tricatcent

Be very happy that you are OK. I think this is the reason why it is ideal to have two motorcycles. (I have 6 or 7 that is too many) One of my bikes is a VTR 1000 Honda. It is fantastic. You can buy one for $3,000 easily. They last a long time Almost as long as a Guzzi. The maintenance is rather complicated though. It has the same torque as a V11, it has 25% more horsepower and about 100 lbs less weight. I still prefer my V11 though. Despite what you will read about them my VTR uses less gas than the V11. It is way faster. It handles better to, but the brakes aren't quite as good. I think it would still cost $5,000 to get a V11. Nigel Nigel

In Vancouver I have been riding since January. It is actually colder here now than when we had the winter olympics. There is lots of snow on the mountains now. The thing I find funny about Guzzi V11 owners is that so many of you are almost the same as me! We are all mostly the same age range. I bet 45 is the average. We have mainly all owned a few Nortons or Triumphs before and maybe a Ducati or some other European bikes as well. Many of use still own a few other bikes. I think that most of us are in engineering or mechanical trades. I think very few of us would have ever owned a Virago, or would even be seen riding one. Probalby none of us think Orange County Choppers are cool. Some of us might appreciate or own Harleys. Most of us are pretty experienced riders. Most of us put on a fair number of miles. This guy on the Red V11 looks almost exactly like me except my bike is a Red VII Lemans. Probably if he took his helmet off I would find out he looks a lot different than me, but maybe he is my doppleganger. Nigel

My bike sometimes has the slight backfire at 2800 RPM. One time it got really bad. It happens only when the throttle is just barely open. Usually the bike will be slowing down. I have had an airfuel ratio gauge on the bike and it shows that this backfiring occurs when the mixture goes quite lean. I think if I remember correctly that is when the ratio goes to about 15 to 1. I have found that this leaness is due to incorrect balancing of the throttle bodies. I learned how to make the bike do this backfire. Once I could make it do it, I fiddled with the plastic nut that syncs the throttle bodies until the problem when away. You can fiddle with the nut at stop lights. Make a mark on the nut to keep track of the starting position. The first time I did this I found the nut had to be turned one full turn to correct the problem. The trouble with a fuel injected bike is that if the throttle bodies are not synced then the mixture on one cylinder will be wrong also. This is because the throttle position sensor is on one throttle body only. Of coarse if the throttle position sensor is set wrong to then you have even less chance of the machine running well.

I have a very nice set of Tomasselli adjustable clip ons for sale. They came with my Lemans. They can be adjusted to a huge number of different positions by moving two different tapered connections on each bar. One of my bikes previous owners had used them on this bike. He liked them. They develped a crack in one of the tapers. He took them off. I repaired this crack by installing (shrink fitting) an aluminum sleeve over it. It is a perfect repair. I thought I might try them. I have slightly altered my stock handlebars and changed the grips (to proper barrel shaped ones) and I am happy now with my positioin on the bike. I can ride 1000 km per day now without discomfort caused by the bars anyway. I have ridden 18,000 km this way now. I know I won't need these bars. Maybe you would like them. I think for someone with shorter arms than me they might be just perfect. They can also be adjusted to suit someone with really long arms. For me the stock bars are fine, just raised 1/4" and turned back a bit. I think these bars cost about $200.00 new. MG cycle shows some similar ones on thier site, the same make, but for 40mm tubes. These ones fit onto the forks on a V11. I am in Canada, I can send these anywhere you want, you will have to pay the postage. I take pay pal. Nigel

I found it made a big improvement to my bikes cranking speed when I changed to 5W 40 oil from the 20w 50 that I had used previously. It started cranking pretty slow when the weather got a bit colder. At first I thought it was the battery, but after changing the oil it cranks fast now. This 5w 40 is actually what Guzzi recommends anyway. When it was 40 degrees C in Nevada in September I think the 20w 50 was OK.

My friend who is a guzzi mechanic told me that the coughing is cause by imabalanced throttle bodies. He also told me that a power commander is generally not required on a road bike with only a pipe and crossover like mine. Mine is a lot better without it thats for sure. I decided to balance the throttle bodies by ear, reasoning that I couldn't make it worse because I could always turn it back to the initial position. I fiddled with it a bit on a ride tonight and now I have it perfect. No more coughing. It is really nice now. Nigel

My ECU has the plug facing down. There isn't much clearance there really. After removing the power commander I have put about 700 kms on the bike trouble free. The gas milage is now running about 5.5 liters per 100 km instead of 6.5 or 7 as before. It is running at a good air fuel ratio, usually in the low to mid 13s. The only time it runs lean is at about 3000 RPM with the throttle almost closed. It goes over 15 to 1 air fuel ratio and coughs back through the throttle bodies. It is irritating but you get used to it. I just gear down so the engine is going 4000 then it doesn't do it. Thanks for all your help with this problem guys.

Tonight I disconnected the Power Commander. Now the bike is fixed! The part that was faulty was not even a Moto Guzzi part. I think there must be a pinched wire in the harness for the PC. The thing that surprises me most though is how well the bike runs. I think it runs better than it ever did. I knew the map I had was not that good. My bike has Mistral oval carbon cans and a Stuchi cross over, as well as K&N pods. You would think it might run lean, but I have an air fuel ratio gauge and it indicates between 12.9 to 14 air fuel ratio. Usually it is 13.3. The only time it runs way to lean is just for an instant when the throttle is wacked open suddenly. I don't think I will put the PC back on. Nigel

Yes I realize that a poor connection would probably not result in the trouble I am having. It may be there is a short though, of an intermittent kind. Or perhaps a bad connection to something like a temp sensor. Who knows. In BC we say ground, but I am English, and have owned many British cars and motorcycles so I understand earth as well. It seems as though there are a lot of Triumph and Norton owners in this forum.

Tonight I am going to try cleaning all the connectors to do wtih the PC and ECU with contact cleaner. I did ride this bike a lot when there was salt on the road. The problem can occur at start up, but sometimes it happens when you are cruising too. I am sure the injector is stuck open because the amount of fuel that comes out the joints of the pipes is huge. It looks like the same amount of flow as I saw when I cleaned the injectors. That is one of the reasons I don't think the problem is with the spark. Nigel

It isn't the injector! Tonight I swaped the injectors right for left. The problem stayed on the right side. What would cause this? I guess the next step is to remove the power commander to see if it is the cause of the problem. Mainly I have this problem when I start the engine. After a brief warm up it goes away. It does it more often when the engine is warm. It may be worse in the afternoon when the air is hot.

Adding the solvent to the fuel line did nothing. I think it just went straight back to the tank immediately and almost none of it went to the injector. I removed the injector yesterday. It was easy to remove the injector once I took the airbox off. I have now temporarily replaced the airbox with pods. I think I like it better that way. I cleaned the injector by attaching a hose filled with solvent. I put an air hose onto the end of the hose, and cycled the injector. That didn't seem like it did anything either because the injector still sticks, especially when starting the engine. Once the engine settles down though it runs great. I went for a 180 km ride last night on the Squamish Highway and it was fantastic. I was averaging 120 kms and I was runnning mainly in 5th. When I first got this bike I thought it needed taller gearing. Now I realize it is perfect. I haven't done one other thing that I must do before I buy an new injector which is swap one injector for the other to make sure that it is not an electrical problem. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. The injectors seem to be pretty expensive.

Tonight I removed one of the fuel lines, shook the fuel out and then re filled it with Mopar combustion chamber cleaner. Then I started the engine and ran it for a few seconds. Hopefully the injector is now full of this mopar solvent. I will leave it overnight. The fuel line connects to the injector and then there is a tee and the line continues down towards the back of the bike. Where does that line go? Will the cleaner be forced into the injector or can it by pass the injector by this other line.

I put one can of seafoam through the bike, in about 3 tanks of gas. Maybe I should try more. One of my friends, who is a Guzzi and Triumph mechanic, says he has cleaned horribly dirty Guzzi injectors by removing them from the bike, installing a length of hose that he filled with Mopar combustion chamber cleaner, (he gave me some) Then you hook an air hose to the system to pressurize it and cycle the injector with 12 Volts. He says he cleaned up a bike that had been sitting for about 5 years and was all green in the tank. After this work it ran perfect. I was thinking that the injector had some close tolerance pieces that were hanging up from some gauling that may have happend from dirt. If the problem is really only varnish, and not wear or a bad spring or something, it should be possible to clean it. maybe it just needs a really good soak in some concentrated solvent. how do you remove the injectors from the bike? do I have to remove the throttle body? Nigel

I haven't really fixed my problem with the right hand injector sticking open yet. It will still do it every once in a while I think really I will have to replace the injector eventually. The Seafoam did make the bike run better. It cleaned the injectors so well the bike started running richer. (I have an air fuel ratio gauge) I had to re adjust the TPS and the Power Commander to make it run properly again. I think the TPS had always been set to high and I had been compensating for this by leaning it out with the power comander. I have found out though that if I add some of Lucas' Top oil that also contains injector cleaner, it eliminates the problem, until I fill up with a fresh tank of gas, then the problem returns until I add more oil to the gas. I think that almost any type of oil that would mix with the gas would temporarily solve the problem. Has anyone else ever had this problem. Nigel