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I ended up doing exactly that. Had my black frame 02 Le Mans for a few years and love her. Found a 2000 Sport red frame that needed rehab and have spent a year or two slowly doing what ever I want to it. Put in a motoscope gauge, paired down the wiring loom, playing with colors... all fun. The major surprise was how different the long and short, black and red, frames are. Do it. Worst thing that happens is you start getting the itch for just one more.

You shouldn't be doing this with any clutch, wet,dry, car or motorcycle. It's a bad habit you should rid yourself of. Unnecessarily wears the throw out bearing, the engine thrust bearing, the pilot bearing( automotive) the clutch friction plate and flywheel faces/steel plates. Not good under any circumstances. Ciao

#90 has a Magni fairing that I bought from Italy in the late 2000's. Fitting was straightforward, I don't remember it being anything out of the ordinary. I don't think you would be able to use regular handlebars without significantly reshaping the fairing. I had two places attempt to color match the factory paint and neither were to my liking so I just went with black. I think original color is a silver base with the red sprayed over it. We tried many combinations to no avail. BK

The best thing to do for an itch is to scratch it !

I agree that it's 'safest' to leave it in gear at stops. I watch my mirrors like a hawk and make sure no brain dead cager is coming up too fast before bumping it into neutral. That rattle is what causes the damage.

+1: be kind to your input hub and slip into N at stops with the clutch released. Learned this the hard way . . .

#90 lives in Kansas

V11 runner

These were the Italian Alps just south west of Silvaplana, the day before I brought it back from Ghezzi Brian. You can get the bits and do it yourself - nice winter project, but I got them to do it for me by driving the bike down, leaving it a month and then driving it back. The conversion was to a V11 Trofeo but I added a few optional extras; the big one was the alloy swinging arm, but less expensive were the wave discs, lithium iron battery and high efficiency air filters. I also got the carbon fibre front and rear mudguards and belly pan - though these are cosmetic and it had a CF front mudguard anyway. This was virtually everything short of the tuning mods which Ghezzi Brian didn't recommend if I was going to use it, put lots of miles on it and wanted it to be reliable: I guess these are really for a track bike.

Get an EV like I did for those long cruises. It's extremely comfortable and yet surprisingly nimble when the road gets twisty. Makes a great companion bike for the Sport. One for short blasts to the Sunday hangout. One for the long rides across state lines. VT4L

Having a suspension guy to help refine & evaluate what you've got & how to fix it is worth quite a lot. As you're in Atlanta going to see what Traxxion Dynamics can do for might get you sorted. I am currently doing something similar, having found a suspension guy, and hope to rebuild the forks with Racetech gold valves this winter.

Good eye Tim. Your old LeMans is alive and well. It serves as my GT bike. There is nothing in Moto Guzzi's current line that is comparable. I had a Scura/1200 Sport shootout in my garage to see which would be my "naked" bike. As you can see the Sport nudged out the Scura. No knock on the Scura. The refinement of the Sport trumped the sportiness of the Scura for me. The LeMans 3 is eye candy. Mostly it goes to breakfast. Mike

I spy my old red LeMans. I hope she is treating you well. She was a lovely companion to my Scura for a while (after she got sorted). Then the red-framed Greenie came along and I had three functioning V11. The large fairing on the Lemans is very good for distance, the naked (or bikini-faired) red-frame bike was also good for distance, but was a bit more fun in the twisties. I ended up keeping only the Scura, which was my first V11 - and which I had from new. The other two were both projects after prior owners' neglect. The Scura fit between the two, but it has the light, single-plate clutch, which I like. I enjoyed having multiple V11s, but I enjoy more having bikes that are very different and I like being able to get onto rough pavement and dirt without worrying about a nice street bike - so the Stelvio and Husqvarna fit the bill for me.

I have 2 Guzzi's; a late model V11 Sport & a 2013 Griso. Both have similar enough mechanicals that I can understand the servicing & maintenance for each but have different riding characteristics that I find myself saying 'What a great bike ! I need to ride it more !' Whenever I get off either of them

Just proves I often make bad choices