robbiekb

i feel a little bit guilty because over the last few weeks i've been riding the bike kinda hard. As an aside, I've found power wheelies to be possible but difficult with the default ergo's of the V11 because so much of the weight is forwards over the front wheel. I've noticed that by the time you get the front wheel lofted under power in first, the bike is already about to hit the rev limiter, at which point i'm not fast enough to upshift to second and the front wheel drops again. I've seen a bunch of pics of people dong it (the scura pic springs to mind) , so it's really just me being inept and of course it's strictly for track use only i still feel kidna guilty for running around at such high rpms for so long though

I just discovered that my V11 is leaking oil above the crossover, I hadn't noticed it before because I don't havea shop stand and until i got the new garage i hadn't been down low enough to spot where the leak was being caught by the crossover. Funnily enough it hasn't been pooling on to the floor. My guess is that it has been burning off while i've been riding and that it's probably just started to leak. Now that i think of it, I can remember a buring smell form the last time i rode home from work but i though it was a combinatio of my brakes, melted road smell and the car in front running too rich. Anyone had issues with the V11 leaking here ? Other than that the bike is running really well. It's due to go into Moto International in the next few days for an oil change, FBF high compression pistons, stucchi crossover, set of floating disks (my Brembo's warped on day 1 of ownership and grab liek crazy) and some exhaust high mounts. Hopefully the leak isn't too serious and can be taken care of at the same time. Robbie

This is the FBF fender eliminator on my bike

let me know when you start working on this Paul, I'd be interested to buy one of those seats off you

Has anyone produced a nice "mono" tailpiece for the V11 ? I'm thinking of using my green V11 as a track bike and for my Friday/Saturday night streetfighter and with Ingrid now owning her own bike, I never ride with a passenger.

Ok Al, i'm officially impressed, the upsweep of your pipes is way more aesthetically pleasing than stock. I'll have to go through the thread to figure out how to do this with my current setup. I don't have my Stucchi crossover on the bike yet (the weather has been too nice to take it in )so maybe i'll do it at the same time

here's another one from the back

THats pretty cool looking I just got back frm a trip that turned kind of soggy at the end (torrential downpour heading west on I90 for 2 hours wasn't any fun) but for the first 7 hours or so we had great weather. Here's a pic taken of my fender eliminator in Leavenworth , WA

so i'm on my 3rd set of tires with 6000 miles on the bike. The OEM tires came off at 1000 miles coz they weren't giving me enough grip in corners. The last set was a set of Metzler M3's that I actually really liked. Those wore out pretty quickly last summer after approximately 2500 miles. (i'm a wuss, i only ride on dry days) and now i'm running Pirrelli Diablo's. I love the fact that people use essentially the same V11, for multiple purposes. In fact I might run a touring compound when I buy the Nero later this Summer. Incidentally is there anything I can do to stop the edges of my tires from blistering during spirited twisty riding ? Will the tire last longer if I get it up to temperature first ? It kind of seems that seeing as the tires has the same compound all the way through the tire that i'd see that kind of tire wear on the center of the tires tread from just riding freeway... hmmmmm i'm a bit confused about that one. Maybe someone who tracks bikes regularly might explain that one to me Robbie

electronic huh ? maybe that explains why mine continues to work while my speedometer seems to break every 3 months or so. I do like my Veglia clocks as far as aesthetics go though

So i've had the very same problem but with my speedometer on my 2001 V11 Sport. First of all don't worry it's not your engine If the tach and the speedo all work the same way there's a gear that sits at the end of the relevant cable. The gear will be stripping itself. It's a pretty common problem on the bikles with the Veglia clocks, i heard that it was pretty much eliminated on the newer ones though oh well some things will never change.

places to try and squeeze in if you can Ginko petrified forest - a quick stop off of I90, it's pretty darn cool Roslyn, it's where they filmed the TV show "Northern Exposure" well at least the exterior town shots. also off of I90 Salish Lodge and the Falls. - these are the falls featured in "Twin Peaks" the hotel has a beautiful wine bar with a few tables that overlook the falls themselves Leavenworth, wa - a bizarre bavarian Alpine town hidden up off of Hwy 2 , stunning mtn views:) Hood River, OR Windsurfing capital of the world, pretty darn cool town with an aweseom MicroBewery (Full Sail)Nearby Timberline Lodge up on Mt Hood is where I snowboard all summer long and was the lodge that was featured in the exterior shots in the Jack Nicholson version of the "Shining"

make sure you stop by to say "hi" I live in Duvall, wa

It's not that Power Commander is incompatible at all. It just means that the map provided might not be optimised for your bike. The optimum way to get your bike setup is to spring for the extra 150 bucks or so to get it tuned on a dyno.

i'll take pics and post em here when i get home tonight.

Well it took all of 2 months for the Fender eliminator kit to arrive that i ordered from FBF. Here's my experience from the install. First off i'm stoked that i could still use the OEM indicators, they bolt right on. My initial experience was one of frustration because Guzzi insists on using all of the sizes of Allen Wrenchs that I lost during my house move . This prompted a quick trip to Home Depot for a new Allen Wrench set. Then I discovered that the connectors were also different, and as an aside whats up with the colour coding for the wiring harness? sheesh..after a final trip to home depot to get a new set of waterproof connectors the whole kit went on in around 45 minutes , including cleanup and securing the new wiring. All in all i'm really excited by how much installing this kit has cleaned up the rear lines of my V11 without making it look too squidly. Alkl for 80-bucks US ! ...now i have to figure out what i want to do with my rear hugger. I can't decide whether to get a carbon fibre one or whetehr to fabricate my own shock protector and call it good.

I had this problem with my 2001 V11 up in rainy Seattle. After a torrential downpour the oil light came on and stayed on. The diagnosis at Moto international was a busted sensor.

the other thing that was weird is that this all happened within the first 6 months of me owning the bike. After that, everything cleaned up and knock on wood i've had comple reliability ever since

So just to be completely forthright about what happened to my bike (coz i think i was confusing everyone **grins**) here's what happened. I'd switch on the ignition, fuel pump doesn't switch on, all other electrical systems were working great. Basically at this point I owned a shiny bright green lump of metal. My friend (ok it was a girlfriend at the time ) had been a Ford Mechanic who specialised in the computer systems that the Auto Industry uses to control pretyt much every major car function these days. After about a week of calls to Moto International, she diagnosed that my CPU/ECU had died a death. It was recieving power, but just wasn't switching on the fuel pump. She tested this by jumpering across the CPU to manually switch on the Fuel Pump. We weren't jump starting the bike at all. With a diagnosed bad CPU, Moto International gave me the CPU from a newer LeMans to get my bike into the shop for service and they then went through it there. This problem repeated itself a few months later and then finally one day all of these niggly problems just stopped happening. Incidentally this coincided with when i put on the aftermarket pipes, the power commander etc.

Hi, Actually it wasn't my PC III that kept dying, it was the main CPU for the bike pre - power commander! It totally sucked as I wasn't able to get it to the Shop for weeks until one of my friends who is also a Ford Factory certifed mechanic showed me how to jump the bike by manually starting the fuel pump using jumper cables.

Hi Al, This actually raises a good point about the lack of a PCIII tuning center in the Seattle area. I'm on my 3rd computer (the first two died for unknown reasons) and the map was tweaked by Micha so really although i know its running rich, I don't have much of a reference point for how my bike should run to obtain optimal performance

i'm a little confused by the term "detonation" ? I frequently ride my V11 in the higher rpm ranges where the engine finally feels like it's starting to pull ( I call lit "wailing banshee mode" **grins**) and haven't experienced anything that i would call detonating. With the k&n pods on my bike I have had issues with backfiring when i back off the throttle after some "spirited" riding when it's warm out - one time last year i blew the throttle bodies completely off when i closed the throttle! oops !

oops i meant 2000 miles

Hey Al, Just to clarify, for a 2001 Bike with the narrower rim, is Mike Stewart recomending the Diablo as his fave choice soft compound tire ? I have a pretty twisty commute that I get fairly "passionate" on , as it's all country roads (4 mile hill climb to my house) so my tire wear pattern sees a lot of blistering towards the outside of the tire. The M3's have been great but if the Diablo or Diablo Corsa was even better then i'd upgrade at my next service as the present tires will probably only last another 200 miles before the grip gets comprimised. Robbie

what type of riding are you doing with the M1's ?