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@footgoose This is exactly like that add for the Michelin Road 6; we are the best because we are telling you we are... Even top notch workshop can mess up. My company copied airline maintenance playbooks; where everything is done according to check lists, and verified independently. Trying to remove the human error factor by writing and optimizing procedures. Obviously, what goes on for aircraft maintenance is not applied by motorcycle shops. At least in my case, there is only one guy who works on Guzzi bikes. One and there are no roustabout or roughneck to take care of the nitty gritty. The guy does everything by himself.

I do my own Luthier work on my guitars. But working on a violin requires a lot more skills, such as cabinetry practice. In all fairness, all the trust you place in a workshop to do the right thing on your motorbike is always difficult to verify. Subjective at most. It is all about reputation. But how does it translate to the one single mistake that is going to bum you off? I would rather do my own work, but I need to be realistic. I cannot justify purchasing workshop equipment that I will use very few times. When my bike is away at a shop, I have no basis to verify what is done is according to my high standards. Are they changing all the gaskets and O'rings and fasteners as I would want them to do? are they meticulous? attention to detail, quality before anything else? I don't know. I would feel better if I could witness them doing the job, but for "safety" reasons, I cannot. "We have 30 years of experience"... what does that mean? who has? and even with 30 years of experience, since have evolved. What you were good at before may not have carried forward with the changes in technology, unless you have trained yourself at the same pace. I had that a lot in my job. You would be getting a guy that would bust his experience such as "20 years of North Sea" oilfield, and failed immediately once he got into an area that was different from what he had seen before. At this moment, I have no better alternative than to go with "we have experience". I cannot verify it personally. I have experience too, because I have lived enough to have acquired some kind of wisdom, no matter what they say. I still learn new things everyday, and look forward to enrich myself more...

Here's my 2021 patch and rocker, and I have enrolled again for 2022; hopefully, I will be able to do the 50 stops this year. If you check the 2022 tour stops, you will find that the organizer used one of my photo submission to mark the location. Stop #4; If the fancy was to take you, the tour portal is here! there is collection of photos video made from the 2021 tour participants. If you watch until the end, there is a majority of touring bikes; I did not see any other Moto Guzzi. Anyway, I will bore you with my reports when the tour starts in March. See you then?

So far, it is 100% correct.... usually, I would shop around more. MPH is very conveniently situated with regards to me. That being said, when you go there, you need not to be in a hurry. They have a six weeks wait time norm, whatever it is you want to do.

@LowRyter I read some of the 1079 reviews of the Road 5 on the Michelin web site; The two major complaints that seem to come out often are price and durability. Price; I agree, unless the tire is manufactured domestically. Autonomy: I think it is subjective because this is going to be based on your type of driving, the bike you are driving. I think it is difficult to judge tires for us, lambda drivers. We do not have the ability to really test back to back. I am planning to go to the Twisted Sisters to compare with my previous tires, but it is all subjective. What would work better, is to go there with multiple tires, do a test run, change the set for another, and test again. I am told you can do that at COTA during track days. They have someone there that change your tires ($$$) as you wish. Anyway, after the Road 5, I will try another brand. I have done that with the rear tires of my 911; I had Michelin, Pirelli, Bridgestone, and I am currently on Yokohama. So far, I liked the Bridgestone best. Again, the Michelin were the most expensive. Did not like the Pirelli set. I can't really say about the Yokohama, I am not using the car much any longer.

MPH is not your typical motorcycle workshop. It is pretty much a one guy show. I am certain I could get faster service with the chain stores, but I am faithful to MPH, and they will get all my business as long as they are willing to. Even it took me three weeks before they said they were ready to install the tires on my Le Mans. I don't put any pressure on them, I just wait. Indeed, they seem to have now reserved "Pilot" for tires that are conceived for sports bikes either race track ready that can be used on road, or both. Starting from the best for the Moto Guzzi V11: Pilot Power: This is the one they advertise as directly conceived from MotoGP experience. Road 6: like the Road 5 but better. Power 5: This is the one for the guys riding sport bikes. Michelin says the carcass of the tire is designed according to their racing experience. Have you tried it on your Ducati? Road 5: The evolution of the Pilot Road 4 which is/was a best seller but wearing out very rapidly. Power GP: which was the tire you could use on or off the racing track. I believe it is now superseded by the Power 5. Power Cup 2: Conceived and designed for the racing track, and road legal too. Then the glories from the past: Pilot Road 4: which is still favored by many.... Pilot Power 3: for sports bikes Pilot Power 2CT: What was installed on my Le Mans when I got it.

I called MPH to ask them if I could get the Road 6 instead of the Road 5, so the pitch is working pretty well on credulous guys like me

I feel better now that you confirm that at least someone else experienced faster front tire wearing than rear on their V11. The front was changed before I got the bike (so they told me), and it did about 4000 miles. I could probably take it a bit further, but why risk it... the rear is more than ok, but I want front and rear identical and if I had known, I would have gone Road 6 instead of Road 5.

And there is nothing wrong with that!

Well, coming from the 70's, I don't miss any technology because at the time I was invested into motorcycle riding like it was a crusade, I did not have it. As with everything else, you don't really care if you did not know what it was. But tire pressure is very important and I am willing to check Fobo. I have so far not experienced a flat with my Guzzi, however had plenty of them with my cars. I am going to purchase Fobo for my Porsche 911. So thanks!

Here's something interesting, French accent included with Sylvain Guintoli. You can see that running a standard bike against SS and SBK, you can still factor... a bit.

I was reading some reports about MotoGP riders having different styles of riding. The old guys used to brake very late and throw the bike into the curve. Such as Andrea Dovizioso. As you pointed out, guys like Francesco Bagnaia who keep speed and manage to corner the bike have better results. I agree with you that the late braking has grown long in the tooth. The problem with old guys like myself, is that I practiced when I was 16 and when I try to do it again today, it comes back naturally and I have to think to do it differently and it puts me off the rhythm, and I make mistakes. Plus, back then the brakes were drums; they were "slowing" you more than "stopping" you. I am still learning to modulate my front braking.

Nothing like Australian ladies asking you if you want to sleep with them in French.... for those of us who listen to this song when it was playing in discotheque, and had to ask about the meaning.... :-)

I am old school; I don't brake while leaning. I usually hard brake and throw the bike into the turn. But as you pointed out, you can't really do that on open roads. Next time I am at the Three sisters, I will attempt to record some videos.

We are going to find out (I hope) I asked the Doctor to check it.

I check my tire pressure before any outing, no matter how brief the run is planned to be. I inflate a few psi above nominal. I have a very precise air gauge. I like to brake late when I am in the twisties; but I have not done a lot of that compared to the usual highway/city stuff. I had a Pilot Sport 2 front; @LowRyterseems to say they don't last...

The Road? or the Pilot Sport? What Dunlop model? I seem to consume the front tire faster than the rear....

Funny you should say that, because I have heard about it from others too. The PR4 is better than the PR5. Maybe it is an indication why they came up with the PR6 so quickly? I have very little experience with modern tires/tyres; all my bikes used the Dunlop K-81. I am just in my discovery period. As I did with my car that goes through rear tires/tyres in no time, I intend to try all the major brands. But Michelin resonates with me because we want to the manufacturing plant when I was in the Army. Michelin designed and built the tires/tyres used on the AMX 10 RC, and probably still make tires for whatever APC Nexter is running nowadays.

Today I drove the Le Mans to the Moto Guzzi hospital for a tires/tyres transplant. The older Michelin Pilot 2 are going to be replaced with Michelin Road 5. The Le Mans was on the transplant list for a little while as it seems Michelin Road 5 seemed to be a difficult match. Michelin came up with the Road 6: 15% more grip than the MICHELIN® Road 5 tire in wet conditions thanks to 100% MICHELIN® Silica Technology tread compounds and a new tread pattern featuring MICHELIN® Water Evergrip Technology™. The MICHELIN® Road 6 tire delivers 10% longer tread life compared to the previous generation. The MICHELIN® Road 6 tire typifies two decades of ongoing innovations and MICHELIN® Technologies from our highest level of expertise. Why Michelin Road 5 for my Le Mans? MICHELIN Road 5 tires offer superior wet weather grip versus leading competitors due to patented MICHELIN XST Evo siping and our latest 2CT and 2CT+ tread compounds* Even after 3,500 miles, MICHELIN Road 5 tires stop as short as new MICHELIN Pilot Road 4 tires thanks to evolutionary MICHELIN XST Evo sipes.** Enjoy better dry grip, improved stability and handling versus MICHELIN Pilot Road 4 tires thanks to Michelin’s patented ACT+ casing technology for even more riding pleasure.*** When I get the Le Mans back, probably a few weeks, this hospital only has one doctor, I will attempt to travel to the twisted sisters to verify if there is any noticeable improvement over my current Michelin Pilot 2 mount. My current rear tire could have gone a little longer, but my front tire needs change. Seems like the Guzzi eats out front tires like there is no tomorrow; is this your experience?

I did not find any V11 Le Mans operator or officina fascicolo for 2004 V11s. When attempting to download manuals from the Moto Guzzi website, they ask you to enter the VIN number, and I get an error message because that bike is registered under a different name. I suppose Guzzi never imagined people could resale their motorcycles. I sent email to both Moto Guzzi and Piaggio and did not get any reply. Anybody here can find a 2004 workshop and spare parts manual for V11 motorcycles produced in 2004? or, are the 2003 editions good enough? Prior to posting, I searched for a "V11 Manual repository" in the forum, and I did not find one using the search option. This is where I got all my manuals: https://www.thisoldtractor.com/moto_guzzi_tonti_workshop_manuals___shop_manuals___service_manuals.html

I never thought Electric Vehicles would be the future. I always rooted for hydrogen and fuel cells. It seemed to me the best solution. Unfortunately, everywhere governments are pushing out the electric. To me hydrogen had it all to take over. Unfortunately, hydrogen is far more expensive than electricity. Whatever we think about "green" advocates, we can't fight it. I participated to an ABB presentation on the challenges to implementing large scale charging stations here in the USA, and we are far from being able to let go of fossil fuels.

This feels strange. If it was real, we would see many adds and I am convinced the price and availability would have been released through the press. But hey, maybe this dealer has connections? Well, how much time is left before the production of internal combustion engines ends? many cities are going to prohibit access to anything not electric starting 2025; 2030 will only see clean cars being produced. That's Europe. I think that Guzzi needs to ramp up quickly. Maybe 2030 will slip to 2035. Nobody really knows. I am thinking that I may simply make the most of my V11 and forget about anything new at this point.

@Kiwi_Roy I got it now; I understand better when I look at the drawing below. The starter motor is directly connected to the battery via 11. In my case, if I keep depressing the starter button for more than one second when the starter does not crank, I blow the 15 amps fuse. Repeat starter button presses, spaced of about 1 second eventually yield without turning switching off. Do you think it eventually cranks because repeat coulombs flow warm up the contacts?

@doccis it you playing the Bass?