al_roethlisberger

Glad to hear you like the bike, and have a patient attitude ..I'm just still amazed at that response though All the other issues you've mentioned are pretty standard fare though. Once you have them resolved, they shouldn't reappear. The fogging tach will clear up over time on it's own usually, or you can drill a little hole in the back to vent it. I've found that mine fogged at first, but cleared up in a week or so. Keep us posted al

...WHAT?! ...a free jacket?! Is it a $10,000 jacket, because that's what it would have to be to balance a factory defective paint job on a similarly valuable bike! What dealer is this so I can make sure never to give them my business... are they just idiots, or jerks? Sorry to be so brusque, I'm not usually so blunt. But that's the most ludicrous thing I've heard yet. Don't sign anything. As noted by Ian, at the very least MGNA is replacing the affected part(with what quality paint I don't know)... but never-the-less.... And if as I suspect, they are painting the replacement parts with the new smooth black paint(left to be seen), then it ought to last. This "fuzzy" black paint was just a mistake, plain and simple. The black engine paint on my FJ-1200 lasted a decade. But oh my goodness... your report on this lack of support from a dealer on this issue really took the cake for today's MG dealer SNAFU award. IMHO anyway If the dealership as-a-whole(versus just one mechanic's word) are really serious about this "offer," I'd write a letter to MGNA, Aprilia, and MG Italia letting them in on this dealer's "stellar service." That's ridiculous. al P.S. Sorry to hear about your peeling paint problem. I know it would be expensive for MG, but this really should be a recall issue.

...hrmm, yes let us know. Knowing Guzzi, I bet you get the "new" black paint on your new cases. I personally wouldn't be really happy about that, as now the engine/tranny/bevel black won't all match. *sigh* We'll see I guess. al

So Cliff, To clarify, you recommend just finding the correct dual-tower/output coils and connecting them directly to the ECU? Another question, what "range" of impedence variance from the measured .7 Ohm should be safe? Would an impedence range of say, .5 Ohm to 1.5 Ohm be OK?? ..and which way along the scale is better/safer, more or less(I would suspect more) impedence, hence 1.5 versus .5 Ohm would be better?? thx! al

Paul, Sorry, I didn't see this question until now... ....hrmm, I don't know of a photo. But yes, each side of the Tekno bag rack mounts in the rear to the bolts that attach the inner portion of the fender to the mud flap... behind the license plate. These brackets mount about 5 inches below the actual tail, and tie the 2 sides of the rack together, reinforcing them laterally as they aren't a one-piece affair. There really isn't anything you could do with your tail kit to amend this though, except maybe providing access into the tail superstructure from below so we could mount a new bracket/subframe for these racks while mounted(or alternately the owner could just drill through the bottom of the tail to get to the frame, and plug the holes when not in use). But primarily it's really an issue with the rack kit, and can be easily remedied with an aftermarket rod/bar with eye ends or a custom built bracket. But the best solution would still be some way to also tie it to the tail while mounted otherwise one may still get lateral movement of the rack as-a-whole, again maybe with a custom built bracket that bolts on to the tail frame through the tail when needed. al

As an update, John has posted a more formal description of his dual-plugged Bassa at GuzziTech: Hot Rod Dual-Plugged Bassa I believe the Bassa has a different ECU, although the coils should be the same as the V11 Sport varieties(or at least the same specs - primary resistance)?? Anyone?? So his solution should be applicable to ours. According to Jason, the primary resistance of the V11 Sport coils is .7 Ohm. Does anyone have any thoughts on the reliability of having relays control the coils versus the ECU directly? Better/Worse solution?? I typically prefer a KISS(Keep it simple st@pid) approach, but if there's a real advantage to "buffering" the ECU with relays.... although shouldn't one also keep a close eye on the specs of the relays to not fry the ECU with them either??? *sigh* I've got an email out to John on more details of which Dyna coils he bought, etc. al

Hi Martin, In the USA, MG Cycle has them in stock usually: MG Cycle V11 Accessories I would also guess that our sponsor, TLM(look in the upper right corner of the Forum webpage ) has them, although I don't know that for certain. In regard to availability in the UK, I don't know specifically, but maybe someone in your neck-of-the-woods has a source?? al

.... yes indeed, I've done the "slosh" maneuver many times to get the low-fuel light to stop glowing That's why I'm still hoping to find, make, discover a kit/fix to balance both sides of the tank, or have the fuel pickup grab from both sides. ...maybe some day... or maybe just an '03 tank if the reports stay positive. al P.S. Here's an interesting "project": If the in-tank pumps do prove reliable, fix the "vapor lock" issue, and don't impact(or maybe even improve) capacity over the pre-'03; I wonder what it would take, or if it's possible, to retrofit a 2002 tank to the current solution?? I may have to take a mirror, flashlight, etc... to a 2003 and see what's different inside. If it's not major surgery, it might be an interesting excercise.

Well, the heads are on, and the folks at Moto Italiano said they looked like "first rate" jobs. Although they had to machine one of the studs, which Mike predicted, it was basically a bolt-on job upon their return. Of course now they can't get the bike to run, but that problem was pre-existing upon dropping it off before the head work. The ECU isn't kicking out any codes, and the right cylinder is backfiring so badly it blows the intake boot off! ...glad it's them and not me wrestling with this one now. I gave up back in December. Thank goodness for a warrantee. They've "zeroed out" the ECU and have a call into Guzzi, but so far no dice. They're thinking the TPS or one of the injectors may be flakey. They said my TPS was waaaaay off, set to something like 11mV. hrmm, they're the last ones to set it Ah well, I'm sure they'll get is eventually. I just hope that "eventually" is sooner rather than later. I've also posted a couple more feelers out on some lists, and through personal contacts about the "which coil" question for dual-plugging. So far, it still seems that no one has dual-plugged a V11 Sport/LeMans, which in nearly 4 years of production I find hard to believe... but ah well. Maybe Jason and I are trailblazers here No definitive answers yet. Jason, BTW... any news on your "lost in transit" head? Spring is here, and Summer is close... Mike's backlog is still 4-6 weeks.... Are you still going to try to get this done this season, or just wait now until Fall/Winter? I'd hate to see your bike down for half the Summer waiting on the heads. But then again, I'd love a partner to commiserate with while we figure out the dual-plug puzzle al

Well first, congrats on the '03 Tim! What color did you get? Seems like a good and favorable test. Since I haven't ridden my bike since December-ish , I don't remember what I got out of my tank-full on the '02, but I think under ideal situations it was right at about 5 gallons. So maybe our presupposition that the in-tank pump would reduce capacity is unfounded. Maybe the inclusion of the pump in-tank allows one to "get to" that last 1 gallon usually stuck on the left side of the tank?? hrmmm, maybe it's time to get an '03 tank and have it painted Champagne. Might fix the "vapor lock" issue too Hey other pre-2003 owners out there, how much capacity do you have in your tank when it runs dry? al

One last request: For those that do have Leo's installed, especially with the Stucci x-over, if you could possibly take a handful of digital photos, especially from the rear, right hangar, rear brake lever area... etc... so I can forward those to Moto Italiano to help them see the net result of a properly aligned system. You can mail those photos to me directly at al_roethlisberger@yahoo.com thx! al

Oh, and BTW.... for those that helped me with my "poll" on whether to get Ti or Carbon Leo's some months back... thanks Although I didn't get a chance to take in the whole bike from a distance since it was still up on the rack, the Ti cans looked great on the bike from my close-up perspective. They don't quite match the paint, and some of the other "silver" bits exactly, but they still coordinate quite well overall, and really stand out against the all black rear of the bike. For my tastes, I think I made the right choice I'll post pics later... as soon as I actually have the bike back in hand that is al P.S. What's holding the bike up you ask?? Well, other than the aforementioned Leo alignment issue, and the fact that the bike won't run.... here's a tip. The last issue we are working is really really minor. Silly really. If you ever order one of the fairing halves from Guzzi, you have now been warned.... make sure you order the trim/edging that goes along the inner edge as well. However, as in true Guzzi fashion, there's no part# for that piece So my warrantee fairing showed up without the trim, and the old trim is so super-glued on, that one can't salvage that easily(apparently). Anyway, just a little bit of trivia. Nits to pick really, but geez We have a call into Guzzi on this one. No reply yet.

Well, after conversing with Leo Vince... they seemed to confirm that they only have one set of mounting hardware for all V11 Sport varieties. In fact, when they were told we were having trouble fitting this to an '02 LeMans, they said, "...well, we only sell exhausts for V11 Sports." ...as if that were the obvious answer to our fitment problem. geez So I guess we'll just fiddle and wiggle the exhausts around until it's straight, and probably shave the right bushing to get it all aligned. ah well al

For those of you out there with Leo Vince Oval mufflers on 2002+ bikes, and especially with a Stucci crossover, this question is for you As noted in the following thread: Muffler Choices ... while my bike is in the shop for some other things, I am having them install a pair of oval Ti Leo Vince cans on my 2002 LeMans. However, the right can isn't lining up properly, is crooked, and is even impeding the rear brake lever. I have also installed a Stucci crossover, although based on my fitting the stock mufflers, the crossover does seem to be fine. So that shouldn't be the problem. So, after going over to the shop and inspecting the problem myself, here is what I observed. As all of us with 2002+ bikes know, the right passenger peg/muffler bracket(ladder shaped, attaches to frame) is "kicked out" about a 1/2 inch further than the left bracket to clear the bevel box, etc... due to the wider rear rim on 2002+ bikes. However, I am quite certain that the Stucci does not take this into account, as when one orders it you don't specify the year of the V11. So, for the Leo's to fit and align properly, the aluminum bushing for the right side bracket must be about 1/2" shorter than the left, otherwise the muffler won't fit properly. This is exactly the situation I found when I visited the shop, that the right bushing is not correspondingly shorter. Mounted up with the hardware from Leo Vince, the right can is kinked and twisted in on the bottom because the bushing is too long, pushing the whole mounting point out at the top about 1/2" too far... messing up the alignment... thus also making the fit down at the brake lever worse. So here's my question for all 2002+ bikes with Leo Vinces(that fit correctly)... can you measure the silver aluminum bushing/spacer(that the mounting bolt goes through) for the left and right sides of your bike, and see if the right bushing is in fact shorter? For this to work, the right bushing needs to be a tad shorter, and mine as delivered from Leo are equal length. This is kinda important as we need to follow up with Leo Vince and let them know. So if you can let me know in the next day or two, that would be great. It is possible that the Stucci's design for the "generic" V11 Sport(regardless of year) is exacerbating the problem, and in fact for those folks with the stock crossover and the Leo's this alignment problem may not exist, even for a 2002+ bike with equal length bushings. If so, we can always simply machine the length of the bushing down a bit, but since it is "shaped" and fluted, we'd rather do that as the last resort.... as opposed to Leo sending the correct length.... if they make one. I look forward to your "measurements" thx! al

Well, I went by the shop today, and checked out the issue. Here's what i suspect is up. As all of us with 2002+ bikes know, the right passenger peg/muffler bracket(ladder shaped, attaches to frame) is "kicked out" about a 1/2 inch further than the left bracket to clear the bevel box, etc... due to the wider rear rim on 2002+ bikes. However, I am quite certain that the Stucci does not take this into account, as when one orders it you don't specify the year of the V11. So, for the Leo's to fit and align properly, the aluminum bushing for the right side bracket must be about 1/2" shorter than the left, otherwise the muffler won't fit properly. This is exactly the situation I found when I visited the shop, that the right bushing is not correspondingly shorter. Mounted up with the hardware from Leo Vince, the right can is kinked and twisted in on the bottom because the bushing is too long, pushing the whole mounting point out at the top about 1/2" too far... messing up the alignment... thus also making the fit down at the brake lever worse. So here's my question for all 2002+ bikes with Leo Vinces(that fit correctly)... can you measure the silver aluminum bushing/spacer(that the mounting bolt goes through) for the left and right sides of your bike, and see if the right bushing is in fact shorter? For this to work, the right bushing needs to be a tad shorter, and mine as delivered from Leo are equal length. This is kinda important as we need to follow up with Leo Vince and let them know. So if you can let me know in the next day or two, that would be great. thx! al P.S. Regarding the Guzzi Ti pipes... yeah they look nice, but they seem pricey. That of course is no doubt because of the new ECU, but I don't need a new ECU sooooo I also like the oval cross-section pipes versus round. But yep, the color is great

... I bet! But hey, I think I was first!

...as an aside, I just ran across this ad on Cycle Trader: 2002 Le Mans with HB bags It appears that these are Hepco Becker bags, and the installation looks stock. Does HB, or even Givi, actually make a stock rack kit now, versus having to custom build a rig? al oops... here's the answer Hepco Becker Bags at MG Cycle ...and I just noticed that Ian has the HB bags on his LeMans from back in February of this year. But from his photos, the only thing I don't like about the kit is that its close clearances require moving the rear turn signals... ah well, I guess that's to be expected

Hey Joe, Do you have the Stucci x-over with your Leo's, or the OEM x-over? I ask because Moto Italiano is having a "hell of a time" fitting my Ti Leo's, as currently, no matter how they adjust them and the linkage, the rear brake lever hits the pipe. Anyone else have this problem? They are calling Leo Vince, but I'm curious to verify if anyone else has the Stucci x-over and Leos successfully installed on their V11 Sport/LeMans. al

Well, the folks at Moto Italiano have got my heads fitted, etc... but are somewhat surprised to find that the bike just won't run duh! ..that's what I told them when I brought it in But to their credit, they never really doubted me, but it's kinda funny to hear them as frustrated and dumbfounded as I was for so long prior to just throwing my hands up in the air back in January and thinking, "well heck, I'll just let them fix it when I do the heads anyway." So, anyway... it is hard to start, just won't idle, and ends up coughing back through the intakes. This was exactly what it was doing prior to the head work. I have to wonder and "joke" to myself now if it's running poorly "more efficiently" after the porting! ah hem... OK OK... seriously, they are somewhat stumped. They've got it on the computer, and they're next step is to "zero out" the ECU and start from scratch. Seems to me that would be the thing to do every time. But who am I to say So we'll see. I suspect they'll get it. I'm very curious though to see just why it was running so poorly though. Hopefully they won't just "get it working" without ever knowing why it didn't run in the first place. After they get a good baseline, I'll take it to a Power Commander shop, get a custom map made, and then get a before and after dyno run. It's just too bad I wasn't able to get a "before" before I had the head work done. But since we pretty know the V11's base power/torque... that's probably no big deal. al

Hi Paul, hrmm, no I'm sorry I didn't. I looked around just now and didn't see an example of a V11 Sport/LeMans with your tail and side bags mounted. The only photo I saw had the tail rack. BTW, I'm quite certain that mounting bags would not be a problem with your tail. I was just pointing out that without the stock mudflap, and it's corresponding subframe, there's going to need to be some modification and fabrication of a bracket, et al... for most bag kits to mount, as many mounted to that subframe which is now eliminated. I think Jaap's comments about fabricating a bar to tie the two sides of the rack together will be fine, although there may be some issues with side-to-side swaying of the whole rig since it will now have no anchor for that axis, where in the past it was anchored from lateral movement by bolting to the tail. Just something to consider and work around when combining bags and any of the kits that eliminate the tail I guess al

Hi Ian, Interesting that you just started this thread, as I had just brought this up yesterday in another thread... But WOW! ... that is most extreme example I've seen yet of this problem. Most of the problems I've so far have been little "bubbles" that seem to "pop" when you hit them with anything hard, exposing the metal beneath. But in any case, I have heard(but not confirmed) that MGNA has a bulletin covering this, and the only recourse I've heard is that they'll have you send the cases/bevel/trans *back* to Italy for the new paint... UGH! I can only imagine how long this would take. Does anyone else have any more info on this, and how MG is addressing it? So in fact, I just commented on this, in the following thread yesterday: Black versus Silver I was curious if anyone else has pursued a remedy with MG, and if so what their experience was. Toward that effort as well, I was asking if Jaap would/could take a moment to "photoshop" a 2002 Champange LeMans with a silver engine/bevel/trans like he did for his Red/Gray 2002.... so that if I need to have the cases repainted under warantee, I can have a good idea what silver might look like... so I can make a good choice... if MG would even honor painting them silver instead of the new black al

My opinion is still in a formative stage as well Like Carl, I thought the muffler was a poor match for the flowing lines of the V11 Sport/LeMans, but looked at home on the more angular GB bikes. Now I'm less extreme in my opinion, but I'm still not sure... It certainly looks to be a quality piece of work though, and there's no doubt that it's utilitarian I suspect it will grow on me though, as I don't mind the under-frame exhaust on Buells.... for example. I think I might like it better if it had twin exhaust outlets. It's certainly different al

...sorry, can't answer your question about Gianelli's, but just as an aside, I'm still surprised someone hasn't come out with an underseat exhaust to show off the swing-arm/bevel/etc... I'm sure there are a lot of folks that might have aesthetic issues with it, and think it's something of a fad ala Ducati... but I'm still surprised, as I'm sure some folks would think it was fairly nifty. Although there are no doubt all sorts of engineering issues with clearance, heat, etc... I'm sure it could be done. BTW, moto-italiano is sorting out EFI issues with my ECU after reinstalling the ported heads. It seems that they have finally realized that "something is amiss" and are "zeroing out" all the settings and starting over duh! Oh, and it seems that the rear brake lever is hitting the Leo Vince's no matter what they do to adjust it. They're supposed to let me know on that one. Apologies for hijacking your thread there! ...back to our regularly scheduled programming al

OK, I found him.... here's an example of his efforts: Rabeet's LED Indicator Lights Here's a photo of them on an FZ-1: Pat's FZ-1 with flush LED indicators I'll ping him for more details. al

...you are absolutely correct, and that is the major problem(other than impedence mismatches that cause the flasher to go nuts ) that many of these "cheap" aftermarket LED auto/motorcycle marker lights have. By nature, LEDs tend to be somewhat unidirectional in their distribution of light, and although they are often much brighter than an incandescent on-axis, off-axis they are very dim and sometimes nearly invisible. This is why in my humble opinion, aftermarket LEDs are often poor replacements for incandescent signal and brake lights, and I've tried many. In the end, the incandescent was more visible from all angles. However, much of this is the fault/responsibility of the lens as well. For OEM LED applications, one often finds that the arrangement of the LEDs and the lens is much differenct than one would find for an incandescent application, and hence works well. The problem really arises when one tries to retrofit a housing/reflector/lens housing designed for an incandescent with a generic LED replacement. Most of those aftermarket LEDs just are not really designed to work well in this application. That being said, there are ways to solve this. The best is to design the housing and lens for an LED application from the start, or design the LED replacement properly if making a "conversion." Your comment about visibility have been a challenge for many folks trying to make quality and functional aftermarket LED replacements for sure. As I mentioned, there was a fella... and I'll try to touch base with him to get some pointers... that spent many months researching and building prototypes for the Yamaha FZ-1(Fazer 1000) until he had a lens/LED combo that looked OEM and worked well. Anyone else give this any thought up to this point, or even care? al