kecup

done some kilometrage on 3 other guzzis before so do not believe much in tales, no complaints about the design. I guess anything can be the cause, among the variables here, including their combination. Old tyre and dirty brakes most likely. But we will give it a thorough research when we start restoring the bike. Recent events will speed up the process a bit. Suspention settings were checked, seems they are factory. But banalities need to be ruled out first I agree. Know very well how stupid hurts - from the 2stroke 175cc era back home long time ago:)

Thanks for answer, I agree on the bad tyre. I ride almost everyday for many years and so far thought I can brake the front wheel with confidency - maybe an illusion:). Under hard braking on my monsters I can tell when the traction is giving up quite nicely, based on the front end feel and the sound of the tyre. The guzzi has quite different feel (my leg can tell:), just have to find out what this is - love the bike and want to keep it for good.

the rotors were changed few weeks ago, must have some 300miles on them. Plenty od pads. Brakes work nice. On low speed trials on the parking lot, both legs on the ground, after the crashes, I found no tendency of the steering to move left when slamming brakes. The chance is that the calippers are dirty and do not move freely, so there is some build up of the pressure needed to cut them lose, in this case they would bite hard suddenly without warning. But this is pure speculation. Thank you for answer.

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Thanks for answer. I feel even if the tire is old (could not find any codes on it) it still should not be so dangerous, since this happened w/o any warning. I desperately need to know what was this or I am not sitting at this thing again. I rode bikes with bent forks before, including my monster for 500km right after a 60mph crash that left front forks misaligned by 2cm down at the hub. In all cases the front end behaved strange some ways but it was predictable and started slowly. My latest experience is completely weird. It is my 4th guzzi and I really want to keep it forever, but can not ride something that is that dangerous.

The wheel locked both time, quick and unexpectedly when not so hard braking. The brakes work nice, plenty of pads, rotors changed for brand new recently. We will of course go through the whole bike during the restoration but the first accident happened with no damage to the bike. Steering damper was set on loose and head bearing checked normal during the service few days ago.

Hi to everyone, this is concerning the Sport 1100i, thought to ask here since the bike is reasonably similar to V11. The problem: I had two strange accidents recently - low sided my 1997 1100i two times, both at low speed during braking. The bike is a bit damaged and so am I, but more painful is not knowing why this happened. Hence the post in here. Accident no 1: Went slow in a line of cars when suddenly the car in front of me decided to stop, I start braking, not much emergency, but suddenly the front wheel locked and I got a immediate left-hand tank slapper and ended on the ground. It was on a bit of a wet surface so I blamed it on this, although it felt weird. Just the front wheel broke the traction a bit fast. Anyway, repaired the broken shifter and continued riding. Not much other damage, no apparent fork problem, no weird handling afterwards. Accident no 2: Riding at some 30mph, when I saw someone at distance crossing my path, start braking, again no emergency, dry conditions, perfect surface. I got a very quick, again left-hand tank slapper and low-sided, this time with a bit more damage to the bike and myself. THis was very surprising since it should absolutely not happen. Bike and my conditions: 1100i 1997 Sport, 20K miles, recently serviced, plenty of front tire (do not know the age of it though - bought the bike with it few months ago), steering damper put on "no resistance". When bought the bike there was no signs of previous accident on it at all. I have 2 other bikes - Monster 1000s and S4R. I ride almost daily for at least 15 years, brake mostly front end, always leaning forward to put a weight on front end. During my history of riding I has some accidents but never something so strange as this. Questions: What can be the cause? Hardened tire, bad forks? Design? I had a 2004 LeMans before and noticed the bike has a slight tendency for a left-hand tank slapper when hitting a bump or so. I need your imput:) Pavel

2004 V11 LeMans, 5200 miles, almost a year of warranty left, clean title in hand. Bike has high-mount factory titanium exhaust with corresponding EFI computer, stock pipes and computer (never used) included. Bike is in perfect condition short of a scratch on front fairing. 6000miles service ($400) done by OC Motorsports last week including the shifter linkage adjustment. CA registration valid till summer 2007. I was going to keep this Guzzi for life but an ongoing relocation to Europe for work and (frankly) a recent lack of a faith in Moto Guzzi force sale. I am asking $6200. I am in Los Angeles, Culver City, so come and see the bike yourself. Cash in hand will yield you a test drive. I am willing to somewhat negotiate about the price. Thanks Kecup (kecup74@seznam.cz)

2004 V11 LeMans, 5200 miles, almost a year of warranty left, clean title in hand. Bike has high-mount factory titanium exhaust with corresponding EFI computer, stock pipes and computer (never used) included. Bike is in perfect condition short of a scratch on front fairing. 6000miles service ($400) done by OC Motorsports last week including the shifter linkage adjustment. CA registration valid till summer 2007. I was going to keep this Guzzi for life but an ongoing relocation to Europe for work and (frankly) a recent lack of a faith in Moto Guzzi force sale. I am in Los Angeles, Culver City, so come and see the bike yourself. Cash in hand will yield you a test drive. I am willing to somewhat negotiate about the price. Thanks Kecup (kecup74@seznam.cz)

The warranty left aside my point was how this can happen - a bike that has 5K miles can get its clutch broken, but not as a reason of a bad design everyone knows about. The guzzi certainly has its attraction to me - just painfully learning the rules of the trade.

Thanks for advice - I have adjusted the cable for some freeplay (had almost none) and it did not help- I will do more and also check the clutch lever and report back. Pavel

To Pete: I have contacted the official dealer (OC Motorsports) - I just do not see what I am going to gain by trucking the bike to Orange County. The bike is out of warranty and you can read somewhere in this discussion that another official dealer (MG International) rebuilds the 2003 Cali clutches at the owner's cost for out-of-warranty bikes. To make it short - do you have any evidence of recall existing on this? Usually these are official and one can search out the pdf or something of the original announcement. I made an extensive internet search and found just the V11 transmission, throttle cables, wheels recalls etc. If there is an evidence of recall on this - I will haul the bike to the OC and try my luck. If this is only gossip I do not waste time. Regarding the oil light - I surely admire the knowledge that this (and others) guzzi forum holds - it is probably better than the company itself. I just do not understand the do-it-yourself part of the MG ownership. Same with the clutch, I might not cry here and quietly rebuild it at home. But why should I - the bike is virtually new. p.

Thanks a lot to all of you for responses! Here are some explanations. The bike is some three weeks short of warranty. I have contacted MGNA firstplace through their web - no response, but that's no surprise. I have written to the same void few more times concerning various components failing on my Jackal and never got any feedback. I did not know that MG Classics are not official dealer - how would I know unless they write it on their website. I contacted OC Motorsports and they say bring the bike in (an hour of driving), we diagnose it (it has broken clutch) and if it is under warranty (it is not) we submit a claim to MGNA. Alternatively we fix your clutch at your expense. Then perhaps I could truck the bike to Santa Barbara (two hours driving) to give it another try? Given my past experience with the jackal warranty claims I am not a great believer here. In the jackal times, the dealer was around the corner, now it is difficult to push someone when they are 100miles away from you. A faint rumour says they were recalls on this but as you see from the postings here, bike has to have a warranty for this to be fixed@no charge. So I have an estimate now of about 800$ for changing the bad plate in the clutch not changing the bad clutch for good one - much more expensive. 800 assuming there is nothing more screwed in there. I might cure the problem only temporarily (opinions differ on this) but I guess it will give me anough time to get rid of the bike considering that there is the lifter screwed up waiting. I agree with Richard that Guzzi should have more understanding of their customers considering the composition of its customer crowd. I plan to assemble a portal where all the victims of Guzzi's recent design screwed ups (engine paint including) can simply post their experience. With the noble intention of helping to make the future Guzzis better. With the less noble intention of warning others what they might face. Thanks again to all of you for your contributions to the matter. P.

Hello everyone - it seems that I only post when something goes wrong. Last time it was the oil light problem with my 2004 Le mans - thanks to your expert advices I filled the oil to the top (previously the oil level was in the middle of the range, who'd have thought.........) - had not seen the light on since. Due to the above problem I mostly rode my other guzzi (2003 cali aluminium) in the past days and so I have a broken clutch now. The bike has 5000miles on clock and since yesterday the clutch isn't working - it slips so badly that one can not even take off. If pushed it will move very slowly regardless the angine rpms, gears etc. So I figure I got some 5-10% of clutch function left. The bike is single plate clutch model. Just now I am learning that lots of these had the same problem - bad engineering perhaps. Anyway I am some ten days short of warrantly and they give me a $3K estimate on the rebuild. I heard some rumours about recalls being issued on this but dunno for sure. I would appreciate any suggestions what to do - it could have affected some Le manses since they made some of them with the single plate clutch too. I do not know. Also any suggestions how to get this thing back on road for less than 3grands would be very welcome. Considering that $3K is some 50% of the bike's market value I might just sell it for parts - it's like-new condition after all:) I only have experience with modern guzzis (99-present), and out of three examples I only got troubles: the Jackal was at some 4 warranty repairs(relay, fuses, ECU atc.) during the first 10Kmiles and The Cali Aluminium lasted only 5Kmiles. Luckily the Le mans runs great so far - just the picky oil light and trip meter knob that had fallen off. I've always been impressed by MG and I tried to be a good guzzisti - but I just might give up, character is a great thing but I want something that runs too. Used to have Suzi 1200bandit - no character but the bike run for 40K miles before I sold it without a single problem. Pavel

4SALE is MG factory leather jacket - size XL. I bought it with the bike and it does not fit me. It is very clean as far as I can tell - the only thing is missing stud in the zipper cover as you can see on pictures. Would like to get $160. I live in Los Angeles so stop by if you are close. Thanks Pavel

Hello people, I got a beautiful 2004 V11 Le Mans that I ride almost daily and I love it. I can see the bike is much more refined that the initial V11 sports and Jackal (my previous rides). My only concern is the oil light - it will come on for a ~second (pretty long time), but only after hard take off, on first gear from the stand still. Nothing in other running regimes. Nothing if one takes off gently. I checked the engine oil level several times and it is normal. I can imagine the g-forces are high when accelerating hard from 0 speed, potentially causing a drop of pressure somewhere, but I am not sure. It is quite difficult to find any remaining dealer in LA, California, but of course I'll do my best if you think this problem is serious. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot Pavel