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If you have to ask: Yes, the 1200Sport and Griso are very sexy motorcycles . . .

^^^^^ Those look to be very high-maintenance items. Bill

My black 2001 V11 Sport is for sale in Seattle, WA, USA. **sold 1/31/24** This is a one-owner bike (always garaged) with clear title (WA. State) and 49K miles. The bike is largely in stock form and comes with a V11 shop stand, factory tail rack and bag, manual, spare key and various spares and parts. All maintenance and upgrades done by (the same) MG certified mechanic throughout its life. Fluids, battery, and tires are current. No oil or fuel leaks. More photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/g1qvQTfvw8zPeWfZA Forum member notes: - Staintune exhausts with map - Veglia’s all work - Original paint including pork chops - Front suspension has individual R/C controls (from Aprilia Mille RSV) - Hyperpro rear shock - PC-III - Shifter spring replaced at 30K (spare provided) - Rossipuro cardan bar (I have original) and bellypan - Tank is not swollen and chin pad is undamaged. Left and right rub marks visible on each side of tank from leg contact - Gel seat added under original seat cover (pillion cover included) Thank you

In attempting to get the V100 production team all on one page, they found out that 39% of the team's members asked "There's a page?"

Blue-by-you Pretty face - young tough little stocky birds can ride shaft too

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While I do wish you the best with the sale, @Bbennett, I also want to wish you the very best, personally. Another early Sport original owner and member here since 2004 (18 years !). Best regards, and don't be a stranger!

Ok thanks. I'm just updating my forks with later units now and was interested in what other models would fit with minimum modifications. The Guzzi V11 forks are a bit unique in that they are quite long and have different guard mounts and the triple clamps are also around 15mm wider than most bikes which makes substituting different forks while maintaining the V11 style front guard more challenging. A V11 front wheel hub is also around 10-15mm wider than most bikes which makes a front wheel swap using the original forks more difficult as well without spacing the callipers or using different offset disks. Ciao

I have arthritis in both thumbs from wrenching 55 years and doing martial arts for 30 of those and I have broken and re broken my left wrist 2-3 times ( cant remember) from back when I used to race scrambles and motocross.. My Scura with the RAM clutch is like a dream to pull..I can pull it with my little finger if I want to, I've tried it My 2022 Ducati is an extremely light pull as well, plus it came from the factory with a up and down Quick shifter, so about the only time I use the clutch it to put it in 1st from a stop, and sometimes from 1st to second, just to be more gentle to the gearbox. My MG California with the Cable clutch..will give you a workout though....1999 5 speed

The forks were installed by my mechanic many years ago but it was not a difficult job (it did require some custom shims). I sold the old forks. The handling of the bike was greatly improved (in my mind) in terms of both responsiveness/road grip and a more consistent front end feel when encountering bumps at lean in each direction.

Incidentally, I asked Bruno "Brian" Saturno at G-B if he had any interest in making up the humps, too. He responded that he was happy to continue producing the Trofeo kits and creating a new "evolution" of the Sport Monza kit. He noted that the carbon belly pans, rear fenders, and wave discs are "always available". Cheers, Frey.

Yup..I've had the Givi on a couple V-11's..If need be its not hard to shim them if your handy at all...its not like your hauling an automobile battery around in there ( I hope)

If one of your options is the V2 Panagale, the Triumph comparable model should be the Daytona Moto2 765. I like the middleweight triples, the 765's, more than I like the big triples. But I would consider a Tuono V4 over either of those two.

Ducati V2 Panigale. It’s like 150hp and lots of torque in 400lbs, in the same ballpark as the Triumph, and it’s a v-twin, and it’s Italian and a sexy beast. There’s a V2 Street Fighter coming out. If a triple is of interest, why not one of the MV 800s? I would really love to have a Super Veloce or a Tourismo Veloce. Yeah, I know that the guy who runs it is a rich young Russian. Too bad for him.

Both built for a competitive spirit, not me. If I had to pick one, Triumph, easy. The Bloors are killing it with their line up, and apparently Daytona this year. And I wouldn't have to visit the Duc dealer.

My previous experience owning 3 Triumphs and multiple Ducati's 2 of which I still own the Ducati's are much better quality. I was so appalled at Triumph quality and engineering I vowed to never buy another one. Ciao

The Houston Livestock and Rodeo show ended last week, and I want to share this picture of a riding girl. The name of the ride is Good Z, so I deemed she qualified to be here....

A quick update, as I have not had time to feed-back on the details of the modification installed on my Le Mans. The starter motor now cranks immediately upon depressing the start button. Even after long lay away, and cold morning starts like today. The additional relay with direct feed to the solenoid was the correct modification as suggested by the panel. Relegating the key switch to circuit enabler as it should has always been.

i love laurel and hardy, a lot of it is still funny today

Yes it's like picking up a large Titanium nut or bolt your brain has a hard time computing the size to the weigh after years of handling other materials. My friend surmises this is what makes these sort of things so tactile and almost impossible to not pick up and just hold and play with. Ciao

Best I could do on short notice, lads . . .

And a little ditty for accompanyment................... Paul B

I searched and searched for another picture of a girl on a Moto Guzzi Galetto (scooter), but only came up with this instead . . .

Single cylinder two-strokes… might suffice.

Quite sure many of the members here say, yes that must be it. I woud take ALL electric connections on the bike apart for tlc, and follow Roys route with an extra relay, sorry to mention it again, but it realy makes sense. Cheers Tom.

No, the starter load is not carried through the ignition switch, just the solenoid load is. the starter motor itself will draw 150 - 170 Amps I don't believe the switch is rated at any more than about 10 Amps, I cannot find the specs. The solenoid has a massive job to do, it has to slide the gear all the way across to engage with the ring gear, I think it takes something like 30 Amps minimum to do that, but the solenoid is designed to pull 50 Amps so why not use all that power. Power = Current squared x resistance, the heavy current coil is 0.25 ohms At 30 Amps the power draw is 30 x 30 x 0.25 = 225 Watts At 50 Amps the power draw is 50 x 50 x 0.25 = 625 Watts Which do you think might work better? This high current to the solenoid only flows for a fraction of a second, as soon as it starts to crank the heavy coil is effectively switched out and the light coil just draws ~ 10 Amps I often see an owner say the bike cranks ok in warm weather but plays up when its cold, there's a very simple explanation for that. The ignition switch has sliding contacts and sliding contacts need to be lubricates or they will quickly wear away. When it is cold the lube becomes much stiffer than normal so it tends to take tension off the contact point therefore the resistance increases to a point that there is insufficient current flowing to get the solenoid moving 1/2 an Ohm is too much. Petroleum jelly aka Vaseline has been used for over 100 years to lubricate sliding contacts. As it ages the jelly loses some of the more volatile components this also makes it stiffer. I think if you were to clean and replace the lube in the switch every 4 or 5 years it would probably keep working ok but I recommend bypassing the switch altogether and give the solenoid the current it was designed to operate on i.e. 50 Amps. The easiest way to do this IMHO is to add another relay next to the solenoid using the original trigger wire to feed the new relays coil If you look at the schematic for a 1999 VII Sport you can see that the start relay on that model doesn't get its power through the ignition switch, instead it gets it from the battery through a fuse the one I had never hesitated to crank all the time I owned it. Another bike that got it right was the early CARC bikes, they also have a direct feed where later ones hav extra relays and still suffer.

If you find the spade connector on the solenoid loose thats a sure sign it has been overheating due to resistance. The metal has annealed loosing tension. Replace the spade connector and don't forget to apply some Vaseline to the wire before you crimp it on. On many Guzzi's this wire from the relay to the solenoid is too small, you can easily lose a Volt and 10 Amps at the solenoid right there, a 16 gauge or metric equivalent is about right. On my 06 Griso I up-sized this wire one size, the time to engage the starter dropped from 50 milliseconds down to 15

Its probably not the solenoid, the wiring is not delivering enough current. You only hear the relay under the seat because the solenoid is not getting enough current to start it moving. (I should add the solenoid plunger could be stuck if its gummed up with grease, I just use a couple of drops of 3 in 1) Do the simple test of hot wiring the solenoid from the battery, if it's easier take the starter relay out and touch a wire from the 87 contact to the battery Positive. You don't need the key On to try that but do make sure the bike is in neutral. If it cranks with the jumper there is no reason for it not to crank when its wired right. You might find its harder to get started in cold weather, I put it to you that the grease inside the ignition switch is much stiffer holding the contacts apart, try flicking the switch back and forth a few times to see if it improves.. The real fix is to provide the start relay with a direct feed from the battery, not quite as easy on the Spine frame bikes because they use the normally closed start contact to power up the headlight relay, If you power up the 30 terminal the headlight will go when the key is off. There are several ways around this but i'm now in favour of adding another relay beside the solenoid triggered from the original trigger wire. The relay contacts go between the large positive post and the spade connector. A 20 Amp in-line fuse can be added between the positive post and relay terminal 30. p6x, its Startus Interuptus in this case (insufficient solenoid current) but when you clean the battery terminals don't forget the main ground at the gearbox and always use a little Vaseline to keep the contacts clean free from corrosion. Update, p6x, I suspect it's worse when cold because the grease inside the ignition switch is stiffer trending to hold more tension off the contacts, if you take the switch apart you will see this. Fresh Vaseline is much softer so it can flow out of the way, You could remove all the grease and leave it dry but then the contacts would vanish in no time flat. Electricians have been using Petroleum jelly aka Vaseline on sliding contacts for 100 years. Its not just your VII that suffers from this ailment, The Brevas large and small are well known for it, later 8 Valve CARC bikes, the earlier 4 Valve CARC bikes had direct wiring. The modern bikes like V7s don't seem to be suffering yet but I suspect that's just age, they all have a similar 2 coil solenoid wired through the switch. "Moto Guzzi, making Electricians out of riders since 1921."

The early VIIs like my 2001 Greeny had the start relay powered direct from the battery via fuse 5, (the start relay 30 terminal was always alive, it never had a problem cranking but then a couple of years later the factory changed the wiring so that the start relay is fed from the ignition switch via a switched fuse, thats when things went to hell in a handbasket. Pull out your start relay and see if the 30 terminal is alive with the key Off - Good Do you have to turn the key On - Bad MartyNZ said "I had these symptoms on my '03, after the bike sitting unused for too long with the rear drive out. I replaced the 5 pin relay in the forward position, and now all good. This time I binned the relay, instead of putting it in with all the spares of doubtful function in the monkey paw trap." Another problem with the VIIs the relay bases corrode or build up resistance between the pins and the socket, if you wiggle the relay in the socket it restores the connection somewhat, you can also remove the contacts from the base and squeeze each connector a little to improve the tension. I always applied a little Vaseline to my relay pins, there is probably something better. Typically the wire from the relay to the solenoid is too light a gauge, the factory don't size it for 50 Amps. Because the starter solenoid draws so much current while it is pulling the gear into mesh resistance between the battery and the solenoid is critical, 0.2 Ohms is right at the ragged edge. Calculate how much Voltage drop you will get at 50 Amps. Most other guzzles can be fixed by simply providing a new permanently On feed to the start relay however your VIIs use the normally closed start contact to power up the headlight relay so its a little tricky, lately I have been suggesting an additional relay to solve this problem. I can see some of you going "50 Amps, what's he smoking" so do a simple test, measure with your Ohmmeter from the spade connector to chassis (don't forget to subtract the lead resistance) Calculate 12 V / Resistance to get Amps. Ohmmeters are not particularly good for measuring low resistance but see what you get.

The earlier bikes took a direct feed from the battery to the start relay so the relay could feed the solenoid coils about 50 Amps. all the ignition switch carried was about 6 Amps. I think about 2004 Guzzi changed the wiring to feed the start relay through the ignition switch so now the switch and wiring has to supply the solenoid coils, I doubt you will get more than 30 Amps on a good day, all kinds of Voltage drop through the switch and wiring. Net result 30/50 or 60% of the magnetic field the solenoid was designed to supply, would you be happy if your Guzzi engine only put out 60%? When the solenoid current drops a bit further through dirty contacts (around 25 Amps) the solenoid doesn't even try to move, eventually the 15 Amp fuse blows. As soon as the solenoid main contacts close the coil current drops to just 10 Amps, it doesn't take much to hold the solenoid in place because the gap is small but it takes a super strong magnetic field to get it to start moving when the gap is large. There are 2 coils in the solenoid The holding coil 300 turns of fairly light wire drawing 10 Amps 3,000 Ampere Turns The Grunt coil 300 turns of larger wire wound on next to the core so as well as being fatter its also much shorter drawing 40 or more Amps 12,000 Ampere Turns. (4 x as strong) Ampere turns is the way of expressing the magnetic field strength The best way to prove it to yourself is start the bike a few times normally then take a wire and feed the solenoid directly by touching the wire direct to the battery, on your 2005 the solenoid will snap in at least 3 x faster. BTW, a good battery will hold about 10 Volts while cranking but while the solenoid is stroking the Voltage should be over 12 because the contact is not yet closed. I've tried every way I can think of to explain Startus Interuptus, I guess I will never make a good teacher lol