Scud

Yup. I rode by that fire, which was at about 2,000 feet elevation on the Western slope of the Sierras. About 50 miles later, I was at the pass at 9,000 feet - water was running across the road and there will still some small snowbanks in shady areas. The snow is year-round at about 12-14,000 feet. They're still skiing further North in the Sierras at Mammoth Mountain - 2 feet of snow at the base (9,000 feet) and 12 feet at the summit (11,000 feet). Then, when I dropped down the Eastern slope it got hot hot hot... in the Mojave Desert.

There are several fires burning in the Western US right now. I saw a crew checking a still-smoldering hillside in the Kern River Valley on Friday. And today there are two new fires in Southern CA, one North of LA and one along one of my favorite roads (Mesa Grande) in San Diego County.

So... I'm going in... The transmission leak is too bad to ignore - every time I start the bike I smell burning gear oil from the crossover. I'm almost ready to crab the frame - just gonna let a few bolts soak overnight. Hopefully, I can pull the tranny after work tomorrow. And that will leave me plenty of room to inspect the wiring harness. I already undid two of the three sections that had green electrical tape. Somebody had cut into the black sleeve around the harness, but I can find no evidence of damage or modifications. One more "green-tape" section to go, this one by the ECU. I also cleaned the ignition switch and replaced the bulb for the neutral light. Little by little... till we figure out what is causing the very bad running at about 3,500 RPM. Could it be from an exhaust leak (or two). Given the black on the RH pipe, this looks like a pretty big exhuast leak - I've heard these bike are very sensitive to exhuast leaks - but how does that show? Could this leak cause the bike to have severe sputtering (like fuel starvation)?

Good job missing mama. What are you doing to the Yamaha?

No - I just retrofitted the 2003 safety pin on a 2002. Bad things happen if the bolt backs out of the caliper carrier.

If you have the caliper off, you can unhook the brake line from the swingarm. The line is quite long and you can move it wherever you want - no need to remove muffler or anything else. Also try adding a speed-bleeder instead of the standard bleeder, you can flush a lot of fluid quickly with one of those. I have a spare rear caliper if you are interested.

Hey Bob - that would be fun. But I get to follow you. Maybe after a couple days of trailing you on that sweet LeMans I'll be able to keep up. I've been wanting to visit the Trail of 100 Giants, which is way out on a twisty road...

FWIW - my Scura had some sputtering at idle (following some sustained hard running) yesterday coming through the Mojave Desert at 110F (43C). It's got stock airbox with snorkels, stock map, pipes, etc. The CO trim has been at -68 since I've had it. Thanks to SwooshDave's post in the Basic Tune Up thread, I finally figured out the trick to changing the CO trim and set it to 0 (you have to be patient, which is not one of my virtues). She seems to be idling better already - but I haven't given it a proper test.

Thanks for posting that detail about waiting. I've been trying to figure that out for while. My Scura was at -68, but running fine except for taking 2-3 attempts to start and occasional burpy idling. I counted to 10 between each screen and performing the requested action (such as turn off engine with kill switch). Until now, it kept showing -68 when I reconnected. And today FINALLY AND THANK-YOU VERY MUCH it showed 0 when I reconnected. Idle seems to be smoother already - it would be cool if it starts on the first crank when cold... wait and see...

It was a perfect window of opportunity - almost spoiled by the shift-spring failure last week. So glad it failed at home, not on this ride. It would SUCK being stuck in any gear on such steep and twisty roads. Sherman Pass is outside my range for a one-day loop ride from home, so it either has to be an intentional overnighter, or a return trip. There are a lot of dirt roads and trails in the Sequoia National Forest - but none in the Wilderness areas, where even bicycles are not allowed. I think I need to go back with the Husqvarna, some hiking shoes, and a fishing pole.

I'd guess high 30s, close to 40mpg but I wasn't measuring. My low fuel light isn't working - and there are loooong stretches between fuel stations, so I topped off at around 100 miles several times - usually close to 2.5 gallons. And Sherman Pass was pretty tight with a lot of debris in the road - so I wasn't hitting the throttle very hard. She ran really well from sea level all the way up to the peak. But she stumbled at idle in the heat in the high desert when I did have to stop. I think it was close to 110F in the Mojave Desert today - that was part of the motivation to get started so early - trying to get ahead of the peak heat by a few hours. Nobody rafting today. In fact they had signs warning people not to enter the river. I found a cool video of the North Fork Kern River - near the bridge in my pictures - with an excellent Talking Heads song. ..and here's the lower, including some good views of the road along the river:

I've been scheming for a while to get a run at Sherman Pass - and I pulled it off today. I was with my family in San Luis Obispo (middle daughter will be going to school there). They went a couple days ahead of me. Today was the return trip... so rather than have a leisurely breakfast with the family, I rolled out at 5AM with 500 miles on the horizon - here's my route in Google Maps. I had planned to take some video with my new GoPro, but I forgot to bring a connector - and couldn't mount it anywhere. Route 58 Eastbound was fabulous... across the Carizzo Plain at dawn. Then through to Bakersfield and up route 178, which runs along the Kern River. The river was raging... I should have taken a picture, but the road was too fun to stop. Then breakfast in Kernville, by Lake Isabella, which appears to be at capacity. Last time I was there, the water level was extremely low. And then up the North Fork of the Kern River on Mountain Highway 99, which crosses the river at about the same place that the Sherman Pass road starts. The powers that be would like would-be travelers to know that there's no gas for a while... and to expect rocks and stuff in the road. I saw only one other vehicle on the ascent to 9,000 feet. And it's impossible to capture these mountains in photos, but here's an attempt - looking down to the valley floor 5,000 feet below. And I took a welcome stop at a view point in the high meadows - where there was still snow alongside the road in a few places. The snow-capped mountains in the distance are the peaks of the Sierra Nevada Range, including Mount Whitney, the highest point in the 48-States. From there, I rode down the other side of the mountain into the high desert. I filled my Camel Back with ice in Pearsonville, then went about 30 miles before stopping in Johannesburg to buy chap-stick. And what to my wondering eyes should appear? A Moto Guzzi V11 Cafe Sport headed North on Hwy 395. I thought at first I might be hallucinating from the heat. Then the Cajon pass was crowded (it's the choke-point for the busy Los Angeles to Las Vegas route) - so I bailed and took another mountain pass into San Bernardino. Family got home at 1pm, I got home two hours later.

The GoPro Session has two microphones. It uses some fancy technology to isolate and reduce wind-noise. I assume it works sort of like noise-cancelling headphones.

I got a GoPro Session and tried it out. Here's a very Scura test run. Hey Chuck - does it sound like it's got a blower in it? That's the special timing chain tensioner.

The black gear goes with the Scura. Fashion > comfort.

I like her... that's a worthy project.

Here's the thread. I found it easily by searching for "shift spring japan" http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19827&hl=

Where the hell did I put my seat? I can't find my seat!!!!!

I think Chuck is suggesting a step-by-step on the modification with a coil spring - not a how-to on replacing the original spring, which is well-documented. In fact, if someone were so-inclined, they could buy 50 springs and whatever other bits are required and sell us all some upgrade kits for a tidy beer-money profit.

See... this is why I cannot bring another bike home right now. The noisy engine is in the Champagne LeMans project - on hold pending further investigation. The Greenie-rescue has different, as-yet undiagnosed, problems. I think (therefore I hope) that the Scura and red LeMans will stop pitching fits for a while. The red LeMans burped a boot off a throttle body recently - but a re-tune has her running better than ever. Weirdly, she burped a boot on a night loop last week - then the next night I did the same loop on the Scura, and she broke a shift spring at the same location. I'm not superstitious, but just to be on the safe side, I'm not riding the K75s on that loop... the poor old brick just soldiers on without complaint, but she needs tires again... I saw a thread about this Scura on WildGuzzi too - it's getting some attention.

The bike does look good in the one picture you've posted - but close-ups can tell a different story. I like the idea of keeping it original. Like Chuck, I don't care for rust, but I'm also not a fan of other people's dents. Once you start powdercoating, you're moving toward an expensive, show-quality restoration. In my experience, a rolling restoration is a lot of work. You end up removing/reinstalling the same parts multiple times as you chase various problems. In the long run, stripping the whole bike and re-assembling it once will be a time-saver. You can inspect/clean/replace/restore each part based on what you find. After sitting for so long, there will be surprises. I think some of the older bikes had chrome bores, which caused a lot of problems - other models were trouble free. Advice? Consider starting a project thread over on WildGuzzi to benefit from the collective experience over there. This might be the time to buy a copy of Guzziology from Moto International (if you don't already have it).

Well, somebody should rescue it. I thought the price on my Greenie was suspiciously low, so I went over with cash and brought it home. PO just wanted it gone so he could buy something else - but it still doesn't run right... Very little "discretionary wrench time" time lately... birthdays, graduations, and too much "mandatory wrench time" like my recent shifter spring failure. And scheming for my next big mountain pass... At this point, Chuck, the "aisle" would be outside, where my daughter's chew-happy puppy spends a lot of time.

That sure looks like a good deal. You'd pay nearly that much just to get the suspension on eBay. Alas, all the beds in the V11 hospital are taken at the moment...

I carry relays - haven't needed 'em. I carry a tire puncture repair kit and inflator - haven't needed 'em. I carry some cash - haven't needed it (till recent camping trip when I donated it to the family for a trip to the camp store). I carry a spare plug and cap - haven't needed 'em. I failed to put a spare spring in my under-seat repair kit after doing the pre-emptive replacement recently - and I needed it. See? CAUSAL relationship established.

I didn't measure it. But I do remember noticing that the spring I installed had a very short length after the 90-degree bend (as compared to the original). I think the oversized boss causes a failure at a different location on the spring. I'm gonna chalk this up to a manufacturing flaw. But if I have to open it up again I think I will try that modification with the long spring that pulls the lever down - that Japanese kit that's no longer available...