Tom M

As mentioned earlier the factory ECU mapping changed after '02. That alone makes a difference, but other possibilities are: - stock ECU or "race" ECU that came with the MG TI exhaust kit? - Custom PCIII maps or off-the-shelf? - Stock exhaust crossover or aftermarket? - Stock or modified intake? I have both stock and race ECUs for my bike with PCIII maps for each and the bike runs much different depending on which ECU I'm using.

Yup. Since I'll have about 15k miles on the updated spring by the end of next season I'm planning on replacing it and the other two next winter.

As Doc said #25 is the one that breaks. It seems like a lot of '02 owners have had this problem, but I've seen quite a few owners of the later bikes report that they've had their springs break too. FWIW I got about 15k miles on the stock spring, 7k miles on the Racecrafters spring, and now have 10k miles on the MG updated spring. I also ground down the boss on the pawl to the correct diameter when I installed the updated spring.

I have had my shift lever stick down after a downshift for a second or two in the past, usually only when it was very hot. The last time I replaced my pawl spring I assembled the shifter plate on the workbench with no lube on the shifter shaft and attached the shift lever directly to the shaft (no linkage) so I could check the shifting action and make sure I had the cog wheels indexed correctly before I reinstalled it on the transmission. While doing this I was able to get the shifter to stick in the down postion. I think the spring that recenters the shifter (item 28 below) is really weak. The next time I replace the pawl spring, either because of a break or just because my mileage is getting up there and I don't trust them to last much past 15k miles, I'm going to replace all of the springs in that assembly. After seeing the shifter not return to center on the bench I removed the shift shaft and greased the bore it rides in before reassembly. I don't recall ever having the shifter delay returning to center again. BTW, I do run Redline SPH in the box.

Nice! That had to be a really tough shape to form. Huge kudos to the builder. How are you going to finish it? Polish, paint, or both? Are you getting the aluminum fairing that's in that pic too? Edit: Here's a paint/polish scheme that might work with your silver sport if you haven't decided on your finish yet: More pics at http://www.bikeexif.com/moto-guzzi-3

Joel could ride! The Europeans used American riders for berms back in those days. Robert might have pulled over and had two beers and still won the race

From http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2010/Dec/101207alancarter.htm "In an on-line post, Carter remembers an incident from 1984. The French GP was then held at Paul Ricard and both Carter and Rainey felt their Yamahas were to blame for their dismal showing in practice. Both young riders went to team owner Kenny Roberts--newly retired that season--and told him about the machinery issues. Team managers today sometimes know more about Excel spreadsheets than anything regarding riding. Roberts back then relished the moments when someone drew a line in the sand in front of him and dared him to cross it. "Oh really" said Roberts after hearing their tale of woe. He grabbed a set of leathers and took to the track on one of the pair's 250s. As Carter tells it, in three laps Roberts managed to go a second a lap faster than either Carter or Rainey had done at Paul Ricard in practice. The pair "nearly got the sack on the spot" when Roberts returned. "We never complained again, just got on the gas big time." "

From http://www.bikeexif.com/vintage-moto-guzzi#more-11229 "From the beginning, Carlo Guzzi was convinced of the merits of racing to develop and sell road machines. And his C2V, meaning Corsa Due Valvole or two-valve race bike, was the first product of this desire."

Welcome to the forum Fraser. As others have said you should be cruising at about 4k rpm. If you're getting the 2500rpm "cough" when you're pulling away from a stop it could mean that your bike is running a little lean. If that's the case you might want to get back to the dealer who did the tuning and let them know about it. If MPH Cycles did the work it was likely done right, but if it was done by another shop that doesn't have a long history with these bikes like MPH the valves could be too tight or the throttle position sensor or fuel trim could be off. These bikes seem to run better with more valve lash than the manual calls for, and a few here have had inexperienced dealers set their fuel trim way too lean while trying to compensate for a poorly adjusted TPS. You might want to check your exhaust for leaks at the heads and front crossover too. Hope this helps...

Congrat's on your new bike Dimitris. That's a beauty! I'd love to own one of those someday. Either color will do but that rare ice blue is really sharp. Here's a nice blue one that's fairly close to me but with 114 original miles it's a little out of my price range http://www.f40.com/inventorymanager.php?action=view&Id=209237

I had a hard time getting the cover back on the first time I had to replace my spring. I found that the easiest way to do it is to shift the gear selector into neutral then make sure that the shifter forks in the gearbox are in neutral. Neutral in the gearbox is when the the bronze(?) forks that slide from left to right in the gearbox are at the midpoint of their travel on their shafts. FWIW I got 15k miles out of the stock spring and 7k out of the aftermarket Racecrafters spring. I now have 10k on the "improved" factory spring. Hope this helps, Tom

No Ducati aftershave for you??? I hope we can squeeze in another ride before the snow flies. I'll be in touch if conditions look good...

Nice bike Ben! A guy I worked with a few years ago had over 60k miles on his ST2 with no major problems. He said that he stuck to the factory service schedule and always had the work done by a highly regarded local shop, BCM Ducati. You do know that as a Ducati owner you'll need to set aside some money for a humpy race leathers, plastic boots, carbon fiber gee-gaws, and other Ducati "accessories"? Maybe you & your fellow Ducatisti JRT can get a package deal?

Great report on a not-so-great trip Ferguzzi. Glad that you had a good time but sorry to hear that your Guzzi let you down yet again and you were forced to drive a French car. I still love my LeMans but if it gave me anywhere near the problems that some of you guys have had I would have moved on long ago. On the other hand I'm happy to see that someone found a good use for the small block!

Doc, I don't know if this helps but I attached an Ohlins spring rate chart with N/mm, KG/mm, and in/lbs. It's from this website on springs and sag: http://www.ducati-upnorth.com/tech/suspensionspring.php FWIW I'm about 240lbs and I'm running the Ohlins 1091-34/10.0 in the rear which is 571 lbs/in. Sometimes I wish it was stiffer.

Too bad the V4 Tuono still looks like a prop from a bad sci-fi movie. I like the RSV4 styling but it doesn't translate well to the Tuono for me. I'm sure I wouldn't give a damn what it looks like if I was riding it though. I doubt that my drivers license would last long on a bike with that much power. I hope the new Stelvio sells well. It looks like it has bigger wheels & tank which should make it more competitive with the GS. I just realized what that Stelvio front end reminds me of...

Yikes! You're looking pretty busted up there BFG. I hope you feel better and heal quickly. Speaking of looking busted up...is this where our bikes were born? The building color looks like the Mandello factory but I hope things aren't really that bad there. Back on topic, sorry to hear about Greg leaving MI.

The powercommander will work just fine with the race ECU if you have the right map and your TPS is set correctly. I have a custom PC map that works well with my 02 race ECU, but I'm pretty sure that the factory ecu mapping changed in 03 so my map wouldn't be right for your bike. You would need to either have a custom map made or contact Todd at Guzzitech and see if he has a map that's compatible with your year bike, ECU, and modifications. I wouldn't go with a custom map until I was sure that I wasn't going to make any more modifications. An aftermarket crossover will help out the 4k rpm torque dip. That said, if you're happy with the way that the bike is running after the shop tuned it there's no need to muck with it. You might want to check your idle TPS reading for future reference.

"It's just a pity that the whole midriff looks it's bursting out of one of Guzzirider's Friday night party corsets." It looks a bit like an electric Ducati Monster to me. I think Monsters are cool so this is too. I doubt that I'd like riding a quiet shiftless electric bike either but I'm going to reserve judgement until I've actually tried one. Motorcyclist magazine has an e-bike issue out this month. The Moto Czysz that won the Isle of Man TTXGP is allegedly putting out 135hp and 250 ft/lbs of torque. When they figure out how to make an affordable street bike with power like that I think it might sell pretty well. http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/features/122_1011_micahel_czysz_electric_superbike/index.html

So you think it looks like the Terblanche Guzzis BFG? I don't see much resemblance. I did notice that like the V11 it uses a primitive linkless monoshock rear suspension with a rear fender that is cleverly designed to throw road muck directly on the shock. The "fuel tank" looks a little bit Breva-ish too I suppose. I'm with Paul on this. I like it and I hope they sell a bunch. To my eye it's much better looking the the other Brammo, and the pricing and range seem to make it a viable commuter or short haul fun bike. I suppose they'll need to offer some luggage capability if they want to make it more commuter friendly. A quick google search turned up this article that says it weighs 390lbs and has 55hp and 59 ft-lbs of torque. http://www.laptopdrv.net/2010/07/14/brammo-goes-travel-fighting-with-a-100mph-empulse-electric-motorcycle-video/

From what I've read the AMA XR1200 series was great bar-to-bar racing all season. Of course Harley riders are known for racing to and from the bars, but these guys were on the the track not the street. I wish they televised some of the Harley races along with the other AMA roadraces. Reminds me of the old superbike racing when men were men and bikes were nekkid!

Buell footpegs work well and are pretty cheap. I used them for a few years then bought the Motobits setup which I like better because it allowed me to adjust the brake and shifter positions to exactly where I like them. I couldn't get the shifter and brake pedal as low as I wanted with the Buell peg setup. You can see the Motobits kit on my bike in this thread: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16192 That said, get the Tuono. Why have two V11s?

The bump in the center of the top cap covers a hex socket. I didn't know that when I removed mine so I unscrewed the whole cap by grabbing it with a pair of pliers with duct taped jaws to prevent scratching. Obviously not the right way to do it but I was stumped at the time so I resorted to hackery! It worked for me. By the way, that top cap has a conventional right hand thread.

I have the factory MG rack and expandable bag that goes with it. It works OK for what it is but both the rack and the bag are pretty small. With the bag expanded it will just hold an XL full face helmet. The MG rack cantilevers back from the passenger peg mounts while the Stucchi rack has an additional mounting point under the tail which might give it more weight carrying capacity. You might want to check the Ventura rack and bag system. I think they have a number of different interchangeable racks and bags. I put a thin plywood base in my Cortech soft tail bag so I could mount it on my MG rack when I recently went camping. It worked out great even if it did look a little funny:

Be real careful with that speed bleeder Michael. IIRC a bunch of people have come here with reports of damaged slave cylinders because they used one that was a little longer than stock. I think the easiest access to that bleeder is with the rear wheel off. Good luck with it