rocker59

You should've made this a poll. I'll vote with Ratchethack and say "move on"...

Skeeve, Some of us want to / need to haul stuff. Around town and for short trips, I use a topbox only. However, I ride my Nero Corsa on long trips fairly frequently. If I'm gonna be travelling for more than a few days for more than a few hundred miles, I like having lots of luggage capacity. Different people ride thier bikes differently. I know there are lots of Guzzisti here and over at WG that only ride to work, or only ride on short Sunday rides. Those people don't "need" hard luggage. Personally, I like having the lockable hard bags on my bike. I use it mainly for "touring" duty and recently have been riding lots of 2-up with it. I've never understood the helmet in the luggage fixation, either. Usually, if I have my bags on my bike, I don't have room for a helmet in a bag because of other "stuff". On my old Triumph Sprint Executive, however, I left the bags on the bike all the time because of how integrated they were. It was nice, when riding around town, to be able to throw a helmet into a bag when leaving the bike for a while. Although I liked that feature, I don't miss it on my H+B equipped Guzzi... Solo 4,500 two week trip: Two-up 700 mile camping weekend: Yeah, it's a little wide, but lane-splitting isn't legal or acceptable anywhere within 1500 miles of where I live...

Hepco + Becker for me, too. Got my racks from Eurotech and the bags off Ebay...

It's been mentioned a time, or two... http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12652

Well I thought I'd update this thread. I sent an email to Schoolhouse and pretty much got blown off. He said he never got the jigs from Australia for the V11 and he didn't have any used ones. He also mentioned that he knew someone who had a few of the hitches, but wasn't courteous enough to provide me with the lead. Basically told me to look at buying another trailer type. Great customer service!!! LOL... Well, if anyone has a lead on a V11 hitch for a Unigo, I'd be interested... I'm planning on a 2-up camping trip to New Mexico this fall if everything works out. A Unigo would make loading the bike a lot easier!!!

I don't have any experience with the suction cup variety. Interesting bag!!! FWIW, the GiVi you linked is 18 liters. The "Daypack II", the "Engage Sport", and "Trip" gas cap mount bags from Twisted throttle vary between 3.5 liters and 15 liters. http://www.twistedthrottle.com/trade/productlist/317/

Progrip http://www.progrip.com/default.asp?tip=2&ite=gri#top http://www.progrip.com/default.asp?tip=8&ite=gri

My Nero Corsa has no protective screen over the oil cooler. No bent fins, either. Maybe I've been lucky...

I have had the shifter "stick" on me two or three times in 12k miles. Shifting down, the shifter sticks in the down position and will not move up without LOTS of force. It's kind of startling when it happens in traffic.

I recently put a set of the 714 on my Sport 1100, but haven't ridden it enough to know if I like 'em more or less than the 699.

my favourites over the past decade have been Progrip #699 gel grips.

Crap! Thanks for the correction. Yeah, it was 2am here and it looks like I was a little punchy when making the final calculations... You are correct, the numbers make the Sport 1100 out to have a "slight" top speed advantage. If I remember the magazine articles and brochures from back at the time, I recall them claiming 145mph for the Sport 1100. 139 has been claimed as top speed for the V11 by several magazines, IIRC.

I use a bungee cord to suspend the bevel box while the rear wheel is off the bike.

The "field expedient" option: I prefer the Pit Bull option when at home: Mine is a "forward handle rear stand". http://www.pit-bull.com/

Plenty of info on the web... here's some

The odometers are known to fail in the 8,000 to 10,000 mile range. Mine failed at just over 10,000 miles. The broken cable is a freak deal and coincidental to your odometer failure. I've never had a speedo cable fail on a Guzzi, but I hear about it occasionally. You'll get speedy service from MPH Cycles in Houston or Moto International in Seattle. There are others.

Acquire a new speedo from your dealer, take it apart and lube it before installation. Contact Greg at Moto International. He has been repairing these and may work a swap with you. You have plenty of options. Read this thread: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13045

If you wanna get rid of it, I'll pay you salvage price for your lemon...

If I'm not mistaken, they're all 50-State legal. The carbon canister is a CARB thing and comes on all the bikes.

I've owned an 883 Sportster and it returned 50 to 55 mpg for me. A good friend of mine has an '07 XL50 1200cc Sportster that returns 45 to 50 mpg. I saw it for my self on a 700 mile trip with him last October. My Nero Corsa returned 37mpg regularly on that trip, while his 1200 Sportster regularly returned 48mpg.

Yep the HD and MG are completely different animals. V11 = 1064cc. Bore 92mm. Stroke 80mm. It's on "oversquare" engine. 1200 Sportsters = 1203cc. Bore 88.90mm. Stroke 96.77mm. It's an "undersquare" engine. That's part of the reason why the Sportster can get away with lugging around in top gear at 2500 - 3000 rpm and return 50mpg.

What formula were you using to make the calculations?

1996 and back Spineys had a 160/60-18 rear tire and no cush drive. The tranny gears are straight-cut. So enough speculation... Here are some real-deal numbers to crunch: Here are the gear ratios straight out of my owners manuals: .....................................Nero Corsa:.............Sport 1100: Primary drive:.................1.16842:1.................1.3529:1 Gearbox:..................1st...2.4000.......................1.812 ................................2nd...1.778.......................2.50 ................................3rd...1.3636......................1.00 ................................4th...1.1111.......................0.833 ................................5th...0.9655.......................0.730 ................................6th...0.8519............................... Final Drive:......................2.9091.......................4.125 Overall ratio in top gear:...4.1737.......................4.0783 So there you have it. The Sport 1100 is geared slightly taller than the V11 Nero Corsa even though it's a gear short. I can also say that neither of my two bikes likes to be in top gear below 4,000 rpm. The Nero Corsa gets measurably better fuel economy on the highway at 4,500 rpm than it does at 4,000 rpm. Something like 2 to 3 mpg. Here's the formula for figuring speed from RPM: "MPH = TIRE RADIUS ÷ 168 x ENGINE RPM ÷ GEAR RATIO" Sport 1100: 145.4687 mph = 12.75 tire radius / 168 x 8,000 rpm / 4.1737 So, hypothetical top speed is 145mph at 8,000 rpm with a 160/60-18 BT-014 tire. V11 LeMans: 144.7848 mph = 12.4 tire radius / 168 x 8,000 rpm / 4.0783 So, hypothetical top speed is 144mph at 8,000 rpm with a 180/55-17 BT-014 tire. Source for formula: Edelbrock Tech Center Source for tire specs: Bridgestone Source for gear ratios: 1996 Sport 1100 owners manual & 2004 V11 LeMans Nero Corsa owners manual.

Smells like a troll to me... A stock V11 isn't going to be able to pull much more gear than it has. The Sport 1100 is geared a little taller, for something like 150mph, and can't pull it. 145mph at just under redline is what they'll do. Unless a person is running at someplace like Daytona, that kind of top speed is hypothetical anyway. I'd rather have a bike that pulls redline at 135/140mph and enjoy the better accelleration at legal speeds than to have a bike that's geared to the moon and can't pull top gear. The Triumph Sprint I had was geared for something like 180mph from the factory. Of course there was no way it would pull all that gear. 7,000 rpm in top gear with a redline of 9,500rpm. In fact is was a dog in 5th and 6th gears because of the tall gearing. When it was time for a chain and sprockets, I ordered an OEM set for a Tiger from Triumph. What an improvement! Now it would pull redline at about 145mph and had great accelleration all the way there! One of the first things I noticed about my Nero Corsa was the great gearing as compared to my Sport 1100. Personally, I wouldn't change a thing.

in the second photo: the item you have circled is not supposed to have a hose on it. it's just supposed to be vented to atmosphere.