits the pre-conceptions of the rider? Well that's fine. Modern bikes, even the bad ones, are so far ahead of what most people require in terms of a vehicle that things like poxy forks and inadequate frames are, in real terms, perfectly OK. Their owners seem to be happy with that. So where's the problem? I just find it is a result of personal experience that I want the entire *collective* that is my motorbike to work the best it can. None of my bikes are in any way, remotely, *perfect*. But not one of them is a homgenous *package* delivered to my doorstep and left un-tinkered with. The fact that certain groups of riders treat their motorbikes in much the same way as I treat a washing machine or a light bulb I find slightly baffling.... Not saying I'm *right* or *better* just confused as to why mediocrity is so popular and accepted??? Pete

Hmmm, As I thought, my email is up the sh!t again. It's been patchy for a few days. Jaap, I have a pathological hatred of cities, a small village sounds just about perfect for me Look, I don't know when exactly I'll be over but I imagine some time towards the last week of March. I'll try and communicate a bit more before I leave Oz but things are a bit busy here at the moment so it may not happen until I'm in the Qantas longe preparing for departure! Pete

Dianne Willey has just sent me some money for a plate. No worries, I can do this but that means my next run is gone, I'll have the three to take to the UK and I've sent five to Canada for Jim but that's it! I'll order another run of 'em but I'll be in the UK until April so I won't be posting any more out until then, OK. If anyone has an urgent need for one I think both MPH and Moto International have some on the shelf. Pete

I can supply the gaskets, but not right now as I'm out of stock and fly out to the UK in a weeks time so It's doubtful they would arrive before I left. The usual suspects will have 'em on the shelf. MPH, Speakers, MI, MG Cycle etc. PAypal $175AU to the account linked to my address motomoda_at_optusnet.com.au and UI'll bung one in the post.

The condensors are a PITA to get at because Guzzi bought the entire distributor assembley as a lump from Magnetti Marelli. Any old .2-.22 microfarad condensor will do but simply disconnect the ones screwed to the distributor and connect the new ones to the coils where they are easy to get at. Pete

Several people have been asking me what gaskets to order for installing the sloppage sheets so.... You'll need to order. 01003600 x1 The sump gasket. 01003650 x2 Block to spacer gaskets, one for each side of the sheet. 90706140 x2 O-rings for the thermostat housing. You may also want to order, but probably not strictly *necessary* 90706948 x1 O-ring for the filter access plate. 30153000 x1 Oil filter. Pete

OK, that's three. Pete

Sacrifice trhe nut and grind it off. Incidentally that is the sort of damage that occurs if the driveshaft isn't aligned. WAs yours prior to the failure? Pete

The coil that is getting warm is being energised because the points are closed and electrickery is running through it. The one that is remaining cold isn't being energised. This DOESN'T necessarily mean that it isn't connected right, when the engine is not running one or 'tother of the sets of points is most likely to be open so that coil won't be being energised. The fact that the engine is running on one cylinder indicates that there is power getting to one coil at least. The way they are supplied is that there is a (?) white wire carrying current to one coil +ive and then a small loop of wire bridging that terminal to the +ive on the other coil. Check that hasn't fallen off. Then chack to see that both coil -ives have their wires on them, one red, one green. Next it's off with the tank and check the connections where the red and green wires connect onto the points wires from the distributor. There are two spade connectors up under the tank that do this. If they are connected then it' time to move on to the distributor. Off with it's lid and out with the multimeter.Turn on the ignition and make sure that each live contact is getting voltage. Turn the ignition off and turn the multimeter onto 'Ohms'. Disconnect the red and green wires from the distributor and then using the ohm meter on the distributor wires and the timing marks on the flywheel set the timing by gapping the points so that they separate at exactly the right time. Unless it wasn't running before or the points have been replaced tehre should be no need to buggerise around with moving either the distributor or the *Floating* set of points on the backing plate, in fact if you do it will simply make your life about a zillion times harder!. Once it's timed up correctly this way reconnect the red and green points wires to the distributor, smear a little bit of grease on the distributor cam in front of the heel of each set of points, slap the lid back on and the tank and see if the bugger runs. Pete

If your bike has had the recall, (If needed?) and isn't leaking why are you doing it? Unless you just want to of course, which id fine, if a bit perverse and is the sought of thing I do . Incidentally I've not had to go all the way in to an *old* six speed yet. There are a couple of peg nuts in that require there special tools if you want to take the shafts apart, (I have a set of Rolf's tools which include these, as I said, I haven't had to use 'em yet but I'm happy to loan 'em to *regulars* on the board who I feel I can trust to send 'em back if required.) and the shock absorber requires a press to take to pieces but apart from that I think it's all pretty much nuts and bolts stuff. Pete

No worries. One in the bag then. Any other takers? Pete

VAn, yours went out today, along with (Very embarasingly! ) Pat's one and the next batch for MPH. For Pat and Todd, my apologies. Believe it or not I took them to the post office and bagged 'em up nearly a fornight ago but didn't have my credit card with me to pay for the postage. I then blissfully thought I'd sent 'em. It was only when I went in today I got bailed up by the postmistress who *reminded* me, none too gently, that payment is expected for any service provided! I'll go off and wash my head now......... Pete

Martin, it's a fair while since I had anything to do with these, (15 years +!) but from memory the 'S' models didn't suffer nearly as badly from the 'Chocolate Cams' syndrome as the 'F's. Heaven alone knows why Perhaps they had a different profile? Perhaps they were made out of something slightly harder than baby-sh!t? No idea. Any which way they make a perfectly acceptable 'Beater'. Probably the worst problems will be finding a shock to fit it and un-seizing the brakes every couple of days Pete

This is where your logic falls flat. None of the above scenarios are EVER going to happen as Lead Wing owners are; a.) Not Human. b.) Don't *ride* a motorbike, they travel on a two wheeled car. So they try not to lean, ever. c.) Even when 'Touring' they only use a fraction of the machine's theoretical 'Performance' and their progress down the road can only be detected using time-lapse photography. For most of them the idea of a 'Tour' is a 30Km trip to the outskirts of town, prefferably by a six lane highway where they can, along with their buddies, act as a kind of rolling chicane and raise the blood pressure of everyone within a 15 mile radius! Pete

OK, some of you may remember me mentioning a while back that I've been roped in to doing a resto on this poxy Nuovo Falcone? Long and the short of it is that I and the owner will be making up a list of munt that the horrible old sh!theap requires and since I'm coming to the UK next month it would seem like an easy and/or sensible thing to do to hop on a ferry from the UK and go to Teo Lamers where I can actually TALK to a real human being rather than trying to use their crappy and un-navigable website! So who can a.) help me, yes I know that they probably have people thare who speak english but they probably won't understand me! and b.) come out for a night and introduce me to the dubious pleasures of Hollands finest hostelries???? Pete

Yup, not a problem. Gimme an address and we'll sort money out later. Pete

Ring gears sometimes have a chalk or paint line on them that coresponds with the TDC arrow on the flywheel but I really wouldn't worry about it unduly, lets face it after a couple of months the dust from the plates will of distributed itself unevenly enough to throw out any *perfect* ballance. RM clutch? The single platers will get you a very slight decrease in rotating mass but the wtin plater in the V11's is pretty light. I wouldn't bother as I think the *gains* would be negligible and I think a bit of flywheel 'Heft' is a good thing. Pete

I haven't heard from Jim for a while. I think he's out on the road somewhere and incommunicado. Anyone who want's one just email me or PM me here but I can't respond if my return emails are blocked by your server so if you DON'T get a reply try the board's PM. Pete