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If you fasten a thin sheet of plywood so that the rear wheel weight rests on it the chock can't slide anywhere when you jerk it out of the holder.

Today, joined V11LeMans.com . . . 2003.

I don't check in often enough. And, by the way, after my fingers are cold and dead, I'll be ready to talk money for my GB....

Humph. Sounds like a warranty issue to me..

here is a clean low-mile GB500 on Craigslist: https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/mcy/d/phoenix-1990-honda-gb500-tourist-trophy/7443300180.html

I've considered selling one of mine forva few years now. But these V11s... They can get sentimental rather quickly. Especially after you "sort them out" to make them the bikes they were intended to be.

New steering bearings are in. That's my second time doing them - it's really quite fun with the freezing of the steering stem, heating up the bearing, dropping it in place and then seeing it pressure fit. But it's a one-shot deal. If it doesn't go all the way down, you're probably hosed. And seating the races in the frame is fun. Had the lower triple clamp powder coated, along with the fairing frame, dash panel, and various brackets and baubles. Really happy with the powder-coat gloss-black bar-end weights. They were peeling a bit and now they look better than new. Test fit the Speedhuts for entertainment value. And question time... the Ohlins damper bracket is rubbing on the plastic air dam. I don't recall that being the case on my previous LeMans. Do they all do that? I checked the parts diagrams and can't find anything I did wrong. It doesn't seem to affect the operation, since the bracket only moves a little in relation to the plastic part. But if I missed something, I'd like to correct it. And another question... this one is just curiosity, not a problem to solve. Earlier in this thread I asked about removing the center of the rear wheel. I assumed it would come out since there is a huge spring clip that appears to be holding it in place. I had to spend some time with the Dremel removing powder so the spring clip would seat properly. But I found myself wondering why that spring clip is there at all. Can somebody explain the rationale behind this spring clip?

I think it has been hard on my (4th) Odyssey PC545. It only lasted seven years. I put the twelve year old, #3, back in from swampee®, the CubCadet, where it has been suffering these last seven years.

Makes mySport look like a tired, but willing, truck-stop tramp . . . . Welldone, there, @Scud!

Wheels and bar-end weights in gloss black... and two boxes of goodies in flat black...

The French importer of the Royal Enfield motorcycles is organizing a "low cost" championship for those would be amateur racers, or as they put it: "gentlemen riders". What a nice initiative! obviously, you still have to invest a little bit to participate, since you need to install a specific racing kit on your Continental GT, 2000 EUR. But the total cost to participate to all races is 1,400 EUR, or 200/300 EUR if you only want to do one, which you can... Have a look at the kitted Continental GT 650... looks almost as good as a Le Mans, no? unfortunately, the kit is only available to those who subscribe to the event as it says in the top photos here below. I like the spirit of that competition; old gizzards getting together for a mano a mano.... Here's the announcement from Moto.it

I'm not even all that sure the additional frame member on the later bikes is anything to do with mitigating gearbox cracking. I postulated a few years ago that when they added this they also at the same time changed the front engine support frame to one which was less triangulated and maybe the gearbox brace was to regain some fore and aft support due to this. Dunno. Mario at Thunderbikes Perth an old style Guzzi shop and at one time the original sole importer for Australia has been around Guzzi's for well over 30 years and was closely involved with Ted Stolaski who originally owned the place. Ted had close ties to the factory and Dr John and Magni and was supplied with pre production prototype Daytona engines straight out of the factory and also the same for the Magni Australia bikes to race here and in Daytona. Anyway Mario goes right back to that era and before in the early 90's with Ted and Guzzi. I spoke to him about the gearbox cracking issue and he'd never heard of it! I'd be interested to see how many and what models had actually had issues. It's easy here on social media for things to seem more common than they actually are. There must be thousands of bikes out there with no cracking issues still running around. Ciao

My early 2000 doesn't have the bosses nor does the Centauro engine now in the bike or the 2 other centy cases I have. Personally I dont quite understand the extra bracing but then again the engineering rationale that goes on inside Guzzi often leaves me confused. There's so much internal and local politics in Mandello it's sometimes hard to rationalise engineering decisions. I personally would simply have added extra material around the upper mount area and eliminated the sudden cross sectional change and invested about $100 in a few bull nosed cutters for machining the mount faces to remove the total engineering fopar of the sharp edge on a stressed mount. That in particular is such a rookie mistake engineering wise. Ducati coped with engine case cracking for years on the belt engines and just added extra material and webbing in a quite a few updates which solved the problems. No need for heavy clunky extra bracing when some minor adjustments to casting and machining would solve the issue. Guzzi, try working them out. Ciao

My 2001 has the boss. Seems to me Tinus89 had the right idea. Rather than fit a whole new swingarm.

I am not shure this is totally correct, my Rosso Mandello have these bosses on the engine, and I bought and installed a second hand rear subframe on my bike. Have to drill new holes and making threades of course... Maybe the Rosso Mandello series are different from the red frame series? Jens Martin

Just FYI - The black (long) framed bikes' subframes have three arms that the red (short) frame bikes do not. Two down low and going forward to the engine block, and the third, which is probably more important to prevent rotating. The third support goes diagonally from lower right of transmission up to the actual frame where the side plate mounts. And back the original problem... it looks like adding the small brace to this particular greenie is going to be difficult due to the missing frame tab. However, I've wondered if you could hack the front arms off a black subframe and modify it to fit with only the supplemental diagonal brace. The circle flange on the black frame has a recess for the cross-brace, so this part wouldn't fit as-is on a red frame. I think you would need to have the upper left mounting tabs machined down to account for lack of the recess in the red frame, then maybe add material to be sure the mounting point is strong enough. Alternatively, I wonder if a cross brace could be welded to a red sub-frame. Then you'd just need longer bolts for the frame plates. If you're gonna weld, it makes sense to put in a stronger brace on a part that can be easily removed and reinstalled.

I bolted mine to the concrete slab - only way to be 100% sure. Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

Thanks for the helpful reminder about the cardboard. That could turn into a very bad day. Some trials I did comparing the slippage of the rubber grips on the concrete floor, compared to carpet, showed less slippage on the carpet, (my garage floor has very smooth concrete surface), the chock grips would slide on the smooth concrete, but when placed on a large area of carpet, the grip was good without slippage

Yes these are perfect! But a word of warning as I notice you have placed it onto cartboard. The stability relies on the rubber grips gripping the floor. If someone were to bump into the handlebars, the chock may turn easily as the cartboard slides over the floor underneath it, causing the bike to lean and fall over. How I know this? I was just in time to catch mine...

They'll just end up in the bottom of the sump and picked up by the mag plug. Ciao

My "belief" was put out there as an engineering opinion for others to consider and believe or not believe based on actual hard physical evidence from a repair. It's not the same as "having a stab" based on no measurements or physical evidence or even verified information from a reliable source. By all means give us your thoughts on materials/housing designs/availability from outside suppliers but it needs to be more than "a thought I had at the time" you need to back it with some evidence, measurements, information from a supplier, what you found from a repair etc, otherwise it's just guesswork and suspect information that muddies the waters. So currently we are chasing down the "triple tree stagger" theory and postulating various scenarios but the outcome will be based on measurements I will eventually take when I pull my bike apart. Why are we in this situation? Because someone years ago "threw out there" a theory without physical evidence of a change. Extricated a "truth" based on hearsay and part number variations. I've never seen or heard of any differences in any way shape or form for gearbox housings from anyone except you. So far you have put out there, different materials, remanufactured housings, and design changes. All I'm saying is, you may be absolutely correct but where is your information coming from or is it just a "theory" you have with nothing to validate it. No measurements, no skilled welder thats weld repaired both old and new housings and can tell the difference in material etc. This is not a point scoring argument but an effort to sort fact from assumption. Ciao

I guess I'm getting old enough to just keep my stuff and not buy anything new. I'll vote my conscience, but I'm tilting towards letting the "Utes" make their own dystopian future with me stock piling relays and spark plugs and filters and, and, and, and.....

Sorry , I got distracted listening/watching to an Alvin Lee interview on YouYube !

Eh, no. My battery light flickered at idle starting back in 2017. Three years later, I finally replaced the regulator (#4) and the replaced the stator (#3) before discovering the relay damage. Then this Battery/Starter fail set. Seems some of these fail systems are at the same party . . .

MMMMMMM . nothing like getting everything knocked out at once .

HOW MUCH FOR THE GBs? THE HONDAS! WE WANT TO BUY YOUR HONDAs!!!

Great image! Yep, that "frame plate" will bolt right up on your V11 !

I would think any decent metal fab guy could make quick work of the bracket. Especially if he had the bell housing bracket to work to. I wouldn't want to be drilling holes in the spine. This is the best look I could get at the 4 bolt holes. This is from the left side facing forward

Might also get drill shavings in your engine oil since the oil breather goes through the frame.

What I did to my V11 today? I replaced, and inspected, the original starter. All the magnets were still intact! While the "planetary" gears spun freely, the motor shaft felt rather tight and grunchy. I tried cleaning it, new grease, but I don't think I can save it.

What is the different between my theory about the casting prosess that may have been changed - and what you wrote?

My 2005 Coppa Italia has no extra gearbox support. The pictures from Tom shown the right side of the gearbox house. I have rebuilt 5 such gearboxes - and all had leakage on the left side.

That looks very much like the "Baxley Sport Chock" that lives on my lift. One thing I found is that if that locking hook gets laid over with the chock 'open', it will block the bike from fully engaging into the hold. Could get you halfway to a bad day. I took my "locking hook" off since I didn't think I would get away with that mistake twice.

ThreeBond 1104 neo and 1215, Hylomar, Permatex thread sealant, Ford TA-30 and Permatex Ultrablack. But if you want the best I've ever used this is it, dries clear as well so it's invisible. Used it many many times for vertically split Ducati crankcase halves and engine covers. Omnivisc 1002 is also excellent. The 1050 is it's successor. https://www.scooter-center.com/en/liquid-gasket-loctite-omnivisc-1050-90g-3600017 You can obviously buy it from other sources as well. Number 1 thing after an immaculately clean surface ( I use MEK to clean down the joint before applying sealant) is to let it cure for whatever the manufacturer recommends, usually 24 hours before subjecting it to oil or running. If you want sealants that can be used immediately they are available but the amount of really labour intensive jobs I've seen botched from not allowing curing is staggering. Ciao

We've had 60+ degree weather all week but there are still some snow piles cleared from parking lots. I'd just come from Don's place trying to get my commission money. All I got was a lousy photo.

You have a preferred selection, @Lucky Phil?

Sadly, the increasingly popular centerstand license frame is incongruous.

Well, truth be told, funky unsettling dreams aside, I could not have better friends. Or a finer community than thee of V11LeMans.com.

Emotional attachment to a machine? Surely you are not the only member of this site to suffer such an affliction. But if somebody wanted my Scura, I'd tell them $20,000. They'd say "I'd have to be crazy to pay that much." And I'd say, "That's right. Are you crazy?"

This could open up all kinds of cans of worms; how about a V8 with a modernized dustbin fairing?

Nope, nope, nope. As has been MG's pattern since the V11, the styling is once again a miss. Not as gawdawful as some intervening whiffs, but still no cigar. Gee, if they had only put the funny looking side exhaust engine in V11 replica bodywork, it might have been somewhat a winner. Then again, once forced into water cooling, the reason for the 90 degree transverse V-twin configuration goes out the window. The more compact longitudinal V-twin with chain rear drive makes more sense with water cooling. There was a Moto Guzzi before the transverse V, there could be one thereafter as well. Maintaining the now outdated transverse configuration for nostalga sake is a failure to successfully meet the future. JMHO, YMMV.

I believe that would be @andy york's 2002 LeMans. *Somewhere* beyond 124,000 miles/ 200.000 km . . .

Celebrated twenty years with the Sport today.

FWIW, mySport also suffered a sustained regulator failure and another stator wire failure (resolved in August 2020) that destroyed my Hi-current OMRON relays. That was probably hard on my PC545/#4, as well as the aging starter.