Wildgoose

Interesting-My first Spark failed right after I bought the bike new. It was replaced under warrenty and has lasted me for over nine years. The problem now is it will not hold a charge any longer if its not ridden every day. A battery tender keeps it up but this would not do when I take it on the road for week end campouts and such(pic). Used to be it would just get a bit low, now it goes flat in a matter of hours with out a trickle charge. I imagine the Odyssey's can be flawed like my first Spark and fail early too. Seems most of them made it so I think I will give one a try. So far I have found pricing to be around $140 but in these cases shipping is too high. Average delivered seems to be $160.

Thanks for the great input folks! I am going with the PC 545. Just a matter of doing some shopping for price.

Would the Odessy be the PC 545 model? Sure looks like the OEM Spark 500.

Just need some recomendations for a new battery in my O2' naked sport. Believe it or not the old one is the OEM unit. Got to be some sort of record. At any rate its time to finnaly replace it. If anyone has a recomendation for brand and sorce I would appreciate it. Thanks

Yup, the Ventura set is ugly but it also very durable. I have used mine a lot and have no complaints.

Thanks for the banter guys. I was just having a bit of fun sniveling about having to ride my wifes high tech very capable scooter for a few weeks while my knee and bike were rehabed. The V11S is back on the road now and with the last shot of cortazone the knee is functioning well enough to ride it again. I took a ton of crap at work about the MP3 form the Harley boys, they dont laugh at the V11 once they have tried to keep up with it so they were doing a little "pay back" time. I have ridden a Can-Am Spyder and they are just plain diffrent. Another machine that just has to be evaluated on its own merits as there is nothing else like it. If I had to ride a three wheeler full time I would go for the Spyder before I would do a hack or rear wheeled trike. For what its worth the MP3 is a great commuter machine and a lot of fun to ride. Just gives up something of the macho mucle man image on the road.

Nope, too much diffrence in the frame design. It appears that I am pretty much out of luck for a new set. I will go ahead and rebuild the crashed one. I have the bike back on the road now and will get around to doing the rework sometime later this summer. I just heard back from TLM in Holland and they say that there is nothing available any more that they now of either. I dont think that the tubular bars that I have were very popular even when they were on the market so not a lot of them out there. Given the fact that our V11's are now a thing of the past I just feel lucky I was able to get the stock parts I needed to get it back on the road.

Thats correct. The ones that were on the bike were purchased from Italy in 03' and are no longer made. They really did a good job of protecting the bike and saved me from more serious injury. I was just hopeing that some where there may be a set left over or take offs from a used bike. I have made the search on the net and most of the dealers here in the US. Its a long shot for sure. Here is a pic of the set up before the spill.

What happens to a guy when he crashes his V11S and trashes his right knee? THIS Or a lot of daytime TV or the family car.

I laid my V11S down a month ago when I hit some unseen sand in a tight corner. Low speed and not a lot of damage to the bike but I did trash the aftermarket crash bar set I had on it. Along with my right knee but its on the mend OK. I have not been able to find a replacement set so far. If anyone here knows of someone who my have a set they would part with or where I could find them please let me know. If I have too I can rebuild the crashed one but its not my first choice if I can avoid it. Thanks

OK, I have read the posts here and learned quite a bit. There is a new Guzzi dealer in my area and he has two Stelvio's on the floor. I really have the bug to go ahead and buy one but am of course somewhat put off by all of the valve issues discussed here on the list. I would like to know if you all here feel that the problmes have been taken care of and would you recomend buying an 8V engine equiped machine. Any tips or opinions would be of help in diciding if I will go ahead and take the chance. I have owned several Guzzis and presently own two. I have had my issues with them in the past but nothing that I could not either fix or have fixed. It would be nice to know if the new engine has been sorted out yet or will I be looking at a bit of a lottery as to if I will get a "runner" or not. This new dealer is pretty inexperienced and I doubt that some thing like a "failed engine" would be fun for either one of us to get sorted out. Thanks

You bring up an interesting point. I did in fact wear my Olympic GoreTex gloves outside and over my rain suit sleeves. This may be why they so totally failed to remain dry. Maybe I need to give them another chance under the cuffs. Goose

Hi All, Couple of weeks ago I finnaly ran out of luck on the Sport. Most of my road riding is done on either the Cal III or my old dependable G5. The Cali has a National Cycle Plexifaring III and the G5 has a full boat original Pacifico Shadow Classic frame mount. No problems in the rain with these set ups. But the Sport has a CF fly screen. Being an 02' VllS this amounts to no rain portection at all. Well for the most part I have never had to deal with any real rain riding on this bike until now. Got cought at the Nebraska Guzzi campout two weeks ago in what was a full weekend of moderate to heavy rain. Had to ride home a few hundred miles in a steady down pour. After all of the things I have heard about Sports and water I was just a little unsure of how the bike would handle it. Well, it was not a big deal. The bike ran with out missing a beat, handled great no matter how much water I ran though. I would do it agin with out a thought. On the other hand I did find a few flaws with my rain suit and gloves. For sport bike riding in the rain anyone have some suggestions for a suit and gloves that can handle the job. Mine sure didn't. Goose

Hi jrt, RR here in Lincoln, NE. Long time no talk. Hope your V11S is doing well. Mine is. I believe that we both bought our bikes from Jim over at Ned,s at about the same time. I can't believe that its been a few years now. I do a lot of TIG welding along with MIG, Stick and brazing. There are gas tank repair kits using an epoxy ribbon product made for gas tank leak repair that work well. If you have a pin hole not related to rust issues then a good TIG welder should be able to make a spot repair on your tank with out too much trouble. TIG works well with very thin metal guages as long as the welder knows what he/she is doing. Purge and backing gas is often used. If I were to do it I would purge and back with argon and spot the pin hole area. RR