danl

Hey, what an idea! I definitely will.

Nobleswood - We can share my room if you haven't already found a spot. I have a king + pullout sofa reserved, but I'll check to see if there are other combinations still available. A few friends were supposed to come along, but they've all backed out. What can I say, they ride BMWs and can't be trusted! Last night I was forced to face two facts: 1- I'm not going to have the V11 ready for the trip 2- I am a huge, procrastinating loser! So I will be riding down from Philadelphia on the Stelvio again. Can't say my wrists or legs are upset about that, just my ego. Next year I'll be getting married around this time so there's almost no chance I'll make it down (If anything falls through with that I'll be there!). 2020 however will nominally mark the 20th birthday for my bike! Maybe that will be enough time for me to get it ready for the trip.

*This topic has been covered in a few threads, but I was hoping to get some input from other members about the actual amount of radial play they have at the pinion shaft* I'm going through the V11 in preparation for this years Southern Spine Raid and I'm thinking that my pinion shaft is a little looser that I remember. It has had some radial play for as long as I can remember, but this time I actually put a dial indicator on it to measure it. With the rear u-joint positioned so that one of the bearing caps for the rear coupling is at 12:00 I have 0.025" of play. Photos attached to show the point where I'm measuring. This was measured cold. I haven't dropped the oil yet because I haven't been able to get it warm since I noticed this. Finding out the condition of the oil is my next step, but I was wondering if anyone else has done (or is willing to do) a comparable measurement.

Wow, that's a scary failure. I'd sure like to not experience that one! Glad it seems to have gone pretty uneventfully for what it was. I have needed to re torque my u joint couplings a couple of times in the past (and I only have a third of the miles that Docc does). I'm not sure how I noticed it the first time, but now I use a small prybar to try to slide the couplings fore and aft whenever I'm doing any work around the rear wheel. I'm busy getting my newly resurrected V11 ready for the SSR, so last night I pulled the rear coupling off of the final drive to look for cracks. It looks like Doccs cracks may have started at the root of the splines. I'm surprised to see how dark one entire half of his coupling was. It seems like it was running for a while with one side fractured all the way through.

I replaced the brushes on mine a few years back with a kit from Euromotoelectrics: http://www.euromotoelectrics.com/category-s/1670.htm One of the brush springs was rusted through and barely keeping it in contact. The result was weak cranking which felt a lot like a sick battery. While I was in there was able to clean the surface and scrape the grooves of the commutation. Looks like they have replacement housings with magnets too. Seems hard to justify this effort if you can get a replacement for

I've been absent from the forum for a while, but thanks to a welcome reminder text from Blueboarhound I just reserved a room at Tellico for this years festivities! If I understand Doccs earlier post it's now called "The one and only official v11lemans.com southeastern USA chapter official annual rally". This really should be a can't miss event! I finally made it down to the SSR in 2016 after many years on the forum and had a great time hanging out, riding some great roads and putting faces to names from the forum. Looking back, I'm especially glad that I was able to meet Wayne and Vicky Orwig and Bruce Lawson. I really regretted not making it down in 2017 so I'm making it a priority this year. The V11 hasn't seen much action in a long time, but I'm planning to leave the Stelvio at home come September! I've got a bunch of things I'd like to get sorted on it, but finally setting up the sags and suspension and doing a "trigger job" on the gearbox selector are my main winter projects.

Thanks for the comments everybody. I'm sold on the lift now...unfortunately I didn't make it back in town from Thanksgiving in time to pick one up! I'll keep watching for another sale.

I see these are on sale for $279 for Black Friday (and through the weekend). I've been thinking about building a fixed height work stand out of lumber and using a ramp, but doing that by myself seems tough with the V11 and impossible with the Stelvio. A lift would be really nice, but I'm not likely to spend $1000 or more on one. Does anyone own one of these lifts or have any practical experience with them? Specially any experience with a tall heavy bike like a Stelvio. I've read the comments about the wheel chock already. It does seem clear that needs to be swapped out for something more secure and that additional straps are a good precaution. I know that this isn't the highest quality product. I'm ok with rebuilding a hydraulic cylinder in a few years if necessary, but not with a lift that is downright dangerous.

Hey Docc, Do you have an on board voltmeter or other means of monitoring your charging while riding? My original regulator would overcharge intermittently. I didn't have a voltmeter installed, but I would notice the headlight and instrument lights being much brighter for a few seconds. I went through all the connections, checked the voltage reference and added a regulator to engine case ground, but the problem continued and eventually it began doing this for longer periods of time, swapped it out for an Electrosport one. I wonder if you may have a similar situation going on with your regulator? I guess every 8 years would be really intermittent, huh?

While it's hardly an original sentiment at this point, I wanted to chime in and say that It was really great to meet all the members that made the trip to "The Spine Frame Lodge At Tellico" this year. What an awesome group of people we have here on the forum! I am so glad I finally decided to come down to the SSR. My only regret is that I didn't make the trip on the V11. I ended up spending a little too much time exploring on Sunday and Monday, which forced me to make up about 500 miles on rte 81 and 95 to get home late Tuesday night. The total distance ended up around 1950 miles from Thursday to Tuesday. It had been 6 years since I rode in that area, and I had forgotten just how spectacular all the roads are! A lot of the pictures I took at the Garage Of The Lodge are near duplicates of the ones that have already been posted. Here are some from the lodge as well as some others from my trip down and back: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx45EOFz-2hpVEdpaC1IMkxjY1E I was travelling alone, so I ended up with a lot of pictures of a riderless Stelvio posing in front of things.

Securely locked even! Why else do you think I bought this thing? I've been using a website/app called Rever as a free GPS alternative. It has a nice route planning interface (with really good topo) on the site, then you follow the route using your phone on the bike. It just displays the route on a map (no turn by turn or eta estimate) but it will never recalculate and send you on a "better" route. Might be worth checking out: https://rever.co/ I was busier than expected over the weekend. I'll be in touch about your travel plans down to Tellico Plains soon. Bill- Glad to hear you you guys are mostly ok! I'm a club member too.

Definitely the Stelvio. I do feel a little lame showing up to the SSR without a spine frame, but the V11 is overdue for some service and I don't really want to push it. I'm planning to get it all sorted out over the winter, so maybe next year!

Well this escalated quickly. I've taken Thursday-Tuesday off and reserved a room for Friday and Saturday. I'll be camping for a night or two each way way down and back. See you all in a week! Jerry- Thanks for the generous offer! As it turns out I'll have a king bed of my own to sprawl out on. Now for some route planning.... Dan

Any space for a late addition? What if I show up on a Stelvio instead of the V11?! It looks like there is still at least 1 room available. I'm not certain I can make this work, but I'm going to try. It would be great to actually meet some of the forum in person!

On the earlier bikes you can pick up switched 12v at the electronic petcock connector. Many people have switched over to the later petcock leaving this connector available. I modified a 12v to USB adaptor to plug into the petcock connector and mounted the USB connector behind my headlight. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1671&page=2&&do=findComment&comment=206591 Unfortunately, I don't think this is helpful to Nobleswood since his bike is a 2004. I figured it could be helpful to others if I captured the link in this thread.

This one will be going up for auction tomorrow. Get out your checkbooks! http://www.coys.co.uk/cars/moto-guzzi-v8-500gp-1956-evocation It's a replica, but supposedly very accurate. Only a few photos, but they are good quality.

Took a quick ride to the Revzilla showroom to check out some gloves and socks (after scraping away the last little bit of snow in front of the garage). With any luck, I'll make out for an hour or two tomorrow too.

I've been reading a lot about gloves vs grips recently. Each have their own pros and cons, but I think I've finally decided I'm going to go with the gloves. The wires and controllers seem like they could be a little annoying to deal with, but I'd rather not add any more electrics to the bike. I'm planning to convert my SAE type Battery Tender connector to a BMW style connector (powerlet) and use that for the heated glove / battery tender connector. At one point I was trying to see if I could do a nice, factory looking heated grip installation using Norge or Stelvio parts. I gave up on that, but I still think it would be cool. I leaning towards going with these guys: http://www.warmnsafe.com/ I didn't take them to seriously at first, but it turns out they make or designed gear for First Gear, Aerostich, and some others, and have been doing this for a long time. The owner of Warm + Safe responded to a bunch of comments on this thread: http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/gerbing-heated-gloves-vs-firstgear-warm-and-safe-gloves.755612/ He is a little hard to understand sometimes, but it seems like he actually cares about supporting his product. I'm thinking about this specific setup: Gloves: http://www.warmnsafe.com/ultimate-touring-mens-heated-gloves/ you have to make sure to add on the Y cable to connect the gloves to the controller if you wont be powering through a jacket Controller: http://www.warmnsafe.com/3-level-controller-with-remote-control-12v/ (not quite sure how the remote works, but it's the cheapest option if you are only planning to control gloves) AMA members get an 18% discount. I'm also interested to hear about other options and other members' experiences. Dan

My wiring harness was tie wrapped to the subframe near the fusebox. That may be part of your issue. That is a strange setup. I wonder how many bikes out there have stripped button heads on the fusebox. Someone posted a picture recently of a later bikes fusebox and the petcock location was empty. I thought it was in the Maxi Fuse thread, but I can't find it now.

I took mine off when I first got the bike (i'm not really sure why - it doesn't add any significant clutter in comparison to the L/S switchgear), but now it's back on. I just used it this morning on the ride in to help creep along in 10mph traffic without the jerky on off feeling I sometimes get at slight throttle openings. I had to swap the spring out for a lighter one to get it to work well, but I'm glad I reinstalled it.

You can buy panel mount LED assemblies that run on 12v. Here is one example just to show what they look like: http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/ind-16g/12v-indicator-green-led/1.html That was one of the first results if I searched "12 volt indicator led". If you do some more searching you should be able to find a sealed one. Green for go!

What about cutting the spindle down a little and welding it to a small dolly like this: http://www.amazon.com/Shepherd-Hardware-9442-Tri-Dolly-Capacity/dp/B0009VOSOE/ref=pd_sim_328_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=118527XXZKPY79TGG8Z4&dpID=41yoj4R2i9L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_ That would make it pretty mobile (especially with a nice floor like that). BTW - I'm jealous of your friends BMW shop sign, and what I think is a TR6.

Oh, I'm an idiot. Wrong Carlsbad! http://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/bat_flight_program.htm

That is just cruel! Don't you have some bats you can watch fly out of a cave or something instead of torturing us northerners!? I think I consider rewiring my bike every time I look at the diagram or think about adding another accessory to the battery terminals! Powering the headlight through the NC side of the start relay allows the headlight to shut off during cranking. What did you do with your ignition switch when you did the fork swap? If you aren't using it for the steering lock anymore you could relocate it to the frame to eliminate flexing of some critical wires. I always liked the key location on earlier Guzzis directly behind the headstock. The tank cutout might be just the right size. Headlight relays straight from the battery are one of the best mods I've made by far. You might want to integrate those into your plan. Relays for the Horns might be nice too. I've wished for louder horns a couple of times recently. Are you going to draw up a wiring harness? Please share if you do! I keep thinking about drawing something up in Illustrator to document changes I've made. It would be cool to have a template to share on the forum for people to copy and customize.