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Firstly it turns out to be the perfect mix of mechanical beauty and, what I personally consider, a somewhat ‘functional oddness’, for a fellow like me. Also it was part of a slow attitude shift. I’d like to think I was leaning into some much needed wisdom, but realistically I was tired of the constant risk exposure of fast street riding. The worn out knee puck style of street riding. I remember seeing a 1000S in the parking lot at a racetrack in 1993 and falling in love. I still have the photo of it stashed away somewhere. Then in the pits there was a Guzzi racebike. Square barrel as well, and it was tiny, red and the motor looked huge. Dominating. I have several pics of that too. The engines just look fantastic, especially the square barrels. But, I was still too into repli racers to commit to buying one. Fast forward to 2002. At a closed dealership in North Carolina, on a Sunday, I look in the window and see a blackframe V11 Sport. I knew I’d have one. It was just way too cool looking! It took a few years, but I found a slightly tired 2000 Silver V11 Sport. I loved it. In 4 years of riding and wrenching it never disappointed me. For me, riding it at an 80% or less pace was magical, especially if I got it right, carrying some good corner speed and using that upper midrange torque coming off the turns. Dive-bombing into the turns, hard on the brakes, and flicking it in just doesn’t suit the bike (to me). Even with the correct springs for my weight, and Ohlins shock. Too be honest, when I tried to ride it over about 90% it just progressively scared the shit out of me! Plenty of warning. Could be the nature of the red frames, but I think I would like it less if it was utterly confidence inspiring at 90 mph through a slightly bumpy sweeper with my knee on the ground. For the record, I never tried to get my knee down on my Guzzi. You folks that have deserve some sort of award. Or you need to be locked up for your own safety! Thankfully I have lived long enough to finally be too old to try it. What makes me happiest to report is that my black 2000 speaks to me in the same ways. It’s already well sorted, thanks to the previous owners.

This came from the technical section of Access Norton. Compiled by Jim Comstock of Colorado Norton Works. There are a few surprises amongst the expecteds. https://www.accessnorton.com/Oil-Tests/NortonOil.php Well worth adding to our own tech section.

The welding shop called me at 1:30. They thought it was more important to do my repair rather than work on that BOP. Nice! Here it is with a reinforcement before painting. If it breaks again, it will not be at the same place. Tomorrow I will put everything back together and get ready to go. The heat is indescribable. I went to the welding shop with the 911 opened, 104 degF on the thermometer...

I never liked the look of Guzzi’s when I was a teenager riding Yamaha & Suzuki two stroke twins & triples in the 80’s & 90’s, I used to think the proportions were all wrong on Guzzi’s of that vintage. That was until one day I saw a Daytona parked in a car park, I had to go over & take a closer look, “wow” I thought “ that’s a Moto Guzzi,.. they can get it right.!” I loved the muscular stance of it & walked away pretty impressed. A few years later I was looking for a bike & was intent on a Ducati 1098, although after a test ride I thought, “I’ll lose my licence on this for sure”. A few days later I spied a Coppa Italia in the window of a local Guzzi dealer, I had to go & check it out. I was quite smitten but unable to afford it, the dealer did however have a 2004 Cafe Sport for sale which I could afford, I took it for a test ride & loved it, I thought then & still think now that there is no better sounding motorcycle, particularly with the cat removed & some nice pipes fitted. Mine has a mistral crossover & nice pair of Australian made Staintunes, & imho it sounds like a symphony!. I’ve owned it for the last thirteen years & the more I ride it the more I love it, dropping it deep into a bend scraping my boot off the road & opening it right up on the exit is just the best..

Very interesting. Surprising as well. It appears only one of the Amsoil oils tested rated in the top class, one was in one of the middle classes, and three Amsoil oils were in the bad oil class. Interesting data. Certainly makes ya think.

If you like air cooled Ducatis you'll love Guzzis. And if you like Ducati Monsters you'll love a V11. I consider the V11 the Monster's curvier, bigger breasted flirtier cousin.

There are two particular peculiarities to "American V-Twin" (H-D of course) engines not shared by any other modern motorcycle engine; one cylinder cooling in the hot air of the forward one, and roller bearings everywhere except the rocker arms. The cylinder arrangement causes the rear cylinder to run much hotter, but also receive far more oil from the crankshaft than the forward cylinder, as the windage from the crank causes the oil to climb the crankcase wall until it finds the rear cylinder with little left for the front. Roller bearings do not tolerate deposits, nor skidding; if they skid they flat-spot. So film strength is paramount here. Additionally, the rod journals oval when overspeeded to the point that the side clearance goes negative, creating an enormous pressure point. So both heat and film strength are paramount, even if it's only in these particular, localized places under unusual conditions. It makes sense. Obviously, the test is a performance test without regard to composition or price.

One aspect of the oil which he has not touched upon is the infamous additives. They were not the point of focus of this test. Noticed that a many of the top performers in the "extreme protection" list are oiled aimed at V Twin engines.

The test equipment was, if I read it correctly (not thoroughly) an actual set of Norton tappets and presumably a Norton camshaft. It's directly applicable to 'Guzzi because both use non-roller cam followers. Norton tappets have a narrower profile than MG, and largely due to mediocre quality control had cam and follower wear issues (as have *all* British bikes). So the test rig is as close to real-world testing as possible, rather than the old 'Timken test' which didn't allow for a moving line of contact nor the heat dissipation of the oil itself. The rest of the engine is similar- air cooled, plain bearings and shaft rockers, etc.

You guys could well be correct, but I'd be surprised. The Sprint's look similar to K&Ns & many, many have installed them to Sports and Daytonas without any remapping being required, despite all the dire warnings I see on the forums that the bike will run like crap. Granted you might lose a "hoss" or two, but anectodally I've not heard of anybody I know personally who installed them and had any issues. Different engine but in an article over on the COG forum on tuning, one owner found the stock airbox restrictive By all means try placing the stock filter back on as it's not a huge amount of work to test it, I'm interested to see if that's the problem. Quite happy to be proved wrong, every day being a school day and all that

That is some pretty good welding .

If you read the underlying thread, he explains his equipment and techniques which are much more thorough than 'usual'. What I'm trying to reconcile in my mind is how you may have a lower film strength while at the same time having a lower heat value. The only thing I can figure so far is that the oil is more effectively removing heat from the metals.

Give us a bit more detail? My gut reaction is that your air filter has caused a lean condition. The old rule of thumb in 'stock engine' racing was that the intake side mods required rejetting while the exhaust side did not. If you find nothing disconnected, put the old filter back in to see if it returns to normal.

A stronger coil might lead the manufacturer to use a stronger contact spring, if you look at the specs they have quite a good current rating but always less than the Normally Open contact. If you look at all Carl's Guzzi drawings around that era only the 1999 VII Sport and the 2000 Quota put any significant current through the Normally Closed contact of the Start relay all the rest of the bikes (2000 Bassa, 2000 Jackal, 2002 Nevada, 2002 Stone & 2004 VII Catalytic) only use the Start relay N/C to switch the headlight Relay coil current ~100 milliamps there must have been a reason for that. I know my 1999 would drop as much as 1 Volt between the battery and the Voltage regulator at times (normally ~0.5 Volt) which I blame for destroying the regulator. The charging current goes up exponentially with Voltage, I'm sure there are other bikes that switch the headlight current through the Normally Closed contact but I can't help thinking its a bad idea. IMHO the Voltage reference for the regulator should be as true to the battery Voltage as possible, I always meant to try feeding the regulator reference from one of the lightly loaded ECU relay, I will never get around to doing that now. Measure the battery Positive to the black wire at the regulator before then after wiggling the two relays in their sockets you will see what I mean.

John, it uses the 16M. Don't think there's a version of GD for the 16M.

I had the privilege of chatting briefly with him at Mid-Ohio's vintage racing days the year MV Agusta hosted. Also demo-ed the new F41000. My autograph melted in my tank bag during the subsequent tour. Something in the man's eyes showed an awareness and grace.

I'll check the sensors. The sprint air filter is like a k&n. TPS is spot on 156.5MV. Throttle bodies look to be balanced on the carb mate but any adjustments do not help

yes injected

Have you located the rearmost mounting points upward into the rear subframe that ordinarily capture those rearmost holes on the #7 "fender" ?

I'd be game for even a 1 off... Or even if Mikko can chime in.. Wanna grab me some carbon...

At 1:27 Giacomo says, " . . . our body is like an engine. If you treat it well, you do 200.000 km . . . " So . . . mySport is like Giacomo Agostini at 80 years old!

Although under vastly different circumstances, culture and technology, he was the Rossi of his generation. Oh, the stories he can tell! Still sharp as a tack, but what's worse, he still has all of his hair!

They are different enough to have both! I can write a note. In fact, I think I just did . . .

I’m fortunate to have the best riding buddy ever, she rides the Honda CB 400 Super Four, which an awesome bike, & I’m on the Cafe Sport. We went camping down to the south west of Western Australia for a few days, it’s winter over here so it gets chilly in the evenings, we needed rain gear at times, but that didn’t put us off. The roads down here are lovely & bendy, the scenery is great & with a wood fire plus roasted marshmallows in the evenings., it was just the best. Another trip is currently being planned..

I knew a Dentist friend who called his bike "House Calls." His receptionist was trained to say, "No, the Doctor cannot see you today. He is out on House Calls."

" . . .happy Mercedes owners . . . " could be today's oxymoron . . .