MickM

Hey Charles, I can well understand your fear, but at least you were only looking. When I bought my 02 V11's were really rare in Australia, so I paid up without even seeing one in the flesh and had to get it shipped 2,000km. It rolled out of the truck, I'm all excited, started it and near had a heart attack ! So I rang the dealer and didn't feel all that much better when he laughed and said they all do that. Then I discovered this forum and learnt about broken shift springs, dodgy earth circuits, iffy relays, how the hell you grease the shaft uni's, fixing cush drives, putting grease where Luigi didn't, quelling the vibration, why $30 per litre gear oil is worth having, breathers that split and dump oil everywhere and another heart attack over the prospect of a spin-on oil filter spinning off for no good reason. I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of immediately. Point is that after you fix all that you end up with a fabulous bike that, for me anyway, I'll never sell. At 8500km in 8 years I'm never gonna wear it out but every time I get on it, even if it's only a trip to work, it makes me feel good about the world. Go for it, you won't regret it.

Hey Buddy, May not be a fix but mine started doing funny things like jumping around and intermittently not working at all. I ran an additional earth wire from the instrument housing base plate to the crankcase and haven't had a bit of trouble since. Also ran an additional earth from crankcase (near the gearbox face) to the battery. There's a reference to it somewhere in old posts. Worth a try ?

Hey, thanks for that ! Had a look at the w/s manual to find the way in which the top bits go together but didn't realise there was any adjustability in it. My forks have never been opened so makes me wonder if the factory assembly may be a bit hit and miss and mine was set at the upper range of available preload ? I've now done a zip tie test and even under the most aggressive braking I'm game to attempt there's 22mm of leg exposed. While the internal bump stops are obviously set to prevent the base castings getting into the stanchions, I'm clearly some way from bottoming. Be interesting to check what distance, springs aside, represents absolute full bump ? So no question, the springs are too stiff .... it does seem from several comments I've read in the archives that Guzzi fitted a range of springs for whatever reason and you can't know what's in there until you measure them. Once I get it apart I'll do a crude rate test using my shop press with bathroom scales. Appreciate the comment on oil height as that's clearly a better idea than using specified volume. Thanks once more. As an aside I was ogling a Ducati Sport 1000 on Saturday (the dual seat one) and was thinking it was pretty swish .... then thought about the desmo drama, then the chain and how my wife would winge about muck on her jeans. Pretty quickly my mind turned to pushrods, a shaft and easy cleaning and I walked out very content with what I've got. I think it's a healthy thing to ask yourself sometimes why we all bought Guzzis in the first place .......

Many thanks guys for the well considered ideas and the links ! I've gone back and done several sets of measurements and found I consistently get 9mm between unladen and laden sag .... so it has probably got a touch too stiff spring in it for me. It does appear to be well balanced because it is at least ... or as best as my wife can detect, have both ends moving in parallel. So after much head scratching the intention is to take 5mm off the preload spacer, swap to a standard volume of 5wt oil, soften the rear a bit to match and see how it goes. If that gives me a touch more compliance in the first bit of bump travel I'll be happy to call each of you a genius ! Thanks again.

Thanks guys. I haven't tried putting a zip tie on it but I don't get the sense that it's bottoming. I weigh 175lb and have 25mm laden sag in the front ... which would seem about right. No real complaint with the handling for how hard I ride it - it's great in faster, flowing stuff but, and I know this is my fault, in tighter stuff it will often turn in good for me but I then find myself having to stand it up a bit and have a second go at picking a radius. The tubes are 12mm up to accomodate spacers between clip-on and fork crown. Tyre profiles are still good with no apparent flat section at the rear or cupping on the front. It's the sharp, high speed compression 'thump', only using a little travel, which I'd like to fix and which is common on our shit Aussie roads. I don't have any issue with the rear, seems fine even with my wife on. I can see value in a progressive fork spring with softer static rate and maybe 5wt oil to restore a more useful range of adjustability ? Any thoughts if this would be the right track ? Thanks again.

Hope everyone has a very merry Guzzi Xmas. Would like some advice. My 02 LM has now done 6600km and I'm finding it's still too stiff for me. I've backed the front compression damping almost completely off and am running similarly light at the rear and I'd still like better compliance over broken surfaces. Still running original 10wt fork oil. Please understand that I don't ride it hard .... if I get to within about 15mm of the tyre shoulder I've done well. What I'd like is better compliance and good turn in. Has anyone tried either 5wt oil or a lighter spring in Marzocchi's ? Any recommendations ? Had a search thru the archives but couldn't find anything really going this direction ... I admire you blokes that can go hard enough to actually want it stiffer ! My other question is grips ... I've done an anti-vibe mod incorporatig custom cro-moly bars filled with lead plus big end weights and it's really pretty good but I figure different grips might be a worthwhile extra step. I'm using a standard sort of foam grip - any recommendations for a significant step up ? Many thanks in advance.

Hey Jim, my opinion only but I don't think it's the fault of the spring but rather the set-up. You need to eliminate all potential stress risers at contact points and also stop the spring from twisting. This is how I did mine - http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...ost&p=37565 Several other guys report a similar approach and I'm pretty confident that it's a comprehensive fix. Good luck .... once you fix the few quirks they're a wonderful bike.

May I suggest, if you want to fix it once and for all - http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...ost&p=23510 Sure worked for me, Mick.

The only proper way to paint aluminium is to etch prime it first, then undercoat, then colour coat. Even then, for guarranteed success, you still need to sand or blast it and etch prime immediately. Aluminium oxidises very quickly when exposed to air and, like in alloy welding, it's the oxidation which is your enemy. There are some one-hit materials around nowadays which incorporate an etching base but these are, generally, satin or flat finishes usually only available in black or grey and which are designed as industrial coatings. Then there are the fairly new two-pack seal coats which are designed for one-hit application over polished alloy so that, in theory, you never have to buy Autosol again. I haven't used it myself, but you'd hope it's come a long way since the #*$@ they used to put on Japanese engine covers.

I just had an interesting experience with this stuff & am curious to hear if others have seen lower, and I mean a lot lower, running temperatures with Redline. I recently had a breather oil leak on my '02 LeMans and, while trying to figure out where it was coming from, near fried my fingers feeling around the gearbox case. While fixing that I also did the shift spring fix (I still only have 4500km from new) and put Redline Heavy in it. I did 250km on the weekend and saw red stuff around the left side footpeg area as soon as I got off. Fearing it was gearbox oil I felt around and was surprised that I could do it comfortably without getting burnt. I've no doubt now that Redline is clever stuff (and needs to be because we have to pay near $30 a litre for it here in Australia) as a noticeable reduction in gearcase temp can only come about thru lower friction levels. (Red stuff turned out to just be the guts of a suicidal insect).

Thanks, particularly Baldini for the list ... back to the workshop. I do agree with the comment that the spring is hardened while the mating portion of the shift lever isn't. I found on mine that the spring tab had a clear polished mark where it had chafed from movement (4200km). If Guzzi were to finish the edge of the shift lever so there wasn't a sharp edge it probably wouldn't be, as Baldini suggests, an issue likely to cause spring failure. But better safe than sorry and once it's apart you may as well do the whole deal. I've generally found that, apart from these annoying flaws, the basic engineering in a V11 really is very, very good. And I'd rather have it that way than vice versa!

While this subject has been well documented, and thanks to everyone who posts such stuff, my experience might help some avoid grief. Just had a problem with my 2002 LeMans and found - 1) Shift spring. My spring boss was 16.2mm diameter. Machined it down to 14.8mm, checked for coil binding, found it was OK but that when you looked down on the spring 'tab' or end, it was moving outward across the shift lever as spring tension increased. The coil portion of the spring was getting a twist when tensioned that was causing the movement of about 2mm. It's very possible that in time this would chafe and fatigue the spring tab and, even with a 15mm boss, you might someday still be stranded. I then used a shim washer about 1.5mm thick on each side of the spring to loosely support the coil and prevent the twisting action. The spring tab now stays put across the full range of shift motion. As extra security I polished the spring tab and the mating portion of the shift lever. I'm wholly confident my set-up will never break. I guess that some springs may be better than mine in this respect, some may be worse. 2) Lower breather hose (braided return line from frame to sump). Had oil on my left boot. Enough that it had come from the banjo onto the L/H barrell and been blown backward, over me. Found that the banjo bolt was tight enough & that the hose end wasn't split or anything. Much head scratching found that the banjo bolt was the wrong width to correctly allow the inner (next to frame) Dowty seal to sit on the appropriate part of the bolt. Instead, it was on the edge of the thread. Now why Guzzi use Dowty seals with a steel washer escapes me. Yeah, they're re-useable but that's not a lot of use if they won't seal. You'd be no chance with this combination unless the banjo bolt was almighty tight. Replaced the inner Dowty seal with a plain copper crush washer. Fixed. 3) Gearbox breather. Read the postings about splash guards and, while some of those pictured are very nicely done, figured there had to be an easier way. Removed the standard breather & popped the cap off it. There's hole about 6mm diameter drilled down into the fitting which holds a piece of tube real easy. Brazed a short piece of steel tube in to take a length of hose. There's a small gap between the horizontal spine of the frame & the R/H inner face of the airbox which you can push a hose thru so that it exits directly above the breather. Very difficult, probably impossible, to get the hose onto your breather fitting if you were to instal the fitting first, so just pull the hose all the way thru, instal over breather and then fit breather (with hose still attached of course). I ran the hose up near the storage tray beneath the seat, but anywhere sheltered is obviously OK. I really love this bike but it does really annoy me that we should have to do this stuff. I came off old Ducatis so can live with it, but I can only imagine the frustration of guys who buy these after years of Jap ownership ? I've now done these things and have run an extra earth return (to fix the intermittent tach problem). I've searched the FAQ and think / hope that I can now just ride & enjoy. Is there anything else I should or need to do ?

Not sure if this is for you, but I also had terrible trouble with the vibes. I tried heavy (custom machined from 35mm diameter x 65mm long steel bar stock) first and still wasn't happy. I then went the full monty and used some 4130 cro-moly tube, welded a threaded plug in the end to take my big end weights and then filled the whole tube with molten lead, finsihing the inside end with a plastic plug. Painted them black. I haven't weighed the finished product but, yes, it's very heavy. Works a treat and completely eliminates the tingles. I was ready to sell the bike before the conversion and, now, will still have it when they bury me.