Skeeve

It's the single most successful [based on sales #s] motorcycle ever. First built in 1957? Honda just announced that it will build it's 150 millionth motorcycle this year, including "licensed" [this means "honda C50/70/90"] models. At least 100 million of that number are C50/70/90 builds. Looks like a scooter, but with 17" fat bicycle tires, and shifts via an automatic clutch. It's the machine that started it all: "You meet the nicest people on a Honda." [but the ones on Guzzis are more interestin'... ]

Well, the picture's cr@p, but it looks like there's a flaw at 6 o'clock that was the starting point for the break. Seriously, that break looks like it was positively sheared, which ain't right. Any chance you're still under warranty? Talk 2 your dealer: driveshafts aren't supposed to snap; you should've smoked the tire or killed the engine before that thing broke... Best o' luck!

While I'd like to see the article, it wouldn't do me much good since I don't read German... Besides, in any test of a V11 Guzzi against any of the full-on Jap hypersports, it's just going to come up as "Goose for dinner." Same thing if they took a Harley to the track; it's not a track bike, it's not going to win the (race) test! I'd really like to see them include an average rider [say.... like ME! ] as a separate category in a test, to see what the feedback for each bike is for "real life" situations. I imagine it would go something like this: Honda: "Nice bike. Great fit & finish. Liked it." Kawasaki: "Nice bike. Loved the motor; power on tap! Liked it." Suzuki: "Nice bike. Looked great, but feels a little 'cheap.' Strong motor. Liked it." Moto Guzzi: " Nice bike. Killer looks, kinda quirky, but oozes 'soul' that the others just don't have. Motor gets breathless on top compared to the others, but I don't care to lose my license anyway. Love the feel overall. I want this bike!" Ride on!

Dave Richardson? Which reminds me, I need to start putting aside a fund to buy a copy of Guzziology for my own, if for no other reason than to be able to resolve these questions when they come up on this list! ;-) Back to the topic at hand, the FAQ: As I've been corresponding with someone who recently bought a pair of Sportis [yep, a pair: if you're interested in a Sporti, keep your eyes peeled, since he'll be selling the red one now that he found a yellow one...] about the differences, the following shorthand I've worked out with him: --------- "Spot": Original carbeurated model developed by Dr. John @ Guzzi when the Daytona was delayed. Due to a poor choice of font for the graphix, the "Sport 1100" on the tail reads at first glance as "Spot," hence the nomenclature. Has the sexy CNC'd "porkchops" that were replaced by castings in later models. "Sporti": Updated injected model offered the cure some of the problems experienced with the carb Sport due to the ram-air influencing fuel feed. The Spot, Sporti & Daytona RS are all based upon the original Sport styling [personally, some of the best looking bikes ever made], & share common features of transmission & wheel width, etc. "Sportin": For "Sport inezzione il Nuovo," all the 2000+ spine frame derivatives (Sport, Le Mans, Ballabio, Scura, Coppa Italia, etc.) that are descended from the original Sports but with the 6-speed tranny developed while Guzzi was under Aprilia's supervision. "Quotads": While the Quota's are generally grouped with the Spine-frame Dr. John bikes [why? I dunno, maybe just for his being involved in their development?], they're truly perimeter frame designs. As such, the Breva and Griso share more "lineal descent" from the Quota than the spineys, yet *none* of these bikes can truly be considered to constitute a "family," since there's almost zero parts commonality. -------- Hey, we're all Sportin now!

Fine: so put the pix of your BIKE & your mods back up on your website already! The "Rolling Crow Lite" site sux; I haven't been back for more than the occasional peek since you went to the "all-commentary, no content" format. Yeah, I don't listen to talk radio, either! Ride on!

If this nut is so prone to working loose, shouldn't it be a candidate for replacement with a proper nylock unit? No actual stress on the nut, is there? Just vibration? Sounds to me like a trip to the aircraft fasteners bin is in order...

Wouldn't it just be easier to call the factory in Mandello? Heck, they could probably get it to you free via "rider dispatch" [think of a bucket-chain of volunteer Moto Guzzi riders] for the P.R. benefits alone! Best o' luck! [PS: What, no Guzzi dealers in Sicily? What's up with that!?!]

I thought that Todd Eagan or Mike Haven or somebody had pretty much thoroughly debunked the factory's claims of raised compression on the later models, putting it down to advertising hyperbole? Besides, the power difference between a pair of 9.5:1 pistons and 9.7:1 pistons probably doesn't add up to as much as dyno-to-dyno calibration variations... Ride on!

Heck, if he's offering them for free, tell him you changed your mind & snag those puppies for me! I'll be glad to take'em off your hands for the cost of shipping, and I can continue my experiments in Moto Guzzi V11 stock can Frankensteinian modifications... MwaAAHahahahaha! [/mad doctor]

BDC = "Brain Dead Cager." They're the stoopid gits in the shiny metal boxes you're sharing the road with. You know, the ones that seem to remove their brains & set it on the seat beside them upon entering their vehicles... No, it doesn't. But since they basically *can't*, by making oneself noticeable, there's a better chance that they'll actually realize "I haven't got a friggin' clue how fast that thing is approaching, but it's close; I'd better wait til it passes..." Yup. "Lies, damned lies, & statistics." That's why everyone should take a class in elementary stats so that they can at least tell when they're being lied to. Nevertheless, when someone without a pre-determined agenda is doing the data collection & interpreting, they can be useful... Really? So you're saying that a rider in a single color [o.k. "colour" ] gray suit is more visible on an overcast day than someone in neon camo? Dream on! What part of "loud environmental noise from behind not having any effect" and "only respond to sharp blasts of a horn" didn't register? Environmental Protection Agency. Yet another vitally necessary U.S. bureaucratic institution that outlived it's usefulness about 20 years ago, & now only exists to make everyone's lives just that little bit poorer & more stressful. They're the big dog that the tail of fruitcake environmentalists wags in order to make normal people miserable. There's probably some UK equivalent buried in the Interior Ministry or MOT or something. Unfortunately... More power to ya! Yeah! So, you gonna post the daily reports of the TT this year? Riding your Guzzi in the event? Keep us posted!

It's the 3-legged symbol of the Isle of Man! "No matter how it lands, it stands."

Irrelevant: the BDCs can't judge distance or speed for a small object ("bike") worth spit anyway, & certainly can't judge anything if they don't see you. The modulators work, by virtue of being visually (incredibly!) annoying... Well, it's been statistically proven to do so, so much so that the U.S. military requires it of their property^H^H^H^H^H^H personnel. I can certainly agree that large blocks of color will be more effective than riding garb done up in a Splintern pattern, but hey, garish neon colors have visual impact regardless. Better something in Splintern neon than all black, all navy, or all grey, like some of the textile riding suits on the market... Well, considering how many BDCs there are who can't seem to notice emergency vehicles coming up behind them with sirens & flashing lights, until the ambulance hits their "ooga" horn, I suspect that you're going to have to continue bemoaning how quiet motorcycles are these days, since the EPA ain't about to let us ride unmuffled, siren & klaxon-sounding motorcycles no matter how much safer that'd make us! Well, you'd be a lot safer & less annoying to your neighbors if you'd buy yourself a shiny gold-lame jacket, good horn, and put a decent muffler back on your bike! Not saying "I'm right & you're wrong," no matter who true it might be, 'cause last I checked this is a free country. But I know people who if you rode past their houses regularly blasting away on a poorly muffled bike, you could expect to find sand or oil start showing up in the corners at the ends of their stretch of road! That sort of indiscriminate "discouragement" affects *everyone* who rides in the area, so think about the results of your actions, is all I'm saying...

Hey, that sounds like me! There's a reason why we sound like that: we're used to good hamburgers, etc. from IN'n'OUT, and when we get to someplace that has TOO MANY OPTIONS on the board, we stand there hypnotized like deer in headlights. Just cut the options down to Hamburger*Cheeseburger*Double-Double*Fries*Shakes & Drinks, & leave the options to those who know the secret passwords [Animalized, 4x4, Veggieburger, Lo-Carb, etc.], & we'll all get thru the line much faster!

The Megola? Never seen one; I just know they had a 5-cyl radial engine inside the front wheel... Fun stuff; keep up the quizes!

DAaaang, that's a LOT of unsprung weight!

Hey, what's "Groesbeek" mean, anyway? There's a town in TX called "Groesbeck" [county seat of Limestone Co.]; I imagine it's a Deutsch cognate of the Dutch "Groesbeek..." Call me Curious

That's nice, but I don't want to join Webshots [that link just goes to their homepage.] Sorry...

Er.. you've got that back@sswards, my friend! The stock cowling contributes to the heinous "beetle butt" condition that's a carryover from the poor styling of the Centauro. The stock seat without cowling is an improvement, but not much of one since the real fault lays in the actual tail section, not the cowling. What we need around here is an aftermarket version of the superb Sporti/DaytonaRS tail section that can be retrofitted to the new LeMans/Sport family!

Yeah, it's too bad you can't hard anodize cast aluminum. That'd be cool: anodized red cases to match the Teleo Rosso frame & phosphor green paint color scheme!

Well, I doubt very much that it's any type of hardenable [medium or high carbon] steel, so it's unlikely to be even 4140, let alone 4160 cro-mo. Does a magnet stick to the subframe? [sorry, don't have a magnet or a V11 handy] If so, it's probably 1030, the [steel equivalent] jack of all trades. If not, then Moto Guzzi may have resorted to aluminum [which I also find unlikely, since more weight is tied up in the spine frame, so if the factory was going to convert anything from steel to aluminum fabrication, it would be that first because of the better cost/benefit ratio...] Guzzis aren't racers; the only chance of a high cost substance like 4140 being used in a subframe would be in an MGS or some other limited run "special."

And after a year * 1.5, that blue tarp will be mostly white, and tear under it's own weight! Newsflash: UV breaks down organic molecules. Sunlight is rich in UV: the closer to the equator or higher in altitude you are, the richer! About the only cycle cover that wouldn't break down significantly would be some sort of aluminized mylar or fibreglas fabric...

As far tank prep, I'd asked Dave Richardson once about it & he said the nylon material Guzzi is using for tanks & body parts paints like steel; prep same-same. Seemed odd to me, but he should know. Try asking him yourself; maybe I got confuzzed?.. AFA duplication goes: take a picture of the Copa, & tell them to compensate all the colors by the same factors it take to match the red of the Copa in the photo to the red on his porkchops in real life? Or else go to a photo store, buy a standard color card and keep it in the photo with the Copa, so that when you have prints made, you can tell them to balance for the colors on the color card & match the density to the 50% gray, and BAMMO! The picture *is* accurate and the paint guys can match based on a photo...

Kluge, that's a street luge made of leftover Dodge K-car parts, right? Or did you mean kludge? [Great post, but I couldn't resist the invitation to a spelling flame: I had a friend years ago whose last name was Kluge, pronounced "kloojzh" whom we used to kid with about his prospects in luge competition when that craziness first made it to the Winter Olympics. But kludge sounds like fudge, so that's the way I've always spelled it. ]

Suomi = Finland Suomy ?= pronounced like Suomi [i would *think* so, but then I'm the sort who thinks the plurals of house & moose are hice & meese, respectively... after all mouse/mice & goose/geese, right? ]

1st thing: "patent pending" is just a warning that "go ahead & copy me: I'll come after you later & waste all my profits prosecuting you." It's like putting up a sign saying "Trespassers will be shot" in a state like CA or MA where it's almost illegal just to own a gun... Go ahead & try to patent my idea; you'll lose, as "prior art" means you didn't originate the idea. So no patent... 2nd thing: Big boost kills engines. If big boost is all you're after, Al's driveability argument carries no water for you anyway; just hook up a turbo & go!