mikev

I made myself some new spark plug wires with the red NGK racing from mgcycles. Cut to length with new connectors (marxparts) and reused old coil boots. No corrosion in the terminal. I was able to swap them out without removing the fuel tank. It's a bit of an awkward spot but doable.

I think I will modify how my bags mount to the hangers to give me some more clearance. Really want a tail box.

Do your side bags touch the exhaust pipes? I have a set, I want to use (my other ones lost a door while riding the other day so I swapped out the rack clips onto these). They physicaly touch the exhaust which gets warm but not too hot to touch.

it looks like it *might* be possible to change spark plug wires without taking tank off...

bike runs better with the new plugs, idles smoother, fewer sputters. old plugs looked dirty.

Yeah that looks right. How does the ignition wire attach to the coil? I’ll have to look at my bike and see. I assumed there was some metal spring or something inside the boot like the other end at the spark plug. That just looks like a rubber cover.

I changed spark plugs today and left boot came off wire so I jammed it back in. Right boot is torn, but wire didn’t come out. Bike started and sounded normal afterward….. so I ordered 4 new red boots from UK, red ones unavailable in us? thinking I should just buy the NGK racing wire and boot assembly from mgcycle, but they don’t come with coil boots. What kind of coil boots do v11s require?

ebay uint sacrificed, resistor color bands go left to right, blue to gold - docc's look opposite. I'm no electrical engineer but that seems like a difference

I'll sacrifice one of my Chinese (Canadian) ebay relays and post a pic later this week. Ordered 5 CITs from onlinecomponents as well, just to be prepared. Maybe the relay position info is posted somewhere on this forum but I haven't found it yet. I got a sticky note from a previous owner in my manual that lists them as: 1 - starter 2 - headlight, (I gather from reading this forum its also the tachometer) 3 - sidestand 4 - ECU 5 - Fuel Injection

Thanks to Chuck, I have a Lucky Phil Extender and plan to install it soon. All the pics on this thread are really helpful & interesting. Read all 7 pages this morning, my second pass thru this thread maybe. Not sure I *totally* understand how the shifting mechanism works but am learning more each time. Sounds like after installing the improved extender, switching out 2 internal springs and examining some internal parts they touch are next steps. Where does one acquire the chuckskud super spring? Installing the Lucky Phil Extender *seems* like its a fairly simple job. Remove 3 bolts, remove old part, install new extender, attach 3 bolts. I *think* I can do all that without removing anything else. Do I need to keep tension on the shifter while doing this? Let me know if I am missing any obvious steps or anything you think might help that I need to know before I try the install.

looks really cool

Here are the relays I received from ebay. The description on ebay was "made in USA" but item ships from China. Took about 2 weeks. These obviously are "Made in Canada", aye. I think there are a lot of Chinese knock offs out there, and I've seen Docc recommend elsewhere on the forum to open one of these and seeing what the guts look like. I'm not sure I'm qualified to do that. But am willing to sacrifice one and take pics if you want. Thanks Chuck for the Lucky Phil Extender!

Yeah, I assume they are Chinese knock offs but I thought I'd give them a try before I spend $20 per relay on ebay for the "branded" USA or Canada ones. There is a seemingly endless chat about relays here, and I saw at least one other person who tried them so hopefully they are ok. I will definitely get the Craig DeOxit and silicone grease. Do you spray both the relays and the ports? I'll probably change spark plugs this weekend. Manual recommends something. What do you use? I am very interested in the "Lucky Phil Extender" as the shifter issue is my biggest issue with the bike.

I bought 5 relays on ebay after wading thru the forum relay threads for a while. Cheap ones from China should arrive in a couple weeks. Others listed were $20 ea. https://www.ebay.com/itm/115003630292 got 5 for ~$26 with shipping. Also ordered the manhole cover tool and will change the oil and do some other maintenance after it arrives.

The bike was well maintained, bought it from my neighbor and the original owner is 1 town away. Thanks for the info everyone

Thanks @pressureangle, I'm kinda new to motorcycle maintenance. I have been reading that massive thread and while I've found a lot of interesting things, like people really seem to dislike the stock steering dampener. I didn't find anything by searching 'oil change' or 'how to change the oil'. So, I search youtube I already described what I found. I guess 'how to change the oil' is like 'how to scramble an egg', you never see it in the cook books. Funny thing, my brother-in-law had to teach my niece how to scramble an egg when she got an apartment. I'll keep searching.

Since buying my v11 sport earlier this year I've logged about ~750 miles. Bike has ~25.5k miles now. I got it at ~24.75k Things I've noticed include, sometimes bike sputters out and stalls at low idle. Occasionally I accidentally "find" a neutral gear where it should not be when shifting. The neutral light works sometimes, usually when bike is warmed up it stops lighting up. And, sometimes putting the kickstand down when in gear turns engine off and sometimes it doesn't. Browsing the forum, seems like many of these things are quirky things others with this model experience too. Just checking I am right about these things. Yesterday I after a great ride on a hot day home from work I backed the bike into garage and it was running in neutral, steering seemed to whine a little, for the first time I've noticed it. Fluid levels look ok. I've been thinking about what kind of maintenance I should do, change oil, maybe change drive shaft fluid. Found fewer videos about how to change the oil on youtube than I expected. It looks like you drain by removing the plug, then remove the plate/cover on the sump and replace the filter. One video shows this filter as a Bosch 3300 which is a typical looking car-like filter with a metal cup. You drain oil and remove filter cover and replace it. (this version is in the manual) Seems pretty easy. Another video I found had a completely different filter, kind of like some of my Toyotas have just the filter part & O rings without the metal cup. A large bolt ran up thru the filter and exterior filter cap to remove it. And yet another showed someone removing the entire sump to get at the filter. Can anyone here fill me in on how to do the oil change and any other maintenance I should be thinking about doing? Tips & tricks etc.

Yes, it is a Teo Lamers stand. I contacted them, no install instructions available but they have a list of needed hardware.

My V11 Sport came with an uninstalled center stand. I'm wondering if folks think its worth installing given some have said its a bit poorly engineered. Or if there are install instructions somewhere. No youtube videos on this yet!

This happened to me right after I bought my guzzi. The former owner and I started to take the back end apart and wasted a lot of time without success. I somehow found this forum post and based on all the responses, I solved the problem. Thanks Everyone! Like many others here, the root cause is the spring fell off the release latch. I have a fiber optic probe which I stuck under seat toward the very back on left side of the bike. The probe light illuminated the latch assembly. I slid ice pick in and triggered the latch to release. Once seat was off I wired the spring onto the latch to stop it from sliding off again.