callison

The magnetic drain plug may catch ferrous materials, but it certainly won't catch aluminum shavings or anything else that is non-magnetic. That said, I've NEVER seen very much on the screen except at the first interval and that not enough to affect oil scavenging (although it was detritus that the magnet should have caught, but didn't). I would have cleaned it simply because I have more trouble getting the filter loose in that hole than in removing the pan and have wound up removing the pan for the last five oil changes as a result. If it bothers you, either go the whole route and drain the oil and clean the filter (genuine piece of mind) or put on another 3000 miles and then change it and get some mileage out of the fresh oil before tossing it.

Probably the best example of tucking in pipes on these bikes is on the original LeMans series. Buried in my files somewhere I have a picture of a LeMans in England with low megaphone pipes and BMW bags. Looks pretty good on that bike, might be questionable on the the V11 Sport because of the difference in lines.

And those Dunstalls mounted that low are definitely going to put a crimp in cornering clearance as well as make the rear axle a pain to remove for tire changes. Still, I like the look of the megaphones better than the cans. Ideally, a nice set of swoopy pipes like those fitted to the Benelli road racers of a couple of decades ago would look magnificent. Evan Wilcox made a one-off set of some like that for a V11 out of aluminum. They went for about $1400. They were curved up a bit too much for my personal esthetics, but they were one gorgeous set of pipes.

I know of some individuals that have issues with the FIM statements. Probably not a lot of the riders on this forum have the opportunity to ride V11 Sports and the earlier Sport 1100i's, but I do, and I can state that the FI on the V11 is several magnitudes better than the one on the Sport 1100i. The Sport 1100i is best characterized as evil. So bad in fact, that at least on gent has opted to ditch the Marelli computer in its entirety and build his own. http://www.jefferies-au.org/ECU/progress.html If the Power Commander I have on order for my Sport 1100i can't help, at least I have somewhere else to turn. The interesting thing is, this guys computer will eventually be compatible with the V11 Sport, the major thing being the MAS sensor in the computer instead of in the airbox like the Sport 1100i. Even more information (from FIM) is available at http://www.sigmaperformance.com/weber.html

Blue lights are pretty obvious to other vehicles, but there is more than a little documentation available to indicate that the blue and ultra-violet spectrums of these lights is less effective at illuminating the road surface. In fog or rain, the specular radiation is much higher with these lights, returning even more reflected light back to the source than a standard bulbs, reducing their effectiveness even more and creating additional glare in the drivers eyes. Yellow lights do the best job, and that's why fog lights are yellow. A lot of it is still how many lumens you through down the road though. The Paia bulbs move the filament to concentrate more beam down the center and less in the side-lobes to gain more distance with the same wattage. The headlight on my V11TT is much better than the one on my Sport 1100i and that one in turn is a magnitude better than the one on my California. Driving lights would be a good addition, but I'm always wary of the meager output of the Guzzi alternator as I already run electric grips, vest ad infinitum. The best headlight I ever had was on a Yammerhammer 650 Seca. An 8 1/4" monster that when upgraded with a 100 watt bulb, bestowed the light of the sun on the road.

I replaced the wiring harness connectors in line with the headlight bulb on my Sport 1100i, and even that improved the quality of beam a noticeable amount. You can read about that escapade at: http://www.guzzitech.com/Headlt-Fail-Carl_A.html and there are a lot of other tips at http://www.guzzitech.com as well.

Probably http://www.daes-mototec.de/, but I'll be danged if I can figure out their web-site. Alta Vista doesn't translate umlauts and other things too well.

It's kind of a stretch going from a Sport 1100i image to a V11 Sport, but... thanks to the magic of digital image software, and a perverse notion to see what my Sport 1100i would look like with some Ducati style Conti mufflers, you get: Somewhere, on my hard disk, I have the same munged over image with Norton Commando reverse cones, but you get the general idea. The original intent was to allow for bags and to have something besides canisters hanging off of the rear end. Nice though I think these pipes look, they do complicate the removal of the rear wheel. Something to consider. However, since this is just a digital image, the eraser tool can be used to remove the wheel.

Almost 8000 miles on my V11TT since I bought it 5 months ago. Slight seepage at rear of transmission, broken right oil cooler bracket. Strong bike, fun to ride, very reliable, sweet sound from the Mistrals. Everybody likes it. It has the usual MG FI stumble, too. Big deal, you want FI problems? Own an MG Sport 1100i, horrible FI, yet still an absolute blast to own. The California, a blast to own. The V65, well, the jury is out on that one, but it's still fun. Okay, so I like my Guzzi's, warts and all. But mostly, they're as good a bike as I've ever owned and they have a lot more endurance than ANY of the others I've owned. I have 55,000 miles on the Sport 1100i and 20,000 on the California. The 1100's are all my daily commuters (the V65 is for my daughter). 55 miles every afternoon and 55 more at midnight, every workday, rain, wind, shine, fog. They can't be that bad of a bike or I'd own a car!

I like the sticky tape version of the Formotion clocks. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...4b03da93552b4af The glow in the dark feature is essentially useless though. I'm currently trying to figure out a way to put a very small bulb inside for nighttime use. There are ultr violet led's that would make it glow, but aside from the exceptionally high cost (>$40 and short lifetime), there is a health issue, so making the luminescent face glow is out of the question.

Dinosaur, you should try and get ahold of Russell Duke from the Cooked Goose Moto Guzzi land speed record team (although there's a chance you already know him). He used to build HD race motors, now he builds the worlds fastest Moto Guzzi motors.

All I can tell you from personal experimentation is that turn signals turned into running lights are much more visible in the fog if the color is yellow vs red. A 5 watt yellow light is visible in fog about 2 1/2 times further than red is. YMMV. And there is no way to prevent a complete idiot from punting you down the road. I wish I had radar proximity warning device(s) aimed front and rear. One to keep me from hitting something and one to let me know it's time to dive for the side of the road because there's a moron in high gear behind me.

It's not too difficult if it's like the Vaguelia tachs. Just put a towel or something on a hard surface, lay the speedo face down on that and use a couple of medium to large flat blade screwdrivers to gently pry the perimeter of the bezel outward. Don't try to do it all at once in one spot, work your way around the tach bending it out about 20 degrees each time at probably, one-quarter inch intervals. After a while, you can use some pliers to grip and bend. Just keep doing that until the bezel slips over the housing lip easily and you're in. Do what you need to the needle (I'd use a magic marker, but then, I'm a lousy painter). Closing it up is the reverse except that you just use pliers and crimp the bezel down around the housing lip again in one or two passes.

I just added a Kisan SM2 to my 97 California. They're not cheap at about $100, so the V11TT and Sport 1100i will have to wait their turns. The California got it first because it's better in the fog because of the head position with the heated snowmobile helmet. But I digress. The Kisan is just about the simplest installation I've ever seen for a bike. Plug it in to the flasher socket (I had to swap leads on the California), install the enclosed splice blocks onto the brake light wire and one each on the left and right turn signal wires, plug in the harness, test it, close up and you're ready to roll. It took a half-hour on the California and would probably take a similar amount on the V11 depending upon whether the seat cowling has to be removed. I don't know, I haven't looked. The running light mode makes for very dim running lights, but sufficient to be seen in the dark. On my Sport 1100i, I have 3 watt bulbs poking through the reflector and they are much brighter than the Kisan unit, so I would guess that the running light mode is roughly equivalent to a 1 watt output. Self cancelling turn signal feature is nice as well.

When I broke the rear brake lever on my Sport 1100i three years ago, the replacement lever took four months to be delivered. I couldn't wait, so I contacted Brent Prindle of Moto International. I had read about his project bike http://www.motointernational.com/project.html and noticed it had a billet brake pedal. Brent made me one on short notice (he's an awfully nice guy) and I was able to attend the 2000 Grass Valley Rally as a result. Cost was about the same as stock.

Put rubber throttle body mounts on that system and they'll probably blow up like balloons

Geezers??? Hey, I'm old enough to be your brother. Besides, England is too small to need a GPS. Now, on a nice short 800 mile jaunt between the western states of the US, you might want one, or not. I do the guy thing and eschew GPS doohickeys, use minimal maps and get lost occasionally. It relieves the boredom. Really. Put your finger on a map of California and follow it from Barstow to Needles. 144 miles of absolutely nothing. Typical southwest (semi)super slab. Boring. To tears.

Well, it is interesting isn't it? No current Guzzi frame would probably be suitable, but I can easily imagine an LSR body wrapped around it. I have no idea what their intent for it is, I didn't run the article through a translator.

I'm cross posting this from the Australian Guzzi Forum. Although not V11 hardware, it's too good to pass up. Despite all of the noise coming from the U.S. side of the pond, the really interesting stuff occurs in Europe. My thanks to Ernesto at ew_krueger@freenet.de ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, folks. If yo want to see something *REALLY* interesting and beautiful, take a look at http://www.koehler-mechanik.de/guzzi_index.htm Ciao, Ernesto

I seem to recall reading a post about a Scura on one of these forums recently. He had mild head work by Mike Smith and I believe, dual plugging. Dyno work (again going from memory, so this may not be correct) by Doug Lofgren. That particular bike is pumping around 104 HP I think. Dang! I wish I could remember the details. Check out the Guzzi reports at http://www.manleycycle.com/Tech.htm, that's where Doug works. You might want to follow the following thread off of the Guzzi Forum in Australia too. http://www.guzzi.com.au/forum/guzzi/msg/9787.html Also check out the German sites, they seem to be in the thick of it. http://www.daes-mototec.de/ http://www.dynotec.de/ http://www.stein-dinse.com/ and right here on this site: http://www.v11lemans.com/html/links.htm

I've already broken one and they're about $69 in the USA. Pretty much the same as every other manufacturer's price these days for a brake lever. Don't break the rear pedal though, it's close to $145.

It might be nothing more than shifting technique. On the old Guzzi transmission, which is a drum type, you can leave some pressure on the shift lever between gears. On the rotary type of the V11S, it has to return to it's neutral position before accessing the next gear. Makes for interesting riding when switching from one type of bike to another.

He's probably serious enough, although I can't figure out where you would mount a GPS in the space available on a V11S. I would suggest looking at the how-to section of this forum and refer to my stealth switch section. The same process would work well for adding a power outlet near the instrument panel without doing any permanent changes to anything on the bike. I added a relay/fuse combo to my V11TT and that routes to an RCA jack inside a cloth sleeve (actually, the holder for a MiniMag flashlight). The jack/sleeve just protrude up between the seat and tank and when I don't need it (summertime), I just lift the seat and flip it under. Right now, it's powering my BMW heated vest and my HJC SyMax snowmobile helmet with the heated faceshield (not an optimal solution - and not legal - but at least faceshield fogging isn't and issue). What remains to be seen is whether the alternator can keep up with the load. I have heated handgrips too, but I tend to not run everything simultaneously because everything is too hot with just off and on switches (the grips have hi/low, but even the low is pretty toasty).

I've been using the BMW motorcycle transmission synthetic lube for all three of my 1100cc Guzzis. I add a fair dollop of engine assembly lube as well (no moly available locally) to both the rear box and the transmission. I also use teflon tape to seal the drain and sight plugs and safety wire them as well (on the rear box) because the synthetic lube is so damn slippery that I've had them depart the bike.

Geezers??? Hey, I'm old enough to be your brother!!! Seriously though, I am sorry to hear that you're having so many problems with your V11 LeMans. They do seem to have their own specific failures. The only thing that has failed in the first 7000 miles on my 2001 V11TT is the right side oil cooler bracket. Another typical failure for the earlier models, but nowhere near as dire as the transmission spring failure.