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Are wheelies bad for the Guzzi driveline?

Lemans

Lemans

Just got it firing!
Joined
Feb 24, 2009
Messages
22
I don't plan on my Guzzi Lemans being a stunt bike, when I'm done restoring her. But I'm sure I'd like to pull the front end up once in a while. And of course I don't want to damage anything. This is my first shaft driven bike.

With that said...The bike used to belong to a friend of mine, who liked to wheelie it. He said that something broke in the driveline. I don't think he knew exactly which components failed. He had a friend remove the driveshaft and final drive housing, to repair at his home and return. The guy never got around to fixing it, and ultimately lost the parts he removed. So when I got the bike, it came missing these parts, and I can't see what failed. I have all the replacement parts now, but don't want to see this happen again.

Almost seems like I answered my own question. But I don't know for sure if wheelies are too much abuse for the Guzzi driveline?

Thanks for your thoughts, AL
 
Probably the universal joint, This came out of my 83 SP, wouldn't take much to break this completely would it.

PB201899.jpg
 
I probably should have mentioned that it's a 1979 Lemans. And driveline failed around 1983.

Thanks, AL
 
draidt wrote:
draidt wrote:
Probably the universal joint, This came out of my 83 SP, wouldn't take much to break this completely would it.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Looks bad, I agree. Haven't pulled the shaft housing, to see if the old u-joint is still in there. But I did buy a good used one incase.

Thanks, AL
 
I used to do wheelies with the Eldo (!) until one day while visiting my Dad in Georgia. He was on his R50/2 and I thought I would show him Torque. I popped a shortie and broke the drive shaft clean in half between the universal and splined collar.

Locating and installing a driveshaft for an Italian bike, in Columbus Geogia, in my Dad's garage, with his tools, in 1982 or so, cured me of doing wheelies on my transportation.


Your mileage may...

Alex
 
Lemans: This may come as a surprise .... but wheelies are hard on ANY bike shaft drive ,chain what ever. The parts affected are generally not designed to take those kind of loads. Steering head ,wheel bearings are not designed to take high peak shock loads. they are designed to take rotational loads and possibly thrust loads in a given direction depending on the design of the bearing and the application. The end result is called brinelling, that occurs on the inner and outer races (not to be confused with false brinelling). As for the drive train I haven't seen a set of splines or a universal on a motorcycle that wouldn't eventually cry uncle from high peak loads being applied on a regular basis. The occasional gentle wheelie probably won't kill it, but age ,condition and luck would certainly factor into whether or not it's bad for it. Personally I can't be bothered, I changed too many bearings 20 years ago on my rice burning bikes. It was fun though!
FBC
 
In the pic above of the 'uj' it is more a case of it was going to fail whatever. The joints are hidden and get little attention, sealed for 'life' needle bearings.
Power wheelies are the nicest of all, not just dumping the clutch and letting rip but slipping it on the move at 6k revs.
Cant see too much problem with a well looked after shaft, surely apart from the power through the shaft, the only other forces are on the swinging arm bearings.

Anyway it's all irrelevant realy, my wheelie days were over 30 years ago,...And the Brussels EURO MP'S have said it's not safe.....so it cant be good eh?
 
Thanks for the advice guys. After all the time and money I'm gonna put into this bike, I'll try to save the wheelies for another bike. Never worried about it much on a chain driven bike, and never had any problems.

AL
 
My 96 V1100 does not have a crush drive just a metal on metal spline to drive the rear wheel. I have recently learned that the spline pc that mounts on the wheel is no longer available. SO, wheelies are a bad idea as they cause undue wear on this obsolete part.
 
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