Leaderboard

That is the same as the original setup my Daytona came with. Mine was sold as a '93 Daytona. It does have a marker at 55 mph, but not a light. It is from the days of the national 55 mph speed limit. Yes, at one point cars had a light for 55, but I have not seen a motorcycle with that. I have seen motorcycles like that where 55 mph was pronounced and was supposed to assist you in not going faster by making 55 obvious.

Mike's own Daytona RS is in the museum I visited in 2023. I took some shots but I don't remember how the instruments looked. A good reason to return there, anyhow. One thing I do remember, is that I tried the clutch lever there too, and it was just as hard as the Daytona at Mike's MPH. He actually did remind me about it when we had that conversation about the Daytona in his shop. He said he purchased it as a testimony to Moto Guzzi's craft ability. I am supposed to go back there today, I will ask Mike about the odometer.

The US national 55 mph speed limit was in force from 1974 to 1987. Even in 2000, when I purchased my V11 Sport, the vestigial "55" marker remained (thirteen years after the law sunsetted!). When I designed my Speedhut replacements, I decided to highlight 100 kph as 62 in the remaining 55 zones is generally acceptable by law enforcement and the motoring public. Plus, it's a nice round number where the tach needles lays in alignment in fifth gear whistling along . . .

I’m not certain of any of this but I know there was a period in the US when speedometers had to have a light that came on when you exceeded a certain speed, 50 mph or some such nonsense? I would have thought that that predated the early Daytonas but I really have no idea. All I do know is that speedo seems to be equipped with such a light. Whether that means the speedo is non genuine? Whether I’m completely wrong? Or whether when building that run of bikes, (And it was one of Guzzi’s ‘Cash Crisis’ periods.) and they just found a box of speedometers under the bench and said “They’ll do!” I have no idea. Anyway, Mike Haven is both honest and very talented, as is Davey, his offsider. As such you can be sure that any old bike they’ve revived will be as well sorted as it’s sensible to be. Would I own an early Hi-Cam? F*ck off! I’m not that mad! But they are a lovely thing in their own special way………

Well, my shirt size is "extra medium".

I didn't find the clutch pull on mine any heavier than other Guzzis, I did notice that the arm onto the gearbox could get gummed up with road debris, possibly due to the larger rear section tyre, so worth checking. As Phil states cable condition and routing also make a big difference. Looks like an early Daytona, the forks on them weren't the best, quite a few replaced them with GSXR forks. The oil pump which is a known weakness, but at that mileage not an immediate concern The standard Daytona didn't suffer from the oil pressure and overheating issues I've had with the C kit cams, so of no concern. The engine is great, totally different in character from a 2 v/v and IMHO a huge amount of fun to ride. Apart from acess as the front being a bit cramped (due to the belts), they are easy to work on as any of the 2 v/v bikes too.

I was at MPH (Houston, Tx) today for an unrelated trip, and I came upon a Guzzi Daytona in their workshop. Speaking to MPH's Mike Haven, the owner of this bike wants to sell it, as its just gathering dust in his garage. It is my understanding that it has not run for a while, don't know how long. Nevertheless, Mike said the bike is in top shape, and they are going over everything. As you can see in the photos below, the bike is not tagged, and has only 8698 miles on the odometer. I thought, well, since it is right there up for grabs, I should indulge. That was until I tried the clutch lever. It requires too much effort for my damaged left hand. So if any of you is interested, let me know. I can go back and take a lot more photos, and ask Mike for the owner's contact.

1995 1100Sport carb edt 28k. 1996 1100Sport inj edt 96km. Only 8k rpm. Whatever they had on the shelves. Cheers Tom. Sent fra min SM-S906B via Tapatalk

I've never seen anything in the US with a speed limit warning, up until very recent with navigation etc. My kid just bought one of those French defender-looking things, and it has a very annoying dinger when you exceed the speed limit, they're waiting for the US programming to be able to delete it so I'll say that it's a Euro thing. My Sport is wearing a Daytona Tacho, came from Harpers so I know it's Daytona but don't know what years; it has a 9000 rpm redline.

If you scrub through the best review I could find about the Daytona, at 3:48 into the video you have a view of the instruments. The odometer is not similar to the one on the Daytona at Mike's MPH; However, the bike shown has an odometer in km and speed in km/h. The one at Mike's has dual units, miles and kilometers. I remember from the old days, that one of my friend who had purchased a Commando directly from UK, had to change from miles to km to get it registered in France.

I'll register this year, as my bike is in Michigan and I have to get it back to El Paso. I may take a week, or two, and see how many stops I can pick up. April or May, most likely.

My Daytona which was an early version in the UK had the 2 white clocks, the speedo was in kph with small mph markings on the inside (just like the mph one on that bike has kph markings on the inside) My Magni 1100, esentially a Sporti had that style of speedo though, so I wouldn't rule out that its not original. More likely it's down to what was available in the factory at the time and what the US regulatory bodies were demanding so bikes could be sold there. IMHO its a bit of an eyesore and that speedo style was used on the LM 1000s as I recall. The tach is identical to all the Sportis and Daytonas I've seen too

Yes, "Gummikuh". Refers to things like the R80 and R90. Softish suspension, but still surprisingly fast.

I also liked the R nine T racer and thought it was the only one of them I'd even consider, but I hear the riding possie is a killer and I have a dodgy neck! Hypothetical as not about to be replacing the V11 anyways... Cheers

All comments expected and I would keep the Ballabio if I could as it’s probably the best one I’ve owned, I’ve replaced lots of selector springs and single plate clutches for myself and others over the years so it’s time to enjoy riding more, the guys who know me in the uk are still welcome to call in and talk bollocks and drink tea

I like the honesty there; 'as for (singletrack) don't ruin these MotoGuzzis (they don't belong there)' Overall, great review and comparison. I've been eyeballing V85TTs since last summer, and @Bill Hagan's pretty example at Tellico. The '04 BMW GS is an act of desperation to turn around on a service road and more than just a handful on singletrack. The MG would be a great replacement, giving my usage and abilities.