Anyone else interested in motorcycles?

[admin]

The Italian bikes are not known for the reliability, but oh boy the styling is so amazing. I ride with somebody that has a MG and it's such a beauty. And the sound is so amazing. Really just works of art. If you got a good one, hold on to it!

[AnotherJohnson]

The Italian bikes are not known for the reliability, but oh boy the styling is so amazing. I ride with somebody that has a MG and it's such a beauty. And the sound is so amazing. Really just works of art. If you got a good one, hold on to it!

Moto Guzzi is the leader among the Italian manufacturers when it comes to opportunities to inform the factory of what they screwed up in a recent model.

[admin]

The Italian bikes are not known for the reliability, but oh boy the styling is so amazing. I ride with somebody that has a MG and it's such a beauty. And the sound is so amazing. Really just works of art. If you got a good one, hold on to it!

Moto Guzzi is the leader among the Italian manufacturers when it comes to opportunities to inform the factory of what they screwed up in a recent model.

Yes, but it's never the styling!

[AnotherJohnson]

But you can’t ride “style” when reliability fails. And it’s not fun when performance is weak.

I sold a BMW G650Xmoto to a guy once who was in love with the style, but as he rode it, he regretted his decision to finance the purchase. It made it harder for him to get out of it.

He had anticipated far greater wheely capability than his personal weight and frame could muster.

[SteveFord]

When I had them I believe I put something like 200,000 miles on Guzzis.
I had water get into an ignition switch so hot wired that somewhere in NC, improperly heat treated pushrods which blew a carb off and two pushrods came out looking like spaghetti, some weird intermittent electrical gremlin on a V7 Sport a couple of miles from home, leaky bevel box and rear main seals, failed fork cartridges, notched clutch hubs and stuff like that. Lots of little stuff but I had quite a few to maintain.

Lots of electronics that new one, I think that's where the problems will be.

[admin]

That's a pretty long list of problems... I suppose one nice thing about the Japanese bikes is they don't have too many problems.

[AnotherJohnson]

When I had them I believe I put something like 200,000 miles on Guzzis.
I had water get into an ignition switch so hot wired that somewhere in NC, improperly heat treated pushrods which blew a carb off and two pushrods came out looking like spaghetti, some weird intermittent electrical gremlin on a V7 Sport a couple of miles from home, leaky bevel box and rear main seals, failed fork cartridges, notched clutch hubs and stuff like that. Lots of little stuff but I had quite a few to maintain.

Lots of electronics that new one, I think that's where the problems will be.

Don’t underestimate Guzzi’s propensity to end up with major snafus in these early water-cooled engines. Lose the cooling system, and you can do a lot of damage. Air cooled is a whole nuther, much simpler, animal.

[admin]

Don’t underestimate Guzzi’s propensity to end up with major snafus in these early water-cooled engines. Lose the cooling system, and you can do a lot of damage. Air cooled is a whole nuther, much simpler, animal.

Due to the strict emissions regulations these days, I think very few bikes are going to be air cooled. So I think air cooled is not going to be an option on street bikes in the future.

[AnotherJohnson]

Don’t underestimate Guzzi’s propensity to end up with major snafus in these early water-cooled engines. Lose the cooling system, and you can do a lot of damage. Air cooled is a whole nuther, much simpler, animal.

Due to the strict emissions regulations these days, I think very few bikes are going to be air cooled. So I think air cooled is not going to be an option on street bikes in the future.

Guzzi is one of the last to make the transition.

[admin]

My friend who rides the Guzzi's is oil cooled (if memory serves). To meet Euro 5 emission standards with air/oil cooled is supposedly very challenging. The US is also getting a lot stricter, especially some states like California. So if manufacturers want to be able to sell their bikes to a wide market, they will be forced into the water cooled arena.

[AnotherJohnson]

My friend who rides the Guzzi's is oil cooled (if memory serves). To meet Euro 5 emission standards with air/oil cooled is supposedly very challenging. The US is also getting a lot stricter, especially some states like California. So if manufacturers want to be able to sell their bikes to a wide market, they will be forced into the water cooled arena.

The regulated products of combustion are NOx, CO, unburned hydrocarbons (HC), and particulate matter (PM). And in a back handed way through gas mileage regulations, CO2 is also being regulated.

I quit teaching and R&D in 2016 when I retired. But when professionally active, I taught IC Engines , and also alternative fuels and power trains.

Motorcycles got a pass for a long time due to the perception that they had great gas mileage, so pollution per mile would be small.

The introduction of cars like the Toyota hybrids, which can get over 50 mpg, killed this idea.

My Norge gets 53 to 54 mpg, so it’s good from a CO2 perspective. But it’s not likely to do as well on NOx.

It is harder to control NOx without a serious water based closed loop cooling system. More NOx is produced at higher combustion temperatures.

Oil cooling is typically just slapping an oil cooler in the existing oil lubrication loop. I had an oil cooler on my 1970 Royal Enfield Interceptor Mk2.

[SteveFord]

The Royal Oilfield, I always liked those bikes.

[AnotherJohnson]

The Royal Oilfield, I always liked those bikes.

The Interceptors were built in an underground bunker at the end. Enfield Precision Engineering, a defense contractor, had the last crack at them.

The only Brit bike of the day with a dynamically balanced crank.

Mine had every option. They knew they were going to go out of business so they tried to load the bikes to get rid of inventory. Mine was built in March of 1970. They closed the doors in July.

Floyd Clymer bought the rights, built about 10, rebadged as Indians. Wikipedia says he died in January 1970. That can’t be true … but he did die not long after these 10 samples were built, but before he could respond to sales interest. If he died in a January, it would have to be 1971.

There is an example of the Clymer Indian badged Interceptor at the Barber Motorsports Museum, but I remember the event sequence first hand. It was not handed down to me. I saw it unfold myself.

In 1956 they had sold the rights to manufacture single cylinder Bullets for domestic market in India. They were forced to by the new Indian government.

A fellow who used to work for me, who died at age 80 a few weeks ago, had his first engineering job at Royal Enfield in Madras. He used to tell me stories about production.

They hand polished every bright surface. It was a difficult calorie consuming job, so the young men who were polishers got a ration of egg mid morning to keep up their strength.

In 1970, except for the new Honda CB750, the Royal Enfield Interceptor Mk2 had more power than just about anyone else.

If I could still kick it over, I’d go find one (Randy Baxter probably has one for sale). But I can’t, so I won’t.

[AnotherJohnson]

NYT said he died in January 1970 too. I’m going to have to dig into deep memory. Maybe it was his entourage and not him directly. I dunno.

[SteveFord]

When I was a kid with an 850 Commando I used to be friends with a guy who had an Interceptor.
I never rode it but he said he really liked it.
I know I did.
Even back then (1977, 1978) they were a rarity.

[AnotherJohnson]

When I was a kid with an 850 Commando I used to be friends with a guy who had an Interceptor.
I never rode it but he said he really liked it.
I know I did.
Even back then (1977, 1978) they were a rarity.

Norton hung on (passed among various owners) until into 1975 iirc.

The 850 Commando with electric start and proper Japanese control location and pattern, was a heck of a bike. But by then Honda had changed the game, and the Brits brought too little too late.

AJS, Matchless, Norton … all great pieces of British motorcycle history.

[SteveFord]

Leathers still fit despite my best efforts to stuff my fat little face.
First ride of the year, snow on Friday, 50 degrees and the kind of wind that has garbage cans blowing around in the road.
The Pope Cycle is really dirty, petrified bug guts and a cat got in the garage and was walking on it. Nobody will notice at 60 MPH from 100 yards away.
It held tire pressures and started right up.

[AnotherJohnson]

Leathers still fit despite my best efforts to stuff my fat little face.

Congratulations on fitting into your leathers. That’s always a good thing.

[admin]

Nice.

There was a break in the Winter a few weeks ago so I got to go out and ride a few times in one week. We're back to having snow so I'm not sure when I can ride again. By April we usually start seeing warmer weather and that is when I do my yearly bigger maintenance (oil change, parts lube, cable lube, etc...). After that I start putting the miles on. Can't wait.

[SteveFord]

I found some really good leather care products for bringing scuffed/faded leathers back to life:
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This works well on Fox Creek leathers:
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This works really well for quiting down squeaky Vanson leathers and lack up Red WIng boots:
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