John in Leeds

The 2 shaft drives bikes I've ridden (including one well run in) were pretty dire, like riding through treacle. The more effort you put in the more the gears gobble up. If you want clean with little maintenance a hub gear with a chaincase is the way to go. You will still loose efficiency over a derailier but nowhere near that from a shaft. Every watt of power from your legs is hard won so bicycles have evolved like nothing else towards efficiency, go for quality if you can, after all it is for a very important person

Have sent you a message Pete - so don't forget me I want one too.

You will enjoy both the V11 and the site (the best on the net) a warm welcome

That is really impressive. Worked on pipelines stringing pipe into remote areas with cranes, sidebooms and helicopters (as banksman). Really appreciate your skill and awareness of working on slopes like that and timber. Don't know how you make it pay. Take care Jim

If its any use a comparison of Guzzi Titaniums set high and low Deep and muscular sound. A good addition to this bike. Purchased new with a dent in the underside of left can. Drilled out alloy rivets, removed centre tube and wadding. Pushed out dent to leave a slight crease totally covered by the support band. Simple replacement of pop rivets. DVH sold his second hand and got a good price.

Guy I think Dave just gets bored and likes to tinker - interesting that another rider who has ridden most bikes keeps coming back to MG The new bike I hope will be a solid partner to my Rosso Corsa - a Swedish Highland Outback. Somewhat similar to the 950 KTMs but lighter and with more grunt. They seem to have been compared unfavourably with the KTM but the weight, comfort and engine characteristics suit me well. I won't know for sure until I've had some time with it so if you get lots of posts braggin' it could be good, if total silence probably not so. The hope is that it will be light enough to trail (I have a set of off road wheels and tyres), will tour (with a screen) and will wash off easy so I can use it in bad weather when blattin' about locally. The Guzzi is far to nicer bike to subject to all the rough and tumble of my biking life. Not many of these bikes anywhere but they seem well made, have the best of components and there are not many firms where you can ring up the MD to get info and support. regards John

Hello Guy Yes the titanium cans are on, I also tried the supplied ecu but it was quite rough and 'pinked' under load around 5000 and above. So back to the standard which runs sweetly, but I will not hammer it until I get the mixture checked out as I don't want damaged valve or pistons. I would also want to get the power benfit that comes when the ecu is set up properly. Christmas was going to see one of Cliff's My Ecu set ups but I have ordered another bike instead. Attached is a pic from Dave H when we went on a Filey run, you can see the difference in setting pipes at the high or low level. They might just ground when on the limit but I haven't got there yet. Just for info I fitted Metzler sportec M1s and after the original BT020s they are a total revelation - never have I had tyres that give such astonishing levels of confidence wet or dry. Pulling onto the M62 the other day rainslicked and really greasy they held on under full power in 3rd(not too far over), it felt like a crosser on the loose, never done that before on the road, those times have always been brown trowser moments for me. Dave (DVH) has sold his Corse and now got a Blackbird, not a good move, I suspect he will soon be bored to tears with and as he drives as part of his work he is taking a risk, mega speed is too easy. cheers John

Beautiful day, Beautiful bike Good choice as there will be salt on the road tomorrow

Is this how you handle your chopper? http://www.compfused.com/directlink/557/ apologies for those who have already seen this.

I wondered how you got all those poles on your Guzzi - now I know great post - thanks

So what do you know? Please tell. There seems to be a lack of any info in English and I have no Swedish translator.

Saw these bikes when browsing for a comfortable trailey as a second bike. Hope to try one next week if the weather is dry. Power to weight is really good and if the motor is not a grenade could it be an interesting MG project? Has anyone any experience of these bikes or engines – seems intriguing? A few links below to wet your appetite http://www.highland-motorcycles.co.uk/ http://668tech.laverda-nz.org/folan.html http://www.folan.se/index.htm http://www.ac688.dial.pipex.com/NEC/NEC%203.htm http://www.woodstar.se/docs/dokument/brosc..._vers-8_eng.doc http://www.waterousco.com/servicemanual/Mo...nualV290w02.pdf

More odious rant from you Ratchethack. I'm sure he'll have some ready disparaging labels for those of us who just cannot agree with his views

This comment sums up the whole sickening business -

Such a simple premise and certainly to my mind the ONLY way to go - unfortunately hysteria is the way to divert big money from populations. Greedy self interested people will never use the latter until the body bags contain their own and even then..........

I heard something very similar from Yoda at the Munich beer fest

As a regular now on the Leeds Manchester run (M62) I get what I consider to be the worst of all options. Little chance to use high speed to blow of the outside ball up and mixed low temperature rain and drizzle when good vision for filtering is essential. What has always worked best for me is regular new visor with detergent polished on the inside and the visor slightly lifted to vent moist air. I also use a face mask to direct breath away from the inside of the visor. Fog city soon becomes degraded inside but has been of some success. It seems to me there is no ideal solution, you just seem to deal with the problem better the more time you have in these conditions.

Nice to hear you Dave, afraid I lost you new phone number please give me a call. I'd like to do a side by side test again. Jason at Moto Strada set the TPS up last year and the settings for the race ECU seem to be the same as standard so I'm not sure why a reset should do the trick. I suspect the race ECU may be for the non- cross over older setup as it is marked '01'. As she's still running sweet and I am not going to be thrashing her for a while I'll read more stuff on the site and consider options. I do like the idea of getting more personal knowledge and control of a bike that (unlike any of my others) I'm likely to keep to the end of my days. The MyECU setup looks like a good bet in the long run and it's not too unreasonable considering it's possibilities. Anyone know different? John

My Ti cans arrived from Corsa Italiana about 4 weeks ago. A knock down price because of a dent under the offside can. Drilled out the end rivets, pulled out the core and wadding and pushed out the dent leaving a tiny crease hidden by the the hanger when fitted. New rivets and is nearly as good as new, nothing visible. The cans came with shortened footrest brackets for high level fitment (should stop them grounding at extreme angles for some but not for me) and an ecu. Fitting the cans was easy but they also suffer from V11 offset and it doesn't look too bad. Ran sweetly with the standard ecu, same tickover, good initial power and beautiful sound. Slight pinging at 5000 under large throttle opening but otherwise really sweet and strong. As the open nature of the cans is likely to weaken the mixture I am not using much above half throttle always below 'ping threshold'. The 'race ecu' I also tried but tickover needed increasing, the motor seemed rougher and pinging at upper rev and throttle range was much worse, so back to standard ecu. My bike is standard '03 Rosso Corse with cross over pipe and no lambda sensor. I will run it steady until Christmas (just love the solid base sound) when I hope to get the Chris Jefferies MyECU and use this to iron out the pre-ignition. BTW she has always run sweetly, started well and pulled right from tickover to limiter - just love this bike. Also Metzler M1s give astonishing confidence after the original Bridgestone 020s. Any simple advice always welcome John

If not a Dot it must be a Cotton with Villiers 4T

Air cooled, piston port 2 stroke 250?

Should have done my homework, thanks guys. However the set up is on it's way and I will fit it in a couple of weeks when back from holiday. Looks like I'm going to following the well trodden path of improving the system. Sonja has always run sweetly anyway, be interesting to see if I get improvement on more than just the noise. John

This it marked Moto Guzzi C0130 looks like a cat to me what d'ya think

'fraid so, it's the standard system I think. Why, have you any ideas? John

Small dent on underside will not show. Unfortunately the ECU is for a non cat converter model and I am told by Corsa will not fit V11s with a cat If anyone can tell me a suitable mod I might give it a go. John