JBBenson

I have had a similar problem when on trailing throttle, i.e. closing throttle on deceleration. Turned out the throttle was not completely closing, and was confusing the ECU, so it would stumble and sometimes stall when I stopped. I adjusted the cables and RH grip so it closes completely and the problem went away. I also changed my riding style to make sure I close the throttle completely and not hold it slightly open with the weight of my hand.

Hit-Air, Helite, Dainese, etc. I am considering getting the new EU-6 jacket for touring. Although the vests seem more flexible. Hm. Has anybody here used them? Thoughts?

Sounds lies either a weak battery or a bad ground somewhere, or dirty switchgear. Electrical problems are uniquely maddening.

I want a belly pan. Well, not for me, but for the Sport. Did you order direct from Ghezzi-Brian?

I always like to peruse Craigslist for interesting bikes. I was looking for a used Stelvio, but was really put off by the flat tappet fiasco. Saw this 2002 Aprilia, went to look at it, and took it home a couple of days later, a birthday present to myself. A friend has the exact same bike, so I was slightly familiar with them. All of the typical necessary upgrades typical to Italian bikes had already been done. Rotax V-1000 engine, aluminum box frame, aluminum panniers and crash bars. Big, loud Italian Stallion. Since the V11 Sport is running so perfectly, I needed another money pit.....

Call these guys: http://www.rebootguzzispares.com

That makes sense. The dynamics of braking on a motorcycle are more extreme than cars: the more you use the brakes, the less effective the rear brake is (and the more effective the front is) as the weight of the bike and rider shifts onto the front wheel......"Twist of the Wrist" covers this well. I don't know "Total Control", I will check it out......

Installed Motobits cylinder guards. Beefier and larger than the stock, they should provide much better protection that the stock ones in the heartbreaking and embarrassing event I drop the Sport.

You have touched in a larger point in society that I have observed over the last couple of decades. Customers are often willing to pay more for quality service or items. Incessant price dumping leads to shitty service and craftsmanship, which inevitably results in lower standards everywhere. More cheap crap, badly made, delivered late, and installed wrong. Everywhere. It starts to become normal. This leaves the customer feeling that, if all of the choices are shitty anyway, then all that's left to talk about is the price. And down we go some more. A normal negation involves "good faith" on both sides. There is not a lot of that going around anymore. But your experience in "reverse negotiation" proves that people DO want an honest exchange of goods and services. A very talented scenic artist told me once, when I was in a jam, that "when someone looks at something well done, they never ask what it costs, only who did it." That was a great piece of advice I got at just the right time in my career.

Did you bleed the brake in the bracket or take it off and turn the nipple to the top? Also, did you clean the pistons and equalize their movement? Finally, there is a bedding procedure to transfer fresh brake pad resin evenly to the surface of the rotor. Not sure if I bled it upside down. It was a while ago. It's due again.

My rear brake (with new pads and freshly bled) isn't very effective, I need to really push down to feel anything. I suppose this keeps me from locking it up. I don't think it is capable of locking up the rear wheel in any case. Is everyone else's rear brake the same?

Well, it doesn't sound like much compared to you all, but I trust my V11 enough by now to have made a 850 mile rounder from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back the other weekend. The bike ran perfectly. My body? Not so much....

Try this thread too, my thoughts on handling, in which my assumptions turned out to be totally wrong: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19158&hl=%2Bthoughts+%2Bhandling

I am doing it again but maybe in San Francisco, get my old friend Greg and his old V7 Sport to ride along.

Nice ride. ",,,after a long stretch of "making good time" in open areas, I need to intentionally change my mindset/focus when I get back in traffic." I suffered from this too, I thought I was the only one. So I made a habit of saying to myself out loud inside my helmet: "Slow down, time to pay attention". I guess everybody talks to themselves inside their helmet too......right?

For those on the fence: I hesitated a while before getting and installing a Roper plate. I think it was the idea of spending even more money and time on a "non-farkle" item that made me wait. I am glad I did it, it gives extra peace of mind. Keep in mind that it also communicates "that type" of owner to others, including any future buyer of your bike. I know that if i was looking at another V11, and I saw the "Roper line", then I would know the seller was probably fastidious about other maintenance items as well, and would feel more confident that the bike was well loved, and would probably be worth paying a premium. I have always thought that when buying used bikes or cars, the process was as much an interview with the seller as an inspection of the vehicle itself. So, prepare for that future interview and get a Roper plate and put it in!

You might need to start over as the bike was not running properly when you brought it in. It has a mix of some classic bad tuning symptoms. Recommends: 1. Ditch the pods, they don't give you any more power and degrade drivability. Go back to the stock airbox and filter. 2. Get a breakout harness http://www.casperselectronics.com/store2/product_info.php?products_id=1621 3. Do a full tune up: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19368&hl=%2Bjb%26%2339%3Bs+%2Bmethod&do=findComment&comment=209481 Scroll down and look for my “quick and dirty method” using white knob only. If you do all of this and it still stumbles around 3K, its the stock crossover. If it STILL does it after a new crossover, its the map.

Maybe my Sport bucket is bigger than your Scura's. All of the ballast and bits fit in mine, although I had to push everything to one side where there was room, outside of the ring surrounding the bulb hole, if that makes any sense. I also had to keep the ballast thing lying flat to close up cleanly. Make sure you have the bulb base and the slots aligned correctly, as it only goes in one way, even though it appears to go in any way. Correct alignment will reduce the profile just enough to clear the bucket. That being said, it may be that the Scura's bucket is shallower than the Sport's. I would just cut away what you need to to make it fit. It's not like it's a Vincent Black Shadow.....

Interesting. Have you ridden with and without this vacuum line? What are the results? Have not directly compared. Bike came that way. But when I suddenly have a weird idle thats the first thing I check.

Or connect the two vacuum ports with a short length of rubber hose for even more balancing goodness...

I had my stock seat-foam reshaped a couple of times before I was happy with it. I also flattened the seat pan and dropped the battery a tad to get rid of the hard edges molded into the pan. Consider dropping the footpegs, see if that helps....1" lower pegs from Knight Design really helped my butt and knees.

From what I gather, the OEM oil pressure sender unit is not highly reliable. A basic mechanical gauge can be installed for not much more cost than a new sender. Then you will also know how much pressure you have under various conditions - such as whether the bike is getting oil-starved on hard acceleration or steep inclines. Some people just prefer gauges over warning lights - because gauges give you more warning. @JB - I have an external gauge that you borrow if you just want to test pressure and are not concerned about a full-time reading. Thanks, I think i will get one just to have it. Does it connect directly to where the oil pressure sensor screws into the block? Or somewhere else?

I think the best things to do are: Stucchi crossover, Mistral mufflers and ECU remapping. The parts can be ordered online and you can send the ECU in to someone for remapping or get Guzzidiag and do it yourself, search the forums here. Or try Jefferies they are in Australia: http://www.myecu.biz/MyECU/index.htm These mods tend to take care of the chronic hiccups and mid-range performance issues and make the bike run much more smoothly with more tractable power. I wouldn't touch the airbox or add K&N's or anything like that. The V11 is finicky and changing the intake seems to create more problems without any performance gains. It may be that U.S. emissions at the time of manufacture required an ECU map that was not optimal. Not sure if this was the case in Australia. In any case, there has been enough experimentation on the V11 engine and ECU that you can benefit from. When you are done with that then a better suspension is in order.

CA 243 @ Idyllwild

Anyone know the size of the mirror mounting holes in the handlebar controls? 8mm? 10mm? I am running bar-end mirrors, so I have of course lost the original bolts. I remember them being normal threads (rightey-tightey)...am I remembering right?