twhitaker

This would look good with the gold powder coated wheels.

I bought a lever from www.motostrano.com for a whole lot less than the Guzzi dealer price. I think it was $43. It was flat black though. A zip tie will keep you from losing the stamped nut. I got lucky and found the little steel ball on the floor. I held it in the hole with a little bit of grease.

You would be amazed at how well the ammonia squirt gun works. Minimal capital outlay. If he comes back it is because you missed his eyes and or nose.

A squirt gun is legal in most countries and a lot quieter. Use one of those small clear ones and he will identify with your finger as the means of mass olfactory destruction.

When I was a paper boy I had problems with one particularly mean German Shepherd. I took a squirt gun and filled it with AMMONIA. While he was chasing me I squirted it in his eyes and nose. From that time on all I had to do was point my finger at him and he would run off with his tail between his legs. End of problem. The ammonia for the old blueprint machines is 2 or 3 times as strong as the household type.

The mounts are indeed Hepco Becker. It comes as a comprehensive kit with longer screws where needed. The instructions are in German. There is a cross brace that fits under the fender. It has a tab that reaches up to the subframe. You have to cut a slot in the plastic cover piece to go around this tab. That was the only confusing part of the installation for me.

It is a pain in the ass to get into the assembly to replace the bulb. The deflector in front of the bulb on my LeMans broke off and it took me about 2 hours to do the job.

There is a tip in www.guzzitech.com about cutting a couple pieces of wood to fit the profile of the sump to spread out the load. It's in the Maintenance section. 6.12.02 by Jerry Riedel. Says it fits the Sport I but once you have the concept if will work on any. Works nice and gives you that comfort level knowing your bike is not going to fall or do damage to the sump.

I swap my HB bags back and forth between the California and the LeMans. For my money it was a no brainer. I have the 40 L saddlebags and the 40 L HB trunk. Almost got room for the kitchen sink. Need to find a way to easily adjust the preload on the rear shock. Wonder if I could use some pneumatics from a Gold Wing.

Nice and frugal centerstand that looks like it would disappear when stowed up. My '96 California has a centerstand with a humongous lever. In order to raise the bike, one has to push down HARD on the lever whilst lifting hard on the passenger grab rail. I know the Cali is about 100 pounds heavier than my LeMans but when I have two loaded saddlebags and my 30 pound camping kit (tent, two sleeping bags, air mattress, inflater, and two pillows) atop the tail rack it is going to be one difficult brute to put on the centerstand. There is no grab rail or for that matter any solid place to put ones hand to lift the bike. Please enlighten.

I just raise the front tire about 2 feet from the ground and a goodly portion of the fuel dumps over. I bought 4.8 gallons after 177 miles yesterday.

The sidestand switch and its associated connectors will do it to you too.

Mark Tenney wrote an article in the Guzzi Newsletter a couple months back about using some automotive trimware between his tailrack and the rear carapace to eliminate the rubbing.

For what it's worth, the Mobil 1 M1-102 filter fits any V11 engine. The M1-103 is a shorter filter that will fit older Guzzi engines. I've been using Molil filters for the last 7 years and am happy with the performance. Not much cheaper ($10) than the stock Guzzi element but available locally.

My mystry leak came from where the oil line connected to the head. Check also the breather line to the head. Those crush washers can be a source of frustration.

I upgraded to riding Guzzis at the tender age of 27 by accident. My second motorcycle, a 650 Yamaha, was stolen from my front yard and I had gotten the insurrance check. I was interested in finding a BMW R69S. A friend of mine had six of them and I sorely wanted to buy one of them. He would not part with it and suggested I speak to a coworker of his. Gene had a R69S too. "The S is not for sale but I have another bike you might be interested in. Have you heard of Moto Guzzi?" "I've heard of them but I've never seen one. A guy I knew while I was in the Air Force was always bragging about his tirades on his friends Eldorado." I went to his house and checked out this 71 Ambassador. She was a beauty. Wixom fairing and these HUGE teardrop shaped bags. This bike was his fathers. He lived in Michigan in the summer and hauled it to Florida for the winter. "Why is he selling it?" "Dad's 70 years old and his eyesight is failing." So, for $1300 I had this 8 year old cherry Ambassador with 23,000 miles on the clock. Kept that bike for 12 years and 43,000 miles. Those bags could each haul a case of beer and 20 pounds of ice with room to spare. That bike sat in the same front yard for 2 years as my 2 previously stolen bikes and no one ever touched it. Back in '86 I was in Indiana on my way to visit my parents when something caught my eye. Parked in the front yard of a farm with a bunch of lawnmowers for sale was another Ambassador. I stopped and talked with the guy. He took the bike in trade for a garden tractor. Couldn't get it to run and wanted $500 for it. This bike looked like it might have been a Shriners parade bike or something like that. It had a big Bates fairing, DB bags and trunk, DB footboards, front and rear crash bars, a stereo, and a pair of automotive horns sandwiched between the saddlebags and the rear tire. It had a button for the horns stuck inside the end of the left handlebar. For $500 I couldn't pass it up. I left a $100 deposit and came back a week later with every part I could think of that I might need to get it to start. I cleaned the varnish from the carbs, replaced the battery, and checked the timing. I hit the starter and it started right off. Kind of pissed the guy off. My buddy got in the truck and followed me home. Now I had two 71 Ambassadors and a 69 BMW R50/2 in my garage. A year or so later I was at the dealer ordering another clutch cable when the mechanic came in on his Convert. Sweet bike. Sold the BMW and bought this bike. Enter the wife from hell. "You haven't ridden either of those bikes since you got the Convert. Why don't you sell them? We need the money to buy down the credit cards." Se was right. The first Ambo sat for several years. It wore through the splines on the final drive pinion and I couldn't get the rear brake to work right on the second bike. I advertised them in the newsletter and a guy from the Chicago area came down and got both of them. He was happy to pay $900 for the pair. I didn't know how happy until I started going to rallies. Exit wife from hell. Took me two more years to get over the credit card debt. She maxxed them all before she split. A couple years later I was on my way to a bar when out of the corner of my eye I saw this yellow and black Guzzi in a bar parking lot. I went in the bar and asked out loud, "Who belongs to the Guzzi?" This guy looks up and says, "Me. Why?" I said, "I thought you ought to know, it's on its side." As he was about to get up, I said, "Just kidding. That's a pretty bike." We went outside and started a conversation, kicking the tires and comparing bikes. I asked, "Where'd you get it?" "Joe Eish." "Well, I'll be damned. I knew he sold parts. I just didn't know he sold bikes." I called Joe a couple weeks later and the next weekend went over and bought a 96 California 1100i. The second brand new vehicle I've owned. The first one being a 72 Honda 350, the other stolen bike. I knew the Convert was going to sit after I took the first ride on the California so I sold it. Got more than I paid for it 9 years before. With this bike I started going to Guzzi rallies. Here's where I start kicking myself in the butt for ever selling those Ambassadors. Enter wife number 3. She loves riding bikes more than the other two combined. We'd been dating less than a month before I asked her to the Mid-Ohio Vintage Days with me. We had a great time there. Went to several more rallies that season and she enjoyed them all. A couple years ago, in October, we were in Gatlinburg TN for a friends wedding. Of course we took the Cali. We got lost on the way back to Dayton OH and wound up in Cherokee NC. Some of the greatest vistas in the world going over the Smokeys. When I accidently downshifted instead of upshifting my battery light came on. Over 500 miles from home. What's a mother to do? Hope it's the battery and not the voltage regulator. Looked at the map and the most direct route to Knoxville was west around the south part of the Great Smokey Natl Forest and through somewhere called Deals Gap. We rode the Tail of the Dragon without even knowing it was there. Had to buy another battery in Corbin KY. It had never occurred to me to disconnect the headlight. We got married after dating almost 2 years. We went on a Caribbean cruise and the wedding was in St. Thomas USVI. I put up her parents and her daughter there for 4 nights and they met us at the wedding site. She decided she was going to buy me another bike for a wedding present. We picked up the bike on the way to the WV Rally Memorial Day weekend. When we showed up at the rally with the 2002 Champagne V11 LeMans a bunch of people gathered around to check out the bike. When they heard the circumstances of my present, Maggie got over a half dozen proposals. Mostly from married men. I've had the usual problems with this bike but I'm not complaining. It goes with the character of the bike. Shifter pawl spring, transmission leaking, tank suck, speedometer (the trip odometer locked up), bubbling paint (for that one I may follow Ian Johnsons tact and get it balanced). On the new speedometer the trip odometer is right on while the non-reset odometer reads 25% low. The speedo needle wobbles wildly at 20 MPH tapering off to not wobbling at all at 60 MPH. That's a wierd set up even from Veglia. The bike has a little over 10,000 miles on it and I'm very happy with it. I bought a Power Commander a couple months back and have yet to install it. There is a tuning center in town. I've talked to him. He said, "You'll have to bear with me as I've not done a Guzzi before. Most of my work is on Harleys." Well, I want to make sure the bike is running the best it can before I launch into that project.

I won a Torq-it at a Guzzi rally. Love it. You see it advertised in the Guzzi newsletter. Moto Guzzi makes a combination tool for removing the "cap" and the filter. Kind of pricey but available at your friendly Guzzi dealer. I changed my bike over to a Mobil 1 filter M1-102 because I already had the socket ($5.00) for the filter. The filter socket is available at any auto parts store. I remove the "cap" by using a metric hex nut (18mm, I think) and a crescent wrench.

Oops. After taking another look at my '02 LeMans I found out it indeed has hose clamps as you mentioned. It's my '96 California that takes the 3008 with the banjo fitting.

The NAPA 3008 filter has the threaded ends to fit existing hose ends. Its outside diameter is several MM smaller in diameter. I just wrapped electrical tape around to get it to fit the clamp.

A metric hex nut for an M18 screw is the right size for the oil filter access cover. I just hold the nut with a crescent wrench. I change my filter over to a Mobil 1 M1-102 element because Auto Zone has the socket wrench to fit it. Guzzi has a sexy combination tool for both purposes but it's kind of pricey. I made the conversion so I could do the oil change anywhere.

For what it's worth, the stock filter element can be replaced with a K&N 33-2682. I got one for my California and found it to fit the V11 LeMans as well.

The dipstick should be checked with the bike level. The manual says the dipstick should be screwed all the way in to take the measurement. I've seen the oil light phenomenon but only when the oil was near the low limit. I've read somewhere about bikes performing better with the oil near the low level. (Less oil to be thrown around.) Once I saw the light come on I immediately put in the extra oil and haven't seen the light since. Suggestion: Fill the oil to the high level. Put the bike on the side stand on level ground. Pull the dipstick and make a mark at the "new" level. That way you won't need help to check the oil level.

You're right. It DOES look better installed the right way. My bad.

That's odd. I've seen over a dozen V11 LeMans and not one has had the screen put on the "right" way. I haven't noticed any dirt accumulating. Whistling noises? I thought that was my smile! Honestly though, it might have been cleaner, although more difficult to install, on the inside. Maybe next time.

Here is a front view.