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A sound of thunder across the Frisian countryside.

Following a weekend of riding on wet, sodden roads (another appalling wash out of a UK summer), I cleaned the filth off my burgundy V11 today

Sunday at the Mallory Park bike festival (with classic racing) Poor weather with heavy downpours - look at the sky above the Guzzi tent. Good selection of Guzzi’s, a club member was out on the track with his MK2 Le Mans

Seen at Moto International in Seattle in 2015. A nice-looking Rosso Corsa.

2004 V11 Ballabio

Love the Rosso Corsa, I have one myself

Mallory Park bike fest this weekend, weather poor with heavy downpours. My V11 in the Guzzi club tent

Yes, the 2003-on Rosso Corsa are long frame V11 with the long tank (internal pump/filter) and the LeMans faring with the checkerboard graphics. And Ohlins!). @MojoFuzzi's Rosso Corsa The 2001 Rosso Mandello is a special edition first generation Sport with short (black) frame, short tank (chin pad with external pump/filter), and a carbon fiber "flyscreen" (fork mounted). @Guzzijens's Rosso Mandello If you leave a Rosso Corsa and a Rosso Mandello in the garage too long without adult supervision, a Ballabio could be the outcome . . . @Steve S's Ballabio

Unless it's a dry clutch with twin friction plates and a steel intermediate. In a basket flywheel. With a couple hundred thousand kays on it, all ridden like a jackrabbit on hot lava. Then it sounds like nine monkeys fighting their way out of a cymbal factory with ball pein hammers.

We better watch out... Guzzi will be a mainstream brand

Took the Rosso Corsa to this evenings Guzzi Club meet

AJ -- in pic, below -- talked me into doing this only two weeks after the SSR XX: Moto Guzzi Tour of Corsica & Sardinia A moto-touring veteran of various companies, AJ did a Balkan event last year in order to get a "serious" demo of the V100. Ended up so impressed by the V85 instead, he bought one! His, mine, and Stave Nicholas had three Guardia d'Onores at the mutton and fried cheese curds run. Two of those will be at SSR XX. Bill

330km now, have a good feeling about clearances and everything. Winther project with a clean bill of health. Must admit she has an easier willingnes to curbs than myV11. I actually have a feeling for my keepers, yes IPA TIME. Cheers Tom. Sent fra min SM-S906B via Tapatalk

Here's some pictures of the end result.

After spending Friday and Saturday at the John Day rally, I'd like to give my impressions of it. As a fairly new guy in the Guzzi world, I felt honored to be there. This was my first motorcycle rally of any kind that I have attended, and being bit by the bug I knew I would attend since I first heard about it over half a year ago. I mean, given it was in Oregon, it was a no brainer, right? It was sort of like church, with two wheels from Italy as the religion. The combination of knowledge, passion and experience was omnipresent. I was a fly on the wall to many conversations and got into others meeting many interesting folks. People rode in from all over Canada and the US. Lots from California, Oregon and Washington as expected, but all four corners of the country were represented with many states in between. So many pulled in on older bikes giving testament to the long life of these Guzzi engines. A Falcone was ridden down from Seattle. Two Australians flew into California where one kept his bike and the other bought and registered a 1000SP to make the run over...he will be shipping it back home. Spoke to the woman who rode in from New Hampshire. She showed me pictures of her old Norge with Crater Lake in the backround. She said, "See, they are the same color!" Not her first rodeo. I don't know all the variations and models, but my guess most all were there. I had the pleasure of meeting Gmc28 who turned me on to a stellar route for my return trip. Eastern Oregon roads...smooth, curvy and no cars. So nice! TwinAH rode from Canada on his nicely sorted out Stelvio. It's beautiful! If you knew him you would expect nothing less. Those were the only two forum members that I knew would be there. What went down to making this the outstanding event it was came down to the people...the organizers, the volunteers and the riders. Each and every one had something to say...I mean, have you ever met anybody that didn't want to talk about their bikes? I had a blast!

Another Guzzi Club meeting this evening My silver V11 & a V7 next to a Harley Amazing sky this evening

So it begins. Let me say first, I'm not riding a Moto-Guzzi. A nice '04 BMW R1150GSA Adventure got thrown at me instead of a V85TT, thanks a lot guys. I'm leaving tomorrow morning, 28 June from El Paso. Should be an easy ride through Albuquerque to Chama. I intended to ride the Toltec Steam excursion but looks like weather doesn't want me to hang around there Sunday. I may post some pictures here, but mostly just put them in a Google Album with this link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RLJDCUNS6Pwux8gj7 We'll spend plenty of time out of cell service, and I'm not carrying anything with a keyboard. Oh, already had someone ask why I don't post a thread in the ADV forum. Well, because there are only 2 people I know on that forum, one is in this forum and the other is the old friend meeting me in Bozeman. Or Billings, or Sturgis, if I don't dawdle too much on the way up. Besides, the ADV forum is full of menies.

Ok, we all know that the average Guzzi owner isn’t exactly youthful. In our group anyone under 60 is classified as a sprog (youngster). So why has the pub landlord left a bouncy castle for us

I labeled my relays like this: Yet, it is a must to know which fuse supplies each relay as "the rest of the story" is shown at the fuse block (inverted so as to read from the sidestand side of bike. Beside the road. While bewildered):

On airplanes, the cylinder needing checked is put at TDC compression stroke. The prop is dangerous and is held tightly before turning on the air. The regulator sets the first gauge at 80 psi, and the second gauge shows the leakage. The prop then can be turned back and forth a degree or so to get the highest reading. A normal cylinder will be 75 psi or above. I don't get terribly concerned until it reads 70 or under. This will show leakage from rings at the crankcase breather, intake valves at the carb, or exhaust valves at the (wait for it) exhaust stack. It won't tell anything about valve guides, but since it is at TDC you can feel how much clearance there is by wiggling them around. Edit: I would put an on/off valve on the hose to the cylinder on the pictured rig. It makes things simpler.

And ready for more km [emoji16]. Cheers Tom. Sent fra min SM-S906B via Tapatalk

If you are seeking out guidance on mini-split AC units for your garage, please type Starter motor repair in the search box.

Hey my V11 fellows! Finally I got my beauty from Amsterdam! I rode it through Hamburg - Kodling - Thisted! Still on the way back to Stavanger! I just love it! Its just fine. Even though I have some bad luck with it. Anyway, I will post another topic for asking help on the issues I have I register it here before I register it in Norway! Here are some photos! I have some videos too! To be continued

Fear not brothers Guzzisti ! The venerable @Kiwi_Roy may not be visiting here any longer but he's still around and active on WG.

For your own benefit , install a stud in that small bolt area on the sidestand bracket . When you tighten a bolt you are screwing a bolt into the threads of the engine block. When you install a stud and tighten the nut , you are pulling on the stud to tighten the sidestand to the engine block. A much better setup and no chance of wearing out the threads in the block .

Great thing about @TomH coming here to solve this problem is: This is the best place in the world for the care&feeding of a V11 LeMans/Sport . . .

I think life would be boring if viewed only through rational eyes.....

Pretty sure I rip it up and down the rev-range like a jackrabbit on hot lava. Might be pulling "too much" lube down the valve guides and up the cylinder walls . . .

Don't overthink it, just clean it and grease it. You'll be in there again in a few thousand miles anyway. Burn that rubber!

Refill capacity is 27-28 oz. If this box was empty , you should have destroyed everything inside. Make sure you have ridden this at least 5 miles to make everything in the gearbox is mixed together , then remove the drain plug and allow just a little to drain (into a white paper plate) and quickly reinstalling the drain plug. Looking at what you have in the plate will tell you what is going on inside . Shift bendix ? That is new to me. A normal motorcycle trans had a shift drum that moves the gears to produce different gear ratios. MG has a different setup .You would just have to look at it to understand how it works .There are adjustments that can be made but you have to be familiar wit this stuff before you start adjusting things .

Having a few bikes it's actually very recomended for a pensioner's health, shoud have been on blue subscription. Winther project started july last year, why not this year to with riding weather like this, -3 not far away. Gives me something meaningful to do since bikes always was a BIG part of life. Bit wet and on the chilly side here, but no thank you to 100+ in Houston. Remember well 43c in Barcelona with up north riding gear, TERRIBLE. Cheers Tom.

There are well known ways to achieve this seemingly desirable racket . . .

Installed the starter yesterday; what a misery! I had to keep a towel around my neck to wipe my face every five minutes to remove the perspiration. My glasses were continuously slipping from my nose. My garage was literally an oven. What a difference that starter made. I can easily gauge with the older one. The crank is a lot stronger. In the package sent by the supplier, there is a note stating there is no guaranty if I use a Lithium battery.

Another thing that makes it much more difficult to safely work out any modifications to the mapping of the MP11 compared to earlier devices is quite simply down to the size of the maps/data it contains. I was chatting briefly with Mark the other day and can’t remember the exact figures, I’ll ask him again next time we meet and pay more attention, but the 7SM as used on bikes like the Cali 1400’s and early V85’s contains vast amounts more data and many more ‘Unknown’ parameters than the simpler ECUs of yore like the 15M and W5AM but then the MP11 is orders of magnitude larger again! Really, it’s huge! Not only that there are huge swathes of files and info inside it that will controll not only the fuelling and spark but the ride by wire parameters and safety features, the heat related advance decay curves and hosts of other things that unless you not only know what they do but how they interact with each other could be not only damaging but downright dangerous to be messing with. Apparently Alientech has some sort of software that allows access to the MP11 but from what I could gather from talking to Mark it is ECU and map specific meaning that if you do purchase it you need to pay some form of licence fee for each ecu or map it interacts with. I may be off the ball with this as it is way, way above my pay grade but the main take-away seemed to be that building a map for an individual MP11 was going to be hideously expensive! Up in the high hundreds of dollars! Per map/ecu! You can imagine your average Guzzi owner who is so mean they can peel and eat an orange without taking their hands out of their pockets lining up around the block for that can’t you? NOT! No doubt there will be the usual tribes of clueless charlatans jumping out from behind bushes waving their cheap fetishes to ward off the demons of ‘Power sapping emissions controls forced on us by the evil gubmint’ by tricking some aspect of the sensors to pour in and waste more fuel and damage the engine and environment for no gain but they’ve been around forever! Hopefully they won’t actually do anything downright dangerous, but who knows? Since I don’t think I’ll ever own one of these shiny, glittering monsters it doesn’t really matter to me. I retired yesterday. My shit all works. I’m good.

Fun stuff here in John Day. Lots of machines to gape at, but these v11’s are fitting. not sure he’ll get the $10k asking for either one, but they are tight…

Now l have to do some organizing in my shelfs with the enormous amount of parts. Many new, Titanium ex, carbon fender, side covers, complete fuelpump asembly ++++. 10013km, all original. Cheers Tom. Sent fra min SM-S906B via Tapatalk

Corny, but nice! The final is the lighting of a cauldron which is then flown above the Louvre. The torch bearer were Carl Lewis, Rafael Nadal, Nadia Comaneci and Serena Williams. Wearing inflatable safety vests... lol!

Gearboxes don't really suffer the condensation issue like an engine. An engine produces a LOT of water vapour starting from cold and that's what contaminates the oil and needs to evaporate off. Short runs just kills engines as does short start stop stuff like shuffling cars around in driveways and workshops. Doesn't matter what oil you use either it just kills them. Gearboxes not so much, foaming is an issue with gearboxes esp if they are overfilled a bit. Phil

Or a 27mm nut welded to a bolt. Good grip and close to the pan. Cheers Tom. Sent fra min SM-S906B via Tapatalk

A lot of people remove the oil pan to swap out the filter . they install a hose clamp on the filter to prevent the filter from backing off . I've done it both ways . Now I stick with one brand of filter and one filter socket and stick with it . A person wants to install the filter and make sure it is SNUG upon installation. To keep from crossthreading the cover , push it up against the oil pan and start rotating it like you are unscrewing it . You will hear or feel a click . This is when the leading edge of the threads on the cover and oil pan pass . Stop turning the cover and start rotating it clockwise . You will (hopefully) never mess up the threads again .

Hah! I just lectured a 20-something today about the value of learning to enjoy fantasy without feeling the need to implement. Or regret not implementing. I say muse away - you've earned it! Silly old me has been fantasizing about doing track days At this point, I need one reliable and low-maintenance but not completely boring bike for curvy backroads. Peppy cheerleader sounds about right. Not as visceral or exciting as the V11, but still helps to clear my head and get my yah-yahs out. Thanks.

The original SpineFrame sold for $22000 (plus buyer's premium). I am secretly hoping it appears at Barber Motorsports Museum, but if you want to bring it to the South'n SpineRaid, it would be most welcome (whoever you are) . . . https://briggsauction.bidwrangler.com/ui/auctions/122350/16254138 The original LeMans endurance racer (#93) sold for a paltry $11,500. Another bike I would love to see . . . https://briggsauction.bidwrangler.com/ui/auctions/122350/16254164

hah, exactly! of all places to talk about rational things, a V11 lemans forum… that’s beautiful! 20-some years ago when my good friend had a Lemans and I had an ST4 with factory side cases, I gave him an endless hard time about what a useless bike he had. It was a good natured debate we had, but I just laughed at his ridiculous choice of a moto guzzi v11, which he rode in all weather, putting the after market side bags on it (ugly… ouch), buzz in the handlebars, had mechanical problems he was always fussing with, had less HP than my ST4, didn’t handle as well, and so on. To me, the St4 was a real stretch on rationality, meaning it wasnt as rational as a Japanese bike like the FJ (etc), but I could justify it with whatever logic I used at that time. Oh, and I had my BMW 1150RT…. now there’s a bike that’s so rational it’s like a car, just with better fuel econ and easier to park in a downtown area. Now I own that same V11 he had, the one I scoffed at. Plus 2 more. The practical but boring BMW is long gone (after 80k miles). If we try real hard to rationalize the V11’s we can, sort-of, but its a stretch. but for me it’s pretty much because I just really like them, and they make me happy when I ride them or think about riding them.

A few minutes ago, I caught myself groaning about the slow W-LAN ( I think that is called Wi-Fi in many places outside of Gemany...) where I am right now. That got me thinking about where the "state of the art" was 20 years ago. If I remember rightly, I did have a wireless LAN at home 20 years ago, but the internet access was still via an ISDN Modem. Go back 20 years, mobile phones were not a matter of course, and could only make phone calls. Back anotherr 20 years, CD was a brand new, exciting, and revolutionary audio format. 20 years before that I can't remember, as I was only just born, but I can remember cars from that period, for instance. And I know that there was no TV in my home when I came home from the hospital as a new born. I think there was a phone, but it had a cord. The car had a push-rod motor, and cross-ply tyres. The world has really changed, hasn't it? Why the W-LAN got me on to this train of thought? I'm on a train from Hamburg to Munich (and it's the middle of the night, I'm bored and I should actually be trying to sleep...), using the free on-board W-LAN. On a train.Once again: free on-board W-LAN on a train. Wonders never cease, and it never ceases to wonder how quickly one becomes accustomed to the wonder. And impatient when it doesn't work as well as one might wish.

Docc, from the look of those plugs, I would do a leak down..just to have an idea of general condition of the rings/valves.

Re-priming the fuel pump sounded "weedy." I thought I could "clear" the lines/pump/injectors by cycling the pump. Never worked out. At 5,000 miles, those plugs look "bad" to me . . . You can imagine my joy, starting the Sport up and riding away, after changing the plugs on that roadside after an hour in the immense heat . . .

Sad, indeed. I feel such a respect for Dr. John (as many of us do). While he never engaged with our community, I yet offer my respect.

Today , I decided to see why the fuel pump would not energize on the black frame bike . Removed the tank to get to the + and - wires to energize the pump . Easier said than done. I had to remove the air filter cover to gain good access to the pump. Sidetrack . Just for the heck of it I thought I would take a look at the air filter . I pulled the air filter out of the housing along with a mouse nest complete with a field mouse running up my arm making a fast getaway ! This critter had enough junk to stop the flow completely and chewed up 1/2 of the filter . I removed the pump and applied jumper wires from a car battery and it was locked up . Reversed the leads and still locked up . Ordered a new pump , shutoff and air filter from MG Cycle and went to NAPA for new fuel lines. I will never understand what possessed my to remove that filter just to see what it looked like . I do know it could have wrecked my engine if I had kept it in there and ran it like that . YUCK .

Wyoming looks flat on the map, but now I know where the Bighorn mountains are. Got snowflakes?

Just had a 2 week tour of France and Switzerland and the bike was running rough from 2 to 3k rpm , suspect bad tps as it was only in a limited throttle position got home and ordered a new PF3C from a Ducati parts supplier on eBay, much better availability and a bit cheaper from Ducati, the bike is so smooth now and hopefully sorted for a while