callison

Hey Mike. I'll see you at the shindig this weekend. I don't know if my ISP is blocking your email to me, but I'm having real problems getting mail these days, so if you could send me a message at guzzi007@postoffice.pacbell.net and/or guzzi007@pacbell.net I would appreciate it. Also, are you going to the SoCal rally in two weeks? I want to hook up with someone to ride down with.

The V11 tank is 5.5, but about .5 of that is not readily accesible to the system as it is in the lower right side of the tank. If you actually run out, you can conceivably lean the bike until it's nearly left side to the ground and move some of the gas over. Hernias notwithstanding, most of us prefer to fuel up within a safe margin. The 2003 V11's have the fuel pump within the tank and there is no telling how much fuel those really have yet. I typically get 38-41mpg on my V11TT and 41-46 on my Sport 1100i. I have seen as much as 51mph on the Sport 1100i under extremely constant long distance, constant speed conditions (49-51mpg @ 79mph) and in a few weeks I anticipate finding out what the V11 will get when I go to a rally in southern California that is 501 miles on the fun route. There is no doubt however, that Guzzi's could use about another gallon or more of capacity, but our requests to Mandello have gone unanswered thus far. At least one enterprising individual in New Zealand, re-routed the crankcase vapor recovery to a small sump tank in the tail with a return line to the oil pan and then converted the spine to additional fuel storage. It worked out to about a half gallon. I'm still considering that one, but I find little joy in playing around with the plumbing on these things. At least on the V11 the fuel filter is right out in the open. On my Sport it's a pain to access and on my California it's about a 3 hour job to change the filter.

Ah, Jaap. You're posting again. Good to have you back buddy. You must be feeling better.

Wow. Mounting the oil cooler on the side of the crankcase on the Griso sure makes for a different appearance doesn't it? That whole bike reminds me of a Diesel locomotive, possibly because the name badge on the tank is so unobtrusive as to not declare itself in any more of an obvious way than a piece of air conditioning equipment in a factory. I'm fairly certain I would never consider a Griso, but the MGS is possibly one of the most beautiful pieces of work that has ever rolled out of Mandello. At least I hope it rolled. Even more, I hope it rolls off the assembly line in the near future. Even with a 2 valve engine it would still be a knock-out! But with the 4 valve in it, it is much closer to the performance mark MG needs. I wonder if there is a water cooled variant hiding behind a curtain somewhere...

And from some design concepts of a few years ago...

I ditched the Nippon Denso "squeakers" on my V11S and added the loudest Fiamm electric horns I could find. The high note one is 130db and the low one is 138db. Now my bike sounds like a truck!!! I made a quick and dirty bracket out of aluminum bar stock, hose clamped it to the cross-member behind the oil cooler. Getting it in place was a real pain, the oil cooler had to be unbolted to allow some hand access. Getting the nuts and wires onto the horns in such a constrained location was a pain as well. Running the wires meant removing the gas tank, but I took that oppor- tunity to remove the vapor recovery canisters and (most) of the associated plumbing. The whole job took about two hours because I'm all thumbs and the two horn nuts were pretty much inaccesible. The horn relay is fed directly from the battery via a fuse and a rea- sonably heavy gauge wire runs forward to the horns. Another wire runs from the original horn wire back to the relay to actuate it. The other terminals on the horns are plugged into the original horn grounds. The sound is awesome!!! Right side. Left side. Bracket just barely visible. Note the high tech hose clamp attachment hardware... The relay for the horn. More high tech hose clamp mounting hardware!

Sounds like good advice. And I won't tell you how much I wound up spending one time after having an additional relay for the Fiamm horns on my Sport 1100i fill with water.

If I'm to believe John Stoddard of MGNA, for the 2002 year, a lot of the case and transmission leaks were caused by the factory painting all of the case bolt holes. A few heat cycles, the paint breaks loose and leaks ensue. Well, maybe. Whatever, for 2003 the factory is apparently making sure that the holes are masked off prior to painting. John pretty much has it covered. Especially the hardware part. I lost an alternator cover and never got the opportunity to determine whether the shop forgot to tighten the cover screws after service or whether they just plain vibrated loose. Now I check them periodically. I haven't had any issues with my 2001 V11S TT, even with the Mistral slip-ons. It runs as close to perfect as any bike I've ever owned. I did depart from stock a tad further this week by buying a set of the bags which are quite nice and last night I ditched the horns and put on the loudest things I could buy. Now it sounds like a truck!!! That oughta make the cagers sit up and take notice...

The V11S has an electric petcock. Just unplug the connection and the fuel level sensor plug. Then unbolt the rear of the tank, lift it a tad, undo the hose clamps on both sides, lift the tank a tad more and reach up and pull the small overflow drain tube off underneath. If you want to pull the tank all of the way off you will need to remove the vapor plumbing as well, something that you should probably do anyway. I did mine last night, but opted to leave the anti spill valve in place as I have had no indication of "tank suck". Now I have a large tool kit under the seat where before I had ugly canisters.

I think I'll second Eric's suggestion. The airbox on the Sport 1100i is weather-proof. I have no idea as to how well the V11 air box performs in inclement weather. The only other reasonable possibilities would be water somewhere where water isn't supposed to be, i.e., start checking connectors.

Yeah, I noticed that I had pulled the +12v from the wrong side of the flasher AFTER I posted the schematic. Natch. I'm trying to make this as simple as possible, hence I'm using steering diodes which should eliminate the need for relay complexities. Relays aren't really the problem, where to put them is. The under seat areas of the Sport are not numerous.

There are kits for that purpose, but they aren't what I would call real economical. I'm working on a cheapo solution with a big resistor and some diodes to accomplish the task. I just haven't actually opened up anything on my V11 yet so that hasn't been done (and neither have the electric hand grips or the plug receptacle for my heated vest). Since the V11 Sport uses one indicator for the signals, it isn't quite as straight forward as bikes with separate left right indicators on the dash. I'm sort of loathe to cut any wires just yet, but in the long run, that's it will take. Hopefully, I'll get around to it within the next week and I will let you know how it turns out. Here's my preliminary and unverified schematic...

Well, something isn't right. The Speedometer and odometer have to meet certain accuracy standards by law, so if it's out 40%, by definition, it isn't working and should be replaced under warrantee.

I bought the "stick on" models. Some kind of godzilla strong double sided industrial strength carpet tape or something. The temperature gauge will read 115 degrees sitting there in the sun and the sticky stuff seems unperturbed. Just cleaned the surface with alcohol before attaching and that was it.

Al, I emailed them this web page yesterday and got a very nice email in return this morning with instructions on how to clean it. Nice people. They thought the gauges looked, and I quote, "Sweet!" I agree. I'm going to see if I can build some itty bitty illumination units for them though. See ya Sunday for the ride, call me Saturday if you want, you have my number.

After failing to put my sidestand down adequately, I had to replace a turn signal. There isn't a Moto Guzzi shop near where I live, but Buell S2 turn signals have the same form factor so I opted to replace all of the V11's turn signals with the Buell type. These are a smoky plastic instead of orange with an inner orange plastic piece to give the correct color emanation. 24 December 2002. Images have been removed so I can use my web page space for something else. They may be back later. I also added some Formotion guages. These are the silver case with luminescent faceplates. Clock accuracy is pretty good. The thermometer seems to have a dust plume from the movement stem. The luminescence is pretty well useless unless you have a flashlight handy to charge the paint up before departing in the dark. Parking under a street light doesn't do anything at all. Sigh... Also note the great quality control exhibited when the Moto Guzzi eagle was positioned on the yoke. http://www.formotionproducts.com

As I understand it, the engine/transmission cases that were painted black had the case bolt holes painted black inside as well (probably including any seal bores too). The black paint defeated the sealing after a few heat cycles and leaks would start. Current production masks the holes so they don't get painted and that is supposed to have fixed the problem. Of course, there are a slew of black case Guzzi's out there with the potential for leaks.

Sure, I have a few suggestions. The fuel pump fuse isn't just the fuel pump fuse. That circuit is shared by the ignition coils and the injectors as well. So, since the problem is on the right side you need to find out which component is giving problems, the right ignition coil or the right injector. Remove the connector from either one and then turn on the bike and see whether the fuse still blows. If it does, re-connect that connector and remove the other one and try again. Since the bike will run on one cylinder, it is not the fuel pump blowing the fuse. It could be an ignition coil, it could be an injector, or it could be the wiring. It is even conceivable that it is something on the left side of the bike, but that isn't as likely. Start with the easiest things first by unplugging components. The following schematics are in color if that will help. http://home.pacbell.net/guzzi007/schematic.../V11_Wiring.gif http://home.pacbell.net/guzzi007/schematic.../V11_Legend.txt

If Modesto Joe had been able to make the Yosemite ride, you could have seen and heard his Leo Vince pipes in aluminum. I didn't take my V11 (huge nail in back tire), but I have the aluminum Mistrals that Guzzi offers. I like their sound quite a bit.

Check out http://www.guzzitech.com/ and there will be a link there as well as some information.

I don't think that running out of fuel will damage the injectors or the electronics. With no fuel there isn't any point in continuing cranking the engine or anything, so the time firing the injectors while dry would be minimal. In any event, I don't think the injectors rely on the fuel for cooling or lubrication. On cars, the fuel pump is in the tank to keep the pump from burning up. For this reason, you would not want to run the bike dry, but again, if the engine quits from lack of fuel, you're going to turn off the key anyway. And push... The 2003 V11 Sports apparently have the fuel pump in the tank. Probably to prevent vapor lock. I wonder how much tank volume was lost in an already undersized tank?

Speedy, go to the section of the forum labled 24/7 V11 and check out " Latest Ride Notes". (There are so many topics on this forum that I just found this one myself.) Lots of positives there.

I will turn 53,000 miles on my 97 Sport 1100i Monday on the way to work. During that time I have lost one rear brake stay bolt (230 miles), had both front brake rotors upgraded to cast iron (17,000 miles), blown a voltage regulator (my fault, 24,0000 miles), broke a shift pawl spring (38,000 miles), lost 5 head light screws, one taillight bulb, replaced both headlight wiring connectors and re-chipped the EFI. I have had a couple of loose electrical connector problems, easily fixed, but difficult to locate. I have a 97 California that has never had a problem until yesterday (sidestand switch out of adjustment) in the 14,700 miles I've put on it (plus the 2800 of the original owner). I did an 881 mile shot from eastern Arizona to California in May averaging about 44 mpg at around 75-80 mph. No problems. I have a V11 Sport TT with about 3000 miles and I lost the alternator cover after the service tech failed to tighted the screws. Likewise the screws on the right side cover as well. I have an 84 V65C that I just bought so my daughter can learn to ride. It has a less than stellar history (typical of the small block Guzzis though) and it has 39,000 miles. The three big block Guzzi's have an accumulated total of around 73,000 miles with few maladies. I wouldn't let the general list of problems aired here affect your judgement. Guzzi's are really no worse than a lot of other bikes, but their maintenance is more accessable to the garage mechanic. What you get from these forums are the queries and statements about things gone wrong that need to be put right. You get less of the things that are right simply because of human nature.

Fogging tach? In the bad old days we stuck a low wattage light bulb next to it overnight. That will dry it up, but you'll have to seal the hole immediately after it has returned to room temperature. And, oh yeah, don't do it in a damp area and get moisture sucked back through the hole.

Well, take a look at http://home.pacbell.net/guzzi007/tps/TPS.html anyway. At the bottom of the page there are some pictures excerpted from the Sport 1100i Owners Manual. Maybe that will help. Carl Allison Modesto, California 2001 V11 Sport TT "Linear Exhilerator" 1997 MG Sport 1100i "Bright Red Italian Bugswatter" 1997 MG California 1100i 1984 V65C "Training Wheels" MGNOC 17546 email: guzzi007@postoffice.pacbell.net http://home.pacbell.net/guzzi007/sportissimo.html