Tom M

Thanks for the article BFG. Their conclusions make a lot of sense. A CR500 in a modern chassis would still be plenty competitive if the rules allowed for them. It would make a great playbike too. They're a lot easier and cheaper to maintain than the 450 thumpers too. I haven't ridden a whole lot of different motorcycles, probably less than 20 total, but of those the open class 2 stroke motocrossers were hands down the most fun bikes that I've ever been on. You really need to learn throttle control to keep them hooked up, and when you do open them up all the way for a few seconds you better have you chin over the crossbar or it's going to stand straight up in anything but 5th gear when the tire stops spinning. Definitely something that you need to try if you ever get the chance.

Welcome MotorMike and congrat's on your new bike! I have the factory rack and mounting hardware. I don't have a picture of the hardware but you can get "metric low head" hardware from Mcmaster-Carr that should work. http://www.mcmaster.com/#socket-head-cap-screws/=ivou3v

I look forward to seeing the racing part of the video BFG. I love the big bore 2 strokes and could never understand why the AMA dropped the 500 class at the pro level so many years ago. I had a 450 Maico back in the early eighties and rode a CR500 quite a bit when they first came out too. Both were great fun! A buddy of mine was still racing and winning on his CR500 at age 53 a couple years ago so your buddy Gordon isn't the only one who can still pull it off. FWIW I was talking to another friend who still races last year and asked him what he thought of his 450 thumper vs one of the 2 strokes that he used to run. He said he liked the way the thumper hooked up coming out of a corners because it gave him the traction that he needed to clear the double and triple jumps that are on so many MX tracks nowadays.

I carry one of these in my tank bag or under my seat rather than using the right angle adapters. It's easy to use on the rear tire, and it will pass through the front disk carrier and lock onto the front valve stem allowing me check the air pressure and add or release some without removing the gauge from the stem. They can be bought in most auto parts stores in my area. http://www.amazon.com/G-H-Meiser-EZ-Tire-Gauge/dp/B001CJHU9W/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1343949680&sr=8-17&keywords=tire+gauge

I believe he's had the bike for a few years. No pics. The owner lives in Lowell Massachusetts. If I hear that he wants to sell I'll PM you. Otherwise there's no sense in me tracking him down (I don't have any contact information) and bugging him unless you're ready to pay top dollar ($9k+?)for the bike plus shipping from Massachusetts to BC.

Yup they are out there. I met a guy a few weeks back who claimed to have a pristine bone stock low mileage Nero at home. Said he bought it off of ebay from a Wall Street type who had it on display in his house. I have no doubt that he was telling the truth.

Welcome back Ben. Congrat's on the nice looking Griso you got there. If my new-to-me bike leaked as soon as I left the dealer I would expect them to fix it. Especially if they were a Guzzi dealer. Since you'd rather do it yourself you might want to check with the Griso owners on guzzitech or wildguzzi if nobody chimes in here.

The Titanio exhaust kit doesn't include a crossover, it attaches the stock piece. As long as you don't have a Stucchi or FBF crossover you should be OK for a centerstand.

Hello Dimitris, Yes you can use the standard passenger footpeg mounts with the MG race exhaust.

Welcome V11boy, The V11s with the 02 sensors didn't make it to the states so I can't make any recommendations on how to correct your stumbling between 2-3k rpm. I agree with Jason that you shouldn't ride around at that low an rpm regularly, and I agree that an aftermarket crossover will help your midrange and higher performance. I believe the Mistral crossover is best for midrange and the Stucchi or FBF is strongest above 5k. Here's Greg Fields crossover thread: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11564&hl=crossover&st=0 You might want to confirm that your bike is tuned correctly before you start changing parts. When was the last time the valves were adjusted, throttle bodies were sync'ed, and TPS was checked?

Very sorry for the loss of your friend and fellow V11 rider Jim. RIP Mr Halsworth.

You can read the idle trim with VDST. I don't remember the menu path. You're supposed to be able to adjust the trim with VDST too but I couldn't figure out how to do it. My trim value was grayed out and I couldn't edit it. Fortunately I didn't need to because it was already set at 0. There's a forum for VDST at guzzitech.com. If you have a problem with it you may get a better response there rather than here.

These guys will help you out: http://www.swmototires.com/michelin-street-bike-tires-and-wheels-products.htm

Hi Ken, Here's how I use VDST to set my TPS as part of a tuneup. I came up with this procedure after reading lots of threads here and elsewhere. If someone else is doing it differently I hope they chime in... 1. Set valve lash to .006" intake/.008 exhaust 2. Set air bleeds to 1 full turn open 3. Hook up VDST then warm the engine up. 4. Sync throttle bodies at about 1800rpm with white knob. 5. Make sure the high idle lever is "off" and it's cam isn't touching the throttle plate. 6. With the right side idle stop backed off set the idle to 1100rpm using only the left side idle stop screw. 7. Check throttle angle at idle with VDST. It should read 3.6 degrees +/- .2. If not loosen TPS screws and manually adjust it within spec. That can be done with engine off/key on. 8. Start engine and warm it up if needed then verify idle is about 1100rpm and throttle angle is about 3.6 degrees. 9. Verify that idle trim is set to 0. 10. With engine off open the throttle all the way and verify that throttle angle is about 84 degrees. Hope this helps, Tom

Yes it's probably the pawl spring. I managed to make a shift after mine broke. Regular shifting returned with a new spring.

It's OK to leave the right side throttle stop screw backed off, or you can screw it in until it almost touches the throttle. Many use a thin feeler guage to get it close. If you screw it in too much you will remove tension from the throttle linkage which can throw off your throttle body synchronization and your TPS setting at idle.

Correct. As I remember it they were OK when new but started howling after I had some miles on them.

I've tried a few different sport touring type tires on my V11. I'm no knee dragger either but I do drag my boots from time to time. I'm still searching for the longest lived best handling ST tire. Maybe the Michelin Pilot Road 3's that I just mounted a few months ago will be it? Too soon to tell right now. I really hope to get >6k miles out of them since they cost a fair bit more than any other tire that I've tried. Here's my take on what I've used: Pirelli Angel ST: Very good handling but they were done at 5500 miles. If they lasted longer I would have bought them again. Dunlop Roadsmarts: Good handling but they were done by 5000 miles. I wore out the front before the rear which has never happened before or since. Conti Road Attack: The best handling tire that I've tried but they were toast by 4k miles. Turn-in was noticeably easier than any other tire that I had tried up until then and probably since. They have a higher mileage version now (the GT) so if I'm disappointed with the Michelins I'll definitely give the Road Attack GT a try. Metzeler Z6: I went through a couple sets of these and they were fine except for the front tire noise (no big deal) and the lack of center tread which makes judging how many miles are left in them tough. I did get 6k+ out of them which was nice. Stock Bridgestones: They were worn out when I bought the bike so of course they sucked.

When I was using the Z6 the front howled after a while for me too. I liked the tires except for the howl, which didn't really bother me, and the lack of center tread to judge how many miles were left in the tire, which did bother me.

Welcome to the forum and congrat's on your LeMans Bob. Are your electrical snapping noises occurring just as you turn the key on? If so I'd take a look at the fuel pump relay. If you leave the key on and cycle the kill switch it should energize the FP relay each time. It should click but not snap. Many here replace all of the stock relays with a set from dpguzzi.com ar motratech since the stock ones can be problematic. I'd also check the battery connections to make sure that they're clean, tight, and the + terminal isn't shorting to something. Oil leak could be the oil pan gasket, oil return hose connection at the back of the pan, leaky oil vent hose on the top of the engine, or something else. Check to see if the oil pan screws, drain plug, and oil return hose are tight then clean it up, warm it up and look for the leak.

You shouldn't need a new PC map if you're just adding a new crossover. Whether or not the custom map that you had done locally should still be used could be an issue depending on what your TPS was set at when the map was created. If it wasn't set to about 525-530mV at idle your bike might not run as well once the TPS has been reset. Do you have the Powercommander software and a USB cable? If not you need them so you can store a copy of your current map. Once you have done that you could compare your map to the GH67 map in the fileshare section of this board, or just load the GH67 map and see if you like how your bike runs with it. It's a good map for pre-'03 bikes with exhaust and intake mods. If you don't think it's an improvement reload your old map. Another thing that the PC software will allow you to do is manually adjust your fueling at any given rpm and throttle opening. Have a lean cough at 3000 rpm at light throttle? Make sure the lean cough isn't due to an exhaust or intake leak. If they're tight try adding 5 to 10 points to the cells in that area of the map and see if it improves.

What doc said. The only real flaw from the factory was the lousy engine paint. The engine paint on my 02 was crap when I bought it but the rest of the driveline paint has been fine. I didn't find repainting the engine to be too difficult. Since you love working on bikes you would get along well with the LeMans. They're pretty simple to work on and nearly anything that can go wrong has been discussed and solved here in the past. Another possible weak spot along with the shifter pawl spring is the relays under the seat. Many here replace them with a set from dpguzzi.com and never worry about them again.

The regulators seem to fail far more often than the alternators on these bikes. The alternator test is pretty easy. There are lots of threads here on how to test the alternator and the regulator but I don't have my links to them handy right now. A search should find lots of them. Here's some of the alternator test info from the Workshop manual pg 408. If your alternator is putting out the AC volts below when the bike isn't charging correctly it's OK and your reg is bad. "CHECK THE VOLTAGE OUTPUT Connect an alternate 200 Volt capacity voltmeter to the two yellow cables. Start the motor and check that the voltage output is included within the values indicated on the following tables: r.p.m. 1000 3000 6000 A.C. volts 15 40 80"

Member Macguzzi has them on his Scura and he's been a big proponent of them here in the past. Maybe you could PM him to see if he's still real happy with them?

That's how I finally managed to get everything tuned. I think my TPS at zero must be something like 250mV now, I nevered bothered checking it yet. The problem is that I can't get my RPM lower then 1200-1300rpm (on my tacho) without closing the bypass screws entirely and with the idle screws both backed off (as good as) all the way. So I set the TPS to 550mv for the higher idle (which is just an estimation, could be too low). That's how I did it, only I've opened the bypass screws only 1/4th of a turn to lower the RPMs as much as I can and set the TPS to 550mV to compensate for an idle RPM of 1300. Have you tried to pull the right side throttle closed with your hand while the bike is idling and the stops are backed off? It could be that your throttle cable has a kink or no slack at all and that's not letting the return spring pull the throttle all the way closed. There's one other factor that could be contributing to your problem: The idle trim setting in your ECU. It can only be checked and adjusted by someone with a diagnostic tool (dealer) or with aftermarket software and an interface cable (VDST or equivalent). There was a member here a few years back that had a hell of a time trying to tune his bike until he checked his idle trim and found that someone had set it to +25. Once he had it reset to zero he did the Micha tune and his bike finally ran right.