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get out of bed... head toward the coffee.... walk past that .... life is good!

Ha - I'll bet many of us thought we could rescue a special car and found out later that it was a bad idea. In the early 1990s I bought a 1982 Mercedes 500SEL. It was a German (not US) model that someone had imported. I thought I got it for a great price (just needed a little work). It was loaded. Remote start and pre-heater. Hydraulically adjustable ride height, power and heated everything. Monstrous 5 litre power. But oh... the parts unavailability and repair bills. Traded it to a dealer to get a two year old first-gen Infinity Q45. Pearl white with white carpets and white leather interior. That thing was a rocket. Then we had a baby. I sold that and got a Toyota T100 that was trouble free for many years. I've sworn off luxury cars, and now I only like trucks (though I had a dalliance with a sporty Volvo V70). But I must confess, the Bronco has the "Lux" package and it's pretty damn cozy.

Are you for real gstallons? ”Don’t be so pernickety.”______________ Anyhoo.. seems if everyone’s more or less on board with Jaap’s sentiment - myself included - I’m not taking umbrage so I’ll just easily move the needle onto the next track… Ah Bob Dylan. Classic. Old political songs are more palatable than fresh protest presumably. Always enjoyed contemplating what Bob had to croon - #1.

Protest songs and political statements in songs are as old as the road to Rome. And everyone is free to agree or disagree. Hell, I don't agree with everything Bob Dylan wrote. But as you all know, a political discussion is not allowed on this forum! My suggestion: Everybody is free to post music vids. All I ask of you is to think carefully what you post here. And for the people who disagree with the content of some of these videos: just don't react. It's not that hard. Thanks!

Honey don't walk out I'm too drunk to follow

It does. But an easier method is to put the bike on a rear stand so the rear tire is off the ground, pull both spark plugs, put the bike in a higher gear, and use the rear tire to rotate the engine. That makes it easy to rotate the engine the correct way, just spin the rear tire the same direction it would spin going down the road, and using a higher gear gives you leverage over it to make it easier to rotate. You can do it without the rear stand, just rolling the bike in gear with the plugs out if you lack a rear stand.

GTV6?

I just brought home a beautiful, near perfect, red frame 2000 V11 in black.

There is typically a mark on the flywheel. But it is easier to pull the valve cover and rotate the engine until the piston comes up (a pencil in the sparkplug hole will tell you that) looking for TDC of that piston with both valves closed. One TDC will have both valves somewhat open and the next TDC will have both valves closed. As I recall, the mark on the flywheel is typically in Italian. S for Sinistra (Left in Italian). If you want to see the mark on the flywheel there is a black plug on the flywheel bell housing you can pull. Try not to loose the plug.

"Operators are standing by . . ."

All: Sorry for the delay and for being incommunicado. April and May are always busy months for me, then my kids wrap up school, so lots of other priorities. Now on vacation (hang gliding school with kids) and next week off to Colorado for wedding (I decided instead of renting a car, I'd get a bike, so I have a used sport touring waiting for me to pick up there). Not much free time for Guzzi stuff between all this. Meanwhile, the fabricator had his big show in Vegas, lost his mold maker, and had a TKR. Between him and me, we haven't had a confluence of time to connect at great length. Last I spoke with him, he was planning to work on it last week and see if he could get quality edges with a different technique. I told him I don't need at mold that can be released a thousand times, so let's see what happens. As far as commitments go, there are none. I didn't want to take anyone's money for exactly this reason: the stars not quite aligning and people being pissed at me. It hasn't been a priority for me lately, or the fabricator. It'll be after July 4 by the time I get around to dealing with it, and then I'm at the mercy of the fabricator. I'll update when I know more, hopefully with pics of a sample. But no guarantees this will be soon.

Yes. A friend of mine had one, in the early 80's. Really fun car to drive...

Yes , you can do it that way , removing the spark plugs will make rotating the c/shaft MUCH easier .

PerSnickety... Damn, I had to look it up!! For a minute I thought, that’s the sound of your engine with loose valve lash... Where else can you enrich your vocabulary with technical terms as such?! Love it!

I just read through the thread and the linked thread... it doesn't get good reviews. I can't recall ever wishing my bike had one tho they can be handy if not too obtrusive. Welcome to the forum, ...cute dog

Yes, I want

Not Guzzi's (and many here have already seen these two), but my girls live on cork flooring over top of oak flooring (the cork is cheap flooring to protect the solid oak flooring). And glad you found such a sweet V11, FuelCooler. The red frame V11's are my favorite.

What footgoose said. No worries. If and when it works out I am in for one. But I can wait, and if it never happens I won't get upset. Life is too short. Enjoy the hang gliding trip and the Colorado ride. I would love to ride Colorado. We take our Jeep there, love it. Seems like a good place to ride.

No need to pay me for fat fingering the order, but if you *want* another I'll put a 3 beside your name instead of 2.

Ok, Tim.. you are on the list, and I have your address.

Ooh, well if it helps you to cover the costs I like to make my order one more, 3 in total. Always a good birthday present for the V11 friends in the neighbourhood.

Too right. Is the ETS working?

If it's that bad then you've got more issues than CO at 21. Phil

Just put in my order, since it is requisite reading! This explains why my Quota and 430 use the exact same throttle position sensor, and they are the only two vehicles that use that TPS. What are the odds....

Oh, this says it all. I so want to love the Trident. It has an historical tie to our SpineFrames . . .

Received the chrome moly today, and thought, "man.. that's heavier than I would expect." Sure enough, I fat fingered the order and got 2 pieces instead of one. That should be a lifetime supply of shifter extender stock.. At any rate, this run is officially on. I'll take material and a .dxf file to the water jet shop tomorrow.

My Wife likes it in Brown!

I heard BMW stood for "Big Money Wasted" I like Italian Engineering! Especially in Red (I have two red Alfas from the 80's)

True! Just teasing a bit. I hope my Sport doesn’t go on a hate streak for my transgression. . .

Agreed. Older cars were basic and better for it. That said, 100k on a 60's car was considered high miles. 200k seems to be the new 100k. New cars are for convenience... till they are not. I think some repair requirements are there to give a boost to the dealers to keep them happy and prosperous. My 2010 Jeep Commander ignition key cost $170. to replace and $80. to program it. Reprogram done using the existing key, if I'd lost both keys?? tech said... "don't lose both keys"

You need to go to logged faults and clear any indicated before you can change the CO as well. CO at 21, no big deal. It may run better that way. There is no gospel rule that says it needs to be at zero. Phil

V11 Operators are standing by . . .

Frey do not worry. People will be people and do what they have to do. I appreciate any effort in someone trying to do something cool for the community. Several good things have come together for us here from member efforts just like yours. Sometimes they work out, sometimes not. I wouldn't have the patience for your endeavor, so kudos to you for it.

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.

That’s NOT what I wanted to hear LOL or was I ? Ok ok better save up…….

I'm subscribing to this 4 CD collection, one a month. TTB "I am the Moon" This is the first CD. WOW

Very nice. Looks pristine. Love the black and red combo. Red frames rock! So Italian!

IDK about a MG , but you can do it on a small block Chevy . It takes practice and patience or a lot of hubris .

As a blanket statement valve clearances get tighter with the engine at operating temperature, however doccs test was a little flawed in that the engine isn't running. The valve temps on a running engine are wildly different to a warmed up engine sitting stationary for 5 min while you get the rocker cover off and measure the clearances. Also different materials expand at different rates. My VFR750 Honda during warm up had valve noise that went from silent to tappety and back to quiet again as the head and valves all expanded at different rates. So measuring valve clearances with a warm engine doesn't actually tell you what the valve clearance is running at WOT with the valves running red hot. In that scenario you wont have more valve clearance than cold and thats what you set the clearances for,valve and head temp running at WOT at peak torque. Ciao

So why not reduce to even smaller clearances...........? Just asking

Ambient temperatures are variable - Sweden in winter or North Australia in summer? Could be different by 50 Celsius