Antiquar

Honestly. I want to see those twin spark heads.

Very interesting, Stick. Thanks for posting. I will keep that in mind if I can't get the existing setup working.

Thanks Docc. Here's a quick question. What gauge wire is recommended for the regulator groundstrap? I was thinking 14 gauge since I have some handy.

Well, I let the battery get to a bad state. This post is mostly a log since you've answered these issues 1,000 times as I have now read. I go to take a ride this morning. Upon activation of the starter there is only one sad turn of the engine then relay clicks. I get out my new multimeter and check the battery voltage: 11.3V! I am able to jump the bike from my Tiger. It starts up very nicely and I go for a 30 minute ride on the slab. The bike runs well during this ride. Once I get home I test the battery voltage again: 11.8. I know that is a pretty sorry reading. Purely to satisfy my own curiosity I sample battery voltage while cranking, and it drops to 6V. Ouch. RIP battery. I stop to do a lot of digging on this forum. Visions of regulators and diodes and ground wires swim through my head. I clean, scourge, and reinstall every ground I can get to, save for a suspicious ground on the painted spine frame (behind the right cylinder)--I will get to that when I install a new fuel filter this week. I also inspect and clean wires from the regulator. I realize then that my charging light is not lit when the ignition is switched on, and I confess I don't recall if I have ever seen it lit. I am not too concerned as my high beam light also doesn't work (though the high beams certainly do). I have yet to open the idiot light cover to inspect. I swap in my Tiger's battery. It reads 12.8V with the ignition off. The bike starts very easily with this battery. I test voltage with the bike running, with approximate engine speeds as my tach allows. At ~1000RPM (idle): ~12.4V At ~2000RPM: ~13V At ~3000RPM: ~13.4V These values seem acceptable but still a bit low to me. I'm hoping that scourging and cleaning the ground on the spine frame will yield me the 0.5V that is sometimes lost with a bad regulator ground, as I have read about. Most of my rides have been very short coffee runs during my lunch break, and I have not been topping up the battery with a tender. Obviously this was a mistake--I am used to my Tiger, which has a very strong charging system. I have a new battery and tender on order. Still no regrets. This is a fun bike.

footgoose -- Don't think that didn't occur to me. docc -- Thank you very much for the information. I am extremely grateful to this board. There's no way I would have gotten this V11 without all the knowledge here. I did some cleaning under the seat. The negative stack was a bit grody. It went back much cleaner. I also secured the loose end of the relay row to the frame (don't know if this was a problem, but I didn't like it loose), and constructed a barrier to prevent the tool roll from sliding forward into the ECU. She started right up and I had a nice solo ride. No drama whatsoever. I guess the cowl's staying on.

Work Log, February 20: Cleaned underside of gearbox. Removed and cleared gearbox breather bolt. Unfortunately did not solve my gearbox leak. Replaced rear brake pads. Cleaned rear brake calipers. Flushed rear brake fluid. No more sticking rear brake! Here's a question for you all. I took my girlfriend on a short 10 mile ride. The bike would occasionally stumble or buck when accelerating from a stop. I tested riding solo and with her on the back and the problem never occurred riding solo. Perhaps the extra weight (though not much, I assure you ) on the rear is putting undue pressure on the upturned ECU wires? Anyone here encounter a similar problem? Next tasks: Do the TPS and TB sync. Replace/recondition battery (was barely able to crank this morning. It is old.). Replace fuel filter and route fuel overflow/vent hoses.

Alright folks I'll leave the airbox alone . The air filter is relatively clean. It seems like a K&N unit, I'm not sure which but I'll have to buy some oil for it. Does anyone happen to know the size of the fuel lines, both drain and pressure lines? I should have measured when the tank was off but I neglected to do so. I'll feel much better when I get a drain line fitted and replace the filter. And of course perform the rest of the Tank Off Maintenance Checklist.

So I didn't get a chance to tune on account of my dead multimeter, but I decided to lift up the tank. And wow, this PO guy did some questionable things under there. My favorite thing upon lifting the fuel tank was finding these two ports linked with a short length of fuel line. Clearly, the fuel vapor recovery system was left on the side of the road some time ago. I'm supposing these are the overflow and vent lines and should *not* be linked in this way. And here we find his airbox modifications. Looks like he took a hacksaw to the airbox intakes. While the tank was lifted I tightened some loose fuel clamps. Looks like there is some work to do here.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. Half the fun of a "new" bike is learning its foibles and I'm happy to share that. I've got a TwinMax from wrenching on my old BMW. It's quite a handy gadget. The current state of the bike's tune seems decent, so I'm hoping to just dial it in.

To gratuitously continue this thread: I did a little more work on the bike today. Quickly fixed the routing of that side-stand switch cable. Changed engine oil and filter. The old stuff was pretty dirty, but there were no visible metal bits. The old filter came out easily and I installed a new OEM unit. I found the oil filter access door a bit tricky to reinstall--it really wanted to go on cross-threaded. But eventually it went on straight and I filled the bike with the prescribed amount of Castrol 20W50. Changed the gearbox oil. The old stuff was very clean and there was an acceptable amount of metal fluff on the drain magnet. I filled it with Redline HD Shockproof. Changed the bevelbox oil. The old stuff was a little dirtier than the gearbox, but not alarmingly so. Refilled with Redline HD Shockproof until it began to dribble out the level plug. Installed new sparkplugs, properly gapped. The old ones were gapped a bit too wide. They looked good, though. A couple thoughts: the Redline gear oil makes an appreciable difference. It shifts very nicely. The new engine oil quieted the engine noticeably--either the old oil was not the proper weight or it was very used. I received my TPS breakout harness in the post today so tomorrow I will be doing a TB sync.

Ah, passing it behind that upper left hand alternator cover screw makes sense. It probably was that way and I neglected to reinstall it in that position. I'm a believer in these minor safety switches. Mistakes happen and if a side-stand switch can prevent a mishap then it is worth keeping.

Yikes. How are you folks securing your side-stand switch wires? I'd like to fasten it to run along the alternator but not sure of a clean way.

No no. That was pretty easy to reseat. I mean the robber grommet that fits around the alternator cable bundle and slots into the hole at the top of the alternator cover.

That would certainly be easier. I just need a rear stand for this bike--another item on the V11 wish list.

I did a valve job over my lunch hour today (working from home has its advantages ). The valves were set at the 0.10/0.15mm US spec, but I opened them up to 0.15/0.20. The bike starts a little easier now. The most time consuming part of the job was reseating that damn rubber grommet on the alternator cover--definitely a job for 3 hands. Waiting for delivery of my TPS breakout harness to do a TB sync. Fun stuff.

Very helpful, thanks! I'm looking forward to pulling off the tank to have a look at the PO airbox mods anyway.

Interesting. Did you have the broken ground stud I've been reading about? Also, can someone point me to the frame grounding point for the instruments?

She prefers you over the bike? That's not so bad... Or perhaps she finds it to be a less than ideal passenger vehicle... My wife rode on mine once (and only once). Then she bought a Triumph T-shirt, which she's been wearing a lot lately, including today. lol. It looks better with the cowl, anyway. My gf doesn't wear any Triumph shirts, but she sure likes the Tiger. She insists I buy a heated saddle before our next trip. I will probably oblige her.

Thanks, all. I took my girlfriend out for a spin after loosing the stuck passenger peg. She is less fond of the bike than me. Go figure.

The bike is mine. After getting it home I replaced the relays and adjusted the throttle grip, as it was rubbing against the bar end, and went for a ride. The bike is a hoot--there's something very visceral and satisfying about riding this bike. There are a few problems, but mostly minor: The tach jumps around when the bike is in motion. This wasn't happening when I checked out the bike last week. I assume moving the bike has caused some ground to come loose. At idle it appears to read correctly at ~1200RPM. There is a transmission weep. The bottom and left side of the transmission are a bit tacky with gear oil. I tightened the drain bolt in hopes that was the cause. The weep seemed slow enough to not be a serious problem, but I will clean the trans and keep an eye on it. I verified through the sight glass that the oil level is not too low. The fast idle lever does not work. After inspecting the mechanism it's clear that it barely touches the butterfly stop when fully extended. It looks like I can just make an adjustment to the cable right at the RH throttle body. Is this the right way to adjust this mechanism? The left side passenger peg is stuck in the retracted position. Will have to investigate the cause Next steps: Order new fluids/oil filter for a fluid change. Order new valve cover gaskets. Dust off my voltmeter/twinmax and do a tune up. Someone has been stomping on the rear brake as the rear pads are almost spent--time to replace them. I was handed a bag of stock airbox parts when I bought the bike, so apparently not all is stock. I need to figure out what changes have been made. The PO did not know. Said bag of parts came with new pegs/shift/brake levers--I'll consider installing those after I ride the bike for a while.

Thanks guys, and thanks for the links docc. I've already ordered some replacement relays . When I first got my old R1100 I spent months tracking down electrical gremlins. The culprit at last--a hairline crack in the fuel system fuse that took an extremely close inspection to find (AND the dreaded HES failure). SO much easier to just replace old relays and fuses from the get go.

I saw the bike this morning. Cosmetically it is in great shape. It had a bit of trouble starting--the throttle had to be kept open for a few seconds. I know the bike is equipped with a fast idle lever, but the owner doesn't use it and I wanted to start it like he does. There were no oil leaks from what I could tell. The instruments work--though the tach jumped around when starting. Once the bike was running the tach settled and operated correctly. One of the signal lamps didn't work--burned out I suppose. When riding the gears shifted without drama. I was surprised by the brakes, they are pretty good for a 16 year old bike! All in all it seemed like nothing a tune up and a few minutes of electrical work couldn't fix. We made a deal for $4k and I will be returning to get the bike next Saturday morning.

Well my R1100R is gone and there's an empty spot by my other bikes that needs to be filled. I'm looking at the bike Sunday. Will be sure to update with my findings.

I was hoping to check out the bike today, but unfortunately the seller has not gotten back to me yet. Will have to wait for later this week/next weekend. Thanks for all the advice folks. I'm hoping all will check out and it will follow me home.

That's the bike! Very generous re: the oil pressure gauge--I might take you up on that. Funny, I live 50 miles in the other direction (LA/Hollywood) from the bike. Seems like there are a lot of California boys on these boards. Haha. I always thought the V11s looked very attractive but I didn't consider actually getting one until I heard that glorious engine--it almost sounds more like a WWII Merlin engine than a motorcycle. I have to say you folks are very convincing. I'll check out the bike and think on it, but my heart is telling me to just buy the damned thing.