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We are not allowed the courtesy of an expiration date . We must treat everyone of our friends as though we are never going to see them again .

This is the topic post marked as the "answer" and references the pages with the installation details:

That Starter Relay Harness might address your later generation V11 starting issues (startus interuptus), but not the hot fuse. My final solution was the Aircraft Spruce (Tyco) service relay.

I find there is much to be said for focussing on the things in life at which one excels.

We all should be using consumables and parts from aircraft vendors . These companies cannot afford to sell anything less than the best !

"Youbastard" springs to mind...

Maybe your bike has had a front end swap Mick from a late model Sport naked or Ballabio? as it appears to have the mount holes in the top triple clamp for the high, traditional bar mounts? Either that or the PO has had a traditional bar kit on it in the past. The later Sport Naked or Ballabio front end swap would account for the larger 43mm dia late forks as well. Interestingly I can not find an image of a 2002 Le Mans with the non chin piece tank either. Maybe your bike was made in 2002 but is a 2003 model. Not sure. The date of manufacture and the year model are a bit mirky in Europe V America with the next year model production started usually after the European Summer holiday shutdown in August Phil

Only 77 years old. https://www.mgcn.nl/database/modeloverzicht/11-daytona-1100sport-centauro/14-dr-john-fastbikes-interview https://www.mgcn.nl/database/modeloverzicht/11-daytona-1100sport-centauro/252-dr-john-interview,-motorcycle-road-racer-illustrated-november-88 https://allmoto.com/moto-guzzi-daytona.htm https://magazine.cycleworld.com/article/1986/7/1/drjohn-and-the-guzzi-gang

Coming out of the discussion that arose here (that I don't want to continue there to avoid de-railing the thread completely...) I've been thinking once again about the originality of my V11 Le Mans. As mentioned in the other link, it was built in 2002, has the crinkly engine paint, long frame and tank without the chin pad. The forks are the 43 mm Marzoccis with pre-load and rebound damping on both legs. Rear shock is Sachs with a white spring and blue adjustment ring. The ECU is one of those with a paper sticker on it, a 15M. I've been reliably informed that those ECUs were not uncommen for a while. They were originally installed in a California model, were wrongly programmed and recalled, and used after re-programming in the factory in V11s. All of the above seems to fit, going by what I have read here, for a 2002 "transition" build. The combination that I haven't seen on any photos anywhere yet, and haven't heard mention of, is the dark grey colour with the slightly purple coloured mufflers and grey stilettos. So I'm wondering if it was really built like that, or if it is a bitser. Does anyone have an opinion?

Crank case now vented properly. And she’s all buttoned up, TPS set, CO trim good, valves & plugs, good, TB’s themselves were a mess inside (another reason to not use pods), and last thing left is TBS. Alas… key on, fuel pump gives reassuring whirring sound, but then i notice fuel spraying from positive electrical connection point on the pump. Hmm. Repeat action, same result. Thinking its maybe ricochet from elsewhere, but confirmed its from the positive terminal spot. Only sprays while the pump is running, and its cycling off properly after initial prime. Open the fuel cap on top, and the fuel geyser when pump is on goes from an aggressive spray down to a tiny dribble. So that means tank venting seems logically suspect. Tank was painted, so maybe something got messed up with paint, or my tank vent lines i messed up when installing (unlikely, as thats pretty simple, but I’m certainly not immune from doing the occasional stupid/oops). Or it’s just a bad pump, and all will be well when i replace the pump. Pump runs great, so it’s a bummer, but combo of age, ethanol fuel, and having been sitting for a couple years up on the rack in the shop…. Who knows. Thinking I’ll just order the pump, unless anyone has any other wise thoughts.

Haha, well "helping with the confusion" wasn't how I should have put that...

2003 Carryover Sports have been reported from the UK (stewgnu and Guzzimax) and New Zealand (02V11), so not just a US thing. There were some apparent US marketing attempts with the 2001 Sport that gave us the "TT" and the "CF" that mixed the color palette of the otherwise monochromatic early Sport. Audiomick's 2002 LeMans with various 2003 features seems an anomaly . . .

Now that you mention it, it might have. But I'm not sure. I wont be able to have a look until the end of the week, either. Away from home for work from tomorrow until Thursday. EDIT: I had already uploaded a photo. Not that good, but enough to see that the manufacture date is apparently not on there. Incidently, date of first registration was May 2003.

yup, this is mine: titled as 2003, with a 2002 "Long black Frame" with "Short Tank" (chin pad/external fuel pump/filter), white gauges, crinkle engine paint.

I measured a fork tube similar to yours and the lower portion (chrome lower) of the fork tube measures 43ish mm The forks on my red frame and black frame measure 40ish mm. You will soon realize there are no absolutes when it comes to these bikes, I found this out a long time ago when I was resealing and rebushing the forks on my 2003ish V11. Got all my stuff from Joe Eish and got everything apart to find out nothing worked. He graciously took all the wrong parts back and sent me the correct stuff. S.N.s date of production and models mean nothing here. With that being said , someone may have crafted a new (different)front end on this bike , who knows?

I call mine the Tart....

I've not seen a 2002 Le Mans with the later 43mm forks, the non chin pad tank, the later ITI instruments and the handlebar holes in the top triple clamp Mick. Maybe it's had the whole front end changed at some point and the PO has had a handlebar kit on it or it's a transition thing. Not sure. All the different models for the V11 series I find a bit confusing to be honest. Change the colour and call it a different name! Phil

The journalists are currently in Spain to test the official presentation of the Moto Guzzi Stelvio;

Adding 1" of preload to the front forks is a massive change to preload, and would reduce sag by about an inch. That would probably be too much. Standard sag with the rider on the bike for a V11 Sport is around an inch to an inch and a half. So reducing sag by an inch is probably too big a change. Usually you add preload in much smaller amounts. If you wish to reduce sag by 1/4" you only need to add 1/4" of preload. If you want to reduce sag by 1/2" you would add 1/2" of preload. It should be a 1 to 1 ratio between preload and sag. As mentioned elsewhere on here, if you measure your bikes sag with you on it and measure how much it sags just under its own weight (both measured based on fully extended suspension) and compare the two values that should tell you both if your preload is right but also once preload is right it tells you whether your springs are too soft, too stiff, or just right. Once preload is to where you have around 25 - 30 percent sag with you on the bike you should have around 10 percent sag just from the weight of the bike. There is some wiggle room there for rider preference, I prefer less sag when I am on the bike, some prefer more for a softer ride. The spring rates don't change because of your sag, but the spring rates required to get sag at 25 percent vs 30 percent make the difference. But measure your sag both just the weight of the bike and with you on the bike and compare. What preload affects is ride height when you are riding down the road. It does not change spring rate, it does not make the springs stiffer or softer. It is mainly about getting the suspension in the correct operating range for proper suspension motion. As mentioned, if you do have the one version of forks that Andreani make a cartridge for that might be what you want to go with if you aren't happy with stock.

There are two different things you can be doing, one is adding preload, which doesn't make the spring stiffer and is what you referred to. But what you describe doing is cutting the springs to make them stiffer and then replacing the length of spring you cut out to keep the preload the same. That does make the spring stiffer. That is something we would do in the old days when we could not afford to buy the correct springs, or in some cases where the correct springs were not available. I really don't recommend doing that, but technically it can work. If you are going to do that I would probably do it 1 inch or less at a time. If you measure the length of the spring and then cut out, say, 5% of the total length of the spring and replace it with a spacer the length of the spring you cut out that should make the spring roughly 5% stiffer. The big drawback to cutting springs to make them stiffer is you loose the proper end to the spring that allows the end to rotate smoothly on the surface it rides on. That can be even more of an issue if the surface it is riding on is a PVC spacer. It may not slide well on that. I always thought the best way to do that would be to leave the ends and cut out a section of the spring in the middle of the spring and replace it with the matching spacer. But I never actually tried that. Doing it that way would preserve the proper ends on the spring. But it means cutting the spring twice instead of once. Before I ever got to try it I started making enough money for a living that I could buy the proper springs so I never needed to try the middle cut idea. But springs should be available for the V11 at a reasonable cost. I would go that route over cutting your springs to make them stiffer. Also, have you properly measured your sag and determined how much you have? That would be step 1. Just making your springs stiffer by cutting them without first knowing how much sag you have would be a shot in the dark. Springs are a lot cheaper then a full replacement cartridge. But knowing that you need new springs and whether they need to be softer or stiffer then what you have now would be a matter of measuring your current sag first. Instructions on how to measure sag are on here if you need. Also, it sounds like you have the one version of forks that Andreani actually makes replacement cartridge's for. Black 40mm forks with compression on one leg and rebound on the other, if I understood you correctly.

36mm PHF's with 36mm manifolds matched to the heads works well enough. Throw in a P3 cam and a set of LeMans advance springs for the distributor and it'll wake it up a bit. It'll still be a 45 year old ditchpump with a wheel at each end but at least it can make some pretence at being more than a dunger. Personally I'd of just left it as a T3/G5. While they won't set the world alight they are comfortable, frugal and charming. They don't have to pretend to be anything other than what they are......

Factory 30 amp fuse is an "ATC" in the factory fuse block, position 3 from the front. (I added the MAXI fuse after trouble with melting the smaller fuses.) Agreed that the common wisdom is that heat = poor connection. But, sheesh, I really thought I had this addressed with the MAXI fuse installation (much bigger connection blades). I am suspicious of using an external charger. I will endeavor to remove the 30 amp charging fuse during external charging and report back in eight years . . .