Leaderboard

Somehow they managed to hold The One Show this year despite all of the restrictions. Limited crowds just meant you had more room to look at bikes. My brother and I were analyzing the Cafe Sport and got to talk to the owner. He lives south of Portland (I have a feeling there were more local bikes than usual this year). He said the bike was quite corroded when he got it (I assume it came from the coast) and he took it apart. Well, he did a damn fine job putting it back together. I need to find an abandoned Cafe Sport just to steal the suspension off it. I hope he sees this post and provides more details. I'll post a few photos and then provide a link to the photo dump. https://imgur.com/gallery/jfYuuar

True, if I seemed a little disappointed it’s only because I could have bought a much better conditioned bike for the same $$ I don’t feel as bad taking this one apart now. I should be able to get some money back selling off the parts I don’t need. It is cool tooling around in a 4v... too bad your average man on the street has no clue what that is.. most of the time it’s “A guzzi! Annnd stories about how back in the 70’s.....”

Some time ago, and on the previous page of this topic, I posted a picture of how I use a block of wood to get leverage to compress the tank and make the hole line up. And FWIW - If I had to trim a rubbber part to make the tank fit, I would start with grommet at the rear. And before that, I would push the small metal sleeve up out of the grommet onto the bolt. Then you have more wiggle room to get the threads started and the bolt will force the sleeve back into the grommet.

@Chuck You were correct, it is indeed a '97 titled as a '98. Well, its a Centauro....That's about the only truthful statement made by the dealer. It's in poor condition. Got to give them credit for the expert photo's that failed to show the flaws. After fiddling with it and a new battery, she does run. Looks like it fell into disrepute the last number of years which is a shame really. It looks better in person. Flushed the tank as best i could and filled it with high octane and a can of Berrymans. Bottom line is i needed this engine for my project and it runs and drives. I've rode it about 50 miles? Strange bike, certainly if this was something i would keep wholesale change would take place. Convert it to a Daytona... I see now why it was controversial, not really a cruiser nor sporting bike. Hmmmm..... Custom cracked crossover Does have the upgraded chip This was especially annoying... Ohh boy......at this point I'm just happy it runs and goes down the road. Certainly paid waaay too much for it. Live and learn........

I understood what Gstallons is describing that it's the rear portion cut away. Looking at it from the left side of the bike 1-5 o'clock and from the right side 7-11 o'clock. I've been sweating bullets reading about the deformed tank, because my tank has been off for a long time, half filled with gas, but it's ethanol free so hopefully it's not an issue. In hindsight I should've drained the tank to preclude any problems.

umm... What?

I bought my first V11, which is a 2002/03 black frame, but with the earlier “short” tank only 4 years ago as an alternative Guzzi to my Griso, I’d always liked the classic look of the V11, and IMHO they were the last “raw big blocks”, as much as I like the Griso, the CARC bikes just feel smoother. Then around a year later I bought a V11 Le Mans, then another year on I decided I’d quite like an early red framed V11, I found a fantastic Silver 5000 miler in great condition, bought that. Then only a month or so after getting the red framed V11, a Ross’s Corsa came up for sale, and it was too good an opportunity to pass, so I bought that. Then earlier this year I was seriously looking at an early carb 1100 Sport, but I couldn’t get on with the riding position, so I passed on that and shortly afterwards spotted this 1999 greenie for sale. For various reasons I felt it would be a great purchase, even though I already have a near mint silver 1999 red frame, and here I am with 2 red frames, 3 black frames and Griso. I do plan to downsize & sell the V11 Le Mans this year, since I bought the Rosso Corsa, so I’ll be back down to 4 V11’s

Roper sloppage plate, LP extender, and Scud's spring. All finally in. And new rubber too!

Picked up my Alpinestars Hi Point boots from the early 1970's after refurbishment at a shoe repair place in Seattle. I'll ride with 'em on the V11 - heck they still fit!

Replaced the Motobatt MBTX12U in my greenie today with a PC545 Odyssey that I had on the shelf that was intended for my LeMans when that goes back on the road. Surprised to see that the Motobatt claims a CCA of 200 amps compared to 150 for the Odyssey. I still need to buy a new battery, still unsure about going away from AGM / gel, so am going to look into Yuasa’s AGM offerings

Happens to the best of us...unfortunately..Oh well make lemonade out of lemons...and keep on rollin!

While I'm riding, I cannot get the Sword of Damacles out of my head... To butcher Chaucer, Above, where seated on V11 steed, I saw the rider blazing like fire, There was a sharpened sword above his helmet That hung there by the thinnest simple wire.

Good on you. Buy em if you can, when you can, and while you can. Sort them out and decide what you can't live without. I should be so lucky.

This will be on the l.h. side of the bike , from 1-5 o'clock and on the r.h. side , from 7-11 0'clock .

Yep that one! turns out its important!

heh. right side under the tank maybe 3/4 the way toward the front, heading toward the ignition coils (but I am not sure it gets to them or just is that direction): large connector with a wire clip that must be compressed for it to be disconnected but mine was not properly seated. Its NOT super easy to get seated, took me a bit to make sure it was secure. sorry I have no name for it. I was just checking every connector I could find and not paying much attention to function.

I can't find a three wire connector in the wiring diagrams, so not sure what that one does. But none of them are "extra." After one of my tank-off events, I failed to re-seat a connector well enough and had to take it all down again to draw up this connector with a bar clamp and anchor it with a stout Zip-tie. Problem solved. Good to clean and treat (DeOxit) our connectors, but be certain to re-seat them well!

I spent about 10 minutes looking at various threads about batteries- then just went to the local and got the stock Yuasa as well. battery tech has improved in 20 years, but.. if it works it works.

I'm fascinated by the man who has four variations of the V11. Two ShortFrames, two LongFrames/ Three Sports and a LeMans . . . Care to elaborate, @Guzzimax?

Never owned a Stelvio as I’m not really into dual sport bikes. I prefer road focussed bikes; I’ve got a 8v Griso that I’ve now had for 7 years, and for me the Griso is different enough to a V11 to make me appreciate the qualities of both bikes. I’ve promised myself I will test ride a V85TT this year as my local dealer now has a demonstrator just to see if there’s anything that moves the Guzzi experience on from the CARC bike era, but I’m not too optimistic; for me the various V11’s and Griso are the last of the sporting big block Guzzi’s

Whitewashing exercise (KIDDING!!)

the ZOMBIE lives! Both the thread and my bike. I was having no starting issues- very similar - even with symptoms of previously having running issues from time to time. No I was getting no spark. first step: got a new battery because... so often its the battery and mine was barely holding charge anyway. new plugs too, because.. why not. second step: relays.. they are omron so swapped them about just to see. third step (and should have been the first) check this forum and be reminded to just 'do the work' and follow the wiring harness around cleaning and checking until I find it. Sure enough, right under the tank a connector had jostled loose. One with one of the wirepush locks on it-> It may just never have seated properly since last time it was removed and took years to finally move enough to simply stop working. Cleaned, plugged in properly.. bike fired instantly to life. And in true lazy man fashion I immediately stopped cleaning the rest of the connectors and said "problem solved! no need to check anything else!" true story. living on the edge!

What Lithium charger do you use? Ciao