Baldini

No I'm not.

Each to his own, Pete! I keep noticing the prices on Aprilia RS250's - seem v cheap to me... ...but life could get far too frazzled for an old man on one of them...I love Guzzis & have done since first time I rode a Tonti LM: when I came to buy a new bike in 03 I looked at loads of stuff - T595, TL1000S, Firestorm, RSV, GSXR etc but when in the midst of so much splendour I sat on a V11 I couldn't help a big grin come over my face! It felt just sooo much like my Tontis. So I bought the Scura. It's far & away not the easiest tool for the way I ride most times, but fact is it keeps things sane & I just love Guzzis. Years back on a 350LC I noticed wherever you went someone'd wanna race - the great thing about Guzzis is no-one expects them, so life can be all round a bit more peaceable. Is there that much difference between the 1100 & 1200 Grisos? Are they not both 8 valves? I dunno which one is BFG's? Take it easy ol' bean. Keith

Screen will help windblast at high speeds, but with high bars you can't comfortably get your weight forward over the front in corners. Riding twisties fast, I have to ride the front, get front as planted as possible in every corner. I don't like the remote feeling from the front with high bars. But my bike is just a toy really, I rarely do anything other than ride it in the twisties on sunny days & V11 clip on position is a good compromise. I guess it's all compromises when you want a bike to do both ends of the spectrum - cruising & scratching. Like Rocketman said, high bars encourage sitting back & enjoying the view, clip-ons encourage fast. I always remember Guzzirider when he had a Harley saying something along the lines of "I wanted a cruiser to enjoy riding slower but I was always riding it too fast so I sold it". Guess a trailer following with a selection of bikes would be an answer. KB

Well I dunno what you mean by fast, & I only had a brief ride on BFG's Griso (same model I think?) but I found it hard to hang on hung up in the breeze like that. I find V11 riding position much better for fast. V11 is heavy on rear & it may well be that Griso is better balanced front/rear or it wouldn't be able to carry off such an exposed riding position so well at higher speeds. I'd like to try a Griso with clip-ons. I agree that back end design on new models is light years ahead of V11 for feel & compliance though I found shock itself crude on Griso compared with Ohlins, & I don't feel it was just down to adjustment. Griso motor revved easier, much smoother but less characterful than V11 - more Japanese. I'm sure Griso makes more power & torque than V11 but V11(Ti kit/PC111/K&N) motor felt more gutsy, more visceral....probably just down to inconsistent delivery & loud pipes! KB

How much has it cost you in stress & inconvenience to use the other shop? If the dealer in S.London is Corsa Italiana, then sure, they are expensive but they know Guzzis inside out having worked with them for years, carry good stock of spares & do a good job. Cheaper in the long run than some hack messing up? Perhaps a mix of basic stuff yourself & good shop for stuff that's beyond you, or when for whatever reason you just can't do it yourself. A Guzzi does need a little more marque specific knowledge than more mainstream bikes. It might be worth asking on the GuzziClubGB site for shop recommendations in Luton area, I don't know of any. This?

Last few posts personal, no contribution to topic, can't you just give it a rest. It's embarassing. Heather, sorry to hear your bad luck. Where are you in UK? There are several good Guzzi shops with knowledge & love of the bikes. It's worth seeking them out - sounds like you got a dud - if hose was knackered it should have been replaced unless time didn't permit? Parts can generally be got pretty quick if you know where to look. Also I dunno if you visit http://www.motoguzziclub.co.uk/forum those guys are often offering to help out with maintenance advice if someone's a bit stuck & they're nearby. If you don't have the inclination, the time or the ability to work on your bike yourself or for whatever reason - there's no shame in taking it to a shop. Just make sure it's a good one. Learning to look after Guzzis yourself gives you a better chance of spotting something before it strands you & it puts you in touch with how the bike's working. They do reward a bit of personal involvement. Is it your first Guzzi? Good luck & I hope things sort themselves out for you. KB

15 Minutes!! Pah!! I'd have done the oil, torqued the heads, lapped in a coupla valves & be on me second pint in that time!! well...truth be told, it'd take me 15 minutes to find an allen key & decide which screw to undo first... KB

Sorry to hear your problems. What gear/revs were you running for that 20 miles before smoke? What problems did you have with clutch/flywheel? KB

Can moderator delete posts that have no relevance to topic & contain gratuitous personal insults? Or better, would posters responsible consider revisiting their posts & doing same, or at least editing? This is a technical forum, it is discouraging to those interested in pursuing same to have to wade through swathes of irrelevant opinion & bile to reach what technical discussion there is. People who have valuable experience & relevant contributions to make, will not bother & will walk, as has mille108. If you value the contribution this forum makes to Guzzi ownership & wish it to prosper, please consider this. FWIW I agree with everything jcbooghs says above. KB

All very well, but the bloke who asked the question sounds like an experienced racer who has the ability to experience the limitations of the V11. He's simply interested in adjusting his bike more to suit his riding. Why the preaching? I have not got the ability, money or time to make radical engineering changes to my V11 but am interested to hear any ideas or practice that would help the behaviour of the bike at it's limits. I found the Scura tended to run wide on exits & would get quite upset when hitting bumps leant over. I fitted stiffer springs, set sag, dropped yokes down stanchions a little, tried 170 tyre. This all helped. Sitting far forward as possible thru turns helps front feel planted (I'm sure high bars would not help here). I would be very interested in anyone's experience with a shorter petrol tank to allow you to move further over front end. But V11 is heavy with rear wt bias & will get flustered when pushed. I wonder if chassis could do with stiffening along the line between between s/a pivots & headstock. S/a is short so suspension compliance is unsubtle. Frame was designed for longer 5 speed box, so lengthening s/a & moving pivot point is only completing the job that I'm sure Guzzi originally intended for the 6 speed. Good luck to you if you go down this route. For us less adventurous souls there's Michelin 2CT's & a spare pair of underpants. KB

tmcafe, you have Ohlins forks? Mine look like this. Yours are different?

Has the axle head not got a hexagonal socket (could be blanked off with a rubber cap). If it has, you put a hex key/socket in this & tighten axle nut against that (bike tool kit should contain short piece of hex bar for this purpose). You MUST torque axle nut up properly against bearing/spacers/axle head stack. Ratchethack's post above gives correct procedure. KB

As matter of interest, which bearing is knackered? They seem to eat left side (Brake side) brngs - but I've never figured out why. I've always wondered why torque fig. in handbook is given for right hand (bolt head) side rather than for nut. Bearing is 6204.2RSR.C3. Any bearing factor or Guzzi dealer should carry them. My understanding is C3 indicates wider ball to race clearances which is important in this application. KB

Thanks for letting on re ITV4. I'd've missed it otherwise - some great footage. McGuiness is something special. That on bike footage of Plater hitting the verge after losing concentration over the mountain - just glad he kept it on the road . Amazing stuff. Good luck to all of them. Funny watching Parrish & Witham doing Mad Sunday too. Ta. KB

what is this obsession with classification? sports/sport tourer/traditional/naked(???)/adventure sport(!)/cruiser etc etc etc - seems increasingly everything in the world has to fit in a neat labelled box - so we don't have to tax thought or imagination? From motorcycles to music & pictures in galleries - all clearly sorted for easy consumption. "i have a sports bike" ? Ain't they all? Give me & my mate a C50 each & let us out for a ride - sport bikes sure enough. Course a Guzzis heavy - but wether it's a sports bike depends what you do with it. that a sports bike? Pah. A cruiser's what you cruise on, a tourer's what you tour on, A naked's ...well yes i dunno. Run whatever you enjoy, however you enjoy it - just a motorcycle. KB

Dunno re their mechanicking but Cascade in Portland were very friendly & have free coffee when I called into looksee last summer. Was family holiday & just spent half a day on a borrowed bike but fantastic country for riding. Crater Lake was something really special, miles of Alpine curves & then unseen til you peep over the rim there's this almighty lake. KB

This bike?

Jim Blomley? Guzzi club mag had an interview & some pix yrs back. ...I'll try & dig em out. KB

Did you check the screws holding the slave cylinder to the gbox endplate? I had one screw missing & the other two backing off, which meant pulling in the clutch lever pushed the cylinder away from the gbox rather than just acting on the pushrod to disengage the clutch. KB

A bit confused over terminology...Sorry if I misunderstand you, but the clutch would normally be engaged (ie causing engine to drive transmission) when handlebar lever is fully released. Clutch disengages when lever is pulled in. Sounds like your clutch is dragging (ie not fully disengaging). A slipping clutch is when engine revs rise without corresponding drive at transmission/wheel. Sounds like you incorrectly put this little plastic bit between clutch lever & piston, advancing point where lever acts on piston. If clutch seems to work fine like that then it points to a hydraulic issue I think rather than a problem with clutch itself. But if it's still notchy & dragging then perhaps splines or other mechanical wear, in which case you'll have to take it apart to check. My friction plate (Scura) seemed pretty good at 20k miles. I don't know wear limit on these or if they're same on RM. Which clutch do you have spare - an RM single plate? As a matter of interest, what is the thickness of the new friction plate on that? KB

Replaced my Scura clutch w/ RAM unit at 19k miles. Original unit was working great & showed no signs of failure, or any drop in performance. Friction plate was about 5.5mm thickness & appeared in good condition. I don’t know new or min permissible thickness on these, but looked good to me. Flywheel showed no obvious cracks. But there was marking on it right around the crankshaft joint & at the outside edges of the mounting holes. These marks coincided with position of fractures in pictures I have seen. I have not had the piece properly crack tested yet. One thing I did notice was the centre washer was not flat across it's surface. I would expect bolt torque would raise stress at flywheel around bolt heads & indeed these areas correspond w/ marks on mine & fractures on others. A more gradual spread of pressure would be better? I changed the unit because of the number of failures I had heard about & because I was familiar with one of those bikes. That one - John O'Sullivan's (Hi John!) - had noticeably noisier clutch at idle than mine or BFG's - eg. at a traffic halt, it was clearly audible above the engine/trans noise of all three bikes. His flywheel failed in same pattern as others - around bolt holes at centre. It is still unclear what is causing failures but I do wonder if other failed bikes also were noisier & that the issue is one of assembly. However, it is also my understanding that some parts of the Scura clutch were manufactured by RAM & indeed are marked as such but others (inc flywheel) were sourced elsewhere. It is possible that single plates fitted to Rosso Mandello &/or Tenni (we have heard of no failures on these models) were entirely RAM parts ? If replacing unit with another single plate I would pay close attention to correct assembly, bolt torque, & the correct fitment of centre washer (it is sided). RAM kits are supposed to come assembled, balanced, & inc set of socket hd fasteners to facilitate fitting w/o disassembling. Check this tho, cos my kit did not have (& I did not know it was supposed to have) fasteners, so I ended up disassembling in order to fit. It is then a bit of a pain to centre. I also had issues fitting mine - the clutch pushrod would not reach the centre of the clutch to release it. I had to replace centre button in RAM with part from Scura unit (which is different depth). These are simple units & would be difficult to assemble incorrectly, but if you fit unit yourself & in so doing disassemble, do not expect (perhaps understandably) that any problems you may encounter can be to do with incorrect parts rather than your incorrect assembly! In use, I would not expect single plate to stand for level of abuse twin plate might take - don't sit at traffic lights in gear, clutch in etc. RAM unit has 3,300 miles on it now, still working! (I have a RAM in Tonti that has many more miles). KB

Did you check spring wasn't binding or near binding at furthest extent of pawl arm travel? KB

I would dearly like to venture further afield, but I have a dread of running into Geoffrey Boycott or Michael Parkinson. KB

Yeah, I think some come with alignment punch on selector wheels (called seeger rings in manual), some don't. Pic shows wheels aligned for neutral. Short spaced indent (between 1st & 2nd) behind top wheel is selected by mechanism. KB

Put it in neutral, selector forks spaced equidistant on shafts, short spaced detente on selector mechanism. You'll need a cut down allen key to access bolt at lower edge of cover. I think there's a very full description of job on previous threads ? KB