Gmc28

Keeping in mind docs words about this topic, but also not wanting to start a thread for such a small thing..... and, its something “I did today”, or “was gonna did”.... went out to put the nifty little MG logo on the front of the freshly powder coated stator cover, and only then realized the logo piece is flat but the custom sized rectangle area where it mounts there in the center is curved. Is there a special, different logo for that spot, or do folks have some way to properly attach the flat logo to that slightly curved surface? My logo piece came with some spongy backing tape, which is probably garbage...

My 20-ish year old aerostitch road crafter jacket has now been through an “overhaul”, where I spent the price of a new, cheaper jacket to just get the trusty old stitch redone. Overall worth while. Did the same with the pants a while back, and they came out perfect, but not so much with the jacket. Velcro still isn’t right (when “tightening” things up when it gets cold), zipper now creeps down from wind force which is really annoying (almost impossible to zip it back up if it gets too far down while riding at speed), and some other little issues that are annoying me. All fine, but on the hunt for a new jacket. Boy was I surprised to see what a lot of higher end jackets sell for now! I used to think aerostitch was the expensive end of things... I heard and have experienced a bit of how Dainese can fit skinny guys like me, so ordered two jackets to try. Both were ok fits, but at those prices they need to be perfect(I think one was $450 and one was $800. Of course the $800 jacket fit better... but I looked like a stormtrooper). And I know now that jackets can get even way more spendy than that. So am on the casual lookout for the elusive “perfect jacket”, rarely seen in the wild, but purported to exist. Can vent, be mostly water proof (dont need 100%, as that’s fiction, and I carry a slicker/pullover for real rain), longer length so it doesn’t crawl up my back, good neck closure, does NOT use a zip in liner (hate those), and skinny/tall man fit. Basically the roadcrafter, but hopefully lighter weight.... I’ve grown lazy and weary of packing that stitch all over when I travel... it needs its own suitcase!

Excellent. Took out for a good test run today as the sun came out... glorious spring day. She ran like a proper Italian... very sweet. For the first couple minutes, I did my usual nit picking, wondering about what’s wrong, then realized that she was really running great, and to embrace it. I’ll probably play a little with the low/idle rpm TBS using the air screws, and only because “why not” keep fussing with it, but I’m very happy with how she runs. I actually packed the twinmax a screwdriver with me on the long-ish test ride, thinking I’d do some ride-and-sync, but she ran sweet and the riding was too good to pull over. Still a bit of the rpm/fuelling “wandering” at lower to mid rpm, but am thinking that a Meinolf map might be the ticket there. Maybe next winter, or if life eases up on the throttle a bit this summer and allows for some time. BTW, for the record my CO trim was at +10 when i first hooked up the magic laptop. I left it there. Probably explains why she has always pullled so much better at lower rpm than Goldie. Will be plugging in Goldie next, and see where her CO trim is set...

Tune Maestro’s- A quick question or two on throttle body sync for the guzzi: I ran through finishing up the tune on Red yesterday. First time using Guzzidiag, so aside from a few “ah, that’s how that works....” moments, seems all good. but on the TBS, i used my old Twinmax. It’s been used quite a lot over the years on my Oilhead, which i sold a couple years ago. It needed sync work far too often over the 77k miles that i had it (but that’s another story, of only mild interest...). But when syncing that flat twin with the twinmax, going to the fully “sensitive” setting and then twisting throttle to typical operating RPM, the needle would bounce around and in fact be very sensitive, as the setting would imply. On the V11 though, even in that most sensitive setting, there’s not much bouncing around of the needle. In fact, at max sensitivity, its shockingly easy to adjust the sync, which is something I’m not used to. I’ll take that as a good thing, but it does seem a little out of place for what I’m used to, so can’t but wonder whether the TB’s just aren’t as finicky on the V11’s, or if i have something wrong somehow. Another thing, while I’m sitting here thinking about it......Turning the white knob also presented an unexpected, albeit very minor issue: I’d adjust the knob up and down to watch and see that i was in fact able to effect the sync, and then adjust it to a centered twinmax needle. But adjusting the knob caused the linkage arm to twist and cock the arm to its max rotation at the ball joint each time. So I’d just twist the arm/ball-Joint back to neutral, which in turn had a minor but actual effect on sync. Seems all fine, with just a little extra monkey-motion required to get things right by twisting the white knob, then verifying things again once i moved the ball joint back to neutral, but does that sound normal, or i am missing something in my technique? The ball joint does like to stay where it should once i move it back to neutral, but always cant’s To the side and stays canted when i adjust the white knob till I manually re-center it. The effect is Very small, almost negligible, but you can see the effect on the twin max when messing with the joint. Anyway, just running that by you experienced guzzi tuners. Next, and later when i find time, I’ll plug in Goldie and see if i can find any clues as to why she runs so different than Red. When i first got Goldie, Dave Blue was in town so i got him to tune her for me, and he did a great job (and was a real pleasure to meet him). She sings at high rpm. Docc mentions riding the V11 “on the cam”, and Goldie is certainly that way, whereas Red loves to be in that “tractor” range, just pulling clean and smooth below about 4500 rpm, but flat after that....she really seems to love the lower rpm, torquey zone, whereas Goldie never wants to be below 4500-5000 rpm.

Hammershaug- Hei, hvordan har du det? (That’s about all i can remember from what little my father taught me, other than a few other random, useless phrases having to do with cows or nails.... :->) i assume it goes without saying, but all of us that are passionate about our machines tend to “dig in” on these topics. To me, just another person with an opinion, its clear that it just depends on how you use the bike. If you want it to run best, hard to imagine going away from the stock intake. But then if you really want a bike that runs perfect, buy a Honda.... if its a machine that you have for a “Sunday ride”, and just makes you happy to ride now and then on a sunny day and as somewhat of a show piece, then the pods do look better imho. My experience so far over the years with non-stock air boxes has been about 99% negative, and sometimes very negative, with the only arguable success being on dirt bikes with single carbs, and where i spent a lot of time fiddling with jetting to get a final improvement. But we have to admit that most of us love the aesthetic of the V11, and I’ve got one friend with a greenie who installed pods, and while he does have odd & endless tuning challenges, heck, most of us have some of that, and ultimately his runs fine and looks great.

Phil - where did you source your agostini’s? A quick search isn’t showing me much, though i assume i just need to look closer. i’ve seen them upstairs at the actual Mandello MG shop (agostini’s), though i assume they aren’t related directly, the exhaust manufacturer and the retail shop? I had just assumed the ago exhaust was a mistral product branded for agostini, but i had/have no basis for that other than old assumption.

Appalling? Not sure we agree on that adjective in this case, but those brushed SS ago’s do look sweet. I can sense the temptation creeping in again to open the piggy bank... Was out yesterday in the shop (finally finding some time!), and keep looking at my perfectly functional, decent looking stock aluminum cans but both of which have cosmetic damage from the PO. The more i get the bike cleaned up, the more the cosmetic damage stands out. Probably just a matter of time till i give in and spring for something prettier. Those SS agostini’s deserve more attention. Will look for a good source to shop them.

The charcoal canister on my 02 lemans is the one mounted just forward of the rear wheel. On other bikes I’ve usually removed these, and un-cluttered things a bit, and I’m inclined to do it now as well. But on the Leman’s it looks as though the bracket for the canister is welded, and if panning-out a bit to a part that could be removed, it seems to be the same bracket that the exhaust mounts to under bike. That’s just a once-over inspection... am i missing something? I assume I want to keep the exhaust mount in place, and in truth the canister is not nearly as ugly in its location on the lemans as it is on other bikes where it’s mounted as a true eye-sore, so I’m deliberating whether or not to remove it. If it keep it, then I suppose why not leave it also hooked up with at least the fuel tank line, as designed, as there’s the small advantage usually of eliminating fuel vapor smell on hot days if the canister is in place (or at least that’s how its been for my other bikes where I’ve removed the canister... all fine, but more fuel vapor smell after a top-off on hot day). But if i can get rid of that whole apparatus forward of the rear tire, while keeping the exhaust mount, that’s what I’d prefer. Looking for input on whether I’m not seeing something that i should be on that setup.... for those that remove the canister, are you just removing the canister and lines but leaving the metal framework/bracket in place? it’ll be my default intention to T the two leads coming from the tank (vent and overflow) to one single line, to the ground. Then may leave the throttle body lines connected to the canister. But would love thoughts, especially in regard to whether the throttle body lines should be removed for some advantage other than clutter.

Phil- mistral makes the agostini’s (right?), so what was the difference in the mistral reverse cones you had and the agostinis? i saw some of the agostini’s over in mandello.... sweet looking, and made my wallet itch to jump out of my pocket. I’ll probably end up going for an upgrade to my perfectly sweet sounding stock sport cans that are somewhat cosmetically damaged (there’s my excuse!) on the lemans, and grab something like what you’ve got. Interested in the details.

Didn’t I hear that Alice sold the dealership? Still looks the same, but thought I read somewhere that she didn’t own it any more. Either way, cool “soft” key fob! I have a huge “remove before flight” soft key fob, as a reminder that I have a hot power plug, and to turn off whatever gizmo I might have plugged in when I take the key out (got the bike that way... an un-switched accessory plug). Yes, I like the idea that it may polish the logo....

As I recall, they are louder than stock, and may have a removeable db killer, but the siren song of the eye-candy/beautiful sounding carbon mistrals is hard to look away from. Price tag has kept me from indulging to this point, but I rode a sport with them installed back when I bought my 2nd lemans, and the pleasant memory lingers.... http://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26_336&products_id=3227

Hammerite is a good rattle can product, and that’s the right name. This though is a powder coat, and I don’t recall what he called it. I can find out. He does some neat custom stuff, but this seemed a good match, without getting too wild. Two coats for the oven after bead blast, and should hold up better than a good rattle can job.

Local powder coat guy had zero backlog on any work, due to everything cancelling for the pandemic. So he blasted and powder coated my stator cover in record time... paid him more than usual, as it hurt to see that big, normally busy shop sitting idle.

Roger roger... I’m no K&N fanboy, but the hex head made me a proponent years ago for the duc’s I’ve owned. Just made removal a no brainer, and quality always seemed good enough .... some hate ‘em and some swear by ‘em. The usual oil related debates. I just like the hex, and now with multiple decades and over a couple hundred thousand miles using them on various bikes, they are at least “good enough” for me. hoping someone can chime in on the fit. Or maybe I’ll be the guinea pig... hope y’all are getting some riding in with the spare time you may have now!

Can’t find mentions of why a K&N filter won’t work, with its built in hex head at the bottom for easier removal. There’s mention here and there in the endless oil threads of the kn 163 (common on a nUmber of bikes), the 1002, and 171b, but no clear indication of whether they’ll work. Too tall with that hex head to fit with clearance?

Thanks Phil! On a tangential note, We ended up leaving our fire tanker (aussies call it a “bomber”) down the road from you, at Avalon airport, in a bit of a hurry last week. Had to get the crew out of there while the gettin’ was good. Once things let up a bit on the apocalypse, i may volunteer myself to go get it and bring it back to US for our fire season here. Hopefully won’t be too long till that can happen, but who knows. Dug out my Guzziology book last night, and will hump it up to the shop today, where it belongs... Sun is starting to show itself a bit, so gotta get Back up there to shop and get her ready for the road! I did indulge last night and ponied up for replacement logo for alt cover off of ebay. $28 delivered seemed too high for what it is, but knew it would bug me now that I’m thinking about it, so i played the sucker and sent my money... supposed to be at lake como this fall, with a deposit already down on an AirBnB near Varenna, to go back again to Mandello and tour around on one of Agostini’s rentals, but wondering how things are going to play out. May just have to head for nearby and thinly populated eastern Oregon and pretend I’m riding up to Stelvio Pass...

got started 3 months late on my "winter maintenance" for Red... Hell of an off season at work very much got in the way of getting started in the shop. I admit that I started with the easy stuff, popping on the CRG eye candy levers, and then the carbon rear hugger, fluid flushes, some touch up, and some cleaning. wiring re-work, and tune yet to be started. those charcoal and red CRG levers match the stock MG colors very nicely. most of this i can dig up from searches here, or even some of my old notes, but am doing the lazy thing and seeing if i can get any takers for quick reminders or clues on a few things as they come up: Touch up paint for the charcoal colored valve covers... any hot tips? any of you with idetic memory recall the Rear suspension bolt/nut torque, the one on the bottom end of the shock that connects it to the rear triangle? I installed the bracket for the Ghezzi rear hugger, and used the nut and washer he provided. Got 'er snugged about right, but need to look up that torque value. hot tips on if powder coating the alternator cover is worth while? and/or whether there's a good source for a new logo, since mine went missing. I think i read something about that here somewhere...

That’s gorgeous

That’s the kind of impressive i got from my Odyssey, and a Westco. At 10yrs i’d Change the battery just because it seemed like i’d Gotten my moneys worth, but they still held voltage fine. I’m not not after weight loss on the V11, just like the notion of it being tidier under the seat, and the extra space provided by the smaller battery could be space i use for a little CE-1 box, or something along those lines. Ultimately i’ll Likely not want to remove a perfectly good odyssey, so i’ll Waffle, then it will be riding season again, and i’ll Put her back together and head out... But Marty’s setup does look like a good one for creating some space in that area.

Marty- I actually have a couple li-ion float chargers, so I’m set up. One from the shorai that failed me, and another from an off brand in the duc that has performed great. I now suspect the shorai got abused in its brief life before I got it. But is the battery as much smaller than the odyssey as is the case with other bikes who make the change? my Ktm had to have a bunch of padding to take up the leftover space from the smaller shorai. Less so on the ducati. How much smaller is the shorai For the v11 than the comparable odyssey?

Thread resurrection: i’ve Been on the “stick with the odyssey” side of the battery discussion for a number of years, mostly because i have been happy to stick with what i know works, along with a single bad experience i had with a Shorai, and partly because a wise mechanic i know felt the same way back. but times change, and i will say i like how much smaller the one li-ion battery i run in another bike is than the AGM that it calls for. The brake Rez on the V11 rubbing against the Odyssey got me thinking about that... i’m Going to go through the cables and wiring on the V11 soon, and i gave brief, foolish thought to changing to li-ion to save a little space, to keep the Rez from rubbing. Ridiculous of course, because there are much cheaper (free) ways to keep the reservoir from rubbing against my perfectly fine odyssey, but thought i’d Ping Marty or whoever is running the Shorai regarding how things are shaping out now, a couple years later, in their lives with the Shorai in the V11.

Pulled the italian patient up onto the shop gurney, for a late start to winter maintenance... work took over my life again, so am running behind. Sigh. red fired right up, after sitting in the cold shop the last several months. Purred right along, coaxing her up onto the stand. realized my new Mac isn’t wanting to play nice with guzzidiag, so rounded up an only windows 7 machine, which seems to be the ticket. But i’ve forgotten which ECU the 02 V11 has, is it the 15M? Poked around the search page results and grew tired of scanning pages...

Benoit- a classy solution to bags. Always hesitated to put bags on the v11 and hurt the lines of the bike, but that soft bag solution looks good.

Fun banter! An ‘04 DS would be great, because even if track days become too hard to reliably make (which has been the norm in my life.... I need something like a ski area season pass, where u show up when u can), it’s still a beautiful machine to have. I doubt I’d ruin it, and if I did, another Ds can be had if needed. Sounds slightly sacrilegious, but we know it’s true. if i got serious with track riding, which is unlikely with my work schedule, I’d be more serious about an 848.😎. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that :->

Yikes. I had just used some deep breathing techniques to get myself to relax and take my time, then u screw things up by showing me that DS! :-> hmmm.... Now, if you were willing to eyeball it for a poor fellow stuck in the rain, at work, up in the NW, that could push me over the edge (the purchasing edge...)