Greg Field

Try the late Ballabio cable. I've got nearly 10,000 miles on mine so far.

And at the same time, we have a current leader who has made it his mission to, paraphrased from the words of another great American, "Take away our freedoms in order to protect us from the people who hate us for our freedom."

Yes, this is what the chart showed. The torque increase was, to my eyes, astonishing. There were no torque hole in either configuration, but the "plateau" in the midrange was much higher with the gauze filter. Perhaps with the teardrop holes they'll be even in power? I will try it. V11s do fine on the dirt, unless it's deep and loose. Respring for your weight, first, though. I must try it, then. And please bore us with your story. I love a little mysticism with my bits and bytes and cfm.

A V11 is like a P-47. A hot-rodded V11 is like an F2G Corsair. Jaap: I knew Jakc Illford, pilot of Happy Jack"s Go-Buggy. Interesting guy.

I'm glad it has worked for others but do not take any credit for the idea. I'm not sure who first did this or how I first heard of it. But, the point that it works was recently driven home, again. Micha, the service manager at Moto I, insisted I take for a ride a Coppa that he had recently tuned after reports that it was untunable. After tuning and a test ride, he described it as the smoothest and best mannered V11 he had ever ridden. Yes, the engine was smooth, but my comment when I got back from the ride was, "The cush drive's frozen solid. The driveline is very harsh." The difference between that one and mine was immediately noticeable. Take that for what it is worth.

Your bike has ITIs and the angle drive on the transmission?

No changes in the mapping. The only thing that changed was the filter element and the top portion of the box. I wanted, on the cheap, to see if Phil was correct that you could make as much power with his modified box and a paper filter as with gauze. He is correct in that. Perhaps the gauze could make more peak power than the paper if a map were made specifically for it. I didn't want to spend the money to try that, as I plan to stick with a paper filter because I like to explore dirt roads and know how poorly gauze filters are in catching dirt (spare me the arguments; I've had two of my bikes ridden side-by-side on the same dirt roads on the same day, one with paper, one with K&Ns, and I've seen how much the paper caught vs. the gauze; there is no comparison). I actually expected the gauze to stomp the paper filter at high rpm, and the paper to stomp the gauze at low and mid. The opposite proved true. I salute Phil for making what appears to be a very marked improvement in the Guzzi airbox.

Conditions are '04 Ballabio, all stock expcept Mistral crossover and mufflers, airbox modified per Phil A.'s earlier round-hole pattern, and PC III. I did mapping runs with the paper filter and modified box, and then I replace the filter and box lid with a BMC filter and cut-off lid. That gave immediate power and torque gains at between 3500 and 7800 rpm. Outside these limits, the Phil box and paper filter perfromed better. It's not posting I'm having a problem with. It's scanning the graphs and getting a usable image from them. I 'r' a retard.

I looked at my dyno charts again this morning. I can see no torque hole at all. By 2500 rpm, it's reached 56 lb-ft. and just goes up gradually, leveling off at 60 lb.-ft. until 4300 rpm, which point it rises to its peak of 67 lb.-ft at 5200 rpm. WIth the guaze filter, the chart is basically the same, except that it begins the rise at 3600 rpm and peaks higher, at 70.7 lb.-ft.

Eeeeks. Looks worse in real life than in the pix. I hope you do not look worse in person than in the pix, Slug. I'd count on finding another bike if I was you . . .

Bad lifters that do not spin, imported or not imported, can most definitely cause the cam to fail. The lifter usually fails, too, but not always. I've seen substandard regrinds do the same thing.

BMC is an Italian brand of gauze filter, like a K&N. So the teardrop shape allows significantly more power than the round holes do?

The only tricky part is to get off the ring and lens without breaking them. To do it, you'll need a thin punch. Turn over the instrument and look at the back of the ring support on the case. You'll see 8 or so this "pegs" from the ring that go through holes in the white plastic case. Your punch must be thinner than these pegs. One at a time, carefully start to push out the pegs. Do just a little bit at a time, then a little on the next, and so on. If you do it right, the ring will soon pop off undamaged. If the lens is still attached, us a very thin blade to carefully separate it from the body. Those two things accomplished, remove the reset knob and the two screws at the back, and pull the works out of the case. I then chuck up a peice of an old speedo cable in my cordless drill and use it to spin the speedo while I watch the works. You will quickly see the problem—either a stripped gear or a warped metal frame that keeps the worm gear too far out from the pinion. That should give you a start . . .

I did my interpretation of Phil's mods to my airbox on my V11. The holes in mine are round, rather than teardrop shaped. It made more peak power by a very slight margin with the paper filter than with a BMC and cut-off airbox top. The BMC/cut box made better mid-range and torque, though. One of these days, I'll figure out how to post the charts.

I know of a ton of EV cam failures and three V11 Sport cam failures; none of these bike had a windage tray. These statisitics prove conclusively, leaving not a shadow of a doubt, that a Roper slopper can save your engine . . . And stop buyuing the cheap stuff, Dave; good oil costs at least $90/gallon.

I believe it would work fine, but only if you use a cable with the Veglia end fittings, such as off of an earlier V11 Sport. This would mean fitting that wonky angle direve, though, and that brings its own problems . . .

This is not aimed at you, Ratch: "Well, duh" If you are in the US, stick to SG-rated oils.

I would guess you have a mechanical problem with the bike. First, check all the easy stuff such as tire pressures and for cupping on the tires. Then, here's what I would check: 1) Steering bearings. jack up the front end. Grab the fork lges just under the lower triple clamp and push forth and back and side to side while watching along the bearing joint for any perceptible play. Rotate it, too, and feel for notchy steering 2) Check for play or notchiness in the front wheel bearings, and then the rear bearings 3)Check for play in the swingarm bearings. To do it right, the wheel and drive and shock must be detached, so this is not a minor job.

I've fixed a few of them. I do it in my garage, on my own time, so I could not garantee when I could get to it. I have a lot of projects stacked up. They're very easy to disassemble and sometimes easy to fix, though. Sometimes the metal cases are put together sloppily, so all you need to do is push them into alignment again. If plastic gears are broken, fixing it means finding parts. I have a few parts speedos laying around, but I may or may not have the part you need. If you wnat to try it yourself, I can show you a few tricks. If you want me to do it and can live with my scheduling uncertainties, I'll have a look.

I know of three '04 Ballabs/Coppas that had cam failures. It is more likely that the cam failed, shedding lots of fine metal particles that would then take out the oil pump, than that the oil pump failed, taking out the cam.

FWIW, I got to ride today the Coppa Italia that is referenced at the start of this thread. It was left here to sell because the normal tuneup procedures failed to ever make it run right. Micha, the service manager at Moto Intl., spent 15 minutes using his method and experience to give it a good tuneup, and now it runs perfectly. (His method was referenced in another thread, by Mr. Bean.) Today, I rode it on the freeway, in town, in traffic jams, and WFO, deliberately trying to get it to misbehave. I couldn't induce even a hint of a cough or sputtering, even when toodling along at 1500 rpm and very lightly transitioning off and on slightly with the throttle. It's now the smoothest running V11 I've ever ridden.

FWIW: Norge pegs won't be a bolt-on to a V11. The pivot pin diameter is larger on the Norge. Also, I don't think they are any lower. The only "gain" will be rubber on the pegs.

CycDude: I have an 04 Billy Bob, too. I also work at a Guzzi dealership. I'd encourage you to keep the bike, for the following reasons: 1) They're extremely satisfying motorcycles once sorted out. They're a combination of looks, handling, durability, and real-world street performance that many of us like enough that we will grow old with it. 2) The problems you are experiencing are typical of the model but easily fixed. Age also is part of it. It has sat a dealership or in a warehouse for nearly 4 years before you purchased it. The fork seals, for example, are likely victims of sitting around too much. I'm not trying to escuse MG's part in the problems, just to point out that age has likely contributed to them. 3) Lemon Law claims are ultimately unsatisfying to the consumer in many cases. Our dealership (Moto International, in Seattle) has experienced 3 or 4 such claims and we have even assisted the customers in filing them in two cases when Moto Guzzi or Aprilia (the brands we carry) was clearly not trying to solve the problem in good faith. These latter two claims were "successful" in that the consumers got refunds. Even so, the process caused more anguish than they ever thought it would. 4) If you decide to keep it, you will find plenty of help here. It sounds as if your dealer is willing to do his part, too. I can help, too, if you need it.

Moto Intl. let a forum member who calls himself Slug "borrow" a set of those seals to see if they worked in a V11. He reported that they are not even close. That's not personal experience, but it's pretty close to. Perhaps Mr. Slug will chime in here?

One question: Did you lose the dash lights in addtion to the tach?