Tom M

Here's the parts diagram for my LeMans. If your Sport is the same you will need to hold the end weight to remove the screw.

Congrat's on your new bike and welcome to the forum! There's no need to remove the controls or the grips to get the bar end weights off. You need to prevent the black end weight from rotating as you unscrew the cap screw from the end of the bar. I ended up wrapping one of mine with duct tape then grabbing it with a large pair of channel lock pliers because I didn't have a strap wrench handy. The screws in my bar ends were either loctited or corroded in place and it took a lot of force to break them free. Once you get the end weight off there will be a hex head piece (22mm?) screwed into the end of the bar. Unscrew that and the rest of the assembly will pull out of the bar. Be careful not to lose the little dowel pins when you unscrew the hex piece. I'm no guru but I agree with Roy, out of sync throttle bodies will increase vibration. That said, heavier bar ends work great too. I got mine from Moto International.

It looks like those Anima Guzzita guys run their Guzzis hard on the track . Here's a link to a bunch of V11s, Brevas, Grisos, Tontis, and smallblocks getting thrashed: http://www.guzzisti.it/index.jsp?sito=animaguzzista&linkPagina=15509&lingua=it

Hi Ken, Good to see you again too. Yes I'm going through Bikeworx. Galen (owner) quoted me about $260 for the pair plus installation. His tire prices are usually very competive with the mail order outfits and I like to give the local guys some business so they'll be around when you need them. He's going to have the front for me this week but the rear won't arrive until next week. That's OK with me since my front tire is bald but the rear still has some tread left. I always pull the wheels and drop them off for tire installation, then bleed the clutch and grease the Ujoints and roller bearing while the rear wheel is off. I like reinstalling the rear wheel so I know the washers and spacers all went in correctly too. I would guess that you need to make an appointment if you want to drop the bike off. Good luck with it.

I tried to get a set of Pilot Road 2CT but my supplier said the distributor was out of the front tires so I'm going to give the Pirelli Angel ST tires a try. Thanks for all your replies.

Your daughter is quite a character Jason! It's hard to take pictures with a beer in your hand so I didn't take very many, but here's a shot of you and your family at Guzzi central with Tim F (silveredspine) and Tom H (TH_01) off to the left. Here's Erik the Norwegian by his T5. He showed Dhansen and I pictures from his winter rally in Norway with at least 4' of snow on the ground. Those guys are nuts! Doug Ritchie's gorgeous Ambo with Hal Wiley's cafe bike in the background. I wish I got to meet Hal so I could thank him for posting his MG Ti can repair instructions here. Hard to believe that anyone would need this much crap just to go camping for a couple nights. That queen sized air mattress sure was comfortable though. I slept well right up until that damn bagpiper started in at dawn 5 feet away from my tent It was kind of cool once he got ot the other end of the fairground though. It was a great time and I look forward to doing it again.

My Dunlop RoadSmarts are done at a little over 5k miles. I liked them and will consider another set, but I'd really like to find something with equivalent grip that will last a little longer. Is there such a tire out there now? I loved the handling of the Conti Road Attacks that I had before the Dunlops but they only lasted 4k miles. I went through a couple sets of Metz Z6 a few years back and they were good too, but the lack of tread in the middle of the rear made it hard to judge how many miles were left in them. I didn't like the stock Bridgestones. Sooo...what's the best sport-touring tire out there these days for our bikes?

That was a great time! The weather and the roads were awesome, and it was a pleasure meeting and riding with moderator JRT and hanging out with him and his family. It was really nice to meet up with DHansen, Pete Roper and Jude, and a few others whose names I didn't get from this board too. Glad to hear that your ride home didn't suck nearly as bad as your ride down Dennis. Huge kudos to Tom Halchuk, Tim F, and the rest of the Mass Guzzi guys who did an outstanding job getting the Guzzi crew together and making everyone feel welcome. What a great group. There were more than a few beemer guys hanging around the Guzzi tent who said they liked the vibe from the Guzzi crowd a whole lot more than the beemer bunch. My only regrets are I didn't make it to the ISDT museum and I didn't get to see the guy on the GS crash into the porta-potty. I sure hope somebody got that on video. Thanks to all involved for a great weekend!

Agreed! Nice bike Raz. How's it running after all the engine work?

It seems fair to me. I would guess that it might cost around $300 to have the tank repainted. Are there any other 10k mile 2004 Ballabios around for $4300 or less?

I'll be there if all goes well. Roper may very well show up. Come join the fun! I just might do that Dennis if I can figure out how to fit my camping gear on the bike. If you see a red & gray LeMans with a couple of canoe camping dry bags on it trundling in on Friday that will be me. Hope to see you & Pete there!

Are any of you going to the Moto Guzzi/BMW rally in Heath MA this weekend?

Do the Honda ST1100 and 1300 engines count as modern? Yes they are 4 cylinders but a twin seems feasible.

Hi Roy, That ECU is mounted upside down and can be damaged by the seat base flexing and contacting the connector. I lost a stock ECU due to the PO of my bike mounting it like that. Flip it over so the connector is facing down.

Yes it was worth it to me Jason. The carfax report aligned with a document that the dealer had given me called an Autocheck report. I had never heard of Autocheck, didn't know if it was trustworthy, so I paid for the carfax subscription. I was able to verify the dealers claims that it was a one owner car with 13xxx miles on it, just off lease, with no accidents on record. I don't have the printout with me and the web link expired but I think it had some dealer service records and the mileage that was recorded when the previous owner had the state inspections done. I planned on using it when I looked at other cars but I ended up making a deal on the first one I checked. A lot of dealers offer free carfax reports on their used cars, this dealer used Autocheck.

When I was used car shopping earlier in the month I bought a 5 report subscription to CARFAX so I could check the records on some cars that I was looking at. I bought a car before I exhausted my subscription so I can run a few more VINS. I think it works for bikes too. Shoot me a PM if you need a CARFAX report.

Me too. Time for a poll?

I really like my simple air cooled V11 but yes I would be willing to buy a water cooled Guzzi. If Moto Morini were available in the US I would be very interested in one of their 1200 V-twins, especially if they came out with a half faired model. http://www.motomorini.com/web/#?id=moto& I'd love to see Guzzi offer something like the Morini motor with a belt drive like the Buell 1125, and use it a range of bikes including the MGS. It seems that not enough people agree with my taste in motorcycles though given that both Morini and Buell have gone under. How successful could Guzzi be if they built what I want? Answer: they'd probably go broke too. Pete, so sorry you're getting so fed up with Piaggio and their products, but given what you've been through with them I can't blame you for your despair. I hope you have a great time on your vacation over here.

How do they expect "aging officianados" to mount a Windjammer and ammo cans on this??? I like the half faired V12 LeMans sketchs at the top of the article much better than the actual show bikes.

No problem here Doc! Please post your charging voltages in either thread when you get the new battery and regulator installed.

Yup. I seem to remember that you had your TPS adjusted lean (under 525mV at idle) a while back. That will definitely cause a lean sneeze. A loose header or leaky intake boots will too.

My based on what I've read here over the years: Every model year has it's own possible problems. I believe I've seen some reports of pawl spring failures on 04 bikes here, but they seem to be more common on the 02s. O4s have the ITI gauges which seem to be less reliable that the Veglias on the earlier bikes, and they have the leaky front crossovers as SH mentioned, but they don't have crappy engine paint, won't vapor lock, and they may have better ECU mapping from the factory than the 02 bikes. The Ohlins models are worth the extra money if you can find a nice one. I too like the black ones a lot SH has what may be the nicest one out there IMO with all the upgrades that Ferracci did to it.

The spec for the Ducati Energia OEM unit from Euro Motoelectrics says 32 amp/450 watts. http://www.euromotoelectrics.com/category_s/27.htm?searching=Y&sort=13&cat=27&show=20&page=1&brand=Moto%20Guzzi%2C%20Ducati%2C%20Laverda They also have an Enduralast unit that's made by Ducati Energia that says 14.2 volts/450 Watt. http://www.euromotoelectrics.com/product_p/edl450-voltrect.htm The Guzzi repair manual says "The regulator has been calibrated to maintain the battery voltage between 14 - 14.6 volts.". My assumption (probably wrong) is we should be seeing 14 volts somewhat above idle and 14.6 at high rpm. Is anybody out there with the stock regulator seeing more than 14.2 volts?

Well I'm back from my vacation and the bike ran great. I had some awesome rides through the White mountains and through the lakes region of Maine. I used my battery tender to keep the battery charged up since the charging system isn't quite getting the job done and it started faultlessly every time. Today I checked the connectors and grounds and everything looks and tests OK. I also checked the alternator AC output and it's well within spec so I guess I have a weak regulator. My meter won't check diodes so I didn't try Kiwi Roy's test. I replaced the original regulator at around 15k miles when it quit completely, now at 30k miles this one is weak. I wonder if I should try something other than the Ducati unit this time? Murray, can you give me any more info on the Accel unit that you're using? Is it plug & play? If not I can probably find my original regulator and could reuse the connectors from that. I'd like to keep this one unmolested as an emergency backup. Anybody else have any suggestions for a reliable replacement?

My Lemans is the same year as the Scura and my selector wheels look like the ones in KBs picture. I've never seen a pic of a set with teeth running all the way around the wheels . Weird.