Another V11

[guzzler]

They also sound pretty bloody good too.

Even with the stock pipes!

Cheers Guzzler

[po18guy]

I describe the Ballabio as the red-haired step-child of the Guzzi family and that's not far off. By comparison, the '99-'01 Sports have a more integrated, compact (is that even possible?) look at the front end. The fairing is the subject of discussion. From straight on, it's not my favorite, but from the front 3/4 view, I think it looks rather nice. It does block a fair bit of wind at my favorite 120km/hr riding pace. The rest of the bike is standard '03 and onward OEM stuff. Is it possible that the reported instability of the short-framed bikes was compensated for by the longer frame, slightly more conservative geometry, and frame-mounted rather than fork-mounted gauges and fairing? I recall here the infamous tank-slapping early Kawasaki police bikes, said problem resolved by frame mounting the fairing.  

For a bike named for the hillclimb victory, I can understand the high bars, but you'd think the suspension would be upgraded. As well as something stating, proclaiming, even boasting Italy - but no. A little script on the tailpiece and that's it. However, nothing in the Guzzi lineup makes perfect sense - nor should it, nor should we expect it to.

 

[Steve S]

Hey Guzzimax nice collection of V11s, 

I've owned Cafe Sport and Ballabio before and they don't really ride any differently just more comfort and the frame mounted fairing seems to work better because its further forward

[vtwins4life]

I saw an MT01 at Alice's up on the Skyline outside of Palo Alto a decade ago and never forgot it. Been trying to find one in the States is near impossible and importing one from Canada is out of the question since the model was never certified here. 

Maybe I'll get lucky one of these days and score one....

 

VT4L

[Guzzimax]

Hey vtwins4 life. Here in the UK there are only 478 MT01s registered, which makes it quite rare. It was never imported into the US. But to put the numbers into perspective there are only 206 V11 Sports (all years) in the entire UK - even rarer Guzzi’s have only sold in tiny numbers here

[brenwin]

On 7/8/2020 at 2:18 PM, Guzzimax said:

I think the Ballabio handlebars would be around the same height, but would angle the hands differently. The bars appear similar to those of my Griso, very comfortable when riding gently, but a lot of wind resistance when “making progress” but I suppose the Ballabio’s small (ugly) fairing would help a lot...

Your hands will sit a little higher on the Ballabio bars . The extended fairing cuts the wind nicely , much better than the standard mini fairing on the Sport , least in my experience . I love mine and for an older rider works well . Dave Richardson said if the Ballabio had come out in earlier years they would of sold a lot of them. Funny , I don’t find the fairing ugly at all , in fact it’s downright beautiful especially in red 😊.

[po18guy]

On 7/10/2020 at 3:12 PM, Guzzimax said:

Hey vtwins4 life. Here in the UK there are only 478 MT01s registered, which makes it quite rare. It was never imported into the US. But to put the numbers into perspective there are only 206 V11 Sports (all years) in the entire UK - even rarer Guzzi’s have only sold in tiny numbers here

"MT" = Master of Torque. Hard to argue with that. But, an MT03...? One is on his own there!

[al_roethlisberger]

Would be interesting to see all production numbers for the V11 Sport variants, broken out by market.