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Well it looks like a relay was going bad and causing the tach to drop out randomly. When the tach was dropping, my charging system was also failing and killing my battery. I replaced all my relays with new five pins as suggested and everything is running smooth as silk. I'm getting much higher readings on my battery (13-14) and my tach is back. Start ups are back to normal and my idle is stable at around 1100-1200. Thanks everyone for the help, and Kiwi_Roy for all the info on the electronics. Luckily this was an easier fix than I thought it would be.

If I find out it's my battery, does anyone have any experience with Antigravity Batteries? Might be time to pull the trigger on one. Ya know, if I HAVE to.....

That would make sense why it fires up the first time and not after it has been running for a few mins. The #2 relay is one of the new OMRON 5 pins units, but ill give it another look. Right. I have been having to jack up the idle speed to get it started and then once its warm I can run it about 3/4 to the top and it hovers around 1k rpm. Is that normal?

So I went home at lunch and tried a few things in the short amount of time I had. Battery is hovering around 11.4-11.5. On start up it pulls down to 7-8 and then rises back to 11.5 when running. Bike fired up as normal, was running a LITTLE higher idle than desired. Also didn't have to use the left bar fuel adjustment like I normally do when tells me I'm probably running too rich since the motor was stone cold. This is probably from me playin with the PC yesterday. Still no tach movement. I have 5 pins in all my relays but I figured one might be going bad so I swapped a few around to try different combos. All new relays are ordered and should be arriving within a few days. I need more time to fully test all these. Shut the bike down to check the spark and when I went to crank it with a placeholder plug the starter packed up. Now all I'm getting is a loud, repeating clicking from the starter (which is only a couple years old). No spark but that's to be expected since the starter wasn't engaging the motor? I'm really hoping my starter isn't toast.

Thanks all. I will try some stuff over lunch today and report back with my findings. Let me say, I've been a member of several bike forums over the years and you guys are by FAR the most helpful group.

Ah, that makes sense. Looks like I'm gonna be loosing them up to 6/8.

The profile bikes are the current stable, I've had several others but like you said the Guzzi is "different". I'm loving the bike, just need to get it back to working so I can enjoy this great weather. Welcome. One thing I've learned from this forum is to trust the manual about 90%. The hard part is figuring out which 90% - but that's what this forum is good for. I have found it useful to follow the recommendations of members here who have put a lot of miles on their bikes and found improvements in performance AND reliability through some non-specified settings, procedures, modifications, or aftermarket parts. Docc recommends the OMRON 5-pin relays for all five positions. Why not just buy a set of 5 ($30) and carry your other new 5-pin relays as backups? That would take "intermittently failing relay" off the potential problems list, get you closer to a solution, and some peace of mind going forward (not wondering when the stock relays will fail). BTW, the icon sometimes means: I am old as dirt, have learned from many mistakes, and am trying to help you. Good idea on replacing all the relays, and thanks for the link. There are two item numbers for that relay, which should I order? I'm grateful for the help, what are the benifits of running 6/8? I'm not married to the 4/6, just trying to bring everything back to factory specs so I can figure out my running issue.

Fuel pump primes almost every time. Only doesn't when I'm repeatedly turning the ignition on and off during hard starts. I replaced the first two relays with sealed Motratech relays about 6 weeks ago. I'll look at #3 next.

No other warning lights in the dash except slight battery light flick on startup and under ~1k rpm. I always assumed it wasn't getting charge until over about 1-1.5k rpm like most systems. Is 4 and 6 not the manual specs? I would say that would be my first guess on why it's difficult to start but I was having the problem pre adjustment and it runs great when I can get it started. All my fuses in the block LOOK good, but I will test them to be sure. Unplugged the PC and reconnected with no luck. I might have to set the map back to zero and start from there? I'll double check my spark. Plugs look good and should be new, I can't imagine the would foul in so few miles.

Hi all, First time posting. I've had my 2000 V11 Sport going on a year now but I've come across a problem that has me puzzled. I've been working on bikes for going on 16 years now, but this is my first Guzzi and I feel like I'm relearning everything from scratch when it comes to this motor. Everything I know of has been done correctly and by the book (spark gap, valve clearance, high end aftermarket products). At the end of the season last year my bike was running great, but was in need of a tune up. Over the last few months it has received new tires, engine oil, trans oil, rear end oil, BMC filter, fuel filter, plugs, battery, and relays (first two toward the engine in the block). Everything was running great until in the middle of a ride the other day my tach drops to 0 and stays put while I'm rolling down the road. Every once in a while it will jump up the numbers but not in sync with my throttle roll. Then toward the end of the ride it started working correctly. The next day it was incredibly hard to start and ran rough once started, making me put it back in the garage and tack the truck to work. I knew my valves need to be checked and turns out they were way lose. I reset them to 0.04 and 0.06 clearances and the bike fired right up and ran better than ever. Still not getting anything on the tach though. Went to start it today and it WOULD NOT START, eventually running down my battery. After a charge I got it going and went for a short ride. Great throttle response and power, and a definite improvement over before the valves. Idle sounds good once warm (based on hearing, since the tach is still not working), possibly a little low when cold. So I'm starting to think my problem is two fold... 1) Whatever electrical is causing my tach to not function properly/make for hard starting. 2) My fuel mixture is probably off because of my tightening of the valves. The previous owner might have had the PC mapped to the VERY loose specs. Any advice on what to look into next? I've exhausted all my knowledge and everything seems to check out. I don't want to go back the the loose valve specs and I don't think that's the issue since it was giving me a hard time starting before, and well as the electrical tach problem. Thanks in advance Specs on bike: 2000 V11 Sport Stock exhaust BMC Air Filter Power Commander III usb