jtucker

Yes, the oil cooler went away when I put the sump on. Haven't missed it for a moment. There are lots of other goodies hidden inside as well... hi-comp pistons, Carrillo rods, port & flowed heads done by Mike Rich, Megacycle 620x10 cam... its a fun bike. __Jason

Yeah, I did nothing wrong. The other driver made an illegal 3-point u-turn in the blind spot of a hill, crossing double lines. They were ticketed by the cops, I was not. As for the insurance issue, yeah... in hindsight, I would have done some things differently. There was a possibility of injury, and I did get checked out and some x-rays, and given that the other person was at-fault, I wanted the full paper trail. Most of the parts I already have or can get pretty easily. I just want to avoid the whole "Salvage Title" bullshit if I buy the bike back from the insurance company, because that really complicates my ability to get proper (and reasonably priced) insurance going forward. Hopefully, it won't come to that. I'm still somewhat optimistic I can get this resolved without it being a total write-off, but we shall see. __Jason

I guess one consolation is that I'm expecting to take delivery on a shiny new V85TT any day now, so that will keep me distracted for a while at least... __Jason

Couple weeks ago, I just set out to start the return trip after spending a few days visiting some visiting family up near Buffalo NY, and about 3 miles into the trip back to Philly, I crested a hill to find someone attempting an (illegal) 3-point turn in front of me. Didn't collide, but laid the bike down. Proper riding gear did what it does, and I'm fine. Now I'm dealing with the insurance nightmare. As the other person caused this, got a police report and filed a claim so that hopefully THEIR insurance company would pay for it. Mostly cosmetic damage... if I would have had spare brake levers on me, I would have gotten it rideable and continued on my way. Now my insurance company wants to total it. They apparently worked with some dealers that I never heard of in New England to figure and estimate based solely on the photos that I provided, and I think they over-estimated the cost. I'm going to work on getting a more realistic estimate from the shop that will actually be working on it, and hopefully the insurance company will agree to a repair claim based on that. Really a shame, because the only mechanical problems were broken levers, which are trivial to replace. The rest is entirely cosmetic. Hopefully, I can get this resolved. Wish me luck 🤞 __Jason

As others have mentioned, red-frames originally came with 170s, but I've run a 160 on mine for as long as I can remember. As others have stated, the 160 is better suited for the 4.5" wheel. Anything wider is purely cosmetic. __Jason

I finally got around to trying to mount the SW-motech ring on my Sport. I went into it knowing that the tank's chin pad was going to cause some resistance, but I simply couldn't get it to work at all. Even with a quick bodge job of shimming up the front of the ring a bit, the bag-side mechanism simply refuses to gain purchase on the tank ring. Even with me trying to coerce it with nearly all my body weight. I guess if I want to use it, I'm going to have to invest the time into a more substantial shim job. Why does it seem that nothin's ever easy, when all you want to be is lazy! 😡 __Jason

That would be my guess. Or, they simply ran out of left-facing eagle decals and didn't feel like having more made up. The left-facing eagle was sort of an odd one, given that the "standard" version faces right, regardless of where the logo appears. Note that not ALL Sport 1100s ended up with the rear-facing eagle... just those produced during a particular time window (it seems... actually, I'm not sure about that). Its also possible that they had some branding person decide that the only "valid" logo was the typical right-facing one. Just another one of many Mandello Mysteries. __Jason

They even featured the (left side) rear-facing eagle in the Sport 1100 brochure...

As I'm starting to notice signs of ethanol exposure on my tank, I've started thinking more and more about getting an alloy tank made up as well for my Sport. If I did, I'm on the fence as to whether to have it painted to match the silver on the rest of my bike, or keep the natural alloy color (not polished). I'm having trouble picturing what a natural alloy tank would look like on my bike, in my mind's eye. My fear is that it would be too close to the rest of the silver and look "off", whereas on a bike with more contrasting body panels, the alloy color looks pretty nice. __Jason

Not entirely true... for a while, it was common for the factory to place the decal facing backwards... but that was typically on the left side of the tank, while the right side faced forward. But yeah, IMHO it does look better when facing forward __Jason

I thought it was just to keep the starter warm - a "starter cozy". 😂 __Jason

Which coating did you use? __Jason

I believe I'm experiencing some of that paint bubbling myself. On the bottom edge of the tank, above where the throttle bodies live. Only really noticeable when you're down low and looking up at the tank, so I haven't been too worried about it... yet. Looks like a bunch of small bumps, like a rash. __Jason

I'm not sure, to be honest. I've heard some people posit that a manufacturing flaw in the head could potentially create a "hot spot", and lead to pre-ignition problems. But then again, a bad carbon deposit could potentially create the same symptoms. All I know is that prior to the engine work, mine pinged pretty reliably on heavy throttle, and after the rebuild... it stopped doing that, which seems to imply that the compression alone couldn't have been causing it. __Jason

Also keep in mind that in different parts of the world, octane is measured differently. Unless I'm mistaken, in NZ the octane reported at the pump is the RON value only. While here in the US, octane is calculated as (RON + MON)/2. So, what you find as 100 octane in NZ would actually be somewhere around 95 octane here in the US. Original compression ratio on the V11 Sport was something like 9.5:1, which I think was bumped to 9.8:1 on later bikes, neither of which seem particularly high to me (an Aprilia RSV4 is 13.6:1 for comparison). My 2000 Sport used to ping quite a lot, regardless of which fuel I used. I think this is something that has been reported by a number of other V11 owners. I had the engine rebuilt, including hi-compression pistons, taking it to 10.25:1, and despite the actual higher compression, I've not had pinging problems since. I suspect that the pinging problem I had was due to a manufacturing defect in one of the heads, rather than a result of the compression. __Jason

If you're unable to find a source for a carbon starter cover to match the rest of the carbon, then I would just omit it. Frankly, even if you DID find a carbon starter cover, I would still omit it. I never understood the purpose of this item, and to my eye, the starter cover just looks like an out-of-place bolt-on anyway. Just my 2¢. __Jason

This entire thread seems to be based on a false conception, which Phil finally set right. High octane is the exact opposite of "extra bang". In fact, if your engine is indeed "banging", well that could be and indicator that you need extra octane. And unless your engine is heavily modified (such as with significantly higher compression than stock), then the correct octane would be the level specified in the owner's manual. The ethanol issue is another story... __Jason

I did have something like that made. It's not magnetic, though - hence the magnets on the oil filter instead. __Jason

The issue with mine, however, is that in order to fit the deep-V sump to a V11 sport, I had to modify what would have been the drain plug to accept the breather return. So, in effect, my sump has no drain plug at all anymore - which means, no magnetic plug is possible. I used to detach the breather return to drain. More recently, I've started using a vacuum pump to simply suck the old oil out through the fill hole. __Jason

Nice idea, but just seems like it would be something else to accumulate mud 😂 I placed the two magnets on the underside of the filter, and so far... they've stayed in place, and out-of-sight. I'm curious if they stay put for the life of the filter... time will tell. __Jason

I've ridden pretty much this entire season with no speedo. It's a long saga, but the point I want to make is that my speedo is not even connected... in fact, there is currently no cable present on the bike to even connect it to if I wanted to... and the needle still jumps around at ~0 MPH much as it did when it was hooked up and working. It just always bounced around. I guess I got used to it. I was rather surprised to see it jumping around with nothing connected, though. I attribute it to Italian speedo "character" 🙄 __Jason

But then Piaggio would be competing with themselves. Aprilia makes the sportbikes, and Moto Guzzi makes the "other stuff". Until MG has money to go their own way (not holding my breath) they are going to be relegated to their current niche by those controlling the purse strings. __Jason

Wife and I at the Philadelphia Navy Yard yesterday, in front of the USS John F Kennedy.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only person in the world that is more comfortable with lower bars and higher pegs, and I've already got the lower Magni clip-ons. I find that if there is too much weight on my wrists, it usually means I'm going too slow and there's not enough wind resistance to keep me balanced 😂 Seriously, though... I have lower back issues, and for me, a more leaned-forward position tends to be better for my back. The more upright I am, the more likely I am to wince going over bumps. I know... seems counter-intuitive... but I'm ok with it. I even see people trying to get a more upright position on the newer V7s, which boggles my mind. When I ride my wife's V7III, well... I like the bike, but if it was mine, it would have clubmans and rear-sets on it yesterday. __Jason