guzzimeister

Hi this is my experience: Jim Strefford, Worcester - superb, a real motor engineer, did a full rebuild of my engine and gearbox under the A and B warranty recalls and did a superb job. Father and son are both very pleasant. My friend Mr Luty had his bike serviced there and although not cheap they did a good job. Last exepereince 2004. Colwyn Bay - geat people, no longer do Guzzis as they got fed up with not being paid for warranty work (I have heard that story many times). Howver when they were, they did 5 separate warrnty repairs, including one where they bought the part from Motor Mecca ratherthan keep me off the road. One of the mechanics is ex-Woody's of Abergele, and after every service my bike felt great. This was in 2000 though. Agostini's, Mandello - I know no-one will vsist them, but when my rear shock blew in Hungary, they fitted a new one without paperwork, all arranged over the phone. This was when Alis was running it, but they seem just as good now. Speedaway - like some here, have heard some bad stories but no experience. Having said all that, the V11 is so easy to service, there is no point in taking it to a dealer unless you are very short of time, don't feel confident technically, or just unenthusiastic about spannering. Personally I'm glad there are people who feel like this as it supports the dealers, who, at the end of the day, supply us with FOC advice, parts as quickly as possible and all the other bits we expect to get just down the road. Gentlemen, I salute you! Cheers Guzz

Hey buddy you just go ahead and ask, better to be honest and say you don't know than BS your way through it and destroy a good bike. Regarding mods to v11s, they can be divided as follows: very early ones 1999 - red wheels, mk1 forks, mk1 frame, electric fuel tap 2000 - 02 - mk1 frame, grey wheels, mk1 or mk2 forks, electric or manual fuel tap, two types of shaft 2002 - Aprilia made significant changes to frame, ECU, standardised on mk2 forks, and shaft type, and loads of cosmetic features. Injectors, air box etc were not changed My view is that Aprilia are not stupid, they looked at the whole fuelling setup, and although not perfect ther is nothing funbdamenatlly wrong with it, except that it could breathe a little easier and exhaust a bit easier too. I put a K & N panel filter in mine and it perked it up slightly. Cheers Jon

Hi Dan, thanks for the advice. This weekend I serviced the bike fully, all oils and filters changed, TPS set, balnced , new plugs etc. Bike idled beautifully and ran fine on the stand. Toook it out on the road and it had all the symptoms of being lean, wouldn't pull past 1/4 throttle, no power at all. Pulled my Power Commander out and blipped the throttle to see if the fuel lights shifted and they stayed static. Thinking the PC was u/s, I disconnected that, and then had a bike with all the symptoms of being very rich. A plug chop confirmed this, so I put this on my diagnostic setup and found a TPS high voltage fault. Checked the TPS and found this reading 1812mv and not moving when I blipped the throttle. When servicing the bike I found that the idle "zero degree" trim had shifted to 287mv, so I should have suspected something then. So have just bought a genuine Marelli PF3C TPS from Lamers for $400 (sob!), and will let you know if this fixes the problem. Does anyone have experience of the H-D Electra Glide PF4C TPS which is reckoned to be very similar? Apart from Lamers, no-one in Europe has any PF3Cs......and he had only 2. Regarding the PC I suspect its calibration to the ECU dropped out when it saw rising inputs from all the other sensors, but nothing from the TPS. I'll be interested to see whether it restores itself with a new TPS or whether I will have to reprogramme it again. Any views? Happy riding Guzzimeister

Hi I worked in the brake industry for a few years (Continental Teves) and for waht it's worth: 1) my rotors are stamped min thickness of 3.2mm 2) major issue in taking rotors MUCH below this is warping, and in EXTREME cases cracking. In 30 years I have only seen one cracked rotor and that was on a hat type rotor on a car which had done 90k miles. I wouldn't worry about taking rotors to 0.1 - 0.2 below min thickness, but after that the risks go up sharply 3) if you are unlucky enough to pop one of your caliper pistons out, you will notice it is about 3/4 as high as its diameter. I used to test disc brakes to destruction and because of this area of spport I never had one cock and jam. They used to jam because of overheating damaging the hard chrome finish, dust build up, and because the pad itself would work a groove into the caliper body. This is with the rotor glowing orange........ My view is that if you are an aggressive rider, expect to change your rotors at 40k, much as you would a car. If you don't ride on the brakes you might get to 60k. If at any time you notice brake performance deteriorating, the common sense thing to do is check rotor and caliper. If either look iffy, repair/replace. Biggest issue with worn rotors is that getting the caliper off over the lip at the edge can be difficult - all brake system components are designed with massive safety margins as product liability legislation can kill even the biggest, ask Brembo US Inc. Sorry to preach, hope it's useful. Cheers Guzzimeister

Hi thanks for this. Don't think it's this as I have a voltmeter fitted to the bike and apart from the dip to 8v when it starts it recovers immediately to 13.5+v. The other clue to low batt voltage I found is the tacho stops working, and it's working OK at the moment. Gues how I found that out..... I checked the crank sensor, it's clean, so now it's the TPS and a general tune up. I wiggled the realys and that didn't affect anything so none the wiser at the moment. Cheers and thanks for your help Guzzimeister

Hi Docc like the precise statistics...lol. The bike is meticulously maintained if a bit scruffy and as you can see I'm approaching the 48K service interval. So I think I will go with your plan of action. I have checked the TPS position and did have to reset it 6k miles ago. I wouldn't have imagined that an out of tune bike would react so severely - to the point of nearly stopping in the road? Anyway I'll give it a go, and we'll see what happens. Thanks for your advice. Cheers Jon

Hi got a strange problem. My bike will start easily and idle OK warm or cold. But when cold under load it misfires badly, as if I've got a bad coil or not getting fuel. Today it nearly shuddered to a halt it was so bad. After 10 miles the problem disappears and the bike is fine. If it was a coil, lead or plug, you would expect the problem to get worse. So my thoughts are: - possible relay fault, loose or intermittent operation, don't know why it would disappear when warm but electrickery is funny stuff. I had fuse and relay problems before with loose and corroded terminals - could be my PCIII Power Commander playing up - could be the crank sensor furring up with iron dust (the bike has 47k miles on it) - could be the oil temp sensor playing up, or the air temp sensor likewise I have a diagnostic tool for Marelli ECU systems, but it showed no faults at all. With all of the above the temperature dependency of the fault is interesting, however it could be that 10 miles of white finger vibration improves connections and the problem disappears. Anybody got any new ideas I can try? Bye and safe riding Guzzimeister

I can tell you what it is having f*cked about for 6 hours today with the same problem. Symptoms like these? Relays OK, fuses OK, engine turns over, relays click, but no fuel pump noise? It's the relay feed to the ECU relay block. Remove the block with the ECU relay, and look for the green/white wire. Check for 12v when ignition switched on, with DVM connected to ECU as earth and probe in the green/white wire. If you don't see 12v try taking a lead from +ve on the battery direct to this socket, just bang the relay in over the loose wire as a tenmporary check. When you turn ignition in, fuel pump will fire and engine will start. The other clue to this problem is no spark, as the ECU is not being fed with power. Hope this helps Jon

Hi Nige yup your symptoms are right for a duff engine oil temp sensor OR a faulty lead to it. Mate of mine had identical problem on a Cali 1100I. Quite rare but not unknown, mate's bike had 116k miles before it went........ bloody Guzzi rubbish Jon

Hi Tim, got given a needle which fits onto my grease gunat the V Twin. It will access both nipples but you have to push the ball of the nipple wit the needle to grease. It is a service item used on Manitou fork trucks. Sugest you find your local Manitou service agent...... Alternatively take the shaft off the gearbox. Wheel off, rear caliper off the swing arm, support bevel box. Remove bevel box upper link, remove completely the pinch bolt at the UJ at the gear box. Take out swing arm pivot pins and pull hard. Swinging aram comes out with shaft and bevel box. Both nipples can then be greased easily. About 75 mins work but make sure you support beel box at all times to avoid strain on the UJs. Biggest issue is getting the swinging arm back in again. Don't worry unduly. I did mine at 25000 miles and they still had plenty of grease in them, so I'm sure you could go to 30k easily. Cheers Guzz

Hi try Jim Strefford in Worcester. Old style dealer, being going since God was a boy. First class, cheap, and they smother all fasteners with copaslip...... Guzz

Hi RR oil thermometers for the Vw11 replacing the dipstick are available from tombrook@t-online.de. €50 note sent to Anke at this address gets you one in about 2 weeks. Nice lady, excellent service. She sometimes ebays selling Ural stuff. Cheers Guzz PS mine runs at between 80 and 95 which it is definitely too cool. Mind, my mk1 V11 used to run so hot in traffic the ECU would shut it down for a second, so a bit better I suppose.

here's my two penn'orth. Rear OE pads with me wore out at 7000 miles regularly until I adjusted the rear brake pedal so my foot wasn't resting lightly on it all the time..........time will tell if it worked! Please don't strip the caliper unless you really know what you are doing. I used to work for a caliper manufacturer (Teves) and the pistons were put into the claiper housing under controlled pressure, with the nose greased and under a slight vibration. Failure to do so took a tiny nick out of the ring seal which led to the caliper leaking when not under pressure. Changed the calipers on about 20,000 Fords as a result.... If you are still confident, grease the nose of the piston (bit that goes past the seal) with a small amount of silicon grease, and very gently, twisting it as you go, ease it past the seal. Please also be aware that Brembo now only sell complete calipers, no repair kits, due to recent product liability action in the US where some twat had brake failure by fitting his Brembo master cylinder with non Brembo seals. Yours in truth Guzz

Hi have you checked your oil sender, they do get marginal sometimes after 20000 miles, probably you are experiencing a pressure drop but I very much doubt whether you would have an engine left after 1 second or too at less than 3psi. Try changing the sender, it's an easy job and cost about a fiver. Cured it for me. Hope it works for you Bye Guzz

Hi! just a quick introduction. Jon Walter from ystradgynlais, wales, UK. 28 years on 2 wheels, most of them good. This is my 2nd v11 sport, 1st was written off by some clown who reckoned he should have been in the same bit of road me. Did 18000 on the 1st one, this one now has 23000 milees and rising. Saying hello to my Moto Guzzi Club of GB mates, see you at Inchigeelagh in June, I hope? You'll know the bike, tatty and vaguely black, with matching leathers. Looking forward to learning Bye and happy riding Jon