Beuphonium

Sorry to revive an old thread! My MC alarm story goes like this: I had installed a Scorpio alarm as it shaved a few dollars off my insurance premium as I lived at the time in an area where motorcycle theft was a very common occurance. The alarm apparently did have a feature in that it would disable itself if left armed for a certain amount of time so it would not discharge the battery too deeply. The issue I had with mine was the key fob / remote. I attended an event at a very public venue (large shopping mall, plenty of people around) parked the bike, armed the alarm, and entered the mall for around two hours. When I returned, I found the fob/remote display screen flashing... it had somehow lost sync with the alarm unit. As such, I was unable to disarm the alarm. I ended up uninstalling the alarm system in the parking lot with the siren going off, which was really quite an experience, but worth doing as I did have to get home that evening. Nobody seemed to notice that there was an alarm going off either, that or no one cared. The mall security drove by without a second thought. Once the alarm unit was removed from the bike's circuitry the siren continued to run on an internal battery for probably another 15-20 minutes. I ended up wrapping it in an extra shirt to try and quiet it down and stuffed the shirt in the saddle bag as I drove home. Nothing else I could have done short of smashing it but I wasn't about to destroy an expensive unit. I still have the alarm unit, and the bike is still wired for it. I've tried hooking it back up and re-coding the remote/fob to the alarm, after about an hour or so the remote "forgets" what it's doing and I'm back at square one. It's a little more than $100 to replace the remote. If you desire theft protection for the bike, about the best advice I can give is to make your bike more of a pain in the rear to steal than the next guy's. An audible alarm can in some instances serve that purpose; the proximity beep on mine certainly did. Then again, the alarm won't stop the bike from being wheeled into the back of a box truck. A disc or cable lock will provide better physical protection and not effect battery life whatsoever. The sad reality is that none of those options can completely prevent a possible theft. As mentioned above, I was afforded some protection in that Moto Guzzi wasn't exactly common. For a would-be thief, ripping it off had considerably higher risks associated with it as it would be relatively difficult to move either the whole bike or the parts from it. Here's to all of us never needing to worry about any of this!

I purchased my Magni fairing second-hand (what fun it was riding home with the kit strapped to my back as my V11 was, at the time, my only transportation.) I was able to buy it cheap because the mounting bracket had broken. After welding the bracket back together (and discovering the hard way I didn't have the entire kit) I installed the fairing. In my case this was compounded by having to swich not only the headlight mounts but the dash panel and all associated hardware as well. On the test ride I immediately trashed my speedometer cable as the angle drive I didn't know I required was still installed (I presume) on the motorcycle of the gentleman from whom I purchased the kit... My experience with the fairing lasted about another 300 or so miles before the fairing bracket broke again in a different location than the one I repaired. I removed the whole works and ran the bike naked for a few years. Now that I have access to my shop again, (I was stationed thousands of miles away when I installed it) I have fabricated a new mount that replicates the original Cafe'/Coppa/Ballabio "stalk" mount and welded the Magni fairing support arms directly to it. It works great. Oddly enough I have to pull the fairing off the bike tomorrow to install some gauges (converting to electronic speedometer to finally fix the angle/drive / bicycle speedo issue.) If there's any interest I can take a photo or two of the modified bracket while it's apart. For what it's worth, the headstock on my bike has two tubes welded horizontally across the front. The Magni fairing bracket as I received it did not directly bolt to both of them; the top bolt lined up perfectly, but to attach the bracket to the bottom tube I had to make some brackets (at the time I used aluminum angle) to be able to extend the mount on the main bracket about 3/4" or so further down. My bike is a cafe sport. The change from the stock handlebars on risers to under-the-top-clamp clip-ons is, to say the least, "radical." Despite my tribulations I love the fairing; all that is left for me to do now is spray it out to match the tail section I have.

#111237 is officially back on the road near Chicago, IL. I'm the original owner; purchased it new in Northern California in '06.

Being one of those hydraulic pressure type switches, I've never had one apart so I have no idea. I visualize a set of seals inside the switch that'd probably get trashed if I attempted to remove them. I'm just hesitant to tear it apart until I know that I can either rebuild the existing switch or have a replacement one on hand (but that's only because lazy me wants to go through the whole brake bleeding process only once...) I suppose in the worst case scenario I can cap it off and use a mechanical switch rigged up to the brake pedal.

Greetings all! It appears that the rear brake switch on my '04 Cafe Sport has crapped out; does anybody know of a replacement switch that can be obtained at, say, an a local auto-parts type place, or if there's any interchangeability with a part number from another brand / type? Authentic Guzzi parts are as scarce as hen's teeth here in Hawaii, and I've got to try and get this fixed right away. The brake light works perfectly from the front switch, the rear pedal doesn't turn on the light, but I can get the lamp to light by shorting the contacts on the rear brake switch, so I'm pretty much positive that the problem lies there. Can the switch be rebuilt? I'm assuming this isn't too common a problem... Thanks in advance! - Joe K

I am running 54mm Woodcraft clip-ons on my cafe' sport. They are nice in that their 2-piece clamp system does not require removal of the top clamp to install / remove them. On the other hand, the Harris units do come in a high-rise model. I have a set of Magni clip-ons as well, they have about the same bar height as the Harris high-rise units. The standard ones are significantly lower, IMHO. - Joe

Greetings! For what it's worth, I used a 1/4" (thread size) rubber well nut, a 1/4x20 stainless bolt that was long enough to pass completely through, a stainless fender washer, and a nylon locknut. The fender washer, nylon nut, and the (allen head) bolt will hold the gauge cluster to the motorcycle. The well nut will expand to tightly fill the hole in the gauge mount when the bolt is tightened, keeping the gauges both tightly fastened and reasonably well insulated from shock and vibration. I went this route because I retrofitted a V11 Sport / Le Mans setup to my Cafe' Sport, and discovered after it was all apart that the hardware that came off of my original setup was nowhere near what I needed. I was able to obtain all the parts to mount the dash / gauges at the local hardware store, thus the SAE size. I'd have gone with a metric version were they as obtainable. Hope this helps!

As an afterthought.. the "43mm" referred to earlier in this thread is the diameter of the fork tube itself. The clip on mounts to the fork "upper" which has 54mm diameter.

The last time I researched this, I found a variety of aftermarket clip-ons that would fit; I eventually settled on the Woodcraft with the 2 piece clamp. Harris makes a "straight out" and also a high-rise model as well. The V11 series bike will require the 54mm size, which is relatively hard to come by, but can usually be ordered. Hope this helps.... www.woodcraft-cfm.com www.harris-performance.com

That wire prevents a key fob from getting caught in between the ignition switch and the gauge mount. Without it there it's relatively easy to have a key chain jam the steering if one wasn't careful. I figured this out as I was removing it to fit the V11 Sport dash panel on my Cafe' Sport. I am really liking the idea of a pressure gauge... either mechanical or electrical. I'm using one of the holes left over from the handlebar mounts now to mount my Sigma computer.. maybe I can find a way to put a pressure gauge on the other one?

Thanks for the information- admittedly the only German I know is that which can be picked out from babelfish Having picked through the machine translation it turns out that the particular color I'm looking for isn't in fact green; it's Gray, Lechler GUZ-44 to be exact. My intent was to try and obtain the paint code in an attempt to have a starting point for a paint match. Armed with this new information, I'll be attempting to replicate the color using a more easily-available paint system, and will post the color code and mix here just in case anyone else needs it. Sooner or later I might just have to use "Verde Nacre" on a project- such a classic color...

Greetings! It is relatively easy to convert to clip-ons, especially if you can locate a set of the factory Guzzi clip-on controls; the threaded hole used for alignment of the clip-ons, however, is not drilled into the top clamp of a Cafe' Sport, and the mounting holes for the bars will be left over as well. Changing the fairing mount to the triple clamp will require a set of headlamp mounts (from a V11 Sport Naked) , and gauge mounts + a new dashboard (from a V11 Sport or Le Mans). I found my Cafe' Sport a much different machine to ride after the conversion to clip-ons, though I have mine mounted underneath the top clamp for fairing clearance (Magni) reasons. Seems to me that if you'll be sticking to the original fairing, the top mount is the way to go. Best of luck on the project!

Greetings all- Somewhere, perhaps on this forum, I read that the paint for Moto Guzzi is manufactured by Lechler SPA. Browsing their website I seem to have found an extremely comprehensive list of all the colors used for Guzzi. I am looking for the paint to match the tail section of my 04 Cafe' Sport. I have the parts manual for the 2003 V11 Sport, Le Mans, and Rosso Corsa, which lists only the colors as "Grezzo" (unpainted) Grigio Cromo " chrome gray) Rosso, (red) and Rosso corsa ("Corsa red). Basically what I need to know is the name of the color of the tail section in Italian. To my eye it almost looks like a very dark metallic green? Anyone have the official "Ballabio / Cafe Sport / Coppa Italia" parts manual that can look up the P/N and paint name for the tail / front fairing? Thanks in Advance!

The easiest fix (as mine behaves quite similar) is to purchase a Sigma 1606L. Calibrates easily, and provides a legible, accurate speed readout and odometer for less than the cost of a speedo cable (I bought mine after cable #3 crapped out). I'm waiting now on a replacement speedometer to arrive, though once it does my Sigma computer will stay on the bike. I had a different brand bicycle computer attached for a short while, but it was quickly removed once I discovered that it wouldn't ready any speeds faster than 67 mph. Once my replacement gauge arrives I'll see what I can do to find out what's going on inside the bad one, and post the results if they are of any interest.