ferguzzi

Thanks for alll the answers, all food for thought. Sooo...... the 1100 sports aren't really all that different, and buying a bike just because it's pretty seems a bit silly. The daytona's more of a handful, costs twice as much, but seems a very different prospect with regard to riding. But it costs twice as much. Of course the other 2 options are a duke 996, or a benelli tre, both same price as an 1100 sport. No one knows how to fix a benelli in Ireland(and they do break apparently), so weirdly the duke's the sensible buy. But I have a feeling I'd be happier on a guzzi! Any guzzi.... So unless you need an engineering PHD to own a daytona, maybe I should start saving my pennies. Shame because there are a lot of clean 1100 sports out there...

No. Too gay for me. Haha!

Spent the day daydreaming about adding to the stable. The original plan was for a norge, but we two up tour so rarely I've decided against it and just rent whenever the urge grabs us. Which leaves a vacant spot in the garage.... To be honest the whole 1100i, carb or daytona thing is a little confusing. I like them all to look at, but I've ridden an 1100 carb and didn't find it particularly different to my tenni. Nothing massive anyway. Do the 1100i or daytona differ from the carb much? And apart from exclusivity(and price), are the 1100i and daytona much different? I know its a "how long is a piece of string" question, but its raining, and I'm starting to drive the Mrs mad...

So the leaking timing gasket's been repaired, the tps has finally been sorted,I've got new oil, I've got a new set of rubber, all's well with the world and God is in his heaven! I took the beast over to the the uk last weekend, went to an airshow, went BSB at oulton park, she didn't miss a beat! Ok, it pissed out of the heavens for 4 days, my "waterproofs" leaked, and the Fabulous welsh roads were shrouded in pea soup, but who cares when your guzzi is behaving like the thoroughbred she was meant to be. ....And there's a niggling issue of a leaking front fork, and I'm noticing small bubbles on the base of my fuel tank, but thats all for another day. TODAY, I RIDE! wonder how long this feeling will last.....

I love that spit footage, it's a classic. I took the tenni over to the uk for the weekend, and got royally pissed on, we spent Saturday at the fairford airshow, and I finally got to fulfil a lifes ambition by seeing a Vulcan fly. Spectacular. I don't know why military aircraft are sexier then civilian ones, they just are. Certainly there's not a lot sexy about the A340s I fly for a living.

Bugger bugger bugger. I'm not going to make it, I'm working all that weekend. Typical.

Its too late for me to request it off, but if I am free, I'll be there with bells on. I won't know until middle of june...

Thanks very much for that, all very clear. I managed to come across a thread from someone with a similar problem to me(seems it's not that rare), and BFG suggests sealing it externally with a silicone sealant. I think I'll give it a go first before I start ordering parts. Coward that I am. It's definetly a gasket leak, the seap is very obvious when you clean the crap off, and there's a small piece of the old gasket escaping. I did a recce before considering this, and noticed the left screw to the subframe is an allen key type, but the right one is a torx head, which I don't have, but it shouldn't be too hard to get hold of. Wonder why the variation? Also I see some people mention using grease to keep the gasket in place before tightening, and some people mention sealant. I'm guessing this is the same silicone sealant that's been suggested for the external fix?( I think loctite was mentioned?) Thanks again...

Wow, I only just start a new topic, and I find this one. Call me a coward, but I'll try the external cure myself , and see what happens. My problem is definetly a leaking gasket, as you can see bits of it protruding. Ratchet really was a d**k, wasn't he? (sorry Jaap).

So, continuing what seems to be an unending saga of me being the most unlucky V11 owner on the planet(I'm sure this isn't true but ,God, sometimes I wonder...), My trusty(?) Tenni has sprung a fairly impressive oil leak. I've managed to isloate the leak to the timing case gasket, and have decided{bravely) to replace it myself. Not that I have a lot of choice in this part of the world, but anyway... I'm hoping for the sake of simplicity I dont have to take the alternator apart, if that's the case, with any luck this might be reasonably manageable. So what are the pitfalls or tricks of the trade I should be aware of with regard to changing any gasket? I'm learning as I go here, so no suggestion/hint is too basic. I am going to order 2 gaskets,in case I make a balls of the first one. cheers, Ferg.

Well, ok, a slightly un- politically correct thread, as I'm gay and so's my wife. Anyway.... The aprilia moto 6.5. I never understood the reasoning. It's not a cruiser, naked bike or...anything really. It's just odd. And I never saw anyone ride one in proper bike gear. They wore suits. Even ties. Very odd... And also the Honda Rune. As cruisers go, it wasn't. A friend of mine in Vancouver has one. It's purple, I think. He keeps it in his attic. It has no miles. He thinks it's worth a fortune! I think he's mad.

No, don't bother, he'll just find something else to bleat about! Tenni # 161.

Ohh you'll be sent to hell for that one, Dutchman!!!!

Damn. War and religion, two things the paddies are pretty decent at. I was about to get all Irish on your ass! Happy Christmas, and a peaceful new year to all. Ferg.

Not forgetting violence, sadism & torture, described in loving detail without aim of furthering characterisation or plot. Could have been an epic story but got bogged down in vouyerism. That's the book, not seen the film. KB Not sure I agree with you there. Yes it was violent, but no worse that any run-of-the-mill war story nowadays, and at least it treated it seriously. I think that it was one of the first scenes I've ever read that actually described sexual abuse realistically. A bit of realism in that regard isn't a bad thing I reckon, much as real combat is rarely described realistically(even in the non-fiction media), lest it upset the wrong person. And of course thereby prevent 18 year olds from enlisting. The original swedish film doesn't graphically show the violence. but it still gives a very good portrayal of what happens, leaving the worst of it to your imagination, making it even more upsetting, of course. The soul of the story of Lisbeth Sander is how she has been abused in every way, not just sexually. I thought it was almost the crux of the whole book.

Yeah, gratuitous lesbian sex too. All told the Hollywood version's meant to be very good, and fincher's got a lot to do with that. I'm a little dubious, because the books were very good, the Swedish movies were not bad either. I have to say, I don't see how "let the right one in" could have been improved, something about the drab coldness of Sweden really added to it. And it totally blew me away. Best movie of the year, no contest. Can't see how it could be made better..

Well yeah, but I'm not sure I could manage a whole pint...

I'm there! Just give me plenty of warning on the dates...

Gutted. Brilliant rider, ballsy and the next biking great. Rip.

Thanks for that Dave. When reading it in bed I started laughing and woke the Mrs up. I tries to blame you, but she wouldn't listen.

Sitting in a hotel room in hong kong, 3 in the morning local, watching fishing show on discovery. Saw the red hot chilli peppers yesterday on the first date of their tour. Brilliant. Home tomorrow, hosting a dogshow in our village festival on Saturday(bizarrely), tenni's doing the misfiring thing at 3000 rpm, trying the various suggestions, nothing yet. I can see plenty of pints of black stuff Saturday night. Haven't been home in a week, reckon I deserve it!

Dave did you piss off a God in a previous life or something?!

When I fitted RAM unit I had a mismatch between dimensions of clutch pushrod & clutch centre button resolved by using OME button in RAM clutch. Was this the problem your mechanic had? Was whole clutch assy replaced or just flywheel? KB Got it in one Keith, that seemed to be the exact problem. The whole assembly was replaced, as that's all that was offered. Looking into the peephole, it appears to be aluminium. I've got the remains of the old assembly and RAM is written on at least one of the parts, but not the flywheel. I've also got the receipt sent to my local garage from mecca, and it says: 0140 clutch kit v11 Tenni (s/plate)....683 pounds. So none the wiser, really. but I'm glad that (sort of) clears up the pushrod/centre button issue, eventhough it seems an odd mistake to make! If it is a complete ram kit, should I be worried of a repeat in about 10,000 miles?( I'm assuming the ram flywheel is aluminium?)

Well now, therein lies a very long and boring story. There are no guzzi dealerships in ireland, unless you count the dodgy one bfg dealt with, and belfast is about 6 hours from me, so not really an option. So (stupidly), and bearing mind I'm not much of a mechanic, I took the cowards route, brought the bike to my local, but nationally respected bike shop, and let them sort it out. They had never dealt with a guzzi before. So they ordrered the completely new clutch assembly from Ducati dublin, who then lost it. About 5 months later I got them to order it from moto mecca( a reputable guzzi place in the uk), and a month later it arrived, and they fitted it. Now I didn't see what they fitted. They just phoned moto mecca, said "I need a full clutch assembly for a tenni", moto mecca looked it up, ordered it from Guzzi in Italy and thats what was fitted. There was then 6 months(no kidding) of pick the bike up from shop, ride for 50 miles, find massive oil leak, bring bike back, scratch heads. 3 or 4 times. In the end it seems they had been using a "generic" engine seal/gasket whereas they should have used the bespoke guzzi one. Having eventually phoned moto mecca and been told that "you have to use the guzzi one", they did, so problem solved. So far so good. So to answer a few questions, no I don't know what was fitted. steel? aluminium? The original is aluminium(the one pictured), or so I've always thought, so I'm guessing so is the new one. With regard to will it happen again, well, here's hoping lightning won't strike twice. God, how naiive. BUT THERE'S A PART TWO OF THE STORY......... This bit I'd love some informed opinions-Pete Roper, I'm looking your direction..... I wrote about this elsewhere, but the bones are: I then put 1000 mile on the bike, no problem. the clutch had a very light trigger, but nothing you couldn't deal with. I take it to Holland, the clutch give up in France. It gets brought to a Guzzi shop, where a greasy frenchman who obviously knows his stuff but can't speak a word of english takes it apart in front of me over about 2 hours. Now again bear with me if some of my techie speak is a bit pedestrain.... It seems that the clutch pin was not fitting correctly in to the correctly sized orifice. The hole it was trying to fit into had 2 diameters, one wider then the other, and the pin was fitting as far as the wider one, but not the(further in) hole. Basically the pin when moving didn't have full travel. Hence the very light trigger, I guess. So either the pin was the wrong size, or the hole was. And I don't know if it was the original pin. The mechanic hadn't a clue either. What he eventually did was to bore out the hole to the correct size, and now the pin fits snugly. As far as I know. But i don't know why it didn't fit in the first place, in other words, what did i get fitted? When I eventually got to Holland, by car, Paul Minneart reckoned that maybe moto mecca sent a 5 speed clutch assembly, instead of 6 speed. I dropped into Moto Mecca a few months ago, and explained the story. They could show me the order they had made to guzzi in Mandello, and it was for a Tenni. So what did Guzzi send?

well that's a bollocks. Still got your bike,at least.