Skeeve

Don't be daft: it's a replacement for his Scura, which means it's his U.S. bike for when he's state-side! Much more practical than renting, or trying to ship his own Griso [& then trying to bring it back home; something about very restrictive policies on imports of used vehicles, for fear of exotic hitch-hikers like boll weevils & milk-vetch seeds... ]

Find a clean, low-mileage GL1500. I'd say even go for a GL1200 in good shape, but they're all at least 20 years old now, and parts are getting problematic [from my cruising eBay looking for parts for my own beater...] Anyway, the GL1500 was the 3rd generation 'wing, and Honda pretty much had the "barcalounger on wheels" aspect down by that point. There is no better 2-wheel mile-muncher out there for slabbing it a couple of states over. Not so much fun in the twisties: both the earlier generations & the latest 1800 are better than the 1500 for that (to varying degrees.) But a good rider on a 'wing still has nothing to fear from 99% of the Harleys on the road, and the passenger accomodations are hard to beat!

Bad ground? Clean your connections...

Jasper: don't bogart that joint! Share some of that particularly effective invective so that those of us handicapped by our mono-lingual status can get some relief at the critical juncture!

[empasis added to highlight time frame] Does anyone else find it intriguing [or even notice?] that the Suzuki TL1000 was slammed with the same "speed wobble" indictment at the roughly the same time as the original V11 Sport? Only specifically the two models of motorcycle that would have been any threat to the Texas Pacific Group's investment in Ducati: the air-cooled Guzzi with its all-around rideability and the water-cooled Suzuki with it's dominating [for the time] performance at a bargain price? Does anyone find it interesting that one of Suzuki's most recent sales successes is a direct descendant of the TL1000, that being the DL1k "V-Strom" that with little more than a stupid name [and one of the world's ugliest fairings] was tamed from being an "accident waiting to happen" to a "docile back-road bimbler?" And that anyone w/ 1/2 a brain is familiar with the fact that adding a fairing never improves handling, but typically requires adjustments to be made to prevent dangerous issues from cropping up? [Remember what happened to Guzzi w/ the police Eldos... ] Are there any of my fellow conspiracy theorists out there? Can it be that this is all just a tempest in a teapot that's gone on for far too many pages [& Pete Roper complained when we hit 25pp of nattering about the sloppage sheet!] because people aren't looking at the root cause of the problem [ie: payola to moto journalists I'd never trust to write my shopping list, let alone review a bike I'm interested in...]? I'm just sayin'...

I believe Dynotec (in Germany?) used to offer that service for a (ahem!) price. Not a particularly cost effective solution as I recall...

"Stud" or "lug" might be alternative synonyms. Not really as correct as "boss," but might give you something of a x-ref for translation purposes...

Stupid bureaucrats. It's not even a safety issue! Hang them all...

Tuneboy. Or replace the entire ECU w/ a MyECU kit. There was some other grossly overpriced alternative that nobody talks about anymore; it was supposedly started up by some ex-WM employees [so they had the inside line on how to circumvent the anti-tampering scheme Weber had set up?] and early on it was the only game in town, but they never realized they needed to drop the price as their competition matured. Que sera sera... The advantage to being able to fine tune the advance has to do w/ the variables affecting the fuel/air density means that the same advance isn't best at all rpms & throttle openings. The ECU map offers more ways to fine tune the advance to suit conditions than a one-size-fits-some straight line advance. But Guzzi apparently never bothered sorting that out, so it's up to (us) experimentalists! Unfortunately, the "advance curve" module for the PCIII never materialized. The PCV ["pee cee five" not a pollution control valve] can do it all, but it's only for the ECU used on the latest generation ["Quotard" or CARC models] Guzzis.

Does Smiths make a clock that would fit in the case? [Ob: Vincent comment] Failing that, is there a Brand J clock that would be easily substituted? With even their "low production" models exceeding the production #s of all years of the V11s put together, there's probably enough breaker's bits lying around that we could all upgrade at a pittance & not even affect the going price any...

Exsqueezeme? Guzzi's idea of putting hydraulic lifters in their cruisers was brilliant; it was the implementation that was lacking! Why do you think Harley's are so frickin' popular? Because motorcycle buyers would rather wrench than ride? Having your bike [car, transport appliance, whatever] do its own valve adjustments is a fantastic idea, provided you can live with the performance limits this technology may enforce. On an engine that rarely or never sees 7k rpm on its tach, it's a no-brainer; that's why H-D switched to hydraulic lifters back in what, 1949? What was dumb was Guzzi giving up on the hydraulic lifters as soon as they'd gotten them sorted out...

Good God, what Ratchet said & then some! I had no idea that Guzzi used Christmas tree lights in our dash! Oy gevald! No wonder you've been having all sorts of trouble with those infernal things!

In the condition above, yes: problem is, stateside you won't find any of them in that condition at that price! Parts bikes can be found starting at the low end of the range Greg quoted; runners at the high end. Concours quality spit & polish like the one shown? Hmm. I'd rather buy a V11...

Stilts are cheaper than shocks. Contact Rich Maund & ask him how much he can take out of the seat ht. while still leaving it more comfy than stock. Seat mods are rarely wasted money... Best o' luck!

Banjos were invented here; who knows how they've propagated over the intervening years? But originally, they are a purely 'murrican instrument...

Wow! Now that's an interesting observation! Back in college, we would have had fun building a term paper on this in my data analysis class: regression analysis of handedness vs. brand selection, etc. etc. blah blah blah... Just so I don't throw your stats off, I'm right-handed - but only because I was forced to switch at an early age, as soon as my dad spotted my left preference starting to display! So now I'm like the native police in colonial africa: I persecute the lefties more than the natural righties do! Ride on,

You answered your own question: 1.2w @ 12v = 1.4w @ 14v; the bulbs have the same resistance. At least they do if what my cobwebby memory of basic electrics class 20-odd years ago is correct!

Cool! Now your bike will have a permanent chubby! All the girly Jap bikes will flee at the sight of it!

Don't forget the "sag wagon" in case of breakdowns... I used to wonder why folks would spend so much for moto tours until I realized that they're paying for the convenience of not having to book X reservations for X stops on the route, + paying for the driver & gas of the van to carry luggage & drive 'sweep', etc. Then it makes sense. Except that I still don't have the $$ for it...

That was 35mph on my old GL1200 ratbike [wreck survivor, no more rear bags or case, front tire prone to cupping, who knows how "tweaked" everything was?]: no noticeable fluctuations or other nonsense w/ one hand on the bars, but remove hands and immediately the bars started waggling. If the throttle lock was on at that speed, I suspect it would have been a gradually increasing wobble; I was never tempted to find out after discovering this characteristic. OTOH, I could set the throttle lock at 70 per and flap my arms like a bird w/ no ill f/x, much to the amusement of the riders or cagers behind me... Ride on! NB: the GL1200 had a 130/90 x 16" front wheel, for whatever that's worth.

Gee, you think Piaggio has some new product announcements for EICMA? Or are they just trying to make up for cancelling GMG?

$10 an issue?!? And there's not even a nekkid girl innit! For that price, I expect a g/d book, and I doubt that's what they're mailing out! Thanks anyway, I'll pass...

From the "FWIW" file: GMD Computrak has a set of #s that they refer to as the "sweet spot." IIRC, it's something like 25deg rake and 4" trail, but you can probably go to the GMD website & find them. I just remember learning about this shortly after I'd gotten my SV650, & realizing that they closely paralleled the SV's numbers [which probably has something to do w/ the continued popularity of that particular model. Maybe. I'm just sayin'... ] Given that the spine frame is a design that depends upon the engine as a stressed member, what likelihood is there that the "twitchy" short frames encountered didn't have all their bolts torqued properly or had vibrated loose somewhat, so that the source of the "wobble" was in fact, a flexible frame?

Two Brothers doesn't make the risers any more, afaik, which is probably why you can't find them. No matter, they had a rep for cracking & TBR wasn't exactly known for making good on any of their defective parts, regardless of what bike it was for... There was somebody on the forum who was making v11-specific footpeg relocation kits. They weren't cheap [probably cheaper than the Centauro parts from Guzzi tho'], but everyone who got the kit seemed to like it. I'd already gone the Buell footpeg route before the other kit became available, so I didn't pay too much attention. Ride on!