AndyH

Yeah, good point! I use a hose clamp to stop the filter undoing and lots of owners and some workshops do. If that's what the PO did, you're not going to get the filter loose through the manhole. Best to get the sump off to be sure.

In German? The name probably has too many letters for me to remember!

I can't fault that display, clear and hopefully far more reliable than Veglias, although to be fair it's only my tacho that I seem to need to change along with the oil. Speedo's been fine for 10K plus. The fuel thing would make me nervous though... While I would have set mine to 160 miles too (based on my general experience), lately it seems to run on fresh air. I have 195 on this tank so far and I know there's at least another 30 in there as the light's only just come on. Last tankful about the same, maybe not so good... The weather seems to make the difference as this happened last year around this time as things warmed up. On the other hand, I can get the light coming on at 125 sometimes and with so much unaccountable variation, I can't put a 'feel' on it, so I'd still trust a fuel light a bit better. One heavy bike to push down the road if it lets you down.

Yep, couldn't have put it better.

Nice to see these low mileage bikes but what's wrong with the people who owned them? How can you not ride them?

Everyone should have once at least once in their life. Cheap thrills and some of the best to be had on 4 wheels! My wife still has hers :-)

So fickle docc. If it's got wheels and an eagle on it....

Condolences dale, can see what you're letting go. I dread the day I have to make a similar call. Best of luck to the new owner - may he be worthy!

Fantastic documentation of the process, good work. If only my photography was up to it - well, I'd still not be able to be as clear!

Yeah, me too. Good kit to be had there tho'

Looks good but how does it work?

I like this. I don't understand the German either: not sure what's been done to the engine, but it would be nice to think it's been tweaked out of cruiser tune. That and a taut handling frame would be fantastic...

After the lost posts episode recently, the tale of the Teo Lamers stand I bought seems to have got lost too so I'm going to resume here. I've got a Mistral crossover and standard cans, an early v11 (2000) with a 160 rear tyre so all checks out for the TL stand. I paid 200 EUR for one of only two stands left there and it arrived quickly, so no complaints there. When the stand arrived there were no instructions in the box, just a bag of bits and a couple of big pieces (the cross piece that bolts onto the outside of the pork chops and the stand itself). There were some really handy instructions from Greg Field that cleared up some of the mysteries of fitting the assembly but I can no longer locate them in the forums. The rest (ie assembling the stand itself), I had to deduce from pictures of the assembled stand on the TL web site. The spacers for the small red brackets are not the same width and that turned out to be important: assemble exactly as per the pics on the TL website! So having taken off the exhaust, because it was easy enough to do, I offered up the parts but it was immediately clear that, in spite of the narrow rear tyre, the stand would bind on the widest edge of the tyre at full suspension extension: a possible MOT failure. So off came the stand and I had to get it modified with a cut and shut indentation to clear the tyre edge: cost me £99 incl. repainting so the overall cost of the enterprise was escalating. Three weeks later I took the exhaust off again and offered up the stand. This time, having fitted one of the small brackets, I had to open out the holes on the other bracket to make it fit. In the end it all went on OK but this probably took me about six hours in all with the two attempts to sort out plus considerable expense. Before we throw stones at Teo Lamers, remember: "No two Guzzis are the same". Even if it had been easy to fit, everything only just goes into the space available, so it's remarkable that I didn't have more hassle and that it fitted with the Mistral crossover. So with later width tyres, forget it and even with narrow tyres, it required mods. Now it's on though, I'm very happy with it. It's not intended for everyday use (hard to get onto the stand without assistance) but as a touring stand for tyre changes or other maintenance when I don't have access to a workshop stand. Normal paddock stands slide around on the swing arm so this is a definitely a bonus.

Checked the back shock for the split eye (if Sachs Boge)? The clunk I had been bequeathed by the PO turned out to be the shock coming loose at the swing arm end. Only dismantling revealed it.

I'd be worried if I started getting through that amount of oil over that distance. I do something like 4-6k miles per year and don't get through more than half a pint between yearly changes. It's done around 30k so far and I'm not overly kind on the engine either. However I said 'started getting through that amount' because it's the change from the status quo that should ring alarm bells: if it's always burned/lost oil it then no change is surely a good thing. Nevertheless I'll be paying a bit more attention to my oil consumption from now on.

Neat idea that. However, I've had the zorst on and off so many times recently (mainly fannying about trying to put on that centre stand for example !!,¥#%|\]!!!!, more of which in another post once I got the pics), that it all goes on and off fairly easily.

The 'round bearing-looking items in the middle of the cover' are the caps on the ends of the shafts for the selector gears. Guzzi don;t seem to list a separate O-ring to seal these these shafts in the parts lists but experienced gearbox surgeons on the forum should be able to tell you whether these seals are user-serviceable in any fashion. The dome nut is the end of the selector eccentric adjuster. I'd say that if your gearbox is selecting fine at the moment don't touch this. It shouldn't need to be removed in order to remove the gearbox cover. There are posts on the forum covering replacing the selector pawl spring which should give answers to your questions, including how to remove and replace the cover road-side without draining the oil!!

I think dangerous has a point. Electrical: one or both Plugs or coils/leads maybe? If it gets worse over time, say it starts to happen over a wider rev range, I might be looking at the coils and leads.

Never heard of sea-foam before. Enlighten me?

Great article Frank. Sequoia National Park Canyons sound like true riding country. I'm envious.

Yes, the clutch rattle? "They all do that, Sir" Single plate and twin plate clutches rattle the opposite way to each other: one when pulled in, the other when released - I never remember which Don't worry about it.

I use either Agip/ENI or Motul synthetic 10w 60 - it's a bit cheaper than the Agip/ENI 20w 50 I was using before and seems to be just as good (a tip I got from Guy at Gutsibits)

Bubbling paint isn't just an 02 issue. Just about every V11 that's seen road salt seems to have it!

My bike ran just fine when in stock trim but the cough showed up occasionally. Raceco clearances did a lot to get rid of that. The PCIII installation with each side individually tuned has subsequently transformed the bike and made it silky smooth. When the cough came back recently, quick attention to the tappets showed that the exhaust clearances had tightened up and resetting them fixed it and it's back to how it should be. So I'd say the PCIII is not a cure for everything but does make a good thing much better (in the right hands). I'd also hazard a guess that since no two Guzzis are the same, using one of the 'standard' maps available, even matched perfectly to the induction and exhaust components in use might prove a rather underwhelming experience.

Mine was the silver V11 with the helmet on the mirror, next to the Centauro. Rode cross-country from Herts to the event - freezing it was! Cracking ride back later in the day through Wiltshire and up through the Cotswolds, but still cold. Hardly any traffic - bliss! Not so many Guzzis as last year it seems. Cars: loads of Alfas, Lancias, Fiats, Ferraris and Maseratis of course but Lamborghinis were very poorly represented. Think I only saw three there and didn't get to see that Countach somehow... not my favourite 4 wheel marque but we met up with a friend there who was hoping to get to see a Miura and was of course disappointed.