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Sounds nasty, Carl. Hope you get well soon.

Tom, When I was getting my exhaust done the other day the guy was suggesting somewhere to get the suspension set up. He said they put the front forks on a dyno to set them up since even though they have same springs, etc they always perform different one to another which means they need to balance the two sides up before they start setting everything up. I don't know if this could explain the difference you are seeing ?? Rgds, Ken

Al, I already had the HID upgrade from Nippy Normans - unfortunately the full beam isn't working properly anymore. I mailed for a quote for a new bulb - and the new running total for repairs including the bulb is $500 !! The bulb alone is $200 ! I'm starting to wish I had gone after the truck driver and got his number

Today was the day ! I had the V11 booked in to fit the Mistral cross over, exhausts, and power commander. The day started really badly - I was late leaving and in a rush, started up the bike to let it warm up while a got my helmet on, threw my jacket over the bike and when I turned around there's lots of smoke coming out of my sleeves ! I hadn't realised that the lining had touched on the exhaust and was melting Fortunately the damage was only slight. I finally set off and got less than 5 minutes down the road when a truck coming the other way dumped a stone around the size of a tennis ball. I watched in slow motion as it bounced once and then hit the front of the bike ! There was a loud bang as the headlight exploded and showered me in glass, but since I was in a line of traffic with nowhere safe to pull over I decided just to carry on my way. When I finally stopped the damage showed how serious things could have been. The stone had bounced up from the road - if you have a V11 with a fairing there is a small section at the bottom middle under the headlight, and the stone had hit this with such force it had distorted the metal surround of the headlight. It was the force of the distortion that had shattered the glass rather than a direct hit from the stone. After hitting the headlight the stone had put a small scratch in the front mudguard as it had dropped back to the ground. I arrived at Moto Corsa just as one of the guys was heading around to Conquest to load up an MGS01 - apparently it has been sold to a customer who has managed to get it registered for daytime use on the road ! I took a walk round to take a look. The bike IMO looks fantastic. I didn't get a real close look as they were loading it into a van at the time but from what I could see the finish didn't look that great - particularly on the carbon fiber, but I guess this is a race bike first. Anway, I would definitely make room for one in the garage So back to Moto Corsa (stopping briefly at the van outside Three Cross which makes the best bacon butties youve ever had !). The guy is at work fitting the power commander and getting everything else sorted when - the cross over which they ordered up specially has been delivered wrong and won't fit ! After a bit of discussion we decided to go ahead and fit the Mistral cans to the stock cross over so work continues when - there's a big mark on one of the exhausts. It looks like something was stuck under the carbon fiber weave and has left a really noticeable mark. After some more discussion we agree to go ahead and fit the cans and they will order up a new outer and replace it later on. So I am stood behind my bike which is up on the ramp when just as I am thinking it really isn't my day I suddenly notice a nail in my back tyre !! Its right in the middle so we talk about taking the wheel off to get it fixed next door while everything else is finished off. I figure if it is going to get fixed I might as well try to find out how bad the damage is, so I try to prise the nail out with a scredriver, and out pops a small stone ! So my tyre is in one piece after all, and maybe not everything is going to go wrong for me today. So having finally got everything on and set the bike up using a stock map downloaded from the web (we cancelled the dyno booking until the cross over comes in) the next thing was to get the headlight back together. Fortunately they had just one spare in stock for the V11 and so apart from the small peice of the fairing which is really wrecked everything was pretty much back to square one. The guy in the parts department was telling me that getting hold of spares is getting increasingly difficult - he heard that they haven't been building V11s in the factory for around a year or so and apparently a lot of the spares that are coming in are parts that have been stripped off of bikes that are already built. It's kind of worrying if this is true - not sure what this might mean for spares availability in the future. btw - if you happen to be waiting on some parts from Italy just now apparently there is a 5 day public holiday to respect the death of the pope. So now for the highlight of the day - the ride home. Even without the Mistral cross over and with only a standard map from the web, the bike drives much better. The power is more linear through the whole range, midrange is much stronger, and excessive speed comes up much more quickly than it did before. The bike really feels much better and it will be interesting to see what difference the cross over and a custom map will make. So overall: MGS-01: Gorgeous looking bike, although finish quality looks like it could be better. Mistral: Order processing and Q&A obviously not a strength. I'm also not over impressed with the quality of the finish TBH - the glaze over the carbon fiber is so thin you can feel the weave underneath. But having said that in combination with the power commander the performance gain is significant, and they aren't the most expensive exhausts out there, so fair enough, and I do like the look of them with the bike. Power Commander - went on easy, and obvioulsy a top piece of kit. Ride home - Trucks = 1 Ken = $300 down but still in one piece Part 2 to follow - I just hope it all goes smoother than Part 1

Duke advert...

OMG....

Will do, Alex.

Hi Søren, I will post up my results as well - I am looking forward to getting it all set up, hopefully in the next week or two. I am hoping it's going to sound a bit more exciitng as well as running better. Ken

A few weeks ago I ordered up a Power Commander, Mistral Oval Carbon exhausts and a Mistral crossover. I was undecided what to do about the air intake as I quite like the stock look and didn't want to start pulling bits off to fit the K&N filters, so after a bit of indecision I decided to order the Fast-by-Ferracci airbox filter that just replaces the standard airbox lid. I placed the order on the web on Monday and the kit arrived in the UK today !! Pretty impressive service. I heard today that they have everything else except the exhaust (which is on it's way) so I am just waiting to hear when they can book some time on the dyno and should be all set up. I will try to post up some dyno results once everything is set up. Looking forward to summer Ken

Mike, I have a 2003 Rosso Corsa also and the ECU is the same way up as in Randy's pic - so it look like they put yours in upside down for sure. Obvioulsy a new Luigi first day on the job

you're very welcome - nice to see a Guzzi get a fair and positive review !

Hi Jim, Can't wait to see the pic's - hope you enjoy the big day ! Ken

Well I guess it's not as bad as the one with the sidecar

if you want a dvd of the full program I have a spare made up - you will need to let me know your address.