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Just bought this for the second time, I need treatment, this will be number 15🤷‍♂️

Threads like this are awesome reads. The following is a true story ..... My wife didn't want me to get a motorcycle after the kids came along. Then, many years later, kids in college, I found out my brother in law got a Triumph Scrambler. So I said, if Ned can have a bike, why can't I? And she said, Ok how you going to pay for it? And I countered with, I'll sell a few mausers. And she said ok fewer guns, sounds good. She thought I was bluffing. I listed some of them, which quickly sold, my motorcycle fund grew, and started looking at craigslist but didn't really see anything I liked. My neighbor told me my other neighbor was selling a bike, a moto guzzi ... Took if for a ride. And that was it.

Ah, yes, yes. Let's ask the other inmates on the ward if we are really and actually crazy...

15 years ago I was really into the café scene, and fell upon the new Lignano Green Moto Guzzi V7 Café Classic. I was already a huge fan of V twins after Sportster ownership. Plus, my family is Italian! Eventually I bought a 2010 V7 Café Classic in that green that I loved so much. I had already built a 1963 Ford Falcon hotrod/custom, painted in a matte green so it felt like the V7 in this color was meant for me. Once in the garage, it was much loved, much used; still is. Years later when buying a 1989 Honda GB500 (this exact one) to add to my collection (I had sold the first one I owned), the seller mentioned wanting to also part ways with his 2003 V11, in burgundy. One look and it had to come home with me too! What a nice addition to my V7.

Check you haven’t missed reattaching one or more cables to the new battery.

I did all the carbon fibre upgrades on it then sold it?? cf side panels, front fender, belly pan and high level Mistrals , you just can’t find these bits anymore

It's funny how the Guzzi bug hits eh... I clearly remember reading a road test comparison in Two Wheels mag about 1980 which featured a Mark 3 LeMans and although it didn't win the test it seemed to strike a cord with the testers and more importantly with me! We never saw a single Moto Guzzi in ChCh ( NZ ) back then but I left NZ soon after and traveled for a few years and everytime I saw one it just seemed to reinforce the mystique! I can't remember which Greek Island I was on but was waiting at the docks to board the local ferry to another Island whilst the cars rolled off.Then all of a sudden there was an almighty explosion followed very quickly by another and the sound oh the sound.... of two motor bikes in the by now empty hold warming up and getting ready to roll off the ship.I was mesmerised and thought what the bloody hell could be making this music when off rolled two German Mark 3 LeMans....!! That cemented them in my Psyche for good. It took a while to finally get my own Guzzi... but by God it's here to stay! Cheers

All good ideas... and I would add a good front wheel chock to keep the bike upright on it's own. It's easy to roll the bike in and out of and works great in conjunction with the BT stand. It also comes in handy to do oil changes and to save space in the shop. Baxley makes the best ones, albeit a bit pricey but solid and will be an heirloom to your grandkids. Harbor Freight sells a cheap one(Guzzi content) which I have modified and mounted to the lift, works great. https://baxleycompanies.com/products/sport-chock?variant=39329523663022 A feeling of déjà vu - - - - @activpop I wonder where you got the idea of ordering your BT stand from SD? Or encore - - - -

I suppose it would be a good idea to jack up the bike if you know you are definitely not going to be riding it for some months. I don't do that, because I ride most of the year and never really know how long the bike will be standing around doing nothing. As far as lifters go, buy one of these: https://shop.becker-technik.de/en/products/central-lifter-24 and one of these to go with it: https://shop.becker-technik.de/en/products/radmutternschlussel-155 it's actually not a wrench as such, but rather a lever to aid in getting the bike on the stand. I always fit the stand such that the lever is going out towards the front of the bike rather than to the rear. That makes it easier to steady the bike by holding on to the right-hand handlebar with one hand whilst you lower the "wrench" to get the bike on the stand with the other hand (on the left-hand-side the side stand gets in the way, or you have to fold it in before you jack the bike onto the lifter...). I've haven't had any problems with this method to date. In additon to the Becker lifter, I have one of these: https://www.louis.de/artikel/rothewald-scherenheber-mit-adaptern/10003265?filter_article_number=10003265 With the bike on the Becker lifter, and that under the front of the motor, it is as easy as you like to get both wheels off the ground. PS: in addtion to the lifter (and the lever...) you need two standard half-inch drive 18 mm sockets. The go on the lowermost bolts on the pork-chops stilettos, and the lifter fits in to the drive side of them. I bought mine (probably for a "premium" price) directly from Becker with the lifter, but any standard socket will work.

That is a high compliment among so many admirable Moto Guzzi. It occurred to me that this particular V11 Sport Has been present at all nineteen of the nineteen South'n SpineRaids. (Would not have been possible without this amazing community!)

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..

Cheers Tom.

Yes easy to miss a cable connection on the v11. Phil

Ignition switch. Phil

@GuzziMoto I don't think Zarco had a choice if he wanted to stay in MotoGP. I think Martin's tires were gone, one lap too many....

Turns out Mr. McGregor had bought back his #T133 back in 2022 and now he needs to clear space in his garage - so there it is on sale again : No Reserve – 2002 Moto Guzzi V11 LeMans Tenni #133 – Iconic Motorbike Auctions

What I meant to say is any (and all) 15M can be swapped between different bike models with the proper map installed. The same goes for the 15RC's, but not between 15M and 15RC in the original bike configurations. Not on US models. The 15RC never made to this side of the pond, at least not on the V11 Sport. I have an 15M ECU in my stash that was originally intended for a V11 Sport but had a paper label for a V11 California on top of the original plastic one... I was able to carefully removed the paper label and preserve the original. It'll get a proper map written for the V11 Sport eventually... Very much like this one where you can just make out the "V11 Sport" writing of the original label under the paper one.

I put mine in the garage to have a "quick look" at a couple of things in July. It's still there. Not all that much to do before I can take it for a ride with a good conscience., but still: Summer? What summer?

There you have it. If your V11 has it . . .

I went looking in some workshop manuals. The only one I could find is in French, Italian and Spanish, but we have a couple of members here that could translate.... https://guzzitek.org/atelier/gb/1100/V11_99_03_Atelier(I_F_E).pdf Page 554 shows a drawing of one (only) Lamda sensor mounted on the crossover. The circuit diagram on page 610 also shows only one Lamda sensor, component number 59 according to the list on page 611

It occurs to me that not everyone knows what a Lamda sensor looks like, so... It's a thing screwed in to the exhaust system with two wires coming off it. The one on my Breva 750 is in the crossover pipe between the headers under the motor. That is where I would expect to find it on the V11 models that have one. It looks like this:

I don't know for sure if it was "all 15M ECUs", but I've got one of them in my V11 Le Mans, built in 2002. As has been mentioned above, I believe the workshop manual lists the ECU type. What I have gathered is: It will be either a 15M or a 15RC. The breakpoint was 2002 or 2003, as far as I have been able to establish. Mine has a paper sticker on it that says "Le Mans 2002". I was told by a very reliable source that ECUs were used that had been initally installed in a California model and were recalled on warranty because they were not correctly programmed. These were re-programmed in the factory and installed in V11 models. Under the paper sticker, when it is carefully and completely removed, the original "California" designation should be visible. As an aside, my 2005 Breva 750 has a 15RC ECU, and the designation on it is, I believe, printed directly onto the housing and not on a sticker. If not that, it is a plastic sticker. So the remains of a paper sticker indicate a 15M. As far as I know, all the models with 15RC ECUs have a Lamda sensor. If there is no Lamda sensor in the exhaust, it must be a 15M. Guzzidiag shows the ECU designation on the screen in large script on the bottom left of the screen. Connect it up, and there will be no doubt.

Ouch, 2 yrs! I’ve been feeling bad about only getting Red out on the road this summer for a handful of rides, my “least riding miles” year I’ve ever had. Came back from Mandello last week, where I rented a V85tt from Agostini’s (Lucca… good man), and had a great time on the back roads up behind Perledo, into Esino and back in that area. Motivated me to roll Red back out when i got home, re-installed the FOBO tire pressure monitors, put some fuel stabilizer in in anticipation of winter storage, and took her out for a lovely spin on our own great backroads near home. She’s sweet. Will assemble the misc items for her winter maintenance coming up in a couple months, albeit with only about 1000 miles put on her this year. Greenie still languishes on the stand. And scheming how to unload Greenie and Goldie to make room for a V85 or V100…

Photo-crashing RedFrameTrash !

Greetings from the top of Virginia This is a belated slideshow story of the South’n Spine Raid 19. Real life gets in the way of all the things I really want to do, so it took awhile to get these done. As attendees know, I rode my new Moto Guzzi V85 to Tennessee almost entirely on backroads; Kathi -- my Perfect Pillion & Polish Princess! -- “slabbed" it in our newer Fit. It’s nice to have a “support vehicle” on motorcycle trips. As with the last several years, the SSR is on the first weekend after Labor Day, and is held, as all who have followed this thread know, at the The Lodge at Tellico in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. We return there again and again because we cannot imagine a better venue than the Lodge, or more convivial and supportive hosts than innkeepers Bryan and Catherine. As I said in my previous and similar slideshows sets, e.g., Mutton Runs, "of course there are too many photos." What's your point? I took over 300, so these mere — no, telling you now would spoil the surprise — should be easy. The link opens in “landscape collage” format, so you can see all at a glance without slogging through one by one unless you want to do that. Hover your curser over any pic to see the caption. The pix? Here: SSR 19 2023 [NOTE - This additional info is for the two or three of you who actually open the full pix and watch the slideshow. 😉 For maddening reasons I do not completely understand, the captions “disappear” if one enlarges the pix and goes through them. On “pure” slideshow, i.e., automatic switching to next slide, the captions continue to appear, but the pace is quick. Keeping the cursor in the “caption area” seems to help if going through manually. As I said, maddening. If anyone knows the trick to make it more seamless, please tell me.] Ciao! Bill P.S. If anyone pictured has an objection to any photo or caption, please tell me. Naturally, I’ll laugh and laugh … erm … I mean I’ll do something about it.

It's a long story... My first road bike was a Suzuki GSX 250 E. Japanese reliabilty, but not all that exciting. Whilst I was still riding that, I saw a V 50 Monza, and was stunned at how good it looked. My second bike in Melbourne was a 1976 Z 900. I loved it. Beautiful, comprimised handling, and a great motor. I developed the attitude with that bike, that I'd rather have something that required riding skills than something that anyone can be resonably fast on. I have a clear memory from that time of seeing someone ride past through a long, sweeping curve on a Guzzi, probably a Le Mans or Le Mans II, and thinking "that sounds great". I wrote up a list once, about 35 years ago, of all the bikes I had ridden. Some of the rides were very short, and some of the bikes very boring, but I think I topped 100 different bikes. Whilst I had the Z 900, I shared a house with a mate who had an 850 Le Mans III. Just as beautiful as the V 50 Monza. I was able to ride it a number of times. The clutch was heavy, I repeatedly banged my left knee on the the cylinder, and the seat was about as comfortable as a wooden plank. Riding it, I noticed how often people in cars at the traffic lights were staring at the bike in wonder. And then, outside of town after a series of curves at about 130km/h, how I had completely forgotten about the heavy clutch, the bruises on the left knee, and the unforgiving seat. I thought "ahhhh, that's what it's for...". On top of that, when one blipped the throttle, it kicked to the side a bit. Like it was saying "come on, let's go". And it was deceptively fast. Sovereign, one could say. Sometime after I moved to Munich in Germany, I saw a V35 Imola (looks identical to the V 50 Monza...) on the street just up from where I lived. I thought at the time "no, probably not enough power", but still thought it was beautiful. About 10 years later, a V35 Imola was the first Guzzi that I bought. It hadn't been ridden for around 19 years. I pulled it apart, cleaned it up, and got it registered. And loved it from the first moment on. The V11 Le Mans was a considered decision. I had had a Kawasaki GTR 1000 for a number of years, but the reasons for having it were no longer all that relevant (long distances on the Autobahn on the way to a job with lots of luggage), and I was starting to think in terms of "if not now, when? It might be too late...". I'm still not convinced about the looks of the V11 (Blasphemy!!!), but the package looked good. I thought it might offer all the fascination of the the Le Mans III that my mate had back in the day, but work better. I was right. I loved it from the first minute I rode it. In the meantime I have also acquired a low mileage Breva 750IE. A boring bike on paper, but I wanted something that was "new" enough, in as much as one can call a 20 year old bike "new", that it would just work without having to be constantly worrying about what might be about to break. I've done about 2,000 km. on it up to now, and I've become very fond of it. Ugly, although it's growing on me, but really nice to ride. What fascinates me is that all three of them have the same character. The big blocks and the small blocks have practically nothing in common apart from the basic 90° twin configuration, but they still feel the same somehow. I've still got a GTR 1000, but it will be sold sometime in the near future. I'm not sure that I wont miss having an in-line four, but I'm willing to take the chance. The Guzzis are staying.

🫵

Looks like Mr. McGregor is back in the V11 owners club, if the Tenni in the clip is from his personal collection. As his old #133 is still in Austin/TX documented in the registry, i guess he was lucky to find somebody willing to part from his piece of guzzi history.

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 is actually something good to consider! Owning both an Air cooled Monster AND a V11 Guzzi. What would be the best Monster to purchase? perhaps the Monster 1100 EVO, so the V11 would have a real sister?

my daughter orderd us the dvd http://www.longwaydown.com/ Can't way till it shows up. today's clip shows them coming up on an accident.....

Priceless advertising for Guzzi - better than anything they manage in the press etc - Griso looked, sounded, great. KB