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Friday afternoon off and friends to meet at our country-store/Best Reuben in the World hangout. On the way home, got this shot of a couple old, greasy smokers parked next to one another . . .

thank you very much, I'm getting past the financial hit and taking it as a steep learning curve about buying bikes online. in reality I am very excited about this bike. I have rescued numerous sport bikes, so the condition doesn't scare me. what really impresses me about guzzi ownership is the owners. So far the people I have met are very passionate about their bikes. I don't think there is any other brand with so many one owner bikes. Fortunately for me i have two fantastic guzzi dealers within a few hundred miles of me. i will post up more pictures and details when i get the bike home. thanks!!

Good suggestions there. An electric heat gun can slowly heat the pan to 100-120°C without causing any damage. Remember that it gets to that temperature normally on a hot day in slow traffic. An infrared thermometer lets you check. It will take a while,as the castings are very thermally conductive, so you will be heating the crank case too. The heat softens most sealants and glues. Then gradual force from wood or plastic wedges can progressively open gaps for more wedges. BTW, thanks @docc for keeping this forum from going toxic. The world needs good moderators.

Here’s my V11. One-off exhaust and exhaust hangers. Aqua dipped hugger. Racing ECU. Absolutely gorgeous! Had to paste a link because otherwise the pic had to be too grainy. https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmC04kaAl5HQlNM9IFliCk9pyFt14A?e=BRZ3Vn

well, I'm new here so I will introduce myself. I've been active in sport bikes for years, and have owned at least one of every japanese crotch rocket, and a few ducatis, but never a guzzi. i currrently have 6 bikes in the garage, and was scrolling through sale adds late and night and discovered this guy on a copart auction. as i am a complete and utter moron, i didn't read the terms and conditions. my "winning" bid of $650, turned into $1800 after auction fees, broker fees, and doc fees. the true kick in the gut came when the broker hit me with a $2200 shipping charge, making my $650 bike a $4121 purchase. of course this was all spelled out in the fine print, that i didn't read. i'm trying to make the best of it, as i am truly excited about the bike https://carsfromwest.com/en/lot/copart-42837292

The later V11s do not have that compact, "integrated" appearance of the early bikes with quarter fairings. However, Aprilia cash appears to have sorted many of the pesky details of the earlier bikes. The steering might be just a bit slower, but stability cannot be faulted. My '04 is but one example, but the electrics are well sorted and the bike has been trouble free - excepting some air in the clutch line. The trans mount is a "good thing" and there is little of the "kit bike" aura surrounding the small bits and electrics. The speedo should be electric instead of the grotesquely "bent" cable drive that is sure to fail - but it must have at least some personality quirks, right? As time went on with the V11, less 'owner involvement' was absolutely required, although some certainly remained. The late bikes are slightly more wife than mistress, shall we say. Although mistresses rarely need a diet.

I'm just sick over this. I was doing the service on my '98 EV and couldn't get the pan and spacer off the bike to change the filter. I even tried socking it with a light mallet. The situation is that when the oil pump was replaced year or so ago, the tech used gasket sealer. Why he did it, I don't know. The tech no longer works there. Don, the shop owner reassures me that he can get it off. Since I was planning to drop the pan, I didn't warm up the engine- I'm not sure if that would've mattered. I'll probably ride around awhile since the oil is fresh. I'd be interested for any thoughts, recommendations or warnings. I have to wonder if the bike is totaled? After the tune up, it runs strong other than 2-3rd gear grind. Dis side intake valve was tight and the exhaust was loose. Normally I'd post on WG but it's too toxic for my participation right now.

Make SURE you have EVERY bolt out of the pan before you try removing the pan . Get under the bike and verify all the bolts/capscrews or whatever you want to call them are out of the pan .

Did you get the 10mm capscrews out from the center of the bottom? That one tripped me up last time, even though I knew they were there once discovered and reminded.

I bought a tailpiece on eBay just to get the pillion cover, and that it was yellow matching my bike. I paid too much for just the pillion, but figured I'd have the spare tail on the shelf. I thought the tailpiece was the accessory flat-sided tail, but now I think it's from a Daytona. Can anyone confirm, and would anyone like it as a spare? I'll just shelf it. As for the pillion cover, I'm going to take it to the local boatbuilders and see if I can get someone to reproduce it in high-quality fiberglass and perhaps fit it a little more closely to reduce the big gaps they apparently all have.

This season has certainly been unpredictable...attendance does seem to be down this year due to Rossi's retirement...certainly noticed that also at COTA. Rain or shine tomorrow? That may determine whether the rookies stay up front or get pushed back...either way, another interesting race coming up.

PA- I never change filters for every change. I usually change the oil at 3k intervals and at 9k I do the full service of fluids, filter and valve adjustment. I'm riding it for a while but I expect to shop to fix their problem. Same for the Sport too. If they were simple access filters, I'd change it at every oil change.

Well, with all that in the background, I'd ride it through the summer and worry over it when season is over. There's a strong argument that changing oil filters isn't necessary with every oil change; theoretically, if your engine never creates a piece of debris bigger than the holes in the filter, the filter does no thing atall anyway. Particularly since gravity doesn't make the filter a collection point, I would just button it up and enjoy it.

It's a square-pan engine, right? Not wide sump? If so there are 4 hex bolts in the bottom, 3 in front & rear, 4 on each side. Even with Permatex hard gasket sealer, it shouldn't be so tight- even if so it should tear the gasket in half. Still confused.

The very first time I dropped the sump on my new to me CalVin, I had a h*ll of a time. It had been sealed so heavily with orange RTV? when I finally got it off, at first I thought it was some type of silicon gasket. Then I connected the dots and realized it was the cleaning job from hell. lol Even with gentle taps with a plastic/rubber mallet, I know how fragile those thin cooling fins are, btdt, so I'd try other means to apply pressure. Is it possible to fashion and jam a big wood wedge in to place downward force on top of the drain plug at the back? Or put a socket on it and give it a few good wacks back and forth, forwards etc. If you had a slide hammer, with a hooked tip onto a socket or perhaps a big loop of heavy fishing line over the drain plug putting a downward/sideways force might break the seal. If it's not a painted sump and plain metal, a gentle torch or heat gun to soften things up might help. Can you tell the color of the sealant used to get an idea of the temp required to loosen it?

Hm. I did see an old guy carefully drive a utility knife blade into a gasket to start to separate the parts. A new blade and a light touch is worth a try, I suppose.

I bought the beautiful billet shifter/brake levers from Harper's not long after I bought the bike. Somewhere along the way I've noticed that there's more play in the pivot bushings of the shifter than I like, so I ordered new bushings. Upon disassembly and inspection, I found that the stock (most likely stock) bolt is 110mm long, and leaves just about 10mm of threads on the bushing side of the inner nutplate/mount. So the threads and bushing on the inside are hammered. I ordered a new Stainless bolt from McMaster 120mm long, which should get the threads out of the bushing, though I'll have to trim the length of the threads once installed. https://www.mcmaster.com/92290A805/ While there, I pulled back the rubbers from the shift linkage and packed them with the open gear/cable grease I use for my driveshaft splines. They were in fine shape anyway.

Today was the day of the rookies.... Marc Marquez will abort his season to get yet a fourth operation as he is now convinced he cannot perform in his current physical condition. I am wondering if he will be able to ever come back to his former self. However what really surprised me, is the lack of spectators at the Grand-Prix. Usually, the Mugello is always full, but this year, it seems to be deserted. Many attributes the lack of interest with the departure of Valentino Rossi.

Does anyone know what *kind* of sealer he used? I'm not sure even that matters. If you've made certain there's nothing mechanical holding it, the only thing left is the mallet. If there's a clean protruding edge somewhere you can get at with a piece of aluminum flat stock you can attack a corner or side that way without digging too much of the pan material off. As a last resort, and I hate even to suggest it, you might take a cylinder and piston off and see if you can get a piece of hardwood dowel down through the crank and oil stuff to strike it inside the pan. Not a happy thought, nor a guarantee of success. A long time ago, working at a bicycle shop, I was threatening a new carbon fiber swingarm while fishing through a lost cable. The boss said, "You've broken more expensive stuff than this, haven't you?" I laughed, because he was right.

The diagnosis for my bike is the plunger pin is a little worn. I do have the master cylinder rebuild kit is anyone has a need for it.

It's noteworthy that these bikes have gained some classic status but still have modern performance. This one is just about due for some reliability mods. So the question, a low mileage bike needing some upgrades or reliable higher mileage bike that's been maintained ?

The seal driver is the way to go . You will install the seal perfectly and squarely in the bore of the fork leg .

Doc, I agree with every detail of your assessment of the Greenie. At this point they don’t make them, our current US inflation hit dollar is crap when buying used cars and most Motorsports purchases, even from just a couple years ago. I recently bought a super clean Rosso, then still had to sort it out, w debris build up in all of the hydraulic lines, replace a blown up rear brake caliper, lastly a faulty stop/run switch. The cosmetic’s of the Rosso weren’t up to my standards of “super clean”, but I invested the time & energy to make it right. BTW, the Rosso will never be sold again, never letting this one go like I did my Silver red frame. The US market on most these V11 sports is around 6k give or take, so that Greenie isn’t way off, maybe should be 5-5.5k upon closer inspection. IF you wanted a Greenie, (personally I do, but my wife would kill me if I brought another bike home right now), then it’s an opportunity to buy & own a cool bike.

Docc reading the manual for the early forks it appears you can get away without having a seal driver. Unlike the later forks you can remove the inner slider without disturbing the bushes or the oil seal. The later forks are more like modern forks where the upper fork bush is retained on the end of the slider and so to disassemble the slider from the stanchion you need to use the slider like a slide hammer because the upper bush retained on the slider won't allow removal unless the lower bush and seal which is retained in the stanchion is out of the way. So the upper bush acts like a shoulder to push out the lower bush and seal. The early forks retain both the upper and lower bushers as well as the seals in the stanchion with the bushes separated by a sleeve. So you undo the fork cap and nut and slide the slider out of the stanchion and the bushes and seals stay in place. This means you can replace the seals in the stanchion and then fit the slider back in so all you need is the correct dia drift such as a piece of PVC of the correct dia as someone mentioned because you dont have the slider in the way. The later forks you must fit the dust seal, the oil seal the retaining clip and spacer and lower bush and upper bush all onto the slider in the correct order then insert the slider and upper bush into the stanchion and then use the instillation tool to hammer first the lower bush into the stanchion followed by the oil seal then fit the seal retaining clip and finally push the dust seal into place then split the tool to remove it from the slider. This is why the later modern design forks need the sliding hammer seal and lower bush instillation tool and the earlier forks almost certainly don't and you can get away with a simple home made sleeve of the correct OD to just tap the seal into place. At your mileage I would check the bushes for wear though as well. The bushes in the later forks are DU style coated bushes so check the teflon like grey coating hasn't worn away to the base metal. New bushes aren't that expensive. Ciao

I also suspect gearbox oil leak (cracked box?) looking at the exhaust colour where the exhaust passes under the box.. Look at the 2004 model with 8000miles @ 4300$.....a much better deal IMHO

Poor images I know but here is the difference between DCY and DC seals. The DC seal has a raised outer sealing lip and the DCY it's flush with the surface. The other image is of my 42/43 seal driver and shows somewhat how it sits almost in the sealing lip spring recess when in use. Not good and will ruin the seal. I didn't even attempt to use it. So the driver needs to impact the seal as close to the OD as possible and still fit inside the fork leg ID. The seals I pulled out of my 43mm forks had been damaged on instillation by the seal driver. This might also be an option. I've seen a Youtube video where the guy used one. https://de.aliexpress.com/item/33007086461.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2deu

Yes, it's the #3 fuse. He had the R/R die on him so he replaced that with an SH775 unit, and the stator with a Ducati energia unit. So I'm trying to restore the OEM harness as far as is possible.

Hey, okay . . . thanks for the intro. You could not be in a better place to sort out that needy LeMans. You can count on us to throw in. (We cain't he'p ourselves . . . ) I think this LeMans deserves a thread of its own. I can split these posts off and start one for you, @cory464 . . . [edit: done]

The unridable Vincent is a beautiful piece of work. "the entire stage was shaking" is a Commando legacy. The XR750's were, and usually are, among my favorites. Thanks for sharing

Are you looking for trouble or an opportunity? (I grew up thinking that was the same thing . . .