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Best wishes and always THINK POSITIVE!

Back in 2016 at the Ohio Rally I met Chuck & his Scura. One of the things I liked about his bike was how quiet it was at idle: a whir of gears & the burble from the exhaust. Very different from the rattle & hesitant idle of my V11. Ever since then I've been meaning to change the cam chain tensioner, but stuff got in the way. this holiday however;

I seem to recall the speedo needle on my Vll in the vicinity of 240 kph, is that even possible or am I dreaming?

Here is a site with specs on a large variety of GSXR forks. They have different lengths (I wanted as long as possible as the average Guzzi forks are longer than the average GSXR forks). https://www.svrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=135430 I also went with the full fork swap as it seemed easier. I am not sure if it is possible to find GSXR fork legs that will fit directly into the Guzzi triple clamps. But if you do, then you have to figure out how you are going to fit a front wheel. Swapping the entire fork set and wheel made for a simple conversion. The only thing I had to figure out beyond which forks to use was how to adapt the GSXR steering stem to the Guzzi headstock. And all that took was finding out that DRZ400 steering bearings had the right combination of inside and outside diameters.

Not unless your speedo is wildly optimistic. 240 kph is 149 mph. Even downhill a stock or near stock V11 isn't going to go that fast. I could see 135 on a good day (a REALLY good day). A V11 is quick more than fast. It will accelerate really well for a 500 lb motorcycle with only two cylinders. But it lacks the raw power and aerodynamics to be able to pull 150 mph. But it is good to dream.

Were you being towed by a faster bike?

I am way closer to that than you. On the bright side, I'll lose some weight. Buon nono giorno di Natale e un grande anno nuovo! Bill

@Twin AH, you realize it's a holiday, right? I'm surprised you want to get all time-sensitive and publicly nudge me to "encourage a response" after starting no less than three separate threads with me and ignoring simple requests like "make me an offer." So I've decided I'm gonna keep the carbon bits on the bike for now. Cheers.

Kinda dramatic, maybe he should just keep it

So Suzuki K7 forks Centre to centre 205 mm (V11 210) Length unloaded top of fork to axle ctr 720 (V11 750) Distance triples are apart ( ie steering stem approx length) 200 (V11 190) upper dia outer leg 50 (V11 54) lower dia outer leg 56 (V11 54) So it looks like from a brief overview that you could bore the V11 lowers out 2mm and run some short fork extensions with sleeves on the upper triples if you wanted to retail the V11 triples. Or you could bore the V11 lower triple and get a custom made upper triple. Ciao

While you're in there you may as well do an accurate measurement of the pick-up gap and look at the cam retainer flange for wear. Ciao How is this best accomplished? Pull back and forth on the cam sprocket and feel for end float. The earlier retainers didnt have any oil relief grooves cut into the face and tended to wear while the later ones had 3 oil relief grooves. If you have the older type and its new or not heavily worn you can file the grooves in yourself with a round file or use a 6mm parallel rotary cutter in a hand drill and do it. Here's a brand new latest type with the oil reliefs in the thrust face. Hears the old type with no oil relief and heavy wear on the thrust face. Notice how the cam sprocket flange has worn down into the retainer thrust face in this case probably close to 1 mm. It"s so perfect looking people think recess into the thrust face is normal and they reinstall it during rebuilds. Its not it's actually heavy wear as you can see by the comparison with the new one. Without the oil reliefs as the sprocket flange wears into the retainer thrust face it exacerbates the lack of oil issue as it creates the small ring which inhibits oil supply even more and it gets worse as it wears. The more wear the more shielding and less oil. A spiralling situation Ciao Curious about the mileage ? Cheers tom. Phil, thanks for the tip; I'll check that. Bike has about 18K miles. It's a 2004 naked. The tensioner has as much strength as wet cardboard The gasket was leaking low on the LHS which pushed me into getting on with the job. Currently fighting the stuck woodruff key that drives the alternator. Tapping on the crankshaft is not something I'd think is a good idea. You can usually pry them out with a small screw driver. Tapping them back into the slot wont do any harm. Use one of the later metal gaskets with the pressure sensitive sealant coating. I wouldn't use a standard old style gasket when you can get these. http://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=170&products_id=5044 Ciao +1 on the metal gasket. And anyone who still has the paper gasket should have one on hand so you are ready when the paper one does start leaking... and it will. Anyone have thoughts on the "improved" tensioner, MG Cycle #13058200 ? http://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=347 Work good.. last long time. I dont really know what the better style is and being a "gear" man myself I cant offer any practical experience. It is however interesting to note the comments here that refer to the "banana" style tensioner. Not commenting on the quality of this just the style which is the same as the standard type by and large. https://hmb-guzzi.de/Timing-Chain-tensioner-CNC-made-HMB-design Ciao Yah, I keep looking for my timing marks to jump around under the strobe. I figure that would tell me the tensioner/ chain is due. No leaks as yet (but don't let her hear this! ) . . . Seems V11 timing chest leaks are more likely on the wrinkle black finishes of '02 & '03-carry-overs I also note the Banana style tensioner gets a mention in Guzziology for the increased noise factor. Maybe just a new spring and rubbing block is the safest bet. Why the black models would be more prone to leaking I dont know docc. Ciao I seem to recall the weak wrinkle black paint might have been applied to the mating surfaces and led to poor sealing? Ok, not heard that but I can say after stripping it off a gearbox that its the work of the devil. Worst paint I've ever removed and I've been involved in stripping paint off heavy jets. Actually the original stripper for jets back in the seventies was great stuff, paint came off in big sheets for the most part. Then they went to the environmentally friendly stuff and not so great. Scudd didnt have any issues stripping wrinkle paint off a gearbox though I recall. Ciao New tensioners too? I just had the timing chest serviced. I am about ready surrender this bike to guy that wants a Greenie "That got a blower on it, man??" "You wanna find out?" Go ahead, make my day?:) Ciao ^ there may be some connection between those statements. And deeper we go.... Pick up measured 0.7mm 0.7 Perfect. Hows the wear on the cam retaining bush? any ridge on the thrust face OD? Ciao After a strong cup of tea, I'm going back to the shed to pull the cam thingy you warned us of. We'll find out soon.. You dont need to pull it to see the wear. Its on the font thrust face. I can see it has wear just not to what extent.It doesnt look really bad as there's no marking on the front main bearing flange at 12 oclock from the phonic wheel which happens with a really worn bush as the cam floats for and aft. Here's a new one with the oil relief cutouts Heres a worn one without the oil reliefs.Note the sharp lip on the edge of the thrust face. Ciao Sorry I was orientated backwards; I thought the wear was on the back side. Anyway, pulled the part & added the oil relief grooves as instructed. Looking at the surface you can just see the beginning of the wear you indicated. Docc, can you attach Lucky Phil's recommended improvement to the cam chain tensioner thread ?

Blast from the past: with the Rossa on the Nordschleife in 2016...