80CX100

Interesting observation, I considered buying a set, but like you I ride on crappy road surfaces with a lot of tar snakes/seams and I had read that tires with an open center groove will follow seams and snakes. It was tough finding tires without that center groove, so for that reason and good reviews went with Conti Road Attacks. Still haven't tried them yet and tested the theory.

It might take some searching on here or wildguzzi, but I know I've read threads recently that there were still at least 2 suppliers that still had NOS of those Omron relays. good luck

I did the same thing Phil. I put really bright suspended LED ceiling mounted shop lights in and they work great; but the brighter light makes for even darker shadows in the in the middle or bottom of whatever I'm working on; the headlamp cuts through the shadows.

Wear some type of breathing protection while you're working/cleaning until you get the mold spores and varmint droppings cleaned up, bleach is a good cheap surface mold killer and white latex paint will go a long way to sealing and brightening the space. I'm not sure what your climate is like, but time & money spent sealing the space will make a bigger difference, rather than just insulation alone. You can never have too much electrical power or bright lighting, for my old eyes, nothing beats bright sunshine coming over my shoulder onto whatever I'm working on. Good looking structure for your project

BMW's? really? where? Quick, turn off the lights and close the curtains, maybe they'll think we're not home and the riff raff will keep moving, lol. PB, I can't offer any insight to technical difficulties joining the forum, likely had something to do with the rigorous, vetting and scrutineering committee,working silently but diligently in the background, obviously you passed the mustard, welcome, but be careful you don't hit your head on the cone of silence as you enter to kiss the ring.

As an owner I'm a bit biased, but Suzuki DR650s have a great reputation for that type of touring as well as the Himalayan. I know Royal Enfield support is a little skimpy in North America not sure what it would be like in Peru compared to Suzuki, fwiw. Either way. sounds like a great area for an adventure tour.

19 hours ago, Gmc28 said: situational awareness at a glance. Yup, back in the day, I've done a lot of wilderness travelling, so I'm very comfortable with topographical maps or google map print outs, I have a natural mistrust of anything digital so have never jumped into the GPS game; but there have been many times on a back country ride that I really missed the "situational awareness" you're describing. Many times I'm not lost, but I really don't know where I am, I take a bearing from the sun and head in the general right direction, it works for me. One ride in particular, it was a cloudy overcast day with no sun and a thunderstorm was blowing in hard, I made the first mistake of not stopping and verifying my exact location on the map, and went with my gut feeling that if I made a couple of right hand turns, I'd be headed east in the general direction of home; but with no sun to give me a bearing, I didn't realize that I had ridden around and come out on the opposite side of a mountain; I caught my mistake about 100 miles from home, ended up riding though the eye of a very nasty storm with lightening strikes all around me; a GPS would've been nice to have

I started using those Dowty washers on any plugs that had a tendency to leak or weep oil, ie sump, tranny, diff, but especially the fork drain plugs; they solve a lot of niggly leak problems, fwiw.

Those washers go by a couple of different names, iirc "Dowty" being one of them. I can't remember where I got my supply, Amazon, MGCycle or the local hydraulic supply shop? fwiw. At $5 each, I'd be sourcing the good ones locally.

It's not just you, I've fiddled with photo shop and all sorts of crap to adjust file size, but no go. Do you have a 10 yr old kid that lives near by? lol

The Griso, Stelvio and Norge are all referred to as "CARC" bikes for their shared rear diff design. Idk what all the differences in the frames are, but iirc shock swaps have been done between the Griso & Stelvio; the longer shock from the Stelvio to raise the Griso a bit and vice versa, so they're not that far apart. At first I didn't like the look of the Griso, but it grows on you, it is a fine back roads roadster. When I saw a good deal come up on a well farkled 2007 2 Valve, in the faster color, I couldn't resist adding it to the herd,lol

Hey Pete, I know there were some extra springs available, not sure if that's still true, contact SCUD, he's the guy that kindly took care of that. Afaik, Chuck has been keeping a lower profile working on airplane projects, while he's recovering from a recent surgery on his hands. Kelly

Tks for sharing that photo, that sucks; I'll make sure to never buy one of those. Can't help you with the dipstick, but to keep you going in the mean time; I've never done it myself, but I've read of owners drilling a few tiny holes in the plastic dipstick to help hold the oil and show the level better. fwiw ymmv good luck

Wow, if that's legit in good shape, sounds like it might be a good deal.

That's a real sad one Bill, sorry that you had to witness and live through that. I'm certain that your presence brought great comfort to the victim's friend. Please be very careful using tools or doing things with any risk involved for the next few weeks while your head is busy digesting what you've just been through. You may never know the true cause of the accident, but I hear of similar fatals in my area on a semi-regular basis; that innocent looking curve is deceptive, seems like a bit of a downhill, off camber tightening radius, with shiny patches on the pavement; there can be room for error or minor miscalculations on a light, responsive bike, but on a heavy cruiser, the weight and momentum can be very unforgiving when things go sideways. Condolences and prayers to all those involved. Thanks for sharing and keeping us mindful Kelly

Hey Docc, It's over my head and above my pay grade, but I love reading knowledgeable gearheads really getting into it. lol.! Tks for snagging those images, they're worth a thousand words to me.

Hey Docc, I had the info filed and fresh because I had just ordered one for my Lemans. lol Both MRA and Gustaffson are highly regarded, but MRA was carried by Twisted Throttle in Canada, so with no exchange rate/shipping/customs fees, it was a no brainer. Tks for providing the link JTucker, I couldn't remember the name of Gustaffson's website. To the OP, this link that JTucker provided will take you right to the Gustaffson screens, fyi https://bikescreen.com/products/moto-guzzi-magni I love the look of the Magni Fairing, very nice lines. good luck with it Kelly

MRA has different models,,, but for something unique, possibly special order, I think Gustaffson might be a better possibility. Good luck Kelly

Just thinking out loud fwiw,,, Your 2004 V11 should in theory have a 15RC ECU equipped with a lambda; verify what's actually printed on the label of your ECU under the seat. Mine has a long number with 15M at the end. If this is a "new to you" bike and you don't know the PO, history or what has actually been done, and it's always ran like crap, you "may" have a lambda sensor or the wiring connections for one and it's just been tucked up somewhere out of sight and it was never actually turned off or disabled when the F by F crossover was installed. I don't know how they're wired and if it could be an issue, but when you unplugged the Power Commander, did you chase down and reconnect the original wiring? Is the indicator light for the chip on your cable lighting up, showing that it is working and connected properly? I've only used guzzidiag reader/writer drivers, so I've never actually downloaded and launched the cable reader program,,, you say that it was downloaded properly, did it give you the option/prompt to run/install or is that something you have to manually do yourself? fwiw good luck Kelly

Iirc your ECU should be marked or labeled 15M or 15RC; like all things guzzi, it was a running change, so dates and ser # info should always be confirmed on the bike. I think the 15M bikes have plain cross overs, but that the 15RC bikes should have a lambda sensor in the crossover. Re your connection problems, subject to confirmation, but I think leaving your PC111 connected may cause problems. I've read Pete and Beetle state many times, the best thing you can do is rip out the Power Commander and use guzzidiag/maps etc,,, I don't recall anyone recommending leaving whatever PC in place and using guzzidiag. Fwiw good luck Kelly

What a beautiful bike and story! I agree, you need a heated ground level space for a special bike like that.

I noticed the funny color of the rear sprocket, wondered if it was aluminum, "Nylon", I don't imagine that would be a good idea. i saw the square box under the swing arm and wondered if it would be a battery box. All of these fancy race kits/frames/body work etc, I would have seen similar in magazines but that type of exotica was not something I would ever see in the flesh. I find it all quite fascinating, definitely the stuff of dreams and legends.

OMG Phil, That's an amazing display of work and skill, especially when it looks to me like it was a road bike, off the charts hard core. I had a '76 KZ900 back in the day and used to lust over the Rickman frame kit ad's in the cycle magazines, and dreamt of picking up a frame kit; thank god I was poor enough I never put that plan into action, because I realize now, the moment I would have opened the box, I would have been in over my head, lol. Very impressive!

Hey Phil, As I've said a few times here and other threads, I'm reluctant to offer advice on something I know so little about, but I sense the OP's frustration, I've btdt. I don't think you accidently stumbled through it at all; you had a good set of cables, with good drivers and luckily your laptop's OS gave you a warning and the option to run and install the chip driver. You're right, with all that working, GD can operate for tune ups without a reader installed. I think that early on, that was considered the best practice.with GD. Iirc, from the latest tutorials, the consensus seems to be, the best practice now, to eliminate confusion and conflicts with the OS and GD, is to disregard loading the chip driver and just install the appropriate GD reader file to drive the chip/cable. The first time I used GD on my Griso, I was 5 minutes hooking the computer/cable/bike up, but it was 5 frustrating hours of double checking my set up and rereading instructions before I finally launched the appropriate GD reader to drive the chip and was able to see the ECU on my bike, for some u/k reason, Bill Gates and MS liked the 5M? GD reader file and allowed me to double click the file and open it. At that point I figured I had it nailed and knew what I was doing and it would be smooth sailing using GD going forward,;it wasn't. When I tried to launch the GD 15x reader file to work on my CalVin, Bill Gates and MS decided it was a threat and deleted the file, you got the courtesy of a warning, I didn't get that; no pop up, no warning, nothing, the GD 15x reader file just vanished, deleted from my laptop, because Bill and MS determined it was a threat and knew what was best. I had to reload GD 15x reader file and watch it vanish a few times, before I figured out how to work around Bill Gates and MS, and that was without another chip driver loaded confusing the OS system. That's why I made the suggestion to the OP of cleaning up the chip driver files from his computer. MS 10 in the past has obviously caused problems looking at only one driver and puked,,,, throw a 2nd driver into the mix to confuse the issue, and I can see MS 10 puking and throwing a hissy fit and possibly doing that without giving you any warning or other options, btdt. GD is an amazing tool and empowers guzzi owners to do things that owners of other brands can only dream about. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely grateful to Beard, the generous genius, and everyone else involved in GD's creation and evolution, but as a Luddite easily frustrated by all things digital, when I see other people struggling with it, I'll offer what little I can. I'm in agreement, if it ain't broke don't fix it, you've got a good set of cables and drivers and it's working for you, the OP's not there yet. I'm confident that the OP will get GD going, I suspect it's probably MS10 blocking things in the background and throwing the FTDI CDM driver into the mix just muddies murky waters even more.. fwiw Kelly

My understanding is there are a whole bunch of different cables and drivers that were used and can be used; some worked, some didn't, but that the Lonelec cables were the most likely to work trouble free without issues. That seems to be the confirmed by feedback from other users. Further along that line of thinking the GD reader was the least problematic driver to use with the Lonelec cable. You brought up a point about Windows searching on the net for drivers, I forgot to mention it to the OP, but I disabled/turned off my modem on my laptop when I tried to use GD to prevent any issues. Initially, I had a very hard time getting Windows 10 to allow me to open GD reader, whenever I just double clicked on GD reader to open, Windows 10 kept recognizing it as a threat and deleted the file, I had to reload it a few times, and learned to right click,,, open,,, then read,,, that procedure seemed to work around Windows 10 security from blocking it's installation. fwiw Kelly