California Vintage

[guzzler]

Yeah, I reckon it looks good too!

[Bingbong]

Quick question to the Illuminati...  has anyone here had experience or know anything about removing the linked brake set up on these California's? I know they are not strictly a linked system. Hand lever operates right from disk and foot brake operates rear brake and left front. I am considering changing to a traditional set up...

cheers

[audiomick]

I haven't actually done a conversion, but read a lot about it. My V35 Imola has the Integral Braking Sytem, so it interests me.

The collected wisdom seems to indicate that you may be able to use the existing hand lever /master cyclinder for both front disks, but will need a smaller master cylinder for the foot brake.

The same hand master cylinder for two disks should give you a system with more travel in the lever but less effort for the same braking force. Where it can go wrong is that there might not be enough travel in the master cylinder to pump enough fluid to operate both slave cylinders adequately.

If you were to use the existing foot master cylinder for only one disk instead of two, you would  have a system with very little travel at the lever which requires a very large effort to achieve adequate braking force. The solution, as indicated above, is to change to a smaller master cylinder here.

I'm sure there is someone here who can go into more detail about specific sizes of master cylinder / slave cylinder and so on.

 

Incidentally, the Imola still has the integral system. I like it. The only thing I am seriously thinking about changing is the master cylinder for the hand brake. A slightly smaller one would provide a system with more feel and more braking power for less effort, at the cost of more travel at the lever.

[Bingbong]

Thanks!

yes I was looking at ratios and thought a new master cylinder would be required for the front brakes. I am sure I can e use something from another model in the piaggio line up. The rear brake might be more tricky to sort out. I guess I should ride the bike for a few miles to see if I like it as is..

[Tomchri]

Like you said, ride it more. I thought about it on my 1000S, but l liked the way she was settling her rear.

Cheers Tom 

[Coppa53]

Looks good, I am also curious about the Solo Seat used? 

 

Joe 

[Bingbong]

14 minutes ago, Coppa53 said:

Looks good, I am also curious about the Solo Seat used? 

 

Joe 

Hi Joe, 

when I get the details I will post up here.

I see we both have perfect taste in motorcycles 

[Bingbong]

the previous owner said he got the seat and side panel from here. 

http://motoguzzi.fassoli.com

its not easy to figure out what you would need for the website, But if anyone is interested I will give more details when I have them in my hand. Bike is being shipped just now and I am away from home..

[Bingbong]

Hi all,

any electrical experts here? I was checking through my new to me Calvin and found some issues..  indicators are not working but I will look into that separately. But someone has bypassed something. Maybe start relay?fuel pump?

brown wire is direct live from battery. The 2 red are cut from the fuse block. I am looking at the wiring diagram now to see what the fuse is for. 
also there is a black wire connector removed from a component there, see below the clear jointing block with the 2 red one brown wire..

Is the component tie wrapped to the frame normally there?

 

 

what’s this for?

 

thanks for any help

cheers

 

 

 

 

[audiomick]

The thing tie-wrapped to the frame looks like a blinker relay to me, and the "what is this for" looks like it *might* be where the blinker relay was originally mounted. The "what is this for" looks like a rubber shock mount for something. Such things are often used to contain a blinker relay.

 

Sorry I can't help with the wiring questions.

[Bingbong]

Thanks Mick,

that is a help. I have a friend with the same model so I will go and take some photos of his. The worry is what’s the reason for the changes? Guess I will be finding out..   

[Bingbong]

Hi all,

I have a question for Pete,

me and my mate both ride the same bike (on occasion) and both have the same handling issues. We are not mad men but do like to scoot along at a (making progress pace). 

We are trying to cure a stability problem with these bikes. Having a bit of flex down a bumpy road is ok by me and is a sign to settle down a bit but both of us are getting a weave at speeds above 130kph. Made worse when changing lanes on a highway or any gentle bends. 

Improvements are easily made with higher rear tyre pressures, my buddy has longer shocks and progressive fork springs. This helped for a while. I now have about 15mm of fork showing through the yokes. 

But here’s the thing, when i got the bike it came straight from a service from a well known guzzi guy in Italy. I didnt have any issues at that time. 

Do you know if there are any “tricks” to keeping these in top handling behaviour?

also if anyone else has experience i would love to hear it. 

I have trawled through forums and cant bear to read one more post that its the rider thats at fault. It’s true, if i didnt ride it then there would no issues… 

thanks 

David

Edited June 1 by Bingbong

[Pressureangle]

35 minutes ago, Bingbong said:

Hi all,

I have a question for Pete,

We are trying to cure a stability problem with these bikes. Having a bit of flex down a bumpy road is ok by me and is a sign to settle down a bit but both of us are getting a weave at speeds above 130kph. Made worse when changing lanes on a highway or any gentle bends. 

thanks 

David

I'll field this (not in Pete's place)

When you feel this instability, lean forward and push the bars forward to see if it stabilizes. 
High-speed weave is less a function of brand than of wind pushing you rearward causing you to pull on the bars, which are engineered to have some weight on them. The dynamics are aeronautic-level complex but not too hard to cure once you see the symptoms. You can find hundreds of examples of  wind-weave on YouTube- right up to 'tossed off hard'. 

Worst that can happen is I'm wrong.

[gstallons]

On 2/24/2024 at 4:48 PM, Bingbong said:

Hi all,

any electrical experts here? I was checking through my new to me Calvin and found some issues..  indicators are not working but I will look into that separately. But someone has bypassed something. Maybe start relay?fuel pump?

brown wire is direct live from battery. The 2 red are cut from the fuse block. I am looking at the wiring diagram now to see what the fuse is for. 
also there is a black wire connector removed from a component there, see below the clear jointing block with the 2 red one brown wire..

Is the component tie wrapped to the frame normally there?

 

 

what’s this for?

 

thanks for any help

cheers

 

 

 

 

Picture #1 I have no idea .

 Picture #2 this is the turn signal flasher .  

You need a M/G wiring diagram for this particular bike to find out what's what !

[Bingbong]

Thanks pressureangle,

yes I have tried sitting forward, having a very light touch on the bars, being aware of any body inputs. Tried screen off (actually slightly improved) we tried panniers and no panniers. It is as you say airflow related but it struck me as strange that after servicing it didnt happen. My buddy found the same thing. After collecting from the service the bike was good.