gavo

He can't be playing with a full deck

I also have second gen mandello and currently run a 120/70 front (std size) and a 160/60 rear (down from 170) both are 021 bridgestones and give good grip. 160/60 is easier to find, slightly cheaper but although it,s supposed to help bike tip into corners easier I didn't really notice. but you can wear the rear all the way to the edge As for mixing brands I think its more a psychological than a physical thing as I have a mich pilot (frt) and bridgestone rear on my Ducati with no ill effects

And the rear weight bias wouldn't help either, which is further exacerbated by mounting higher handlebars and moveing the riders weight rearward

Do I detect a backpeddle? really all this talk about steering dampners, yes or no. There hasn't been a mention of the reasons they came about, RAKE. the V11 has 26deg 25 for the swb people, hardly radical, older bikes 30deg was common, good stability, lousy at changeing direction quickly. modern sports bikes 24-23deg great through the flip flops but unstable, hence the need for a dampener. Now I run my V11 with the dampener on about 2 thirds, it doesn't affect carpark dynamics and this is the only bike I"ve ever owned with a dampener,But this is the only one thats shaken its head enough to be glad I had it

Nice pic's

Nothing mentioned about guzzi's on there site http://www.rizoma.com/ but I'm sure you could find one to fit, nice bit of gear

necessity is the mother of invention

Ok just weighed the 2001 rosso mandello Front unladen 110kgs rear unladen 131.5 kgs ratio f 45.5% r 54.5% Front laden 141kgs rear laden 196.5kgs ratio f 42% r 58% this is with approx 8lt of fuel and I sat up slightly to mimic raising the bars 75mm and it only added 4 kilos to the rear

Maybe thats the beauty of the guzzi, it may be heavy and look large but when I first sat on mine it felt much smaller

Congratulations and welcome, I also purchased a rosso mandello just like yours with only 2500kms on the clock. there's only supposed to be 600 worldwide so enjoy and maybe you'd like to register on the rosso mandello thread http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14857

If your marzocchi's are the same as mine they should both come apart the same way. maybe that one's just a bit tighter,I suggest breaker bar and socket on the cap and longer spanner on the blue nut grunting and swearing sometimes helps

And I believe she bought her boyfriend his own racetrack ,thats my kinda woman

I'm sitting in a hotel in vietnam at the moment the weather is 34c and the roads are pretty good if a little kaotic but better in the rural regions , my bike is back in oz ,still I'd probably only need the first 2 gears here

Can we please,please please have some more information on your bike and some close up pic's

Ok rh , can you tell me where you judged the center line to be and from where did u measure , I have access to a set of scales at work and I'd like to check my bike for a comparison, although I won't have to block wheels as the scale is built into the floor.

get around 300ks at 120kph around 240 at 140kph good for about 30-40ks after lowfuel light comes on maybe more but don't want to walk