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Dear me. That Scura/ image/setting is gorgeous. It certainly compares to the very first image posted in this thread by @Orson in 2005 . . . Magnificent V11!!

Final ride of 2021. Tried to take a run up Mount Palomar, but wet roads and low visibility turned me away. Happy New Year everyone.

Yes and Yes all 2001 had the heavy tail/seat fairing and soft pouch. Ciao

hilarious especially the overtaking of the bus ! That is so Nordschleife Nürburgring ! Seriously - i would never dare to ride there with my skills i would be dead crashing the infamous bus or some wannabee jeremy clarkson in his car. HAPPY NEW YEAR ! and thanks for the warm welcome

Welcome @2Stroke-Racing! Now we know who the Nürburgring "Moto Guzzi vs Others" rider was made after !

IIRC, the relief areas molded into the bottom of the seat pan changed. Very common for early seats to press upon the battery sometimes causing battery failure. They have also been known to cut into the battery hold-down strap and press upon the relays. Mounting the battery basket beneath the subframe yields an astounding amount of clearance (like 5/8" ... 16mm).

My greenie is fitted with a later seat. Both fit but the later seat fits better with more under seat clearance than the earlier seat on my bike. The area around the battery is very tight and even a few mm makes a difference. Ciao

This is terrific news gentlemen!! Thanks for your insight! I guess I put too much faith in the labeling of the fiche. Happy New Year

The whole rear end of the bike was bastardized 2 owners before I got it. The previous owner started getting the parts to restore it together but sold the bike to me in July due to health trouble. If I'm reading you correctly I accidentally purchased the correct part? All the factory 2001 v11 sports have the soft document pouch?

May have been replaced/updated at some time. I was going to do this on my bike if I ever repainted it. I have all the parts and the cowl. The later one is much lighter which is always a good thing. Ciao

Thats part of where my confusion begins! My bike is a 2001 and the cowl is the flimsy later type with the rigid document holder. I had concluded they went to this design after 2000 on the sport bikes and it was not in conjunction with the lengthening of all the other frames in 2002. That was my take based on my recent research.

I went back V 11 SPORT/MANDELLO 1100 1998-2000 in the 1990 to 1999 part.

I will have to go grab all my wiring diagrams and take a look . I put my "new" relay in series w/the starter wire . This way all the current operating the starter solenoid goes through the relay and NOT through the starrer "button" circuit . Pretty slick .

Could it be the angle of the clipons? I know that some wrists and hands are not compatible with certain angles of drop and sweep. Woodcraft clipons for fixed position Kawasakis, for instance, have a sweep adjustment. A test: Go for a low RPM ride and see if it is vibes or wrist angle.

I know, Docc. Bike has already been thoroughly gone through. I know, I paid a factory master tech to go through my V11. If I still have the handgrip vibration, its bar end mirrors...new grips, then we'll see what's what.

"Much Ado About Nothing" . . . . . . . . . .

I have them on my Scura and I mounted a set on a Greenie. You will need to shave down the rubber inserts that come with the Napoleons. They are made for smooth, not threaded bar ends. It's tedious, but I like the Napoleon mirrors. As I recall, there was not much difference in feel between the weighted bars and the mirrors.

cooling down after the ritual end of year one hour fun ride

I heartily endorse what DOCC wrote. Grateful for the generosity and spirit of the folk out and about here.

And

Hands down, the best car I ever owned was a BMW. Hands down, the worst car I ever owned was a BMW.

The V85 is just an example of the vehicle manufacturing process these days. A pressed up crank with plain bearing big ends, cam drive sprocket machined into the crank main shaft and those are just the things I know about. Cars are the same, friction drive cams etc. The Lego world of automotive engineering. My DD Ford Escape recently at 85,000klm and 5 years of age had an about to fail tail shaft centre bearing. I troubleshot it in plenty of time and due to circumstances just took it to the Ford dealer to fix it. So the failed $60 bearing on the 2 piece tail shaft isn't replaceable, it's either remove it and take it to a tail shaft specialist for a $450 rebuild plus removal and re fitment costs or the Ford replacement of the whole assembly for, wait for it, $1700aud plus labour, so $2000aud total for a $60 bearing that's failed at less then 1/2 life. Welcome to the modern world of the mass produced automotive product. Now I see the latest small blocks have the EFI ecu along with the TPS and various sensors built into the throttle body as one unit. Got a running issue you want to sort out? Good luck with that in the future. A failed sensor in 4 or 5 years time? Yes sir that will be a gazillion dollars for a complete new ecu and throttle body assembly and we can have one for you in 3 weeks. Think it's a rare event? I've replaced a Guzzi ecu due to a failed baro sensor and I'm not alone by any stretch. How did we get here? well part of the reason is that people allow themselves to be blinded by the "bling" and aren't interested in the "engineering". Too busy being mesmerised by the latest "connectivity" or "style" or free servicing or spec sheet shenanigans. In other words it's Style over Substance and the manufacturers oblige willingly because it's more profitable for them to churn out some piece of bling that has a service life before major issues of 5 years than produce a sound piece of engineering that will fill it's intended roll for many years and miles in a trouble free manner and if the odd unfortunate thing happens is capable of being rectified in a cost effective manner with a minimum of technical fuss. It's the world of accountants and profit margins over engineering. It's sad and pathetic but the consumer only has themselves to blame. Ciao

Pick the most boring and pedestrian of any maker's models and we see they sell a tonne of them. Plain Jane is the safe bet - although they do little to nothing for us true enthusiasts...(ahem!).

The V85 motor was launched with a lot of song and dance. It's a dry sump motor, (One presumes to combat the crankcase pressurisation issues as much as anything else.) has roller tappets and (Gasp!) Ti inlet valves. This is supposed to turn it from an obsolete, uninspiring, underpowered drossbucket into some sort of priapistic 85 HP monster! It isn't. It's a low 60's HP, overweight slug with poverty pack suspension and all the character of microwaved scrambled eggs. By all accounts they are selling like hot cakes! Obviously a lot of people desire a sort of unthreatening two wheeled blancmange as long as it has 'The full selection' of electronic gismodry to keep them *Entertained* as they ride. Thats fine. I'm glad people like them, I really am. I'd rather pour burning wasps up my arse than have anything to do with one! If they are going to build a version using the even more miserable V7-850 motor it will just be more disappointing and yawn-worthy than the current V85.

The big block was long ago assigned the "tractor" appellation. IMO, the small block should be in a Harbor Freight generator. Sorry, but it has always been underwhelming, from 350cc and onward. A little brother who was never allowed to grow up. IIRC, the last Heron heads used by a major manufacturer was Chev in their 348 and 409, and Mercury in their 383 and 430, late 1950s-mid 1960s. Even though the Heron has flown the head, the engine's goal is to run under the hurdle rather than to jump over it.

So another parts bin turd. Recipe for wonder. Take the second most awful bike to carry the Guzzi name in half a century and make it even worse! Outstanding!

...should be handy for those short-arsed early adopters deciding ...er, among us 🤭

I'm far from the cesspool of corporate marketing strategy, but I do know that sometimes things are done to lose money on purpose. This bike does not look like a part of such a scheme. Quite the opposite. To me it looks like a big push to the future success of the marque, otherwise the r&d was all wasted. The first "major" upgrade to the classic MG motor. Harley Davidson's resurrection came from two (well, 3) things. The American bad-ass biker gang wana-be persona, and the 1984 Evolution motor, IE; the beginning of HD's dependable long running (yet still classic) line of engines. (the third thing was that tariff thing) Everyone knows how well it paid off. HD and Guzzi are not so different historically really to think this a poor example to look at. Guzzi, as HD, has always been "behind" the rest. So if this is truly a new beginning, why wouldn't they put all the cards on the table? This 'could' be a great motor. This 'could' be a great chassis. How it looks to Guzzi people of the past (me) plays a very small part. As I've said, they didn't build it for me. Why would they not continue with a v-twin? Ducati still relies on a v-twin. Guzzi could never compete with the Japanese multi cylinder, multi designed, multi line, hyper-engineered motorcycles. It worked for Willie Davidson... "stick with what worked for us and make it better, a lot better." It worked pretty well for John Bloor's Triumph as well. Add to that the sound of a V twin.. heartbeat, passion. Italian. When the V11 spine frames were being produced, they were the best technology MG was willing, or capable, of marketing. At the end of the spine run Ducati came out with their version of essentially the same bike, the Sport 1000 classic series, which was considered, and labeled "retro". So for Duc it was a step back and a nod to the past to grab a burgeoning market, while for MG the spine/old motor was their top of the line, the best they had to offer. Guzzi couldn't "retro" because they hadn't come far enough to go back. I had the same feeling in 2002 when I bought my V11 new. I knew it was "behind" technically. I loved it for that. It was the perfect new/old bike. I'm sure it was not their intention, but they made it for me. I don't feel any of the same for the V100 because it serves a different purpose for the company. It ushers (hopefully) a new era. If I were a 20 or 30 something Italian boy I would likely be drooling for the arrival of this this new bike. Heritage, national pride, and whatever the Italian equivalent of macho biker dude is, could be what sparks "the beginning of a beautiful friendship" for a lot of riders.

Yeah. Like Scud said, but it's a bit hard to figure out from pics - maybe this helps, this is what the rear gearbox plate and bottom end of the frame look like. And the gearbox reinforcement truss. (I thought I scored one from DeAgo a couple of months ago, but it was bad inventory. Dammit!) Connection points are the welded, integral arms at the front, the gearbox plate like Sports and early V11s, the V11-style gearbox front mount, and the MGS01-only gearbox rear plate mount. In this pic the set of bolt holes ahead of the ones for the rear plate are the ones that fit to the normal top mount on the V11 box. Jens at Dynotec isn't a fan of this set-up; he says it's not stiff enough and breaks gearboxes and is the main reason the road bike never happened. Any MGS owners had that experience?

Fair enough. 122 rear wheel is not likely at all - or the motor was tuned to the edge thus making it a grenade. And, since the term bragadoccio is Italian, one can figure that it was at the crank, on a cool day, with avgas, on a slightly out of certification dyno and with refreshments from nearby Peroni. Never seen a dyno run of an MGS. For comparison (the same caveats apply) the 1187 liquid cooled Morini is rated at 140HP in street form. Can either figure be true? Or just true conjecture.

Sadly the 8V Hi-Cam is no more. Too dirty and too thirsty for starters and of course something so much fun wouldn't be countenanced by the droids at Piaggio who see Guzzi as their platform for hipsters and cranky old white men who think pushrods are a pinnacle of engineering excitement.....