v11 frame straightening!

[Guest vratbastard]

Well after a small spill, damn I hate magnesium chloride road de icer they use here in Colorado! Those of you not familiar with mag chloride as it's affectionately called here in CO, it's a nasty slippery liquid that the state puts all over the roadways in an effort to keep the roads from freezing up in the winter. I'd almost rather the ol' salt sometimes, let the cars rust out it's good for the economy! Least my bike's tires will grip.

 

Luckily we have a very good motorcycle frame guy here in town www.cycleworksusa.net.

 

With the bike up on tony's frame machine I learned that the hit not only caused mild front fork/triple tree tweak but, also changed the frame rake from the stock 25 degrees to 22.4 and with a slight twist at that! With a more than a few frame pulls with a 10 ton porta power we've got the frame back to the stock 25 degrees, and the twist was taken out as well. Luckily that was about the only extent of the damage (less one valve cover!), now I've got to locate some front end parts. Anyone with some forks, bottom triple tree?

 

I will add that considerable damage was done with what I would've considered a slight hit, and the spine frame is not an easy one to straighten(stout!). It took longer than normal to set the bike up due to the configuration of the beast. Also the frame needed many pulls and messing about to get it back right. Luckily Tony is a fellow moto guzzi aficionado('81 lemans).

[bigbikerrick]

Dang, RB, You are fortunate to have a guy like Tony,and his expertise near you,not to mention hom being a Guzzi lover. If that happened to me out here in the "sticks" of southern Arizona where most frame (automotive only) techs have as pete roper would say" a bone through their nose" I would be screwed in the arse. Im curious what did you hit to cause such damage to the frame? Makes you wonder about some of the V 11 sports for sale on ebay that suffered a "mild crash, but mostly cosmetic".......

[Paul Minnaert]

Well, I'm curious if none of the usual sideeffects happen, such as hair cracks in the front engine cover.

[callison]

I have a set of forks, no spare triple tree though. PM me. I've already gone through the misery of collateral damage so I'm suggesting that you search this forum as it's pretty well covered and I don't want to go through the process of describing it all again. Suffice it to say, 20 mph forward into a car going 15 mph backwards can cause an extraordinary amount of damage.

[Guest vratbastard]

I didn't see any hairline cracks and even if there were I'm handy with the TIG welder so any could be welded. I restore high end classic cars part time while attending college so I can do most things myself.

 

Yeah, I would not suggest that anyone try to buy a builder v11s without knowing about the state of the frame/frontend. But, that pretty much goes for any bike. It's just that you can get parts for your normal CBR/GIXXER and not soo much for the Guzzis!

 

What I may do now that I know that frame is straight, is just assemble the bike (so I can get it home) and install the new front end parts whenever I can source them later on. Dealer says that the lower triple trees are not availible here in the US (so loooong wait from Italy!) so I may have better luck trying to straighten the one I have or just making up a new one out of billet!

 

I'm not dealing with the mess that is Moto Guzzi parts after the aprilia take over!

[Dr Gil]

You are indeed lucky to have a "Tony" near by. I slid my Le Mans down the tarmac last year and have just recently got it back on the road. I worried about having had tweaked the frame or front end in the crash but I looked it over carefully and could see no damage or misalignments...but I still have doubt.

 

I'm riding the bike now and there is still no evidence that anything's bent but then I'm not the most sophisticated rider out there and the Guzzi was still pretty new to me when I had the accident. Some things like getting used to the shaft drive/torque are different than the chain drive bikes I'm more used to. So the handling on the Guzzi has always a bit odd and I'm still aware of it at times.

 

I know these frames are fragile. Are there additional checks I should be making? Specific things I can look at here in my garage? I'm a long way from my "local" dealership (250 miles) and these is no one like "Tony" around here.

[Guest vratbastard]

You are indeed lucky to have a "Tony" near by.  I slid my Le Mans down the tarmac last year and have just recently got it back on the road.  I worried about having had tweaked the frame or front end in the crash but I looked it over carefully and could see no damage or misalignments...but I still have doubt. 

 

I'm riding the bike now and there is still no evidence that anything's bent but then I'm not the most sophisticated rider out there and the Guzzi was still pretty new to me when I had the accident.  Some things like getting used to the shaft drive/torque are different than the chain drive bikes I'm more used to.  So the handling on the Guzzi has always a bit odd and I'm still aware of it at times.

 

I know these frames are fragile.  Are there additional checks I should be making?  Specific things I can look at here in my garage?  I'm a long way from my "local" dealership (250 miles) and these is no one like "Tony" around here.  

79402[/snapback]

 

You can't really "eye ball" these things, I mean my bike even after the accident would go down the road striaght (even with my hands off the bars!). But, I did notice that the handle bars cocked slightly to one side while my front wheel was straight ahead! There's really no way of knowing until you can get it on a frame machine with either laser levels or a digital protractor to measure rake/twist. Sometimes you can do the old string trick to check your track, take a length of string and tape a length from tire end to tire end on both sides. You will be able to roughly tell if the front/rear wheel is properly tracking the other one.

[Guest ratchethack]

I know these frames are fragile.  Are there additional checks I should be making?  Specific things I can look at here in my garage?  I'm a long way from my "local" dealership (250 miles) and these is no one like "Tony" around here.  

79402[/snapback]

Gil, FWIW, here's a quick, easy, and accurate diagnostic check procedure that'll either put you at ease or have you reachin' for the pink liquid:

 

http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4778&hl=

 

Best of luck!