Leaderboard

Properly adjusted, it should have little to no effect discernable by the rider. It is intended to offer minimal resistance to normal velocity steering inputs, but resist those which are too rapid and not seen in normal riding, i.e. wobbles. Consider a bucket of putty or any thick, but fluid substance. You can slowly move your fist through it from top to bottom. But try to punch through it and it becomes almost solid - fluid dynamics at work. And just so the damper resists rapid, potentially dangerous oscillations in steering input.

As far forward as you can get. Grasp the tank with your knees. No weight on the bars, elbows bent. Late turn in, flick into the corner and add power all the way through the corner. The machine wants to be stable. The less you mess with it other than adding power through the corner, the better it likes it. It is a very good handling motorcycle.. Edit: Oh, forgot. 5000 to 6000 rpm is the sweet spot..

Another very simple adjustment is tire pressure. Over this long time, and 58 tires, I firm the rear pressure over the front 40/35 PSI.

Brake before the corner, then corner on the power and notice the difference. Shafties like to be cornered on the gas.

"briefly up to 6000 rpm" why just briefly? These motors love to rev.

My '02 LM feels "lighter" and more flickable when I put my chest on the tank pad and hugged up against it while weighting the pegs, my butt is barely touching the seat. I'm guessing 60% on tank and 40% on pegs. Almost no weight on clipons. A dramatic handling dynamic difference vs riding lazy (weight on seat and clipons). Could it be why MG put a pad on top of tank? Idk, but when I wanna play in the twisties it works for me. YMMV

Wilbers shock remote pre load adjuster. How you can sell a bike with genuine pillion capacity without a simple method of rear preload adjustment is beyond me. Ciao

OK... we're posting Scura pics? I'll play. As for the Stones... wow, just wow that they are touring. I don't know if I am more surprised that Keith Richards or Ozzy Osborne are still with us... but they both gave us some great music. Speaking of music... maybe this would be a good time to put some aftermarket pipes on that Texas Scura?

Pretty sure 13V is fine normally the charging volts are in the region of 13.5 or higher, this is off the top of my head, but I would not be concerned about that in the least. Have you looked at the Odyssey charging thread yet...................it goes into more detail than you'd ever EVER want to know about all things Odyssey

Not surprised with 230 kg dry weight and 80 WHP on a 170/180 section rear tyre Ciao

I got over 13k miles from a Road 5 rear on my Le Mans, and I've consistently had over 9k miles on my heavier bikes (Stelvio, ST1300) with road 5's. I run ~42 psi on the rear, but I've rarely had issues with traction.

Super nice day for a ride on the Scura in the forest and surrounding areas…with a nice stop for cool drinks at the Classic Rock cafe to visit Cash and Mick! Had to celebrate the good news that the Stones are back on tour again and coming soon…with the last show at COTA in Austin! Still have tickets so it’s a go!

Yeah, temperature makes a difference on the exact voltage reading. But AGM batteries like the Odyssey will measure higher than normal lead / acid batteries, and at or just under 13 volts is fully charged. Only charging at 13.8 volts is low, but I assume that was at idle. As rpms come up charging should increase to 14 volts or more.

Love my road 5’s. Ran them on previous bikes, and hadn’t really thought of them as ideal for the V11 but they came already freshly installed on Red when i bought her. The slightly stiffer suspension on Goldie (grade of oil used up front) and the bridgestones vs red with the michelin 5’s makes for a difference that is obvious every time when swapping between otherwise identical bikes. “Better/worse” would be in the opinion of each rider, but for me the slightly softer suspended, Michelin clad Red Lemans is much preferred. Grim - I’d venture a guess on your relay situation that perhaps the weather was just right after you changed the relays and got the “turbine like” running. There are certainly days when a well tuned v11 will purr more perfectly than in other temp/weather conditions.

No problem, I haven't checked the latest info but looking at an old Odyssey catalogue it states a fully charged battery will have a Open circuit voltage of 12.85 or higher at 25C so I don't think you've anything to be concerned about

Put in my Chinese (Made in the USA) Omrons, I could only get 2, so I put them in Fuel and lights/tach. Not sure if it's a placebo effect, but 2 things have happened: Mid range steady part throttle feels smoother, hard to describe but theres a turbine like quality around 3500-4000 where it all just feels sorted. This could be down to my endless tinkering/balancing, but it didn't feel quite the same yesterday. My ITI tach is now only bouncing after bumps, so on a flat roads the needle is steady. This is different to the metronome like action it had before. The ITI tach isn't grounded inside the housing, it has a multi plug, is there anything else I can do to steady the needle on bumpy roads or are they just crap? The relay model is G8HE-1C7T-R1-DC12 OMRON DC12V, got them off ebay and they took a week to ship from China.

Put on a set of Michelin Road 5 tires yesterday. Only 100 miles on them so far, moderate riding, but they feel great. Lively and stable, more so than the Shinko Verge tires that were on before. The Shinkos were on the bike when I got it about three years ago, looked pretty fresh, and they are not bad, certainly pretty good mileage with them. I found a piece of metal, like an oblong nail head, stuck into the rear Shinko, and while it was not leaking air (it turned out that what ever the metal was it did not go all the way through the tire), I figured that was a good sign to do what I’ve been wanting to do for a while and try a higher grade of performance tire. I was also interested in the Metzler Sportec M9 RR, but I couldn’t find the front tire. I have been intertested in the Road 5’s for a while, and am pretty happy. The front is a 120/70 and the rear is a 160/60. The bike had a 170/60 rear on before, and the 160/60 profile no doubt is part of the lively feel. The bike feels lighter! I guess I am changing the overall geometry, too, but I’m not sure exactly how. And fwiw, these tires are made in Spain. I will post periodic updates on how these tires perform for the V11. I also installed a new Odyssey PC545 battery (Hiya, docc!) and a new voltage regulator/rectifier from ElectroSport here in Southern California (made in China, but whatcha gonna do!). The old battery had a wobbly looking case from getting overheated, the bike was eating the 30A battery fuses like they were Lays potato chips, and my battery light would come on around 5k rpm. Now she’s running all of that cool as a cucumber, but I think the headligh bulb is toast. That will be next, this weekend, I just need to get home before dark until then! I love this bike! Cheers!

that's how I would describe my observation. +1 on doccs tire pressure comment tho I run my rear at 38. When the front starts to show wear the bike seems heavier in turns so I tend to swap them early.

Agree with Docc that redframe rear needs to be stiffer than the front. In fact, I keep the fork pretty soft and run about 32lb in front and 40 rear. My bike is prone to weave in wind-speed-semi traffic otherwise, particularly with the HB bags. Certainly stiffen up the front for tight twisties of you like. I suppose body position is based on riding styles. I Like to lean on the front of the bike, the pegs give good leverage for the rear.

This is less so on the earlier "ShortFrame" V11. I found that once I had selected fork and shock springs for my weight and "sag", and biased the sag more toward the front, I get the best handling moving forward "behind the tank" and weighting the front. One of the simplest adjustments is to be certain the steering damper is backed completely off (set to the least damping).

Nice bike, beautiful day. The Stones! I can't believe they are still at it after all these years. I mean Fred and Wilma are pretty old by now. What? Wait...oh never mind.

Great choice in Guzzis. 👍

In my collection I own the V11, just bought a 74 Eldorado, and have owned the R90/6 for 20 years. Love them all, don't see it being fair to compare the V11 with the /6 totally different time of production. To compare the Eldorado to the /6 is a more direct comparison. The Eldo is a cooler bike,but which one has an oil filter,which one has an alternator vs a generator .Like I said love them both,but in some ways the /6 is probably a more advanced, reliable machine, and the parts new and used are easier to come by. Hopefully some one will bring this one back from the dead and turn it into a bobber that seem to be so popular these days. But as it sits,it's a $200 parts bike, just my 2 cents.

The V11 is the most "intuitive" bike in the fleet, requires no thinking, just feeling. It's about as close to a point and shoot bike I've ever had...and falls very naturally into tight turns or long sweepers. Like golf, I like to ride by feel, once you have a comfortable riding position...over thinking leads to over correction while riding. It's the difference between playing golf and trying to correct your swing on the golf course, and leads to twitchy performance. I saw your bike at MPH a few weeks ago when dropping off my Norge for a few maintenance items after the Cedar Vale rally, and it's a beauty. The only thing I would suggest is make sure you're on fresh tires...Pilot Road 2's sound old...I've been running Pilot Road 4's on my Norge, Griso and Scura for years now, and they are by far the best tire for dry or wet conditions...absolutely confidence inspiring, no matter how far you lean in. Riding I-10 for 160 miles... might I suggest you veer off the interstate, go thru Brookshire, Cat Spring, Fayetteville (stop for pie at Orsak's cafe), hit Columbus, head to Hruska's for a coffee, and then take the backroad to Lockhart, stop for BBQ at Blacks, and then head up to Luckenbach and surrounding areas. Plenty of roads to scrub all sides of the tires and MUCH more enjoyable than droning down I-10.

Congrats and welcome. If you ever find yourself over on the mainland feel free to contact me. Enjoy........... keep in mind they can be an acquired taste. Ciao

Mine has two faces, to me; 50mph + or -. Below 50, increasingly as the speed diminishes, it rewards weighted pegs and a light touch on the bars. The handling is typically Italian, very neutral with little inclination to either fall into or stand up out of a turn. For these conditions, such as the South'n Spine Raids, I keep 30psi front and 35psi rear. I drive the front pretty hard into the turns, but truly it does like to be on the throttle better. Even in my roadracing days, I've always been a bit timid in very low speed corners compared to others. Above 50, everybody knows they're the steadiest thing on two wheels. I like the suspension a bit looser for faster work, and I tend to stay centered on the bike- because going fast enough to require hanging off is really a fool's game on public highways. For 'casual play riding' I do shift my weight a bit for psychological comfort and out of habit. I don't think my '97 Sport is a short frame, but I'm not certain. FWIW if anyone has a weave in the wind or at high speed, check yourself to see if you are actually 'pulling' on the bars to counteract the wind. If you are, lean into it and get some weight back on the bars, see if that weave doesn't go away.

I need access to a racing track, to adjust and test... the highways here are not ideal for that. I know where to find a set of twisties. I favor a set up that will have to be a compromise between stable in long fast curves, and agile in the tight ones. I never had a motorbike that heavy before.

“Form A” is the 4-pin and suitable for all V11 positions except the front/ #1/ Start Relay which requires the Form C/5-pin. The conventional wisdom has been to simply source all Form C/5-pin as they can be swapped into any position needed. If I were to mix Form A and Form C in my relay stack, I would mark them in some way to avoid swapping a Form A/4-pin into Position #1.

I apologize if I've falsely raised hopes for short frame owners, this worked for me on that hidden grease nipple on my LONG frame bike. Imho, if there is any coupling that MAY work on short frames, this would be it. Take a look at the photo on this link below; that short 4" pipe to the left on the 180 degree swivel coupling with the spring over it, has male threads on both ends;remove it; you now have a 180 degree swivel with female threads. Remove the coupling from whatever type of grease gun you have, exposing the male threads and screw the 180 swivel on, in it's place. On my LONG frame, I could see the top of that hidden grease fitting, but it was welded in so close to the shoulder of the driveshaft, I needed a coupling approximately 45-60 degrees (WAG), this cheap swivel worked like a charm for me, on my LONG frame; I make no promises it will work on a SHORT frame, but for $10 Canadian funds, I'd take the gamble and try, fwiw ymmv. https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-180-degree-swivel-grease-gun-coupler-0282760p.html

The steering damper is so very easy to check. Be certain it is turned all the way counterclockwise. (Note where it is currently set.) IIRC, your forks only have compression damping. Easy enough to turn the adjusters in and count "clicks", then all the way back out to record where it is set now. Simply return it to the current setting before deciding to change it later. Changing the preload on the rear shock is more involved as the tank and airbox may have to be removed for access to the lock rings.

I have not yet touched any of the settings. I like to be smooth and I don't really fancy wrestling the front. I will check the damper before my next ride. On another subject, not a single cough or sputter and it was really hot... I rode from 10:30 until 1:30ish pm.

Unlike others here, I like airheads. Easy to fix, reliable, good parts supply and, god help me, I like the looks of them. I have no illusions- they handle terribly and do attract the human equivalent of undescended testicles. And those humans do tend to overvalue the bikes when they are in a shit state. $1500 is too much.

Makes me feel rather scolded. "What is a small and puny ant, like you, doing hanging around Muscles Mahoney's Gym, anyway?" Seriously, we are the largest collective V11 community in the world and no one here has used this lift?

There is that. I've done in on antique airplanes.. and just old airplanes.. for years. There is a *great* amount of satisfaction on returning a pile of rusted parts to a living breathing machine. As our friend Bill says though Comma but. That is a POS when restored to running condition. If you really want to put the sweat equity in a project.. make it a good one. Just MHO.

The risk, it would seem, is in owning the Italian motorcycle instead of the German one.

Having restored several Airheads myself and also being a V11 owner, I can make the following comments. 1. The bike pictured is a POS, most worrysome is the obvious rusting and Alu rust on the engine cases. Odds that the internals are in good working shape are low. 2. On the + side, BMW is VERY GOOD about parts availability for old bikes. That is why I switched over to BMW from Honda. When I needed to restore my Honda GL1200A, being more than 10 years old, Honda basically told me to pound sand for parts. Ebay helps, but there is only so far it will go. I have never ordered an old BMW part yet and been told NLA. 3. The V11 will literally run circles around an Airhead, mostly because the Airhead spends so many more miles wobbling as is goes down the road. 4. A well sorted Airhead is STONE reliable. Absolutely unbreakable. Easy to fix if you manage to break something. My Airhead R100GS is simply an awesome bike for touring and exploring in Mexico, it will never let you down. If the motor turns and the gearbox shifts, maybe spend $250 on it. Expect to spend 3-4K and many sweat hours to restore. When done, it will be worth about the 3-4K you put into it. Recommendation, many Airhead owners are past their riding days or dead. Look for a nicely maintained one being sold by a spouse who hasn't checked the KBB valuation.

Sehr gut. Sehr klar. What I did was attach two VOM terminals to the non-terminated leads on the breakout harness. Just one less fiddly thing for my old fumble-fingers to do.