audiomick

Mate, you can't judge the sound of anything going by a film on youtube that was probably recorded with a telephone. Going by the look of the pipes, they're probably too loud for my taste. It's nice that his blinkers work, but if my horn (the one on the V11 Le Mans) sounds like his does in the video, I will definitely be fitting a proper one instead.

Yeah, no worries. I'll get in touch after new year. Have fun. I hope your mate sorts out his dead Scura.

Hallo Chuck. As far as I can tell, you made a run in November, and about 8 of them were spoken for. Are there any left? I would really like to get one (I'm talking about one of the latest last ever Lucky Phil shift extenders of course.) I'll send a PM as soon as I hear that there is still one to be had. Mick

Ok, he did mention "new tyres" in the Craigslist ad. Hadn't noticed that... Yes, after so much time there will always be something. If it is in "perfect" condition, it probably has seen too little use for it's own good. If it has been used, it is going to show signs of wear. I don't mean to say "don't buy it", particularly if the price is good. Rather, more or less what you say yourself, the thing is old, and is likely to have some issues, no matter how good it looks from the outside. One should bear that in mind.

My two cents: the text in the ad says "Tosser" to me, but maybe that's got to do with me not living in the U.S. Going by the wear pattern on the tyres, the current owner has never, ever given the bike a caning. If he's the first owner, the bike has probably had an "easy" life. The biggest dangers are probably either too much riding around at too low revs, and too much time spent just standing around in a shed somewhere and not being ridden.

No one has mentioned it yet, so here I am: you mentioned in another post, that "it stood like that for a long time". So: don't discount the possibilty that the master cylinder might not be intact anymore. If it's not pumping, you'll never get a pressure point. Regarding strapping up the lever overnight: I've had success with that on a Kawasaki GTR 1000. The magic is not only that the lever ist clamped "behind" the return hole. The pressure reduces the size of any air bubbles that might be in there, and thus they have a better chance of wandering upwards overnight and (hopefully) exiting the system. I.e. this really does work, when the problem is such that it can be addressed this way.

Having lived here since the start of '96, I have to say "mostly". You really don't want to get caught up in the burocracy here. But SD is pretty good, though. I've bought stuff there a couple of times, and it always turned up promptly and was all correct.

Yeah, I thought so. Can happen to anyone...

Hi. I'm convinced from your posts that you really have your head around this. It all makes sense. But... Please look at this again. You described two opposing situations (not enough sag without the rider vs. too much without the rider), but drew the same conclusion (too soft) in both cases. Doesn't add up...

I think there is something wrong here. That seems contradictory. Could it be that the second sentence should have ended with "too hard"?

Yeah, I'm curious myself. I'll have a look as soon as the current couple of inches of snow are gone, and the temperature gets to a reasonable amount above 0°C. Thanks for the welcomes everyone.

Ah, very interesting. Thanks for the info.

Indeed. Yes are "2M".

Yes, I'm counting on it. I did actually have the thought "buy something that just runs", but I've read Phil's thread about optimising the shifter mechanism, and the business with the ominous pawl spring. I know there is "active involvement" on the horizon, and that is not all bad.

Oh, forgot to add: the Le Mans is a KT, if that says anything....

Very close, but I think the pork chops are black. And the mufflers are a kind of bronze colour. I'm not prone to go and have a closer look right now. It's about 3.30 a.m. here, and around -5°C outside. The beautiful lady is four floors down in the back yard under a "tarp". I know,that is not the best place, but putting her in my "garage" up the street is not really an option. I share the garage with 3 other blokes, and there are already 5 other bikes in there. But my V11 is not alone. The Imola and the GTR are right beside her keeping her company.

Hi Docc. Don't know for sure when it was built, as the german papers only show the date of first registration. That was May, 2003. It black, well rather a dark metallic gray. Long frame (as I gather the Le Manses all are) and the later tank shape.

Hallo. I haven't found a dedicated board to introduce oneself, so I decided to do it here. My name is Michael, but Mick is good. I turned 59 a couple of weeks ago, and have been riding motorcycles since 1985. The first one was a Suzuki GSX 250 (at the time in Vicroria, Australia, beginners were only allowed a 250), which was followed by a 1976 model Z900. I owned a couple of those 2-Stroke 3-Cylinder Kawasakis (a 250 and a 400) for a bit, but one was a basket case, and the other one had been out in the weather for several years and didn't run. In addition, I had a Honda MVX 250 for a while. The Honda got sold to an acquaintance, I don't remeber why I got rid of it, and the Kawasakis all got sold when I moved to Germany at the start of 1996. After the move, I didn't have a motorcycle for about 10 years. Then someone gave me a Honda CBX 650 E, a soft-chopper thing. Never would have bought it myself, but after the first ride I couldn't understand anymore how I had got through the 10 years without a bike. Rode that for a while, and then I made the "mistake" of going to have a look at a V35 Imola that was for sale about 20 km. away from where I was living at the time. Bought it, of course. A mate of mine who lived in the same house with me for a while in Melbourne had a Le Mans III, which was the clincher for the interest in Moto Guzzi. The Imola is "only" a small-block, but the lines are very similar, and I couldn't resist. It wasn't a runner, as it had been in a cellar (going by the waft under the seat...) since it was taken off the road in 1997 according to the papers I got with it. I took it apart, put it back together with new seals everywhere and an electronic ignition (Silent Hektik), and have been having fun with it ever since. About the same time as I got the Imola, I got rid of the soft-chopper Honda and got a Kawasaki 1000 GTR (Concourse in the USA, I believe). Not my style, actually, but I wanted a bike that could hold its own on the german Autobahn, and for that, the GTR is hard to beat. I once rode it from Leipzig (where I have been living since 2015) to the north of France. More than 800 km., rain almost the whole time. On that bike, that is a doable proposition. I broke that one (the GTR) at the end of 2017 by not noticing that a car that I was overaking in a long line of cars was about to turn into a side road. Broke both hands in the process... The GTR I broke was ok before the accident. The one I bought to replace it turned out to have a heap of problems, which leads us to why I am here. The interest in Moto Guzzi has been increasing over the last several years, and the justification for the GTR through changes in my employment situation decreasing. On top of that, I'm having a bit of "if not now, it may be too late", so I bought a V11 Le Mans about a week ago. Haven't ridden it yet, as there has been snow on the ground here more or less since the day I picked it up (slightly over 1000 km. round trip to go and get it....). I am absolutely delighted to have found a forum a) in english and dealing with the specific model, and b) with such good information. I've already read the thread about the ominous pawl spring from start to finish (65 pages, wow...). Looking forward to reading more here, and I dare say I'll be posting some stuff eventually too. 'till then Mick