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I've tried a few different tyres on my V11 and carefully logged the wear rate and experience. Starting with Metzler Sportec M5 that felt a bit less grippy in the damp and wet and would feel "squemish" when traversing painted while line in the wet. They only lasted 4k miles. I then tried Metzler Sportec M7RR; the latest version at the time. They felt a bit better in the wet and the life was about the same; around 3.5 to 4,5k miles with slightly more life for the front than the rear, although I always change both at the same time to keep them in step and avoid having to spend even more time going to the tyre shop. I then tried Pirelli Rosso III's. They were even better than the Metzler in the wet and lasted a bit longer too; 5k at the rear and, potentially 6k on the front. I then tried Pirelli Rosso Corsa II's and they were a bit better still in the wet and possibly wear very slightly better as I got 5.5k out of the last pair (though this might be that I'm getting smoother or slower) and I've fitted these the last three times.

It's a simple preventative fix anyway. Drill the threads out of the hole and use a Ducati well nut for the clamp instead. Remove the stress raiser. Basic engineering. My main point was don't get too cocky about the other guys engineering failures, nobody is immune. Ciao

I found Ettore Gambioli on Facebook after finding a post about him on the AnimaGuzzisti forum. I don't know if he will read my request. I also asked Anthese, and if that does not pan out, I will register to AnimaGuzzisti and ask them, since they have made a deal with him to publish his work on Moto Guzzi. There is a thread, but it was published in 2016....

I'm slowing down with age, probably take me 20 Remove the two Phillips screws that hold the switch onto the lock Tilt out the white contact plate by releasing the odd clip Wipe off the old grease with a shop towel Add fresh Vaseline Replace the contact plate Screw it back on While you are there fasten the wires where they come out the back cover so they don't flex at the solder joints and snap off. You should disconnect the battery Negative but I never do.

Hi fellas, I’m just struggling to identify a starting issue, hoping you can shed light on it. On the face of it the starter is very sluggish to turn. I had it off the bike and it did seem to function fine, so i refitted it, cleaned the connections, fitted a new pc545, and re-crimped all relays at the base (as there were a few bad connections and some were being pushed back out of the blocks). The starter solenoid flicks fine but is extremely laboured on spinning. It got very hot quite quickly too. The PO had bypassed the safety circuit by cutting and tying the white wires together. Am I looking at a problem with the ignition switch? Or could the starter be on it’s way out? Appreciate any pointers!

Backstory; Starter front bearing locked up on my '97 1100 Sport-i. It appears to be the original starter, but may not be. I replaced it with the $100 'not-Valeo' unit from MG Cycle. It appears that the only difference between the two is the sticker- even the rivets holding the housing together are identical. It fit perfectly, spun fast, started instantly. Never has it started so quickly and easily before, and it's been cold for over a week. Huzzah. To dig just a bit deeper, I've had this bike for ~15,000 miles now. I've only used this new starter one time, but it's apparent that the old starter had been working hard for quite some time- even though the cranking speed never made me think that anything was going wrong. I've had a lithium battery and now Odyssey in it, and with the lithium it cranked and started easier, but the reserve crank on the lithium just wasn't good enough. With the Odyssey, I had to crank it 3-4 times to get it to fire. After the starter locked and the battery 'failed' I brought it home, checked the battery which I thought had shorted and verified that it was in fine shape. Here's the punchline- the locked starter took the fully charged Odyssey to ~5.6 volts while (attempting) to crank. The ECU if it's of standard construction won't operate below about 9.5 volts. So my wager is that this starter had been drawing too much amperage for quite a long time before it seized and gave up completely. I think I'm going to dig out my Amp gauge and measure both the new starter in situ, and the old starter on the bench for comparison; the purpose and question here is, 'is this slow, long-term failure common?'. Has anyone done an amp draw on theirs as a matter of interest in the past?

Yeah, it's a beauty.. but.. they are way too proud of it, IMHO. Looks original, maybe even has the chrome barrels? I suppose if you don't ask, you don't get.

What makes you say that? Have you load tested it? Voltage means very little.

Not seemingly with the ones I know of. The Stelvio's suspension is also longer travel and 'Plusher' than that used on the supposedly purely 'Road' models but it was Stelvios that had the breakages. Yes, it is thought that the stress raiser was from one of the hose clip holes. I've never been close enough to one that it's happened to to know, but it makes perfect sense. It's also one of the reasons I think fitting a sidecar to a CARC bike is a really silly idea but people do that as well.

You're probably right. That would be Kiwi_Roy's "Relay Base Repair" See attachment. Cash1000 and I already did that repair some years ago. Maybe next time we should renew the terminals instead of just crimping. Relay Base Repair.pdf

Yup, but I know of four cases of this issue, all from the same model run, in a period of twelve years. From memory it was one run of 2012 Stelvios but don't quote me on that. The factory, naturally, denied it. I keep an eye on this shit because I'm interested. I think the BMW issue was considerably more common. Nobody is perfect but the Bavarians are much worse than Guzzi.

Afternoon all. Figured I would chuck in a post here to introduce myself. The names Kevin and I am a confirmed bike cleptomaniac. I have very recently acquired a lime green v11 sport with qd exhaust and high bars instead of clip ons. I'm looking forward to get8ting it out and enjoying getting used to the guzzi feel. I'm sure I will be asking for advice in the near future. Cheers Kev

Really. Why? Cracking emanating from a wheel speed sensor retaining clamp tapped hole leads to this result. Ciao

@docc Have you checked the Ambassador fully restored they are selling? https://www.tlm.nl/en/motorcycles/stock/moto-guzzi-v7-ambassador/

Nice tip about de-stressing the solder joints Roy- ta. They look good so will try to keep em that way. Those ignition switch clips are fun if you are evolutionarily retarded with only two hands 😀 I had various bits removed earlier, ig switch, tank, airbox, breather hose, speedo cable, removed the damn hotgrips wiring that’s been bugging me for a time: couldn’t identify exactly where my oil leak was coming from, but i replaced the breather hose anyway… possibly the oil ‘y’ hose from the pots, but could be mistaken. Quite a puddle of nastiness in the airbox mind. Someone’s done a lot of pissing about with the wiring, and not in a nice way 😠 The middle grease nip snapped off on the drive shaft, which was ace, any tips for removing the leftover thread would be appreciated as it’s almost blind. This should be in ‘wot i did to my v11 today’

Rossi was ripped off in 2015. Dorna allowed Marquez to screw up Rossi's contention for the championship. One of the biggest screw jobs in sports IMO.

Hmm, I was thinking it meant he removed the terminals in the relay bases and tightened ("Crimped") them . . .

Yeah, you have to take it apart, clean out the old grease that is hardening and keeping the contacts from er.. making contact. Wire brush them, apply fresh Vaseline, and reassemble. 15 minute job.

Startus Interuptus (solenoid clicking without turning) happens when the wiring cannot deliver enough current to the solenoids 2 coils so its not able to pull the gear into place. (the slow starter rotation is something else altogether as you have discovered) The early VIIs were wired with the battery going direct to the start relay so they had no problem delivering 50 Amps to the solenoid. Later bikes routed the start relay through the ignition switch, you are lucky to get 30 Amps through that wimpy device that's why it needs cleaning to make sure it can deliver maximum current. At 30 Amps it's only working at about 50%. The starter manufacturer never intended it to be wired that way, they want the solenoid current as high as possible, I sometimes wonder if the factory know how the solenoid works. For example try to find a factory drawing that shows two coils. Just about every other Guzzi model is also wired wrong, I see my 76 Convert has been corrected at some stage. Note this high current is only for a split second, just while the solenoid is moving, once the main contact closes the second coil is switched out and the coil current drops to ~ 10 Amps

This is my second set of Rosso III (180/55-17). I have always used “sport touring (?)” type of tires on my V11. All around driving, mainly curvy roads, sometimes a careful beginners track day. “Good handling, sporty behavior.” Was rated the best in many tests in Europe back in 2017, now cheaper because of the age. Rosso IV is replacing these, I understand (already discontinued?). I have used also Metzeler Sportec M7 RR, Bridgestone S20 and Continental Sport Attack 2. And to be honest... "italian tires for italian bike...".

Take a multi meter to the battery after it has been sitting for a few hours. If it's an AGM (especially the Odyssey PC545), voltage below 12.65 (~85%) should be cause to "condition" the battery (charge to 14.7v [15.0 volts max] with at least 6 amps). Don't expect a weak "trickle charger to bring it up, especially if the static voltage is below 12.5. Also, are you using a reliable High Current relay?

i thought it was a drop in current- almost started to check/pull apart/adjust/butcher the wiring system. doccs suggestion to check the starter magnets was champion- un-doing a few nuts+bolts revealed the issue.

Read this thread. My starter seized the front bearing and had apparently been the root of hard starting for quite some time before complete failure. https://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23219-starters-batteries/#comment-265184

It was the starter magnets. 2 of them had come loose and were jammed up against the casing. Of course, I had checked the main earth point, forward bullet connectors and ignition switch first, naturally…. but yeah the starter was proper mullered! Got a dessert spoons worth of rust and magnetic debris when i opened it. No wonder it was getting hot. Thanks again docc!

Pretty characteristic of the Ignition Switch for the later V11 like yours. It really is quite straight-forward to get to and take apart for inspection, cleaning, and a good dose of some "treatment" (Caig DeOxit or even a petroleum Jelly like Vaseline®).

I think these meters are based on a Hall Effect sensor, I will keep my eyes open for one, In the meantime I will measure my DC Amps with a shunt that cost me nothing to make, Guzzi Content. As an apprentice we had a DC clip meter that had an analog scale, it had zero wiring but relied solely on the magnetic field around a wire and had selectable ranges by taking one movement off and substituting a movement with different sensitivity, quite expensive though. You can increase the sensitivity of these meters by putting several turns of wire through the jaws, its a straight relationship between the number of turns and the reading. I like electrical meters and I have a few quite rare ones.

You have now Roy. I like a simple lazy workshop life. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/183730457624?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-139619-5960-0&mkcid=2&itemid=183730457624&targetid=1278276341267&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9071303&poi=&campaignid=10101784991&mkgroupid=131275693908&rlsatarget=pla-1278276341267&abcId=9300367&merchantid=116301090&gclid=Cj0KCQjw18WKBhCUARIsAFiW7JzGlavIc2B-pb2Lz8lIs23seejr9ACYiUarK8n0VDVTzG8QvO4d1JAaArzYEALw_wcB Ciao

AC/DC clip meters are a fairly recent innovation, we have had AC ones for eons, but they won't measure DC, I haven't seen one that cheap yet. However multimeters with a DC millivolt range have been around forever almost. Heres how you can make a simple shunt, a #12 option will easily measure 200 Amps drawn by a Guzzi starter https://ibb.co/3kkcX7P If you live where cable sizes are in metric you will have to figure out the meter spacing, its very easy to do. 1, Take a length of wire, a meter or more. 2, Bare a spot near each end, these are where your meter will connect. 3, Pass a known current through the wire from each end (outside the two bare spots, measure the Millivolts 4, From the known current and millivolts you can calculate the distance between tapping points you need to get 1 millivolt per Amp Note: If you don't have a meter with Amp range you can use a high Wattage lamp on 12 Volts to give a fairly close approximation. e.g. 60 Watt headlight bulb 60 / 12 = 5 Amps, your meter should read 5 Millivolts. You must not connect your meter at the same point you connect the current you are trying to measure, the joint has a much higher resistance than the length of conductor, your meter would read too high.

Ohai, For you guys in the Spineraid garage, the terminals I found and cleaned were not the run switch, they are the brake light switch wires. I went for a ride of about an hour and a half, and the intermittent run fail appeared right at the end of the ride, though very mildly. I'll have the tank off today to investigate all the connections and connectors as well as the relay connections and ignition switch and ECU connections.

Today, I tested; The old starter, when hit with the battery, actually turned- and intermittently spun, slowed, stopped, shook loose and turned again. I performed amp draw (best I could holding the meter and screwdriver) I used a good automotive battery on the old starter, so it may deliver more peak amps than the bike's Odyssey. That said, test results peak observed amp draw; New starter, 54a to start, ~40a turning the motor Old starter; 80a min turning, 394a siezed. I did not miss the decimal point.

I will never question CARC engineering again!