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I've finally got the Lucky Phil/Chuck shift extender bracket bolted on.

YOU GUYS ARE GENIUSES! Everything on my Lemans works! 🙏🏽 Had my doubts about the relays. Now I have a working clutch, high beam, horn, and tachometer. Yes!

Haven't lifted a spanner for the en-biggening of the motor yet but digging around in my 'Mountain of Munt' I did find the Tenni green bodywork and brown seat off one I wrecked out a while back so today I took off the boring black plastics, (except the front mudguard.) and played swapsies. Much better than boring black and baboon's arse red seat!

Finally getting my donor Centauro delivered sometime this week. Should be fun to check out and take for a spin. The parts pile has been growing exponentially! Sorry I haven’t been on here a lot. Been working hard and I have a couple of other non Moto projects also.

For those times that I want to go ghetto, I also made up some QD spring clips. Those times would be when confronted with the veritable plethora of leads competing for space at the battery terminals.

The bar height has been set high with this. Is this a design exercise development precursor for a 2021 liquid cooled future? Vittoriano developed Ducati’s Desmosedici - so why not...?

No, this is a different engine. This was developed with Dr. John for racing. Using the in block cam as a lay shaft to drive a set of belts to operate the four valve heads. IIRC, displacement was kept at 992cc to meet at the time race regulations. The 1062 2V makes about the same horsepower. These Centauro’s were essentially Daytona’s with pull back bars and the striking bodywork. Guzzi was ahead of the power cruiser segment... Because of that, you can pick one of these up for roughly half of what Daytona’s are going for. Didn’t sell very well as the Bike is very controversial in design. Although I would argue that it’s aged quite well vs other bikes of the period. Guzzi dropped the 4V and the 1100 Sport used the 2v. Not until some years later did they bring this old 4v back for a brief period and now they use a new 4v engine that’s not a evolution of this, but a completely different engine.

Very good, and thanks for quick re-enlightenment! Thought about it, and I’ve got 5 of those starter switches now on bikes that are in my “sphere of wrenching” (in my shop or my sons garage). Only one currently has the PITA factor right now of being in need of some cleanup, thanks to some good clean living.... But I thought i recalled last time i pulled one of those starter switches apart that a thing or two came shooting out. But either it wasn’t that bad or maybe I’m thinking of something else. Red had the “wiggle the bars” symptom when i first bought her and was enroute cross-country from OK, and you lightened my load by chiming in with that good advice in near real time to make that issue very short lived! Quick fix back then, then followed up with a good fix back at home, and all good. Now that you mention it, I’m assuming Goldie has the clutch pull safety feature jumpered. I’ll inquire from my amigo who I bought it from, and who is still talking about buying her back. Will run through all this soup-to-nuts next winter with the Greenie sitting in the shop, awaiting some TLC. Lucky Phil got me some good intel on best options for painting the nylon tank, then will do the usual Italian wiring system complete “makeover”.

First, regarding the bar-mounted switchgear: very easy to access, clean with contact cleaner (I use CRC Electronics Cleaner) then Caig DeOxit. The Caig product actually has a cleaner in it , so the CRC is really not necessary. Very simple, yet oft neglected maintenance item. Sheesh . . . I wonder when I did mine last . . . The clutch lock-out is not relay based. There is a microswitch at the lever that connects through two "bullet" connectors on the forward left side of the frame under the tank. Another V11 No-Start Drill: Pull in the clutch lever, hold down the starter button and rotate the bars side to to side, fully. If the starter activates, the fault is with the nefarious bullet connectors. Sometimes, you may be able to access them, clean/crimp/Caig DeOxit and heat shrink them with out removing the tank (but it's tight, especially with the LeMans fairing). Groomed and sealed clutch switch bullet connectors, center of view between the two large connectors: @Gmc28, A V11 that starts without pulling in the clutch may have one or more causes: 1) A previous owner has defeated the "safety" feature. Perhaps by unplugging said bullet connectors and installing a jump wire, or even cutting the wires and twisting them together, or connecting the two wires with a crimp-on "ScotchLock." 2) The microswitch has gone faulty and stuck closed. 3) The actuator in the channel at the lever that should allow that pressure on the switch to release (and close the switch) has gone missing leaving the switch unpressed as if the lever is always pulled away from the switch. If you put your ear close to the switch, you should be able to just detect a tiny *click*-*click* as the lever is barely pulled and released . . . .

As suspected pilot error on the oil pressure. After dropping the pan and whole oil gallery/filter housing and spacer to get the bloody filter out, found old oil filter gasket still stuck in the oil filter housing. No proper seal no oil pressure. Will be more careful next time. Thx everyone for pointing me in right direction. Cheers

I had a problem like that with a 2003 LeMans. I hooked up an oil pressure gauge and found that the pressure was low. I finally solved it by dropping the oil pan, pump and spacer ring. Turns out piece of gasket was missing. New gasket - problem solved. But it had running like that for a while (since previous owner). On that bike, I ended up installing an aftermarket oil pressure gauge so I could monitor it instead of just having a warning light. If you are not sure of the history, I'd recommend replacing those gaskets - and if you can get your hands on a Roper plate, that would be the time to install it.

Griso was made in three sizes. 850, 1100 and 1200. The first two used versions of the venerable two valve per cylinder design, the 1200 used a four valve per cylinder design and a Hi-cam in each head driven by chains from an idler shaft running in place of the camshaft on earlier motors. It is possible, although not easy, to enbiggen the 1200 to 1400 using 1400 pistons from the Cali 1400. It's far from a simple 'Drop in' conversion though. I've built two now. Approaching it from different ways both times. This time I'm going about it yet another way. The biggest issue being differences in the galleries and drains for the cooling oil supply as the 1200 and 1400 motors are completely different in this regard. From 2008 the old 2V motor was phased out and the CARC series bikes all went to the 1200-8V which besides the Griso was used in the Norge, Stelvio and 1200 Sport platforms. Sadly the Piaggio bean counters insisted that the original 8V should use flat tappets. This was a huge mistake as the system failed miserably, ruining the reputation of what is in fact a fine engine. It wasn't until 2013 after three botched attempts to get flat tappets to work that the change was made to the bulletproof roller tappet system then used until the series and engine was discontinued. It's my belief that the motor was originally designed with roller tappets and this penny pinching measure of attempting to use flats seriously undermined the credibility of what could of been a game changer for the Guzzi marque. Sadly, because of this the series never got the sales they deserved and Piaggio decided that Guzzi was not to try and produce interesting and novel bikes and should in future produce toys for hipsters and underpowered and unthreatening mid-weight ADV bikes with uninspiring 2 valve pushrod engines that have the charisma of a dry cow-pat and the performance envelope of a housebrick. Pity.

I would buy one. That is the kind of Guzzi I want. I would even pay fairly stupid money for it, and ignore that fact that I don't have local dealer support. I want one. And I would love to visit their shop. They seem like my kind of guys.

Darn clever of you! I shall shamelessly copy, and leave the alligator clip setup for the unwashed masses....