PeterT

The 10-way is strapped to the down-frame tube under the tank but near to the steering head bearing. I think the 12-way is somewhere close, either to the 10-way or nearer to the instrument panel. I can't be too certain as my V11 was modified by Ghezzi Brian and had a new dashboard and headlights but looking on the parts list diagram, there seem to be two large connectors (the 10 and presumably the 12) in similar positions which look like being near the steering head bearing Your further diagnostic tests are very interesting particularly the fact that the parking and direction indicators are not working. This may just be collateral damage if something has overheated or broken/fused. I'm assuming that you checked Fuse 6 and 7, that powers these two functions, and they are good. What would also be interesting to know is whether if you remove fuses 6 and 7, if with the ignition turned ON, you can detect 12 V on one side of both these fuses. If you can't then there is a problem, either in the ignition switch or between the ignition switch, contact 2 (Yellow/Red) and these fuses that it feeds directly. If you do detect 12V on one side of both fuses then the fault is obviously downstream of the fuse but I'm struggling to see a common failure mode that would affect both Parking and direction indicators at the same time as once the power splits through fuses 6 and 7, the parking light and the direction indicator wiring looks to me to be on separate circuits unless the fault is on a common neutral wire. Something else you should be aware of is that virtually all the black neutral wires that go back to the -ve terminal are not shown on the wiring diagram, presumably to help simplify an already overcrowded diagram. But they do exist. Don't be fooled by all the little earth symbols that appear to show that the -ve side of components are earthed locally and return through the metal frame; they don't, these earth symbols really mean that a black wire runs from this point back to the battery -ve terminal. On my bike (Cafe Sport >=2004) the only current that comes to the battery via the big frame strap connected to the crank/gear case is the current from the starter motor, which is really odd as this is one of the few earth wires that is specifically drawn on the diagram!. So in practice there are dedicated black neutral/earth wires for everything and we often can't see whether any of these neutral wires are shared between (say) the parking light and the direction indicators. However, in this case it does look as though the Black wire of contact 4 in the 4-way Amp connector near the instrument panel, takes a single neutral wire back, but it also earths all the instrument lights and speedo/rev counter lights as well as the headlights, so because you said the headlights work, I think this precludes the fault being in this neutral wire back to the battery. So, I'm still of the opinion that for the clutch starter button to de energise contact 3, the Orange/blue wire that comes from the Ignition switch, that should be turned off when you switch off, but doesn't, then this wire must be being energised by either the Red/Black wire from the Lights mini-relay (that gets turned off when you press the starter with the clutch held in). This is the only way that power via Fuse 5, which is directly connected to the battery, can keep the circuits that should be switched off, live, but get switched off by pressing the starter. So, the fact that the parking and direction lights also don't work seems to me to indicate a wiring harness fault that has broken the common Yellow-red wire feeding fuses 6 & 7 but has also melted the insulation on the Red/Black wire and falsely connected it to the Orange/Blue wire. I'd advise trying to confirm this by isolating the wires at the connectors they go to and testing for continuity or for short circuits. I must admit i was hoping that with sufficient logic I could pinpoint the failure point more exactly, but given this other problem, I think the most likely cause is by a major harness failure, due to an overheated generator live or neutral wire. Do check, clean and grease the 4-way connector near the regulator to avoid any future repairs going the same overheated way. Repairing may be more complicated, but if you can isolate the ends of these wires, prove to yourself that these have failed open- and short-circuit as suggested, then, short of buying a new harness or stripping and repairing the old one, then it ought to be possible to isolate these wires and run a set of new ones to the various end point connectors, sleeve the wires together and tie it neatly with cable ties in parallel to the main harness. Best of luck. Given my experience of

I agree with the comments of previous contributors but, to me, the most revealing and interesting bit of information that would seem to help locate the problem is the rather odd phenomenon that the engine does shut down when you pull in the clutch and press the start button. This action energises the starter relay which, apart from putting voltage on the starter motor contactor, it turns off the voltage powering the Lights Relay, thus de-energising the lights, including brake lights, headlights etc while starting. This is fed from Fuse F5, so I would anticipate that pulling out fuse F5 would also shut down the engine when the ignition switch is off. If it doesn't then this would further help locate the cause of the problem as it would imply that there is some connectionbetween the Yellow/Black wire feeding Fuse F5 and the Orange/Blue wire from the ignition switch. So, assuming Fuse 5 does stop the engine, then the fact that pulling in the clutch and pressing the starter also allows the engine to be turned off, then this must imply that there is a spurious connection between this lighting circuit (the Red/Black wire coming out of the Lights relay) and the circuit coming out from contact 3 of the ignition switch, i.e. this fault is bypassing the ignition switch and keeping this contact 3 wire (Orange/Blue) live. You should be able to pin point it further if you see what difference having the side-stand down or not since this connects up the White wire coming out of the side-stand switch that goes all the way back to the Neutral Gear Relay. If the phenomenon occurs with the side stand down, (White wire de-energised) then the location of the spurious connection is more constrained. The Red/Black lighting wire must be spuriously powering the Orange/Blue ignition switch contact 3 wire. These wires do not share the 5-way AMP connector to the RH handlebar controls and front brake so it cannot really occur there. but both wires do share wiring to the the large 12-way Amp connector at the front of the bike powering all the warning lights and instruments. Try putting the headlight on main beam and testing if this allows the ignition switch to stop the engine. If it does, it implies that the spurious fault is on the Lo beam part of the wiring, Green/Grey, that also goes to the 12-way AMP connector. If it doesn't change anything and the engine keeps running then it would imply that the spurious connection is between the Red/Black wire going to the 12-way connector and the Orange/Blue wire also going to the connector. Both these wires come from relays at the rear of the bike so, as previous people have suggested, it could be some kind of wiring harness fault, possibly caused by an overheated wire (probably either the live or neutral wires coming out of the regulator. To my mind having two parallel 15A wires to make up the 30A generator capacity is a fundamental electrical design flaw. It obviously works if the wires correctly share the current but we know that poor charging can often be caused by poor contacts often in the 4-way connector that isn't sealed because it is a spade type (Amp connectors won't take the amount of current). It is at the front of the bike, near the oil cooler and can easily get a bit of corrosion due to water ingress (and salt if you live in the UK and use the bike in the winter). This will cause slightly higher and different contact resistances, the current will not be shared evenly, potentially being taken by only one wire if the contact resistance becomes significant. You won't know its happening but the wire will be overloaded, particularly soon after start-up when recharging currents are 22-25A. This could melt the insulation and cause a faults and spurious connections in other wires. So, if you are lucky you will find the spurious connection at either the 12-way Amp connector at the front end, or at the wiring to the relays, but it may be in the harness in between. At least you know which wires are involved. And this leads me to a suggestion to avoid stripping out the harness. If you can isolate the exact wires that are shorting out by disconnecting them at both ends but still finding that they are connected inside the harness, then keep them disconnected and run a pair of parallel wire between the ends to take their place. You should try disconnecting the 12-way connector and seeing whether your non-stopping problem disappears. If it does then the fault is on the lighting, warning light, instrument side of this connector but if the problem persists then the fault is definitely on the feed-in side of the AMP connector. Also see if de-energising the Lo beam wire makes a difference. Using careful logic is the best way to identify the problem. I hope this is helpful and shows that you should be able to avoid stripping the harness.

These were the Italian Alps just south west of Silvaplana, the day before I brought it back from Ghezzi Brian. You can get the bits and do it yourself - nice winter project, but I got them to do it for me by driving the bike down, leaving it a month and then driving it back. The conversion was to a V11 Trofeo but I added a few optional extras; the big one was the alloy swinging arm, but less expensive were the wave discs, lithium iron battery and high efficiency air filters. I also got the carbon fibre front and rear mudguards and belly pan - though these are cosmetic and it had a CF front mudguard anyway. This was virtually everything short of the tuning mods which Ghezzi Brian didn't recommend if I was going to use it, put lots of miles on it and wanted it to be reliable: I guess these are really for a track bike.

I agree with the thought that a 2nd V11 should be customised. I wanted a modern spine framed equivalent to my old red LeMans so went to Ghezzi Brian for their conversion. It transformed the bike and the handling and took 30kg off it. If you don't mind drop bars; that's what I'd do. I've had it for 4 years now and I still don't want anything else.

Since I got my V11 converted by Ghezzi Brian in Italy in April 2016 it's been running on a BC Lithium LiFePO4 BCTZ14S-FP-S 12V 54Wh lightweight battery. I keep it on an Optimate lithium battery charger when it's in the garage. The standard rectifier works ok; when running and during charging the voltage drifts up to 14V and shows the fully charged voltage of about 13.1 - 13.3V when you next switch on the ignition and the lights go on before the engine cranks. It has plenty of cranking current due to the really low internal resistance. The overall capacity is lower but how many times do you need to start it before the engine charges it up? BC recommend the next size up which would still be smaller and considerably lighter than a standard Lead acid gel battery. Mine is only 750g; it was one of the way G-B managed to take off >30kg during the conversion. Not sure how it would cope with really high temps but I've toured for a couple of weeks, on successive years in northern Spain where temps were over 30-35deg.C in the 90's Fahrenheit. If anything it is cold temperatures and thick oil that seems to make the cranking a little slower. Last time I looked, I could get a replacement for about £100 on the internet but there is no sign of deterioration and I'm into its 4th season.

I have an original carbon front mudguard for sale that was taken off a V11 Cafe Sport with the Ohlins front forks at 4300miles when I had it converted by GhezziBrian. It is in pristine condition. I'm not looking to sell it cheaply as it ought to go to someone who really wants it to keep their V11 as original since they are no longer available.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of changing the overall gear ratio on a 2005V11, perhaps by changing the ring and pinion gears? I am considering whether it would be desirable to gear the bike up just a small amount to reduce cruising revs and perhaps increase top speed as on the German Autobahn it seemed to be capable of more speed if the revs didn't get above 7.5k. Any thoughts?

I had leaks on my Ohlins seals which you know you've got when oil starts appearing on your boots. I took the bike in and got them changed with new fork oil which was probably due at 12kmiles. But after less than one year and about 3-4kmiles more one started leaking again. I got an inexpensive Seal Mate (www.sealmate.net), although a piece of 35mm film stock cut into the right curve may do it, and after removing the mudguard for better access, slipped it under the seal lip and slowly rotated it and withdrew it. I couldn't see any dirt. I then pumped the seals but even after 5 times it was still leaking with a film of oil on the forks. However, when I took it for a ride, the seals reseated and there was no more leak. I only mention this experience as a fairly easy option that should be tried first. I'll never know if my initial problem could have been cured by this method.

Mine was a Cafe Sport first registered in the UK in 2006, Chassis No. ZGUKTB0104M112083 I got it converted by Ghezzi Brian to a V11 Trofeo. The original looked good but I feel it's now an even better handling sports bike and 30kg lighter!

I love the pics with the bikes in the mountains; all those great sweeping bends and no one to get in the way. I'm off touring in the Pyrenees in July.