new owner...

[steffen]

For the bars Moto Int'l in Sea. has some aftermarket bar end weights. They work well on my bike, you may want to check if they fit your bike too. Some folks have also used Barsnake to tame the bar vibes. You ll become smoother w the throttle, I too felt the first time I rode the bike that it was more abrupt than my other bike with a chain, though this would prove not to be the case.

 

+1 for the Moto International bar ends. They work even in Denmark.

 

And congratulations on your new ride. You even got the colour right

 

/Steffen, Denmark

[The Monkey]

keep both, choice is a good problem to have. up the revs, that will help climatize you to the vagueness of the MG throttle, the power commander can help a lot here as well, check your map. i found it took a fair bit of riding to keep the machine composed during throttle transitions in the bends. check or have checked the tps settings etc, the modern guzzi seems to have a fairly high idle but that will help reduce the herky jerk. the first one of these machines i tested (stock) was terrible, hopeless throttle response, yours has enough of the right gear to be more reasonable. 2 cylinder machines regardless of manufacture are more sensitive than those with >2 when it comes to injection, tis merely physics, youll just have to switch your head for each bike. ride it like you stole it and the guzzi will become part of you. have fun

[dark_bike]

One thing I do hope to change about the V11 is how buzzy the handlebars are. The previous owner mentioned that adding heavier bar-end weights would help. Another thing I'm still getting used to is that the throttle on-off feels very abrupt. It takes a lot more care in the right wrist, as well as some clutch play to keep things smooth for me. Am i doing something wrong?

 

When I first rode my V11 I feared that I might ditch my electric toothbrush because of the vibrations, but fitting foam handle covers improved things a lot (the bike already had bar end weights). Now they're just a pleasant sign of life: I feel every stroke of the engine, but it doesnt give a dead feeling on long runs.

I've had Guzzis before and they're rather endearing machines, faults and all. Not quite so raw-meat-eating like ducatis nor as antiseptic as Beemers. I ride mine every day, unless there is a really good excuse not to. It's the kind of bike on which you're sorry you've arrived at your destination.

 

so: enjoy :-)

 

cheers,

also Tom

[pasotibbs]

So I've been riding the V11 on and off, putting about 150 miles on it. It's been really great! Several times I rode it back to back with the Speedfour, and it's hard to tell while riding that the Guzzi is almost 100lb heavier (according to specs). The V11 handles really well.

 

The last time I rode, I rode the V11 for 45 minutes or so, then hopped on the Speedfour immediately after. It actually took me about 10 minutes to adjust to the way the Triumph rides. haha...

 

One thing I do hope to change about the V11 is how buzzy the handlebars are. The previous owner mentioned that adding heavier bar-end weights would help. Another thing I'm still getting used to is that the throttle on-off feels very abrupt. It takes a lot more care in the right wrist, as well as some clutch play to keep things smooth for me. Am i doing something wrong?

 

I keep wondering about the steering damper too. I wanted to know if it was active, and see if I could change the setting. Without a manual, I didn't want to mess things up (as the bike feels fine now). Can anyone enlighten me as to how to adjust the steering damper?

 

Thanks!

The on/off nature of the throttle at low speed has been looked at before here (post 10), I made one out of 5mm alloy and must admit I'd forgotten about it so it must work

[huub]

Heavy bar ends (ordered by Moto International) worked very well here too!

[slowkitty]

Heavy bar ends (ordered by Moto International) worked very well here too!

 

I tried to email Greg from Moto-International to order a speedo cable and bar-ends and got a rejection message. Are they still around?

 

Cheers

[jrt]

Yes, they are still very much in business. Maybe try calling or sending Greg a PM from this site?

[slowkitty]

Yes, they are still very much in business. Maybe try calling or sending Greg a PM from this site?

 

Okie. Will do that. Thanks loads.

[tom3]

Hi again,

 

I've been riding more after being out of town a while, and I'm learning to adapt to the Guzzi more now. I also had it serviced at Moto International last week, got the Pete Roper sloppage sheet installed, reverted back to stock airbox (I wanted to make the bike less loud, though to no avail), and got the broken neutral sensor replaced. The folks at MI are superb. They are knowledgeable and friendly. I am indeed fortunate to be with a Moto Guzzi in the Seattle area.

 

Unfortunately, the replaced neutral sensor seemed to have failed before I left the lot. Previously, the problem was that the sensor always thought the bike was in gear, even in neutral. Now the sensor always thinks that the bike is in neutral. Over the past couple of days, this behavior kind of went back and forth. Sometimes it'd be "always in gear", sometimes it'd be "always neutral". I learned that neutral sensor failure is a fairly common with the V11. How do you guys deal with it? I'm thinking whether I should just leave it be (probably in "always in gear" mode) and just be more careful and aware.

 

Another behavior that occured a couple of times these days is that when I coast to a stop in neutral, the engine dies. This really caught me by surprise, though both times I was able to start the engine right back up. Basically the rpm would drop normally from wherever it was when I pulled in the clutch, but it'd continue dropping to zero rather than staying at idle. I'm puzzled as to why this might happen. Any ideas? I doubt the neutral sensor has anything to do with it because the side stand is not down. Would replacing the velocity stacks + unifilter with the stock airbox have anything to do with it? I can't think of what might be causing it.

 

thanks!!

tom

[jrt]

The neutral switch sounds more like a grounding problem. Usually, when a switch dies, it dies. It doesn't switch back and forth between. But I could easily be wrong. My neutral switch is the original- still works fine. One datum.

 

My bike used to die coming up to a stop light or sign also. My guess is you have only a few miles on the bike (less than 10K?)? And this is mostly on warm, but not yet hot days and you have been running it kind of fast? That is pretty typical. I have K&N's and it makes no difference.

The engine is still tight; it will loosen up and break in but it takes a hell of a long time. At 20K miles, mine is just starting to open up.

You can give your bike a bit more idle, that will help. Also make sure the TPS is adjusted properly.

But I could kill mine pretty regularly if I came to an idle after even a few miles of highway driving. Especially if 'highway' meant 80-90 mph.

[ponti_33609]

Another behavior that occured a couple of times these days is that when I coast to a stop in neutral, the engine dies. This really caught me by surprise, though both times I was able to start the engine right back up.

 

Hi,

 

My Bike has about 6K miles now. I have had the same issue regardless of temperature. Always starts right back up after a stop light stall. Someone suggested to me that I try 2 things that seemed to have worked:

 

 

1. I ran a tank of gas with a product called SeaFoam (Suppose to clean out carbs, FI, etc)

 

2. Was told to shift at a bit higher rpm. Normally I use to shift at arouind 4,500 rpms, now I never shift at less than

5,000 rpms and usually try for 5,500. Was probably babying her a bit too much. I try never to cruise with rpm's

anywhere in the 3,000's rpms, always somewhere in the 4,000's.

 

I have not stalled again and its been about 6-weeks. Might be an easy try. With few miles, mine has certainly spent much of her life in the garage. I am trying as best as I can to fix that!

 

Best of Luck,

Bob