jrt

Looking good Jaap!

That is sooo wrong.

I have a Stucchi crossover and it helps quite a bit above 5K. Can't say it does much at 4K. But overall, I am much happier with it than with the stock crossover.

Now some of us are fairly accepting of trannies, crossdressers, etc. Don't think I would want to date one, but I don't care...say, if you do.

Your homework: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13161 http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8672 http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6597 http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6802 http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4357 http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4025 And on my part- I should never have thought that Jaap may have lost even a single post. Damn, Jaap- you are good.

Doh- you just beat me! I can't look now- I have a 4 year old hanging on me, but I'll check later.

Have you ever had a good trout?

Roy, Dave, Greg Bender has been a wonderful resource for ALL Guzzisti for quite a while now- he hosts many technical documents and collected advice,etc. I would ask that you send your files to him for posting on his website. That way, everything is at a central location and you won't be bothered with tens of emails. Cheers, Jason

GuzziMoto is right- they are all 50 state models. Not to say yours might be running rich or off somehow...but MAKE SURE it is fully warm and has idled a minute or two. I seem to recall a long thread on this...try doing a search on it?

She's beautiful! Many happy miles together! J :drink:

Well, considering you live in Michigan, you might be rethinking this come winter... However, in the meantime, I don't think there is any reason that you can't commute on a V11. Take care of the routine maintenance and it should be just fine. I'll defer suspension to the many others that know it better than I. I just futzed around with settings until mine worked ok. Concerned about the filter? Put a clamp on it- don't worry again. It will cost you 2 bucks for a clamp, 10 bucks for oil and 45 minutes of your time. If you haven't dropped the pan before, I suggest buying new gaskets- just in case. Some of the best things you can do for your bike to keep it running (in no particular order) are also the easiest: set the valves regularly (30 minutes) don't leave it out in the rain for water to get into all the connections regularly check the oil. Keep it filled. Regularly change the oil (and filter). Doesn't matter if it is synthetic or cheap stuff. (45 min to an hour) change the trans. and rear drive oil once a year and grease the ujoints (ok, that front one is a pain) Set the TPS when it needs it. Check for loose bolts when you have a chance. Invest in good tools. Crappy tools are not fun to work with. Don't worry and just ride.

Just find a competent welder- jig up the busted one and weld new tubes in. It's a very simple crashbar. I'm lucky (I suppose) in that as soon as I saw one hanging in my dealers shop ~8 years ago, I bought and installed it. I hope I never have to use it, though. Glad you are ok. J

More Kingfisher? Got nothin'

You could throw a suitcase full of money and get a Can Am Spyder. Those look like they might be fun. But anyhow- don't be embarrassed - at least you are still out there riding. Lot's of folks would have just binned it.

As well as excellent potential for a bodge point! It is a clever idea- I hope it works out for you. Good luck! Jason

Great- you'll be close to the Iowa Moto Guzzi rally. It's in Elkader...first?? weekend in July. GREAT fun and worth the (short) trip. If you drive down south of Iowa City, be sure to stop in Riverside and say hi to Jim and Barb at Ned's.

When I had more stamina (could stay awake and my eyes were stronger), I did San Francisco to Austin nonstop (26 hours) many times on a G5 (Guzzi's version of a barcolounger) and on my old R90S. That R90S was a damn comfortable long-distance touring bike. I'm sorry I sold it (aren't we always). I'm kind of looking around for a replacement airhead now- 90/6 or R100RS....if anyone sees something I shouldn't pass up...... Anyway, back to the thread- Ben, the loopframes definitely aren't fast, but they are Sh*t eating grin fun. Just a real pleasure to ride on. And they do pretty respectably in terms of handling and stopping if you bother to set them up properly. Greg Field has gone a bit overboard with his (in a good way), but my basically stock Eldo has never let me down and I have no problem scraping the floorboards on long sweepers. Twitchy, they are not.

As far as the charging system goes- it will never be "great", however there are a couple things you can do to improve Guzzi's poor layout. The ground circuit for the headlight runs through the steering head bearings, grease and roller bearings and all. It's not a particularly good path. Bypass this by running a wire from the headlight ground to the engine (one of the bolts on the timing case). It doesn't take much, but helps a lot (thanks to Gary in Michigan for originally sorting this out). Also, the current for the horns run through the horn switch. Consider putting in a relay to reduce the wear on that switch. Oh- same for the brake light- current runs through the switches. I put a relay in for front and rear brake lever/pedal. There are no big fixes, but there are a lot of incremental improvements. Jason

Where in Iowa? We've probably met I used to live in Iowa City. Jason

You're a big fellow, right? If you don't need speed, think about an older ('70s) Bimmer or Loopframe. I love the comfort of those bikes and the styling pegs the cool-o-meter. Of course, they don't go as fast as the young whippersnappers, but you'll be grinning as you putt along at 60 and they pull the bugs out of their teeth.... Oh, they are pretty reasonable ($) too.

That's rather elitist - Loops/Tonti's and Spines all have the same basic swingarm setup. (To add to the controversy, though- I just measure the threads sticking out with a vernier)

I could easily see the petcock as malfunctioning in such a way that it only dribbled fuel through. Not highly likely, but a distinct (paranoid) suspicion. Also- no one has mentioned the fuel filter. Have you ever changed it?

You could try looking through the (US) Library of Congress. They have many images digitized in high res. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/ Another source for photos/pictures/all sorts of stuff was funet.fi. I have no idea where they would be in this directory set and good luck drilling down. Frankly, I'm surprised they even have access to directory listings... http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/ (3 min later) ah- try in here: http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/pics/ I don't know about copyrights for either site, so I cannot comment on that. Jason

I'd check the serials as well, but, like Docc, I don't think the recall went into '02. My random guesses are that either one of layshaft bearings failed, or the ball bearing from the speedo drive (or some other bit) fell into the transmission and smote it. Good luck, and my condolences.

TRIKE! like a Morgan. Ooooo, I want to do that so bad.....