po18guy

Too bad it never happened - it would be a real source of spares.

Before doing something drastic, why not roll it back and forth clutch out. Same noise? Potential problem. No noise? No problem. Consider the racket that the clutch makes running, disengaged, in either neutral or in gear. Have a friend de-clutch the running bike while you listen from beside the transmission. A side effect of the design is that the clutch is noisy. If shifting and power transmission are otherwise fine, I do not immediately see any need to dismantle things. But, I am not there.

And with the V11's glide ratio only slightly worse than that of a Seabee...

That is the "manhole" to access the filter, but the oil drain plug is rear and center.

Sounds like the Teo Lamers stand. Not badly made, but somewhat poorly designed. The stand's legs are too short and the pivot point is too low such that the stand is probably 30º from vertical when you must lever it up over center. Seeing the space beneath the rear tire once the stand was deployed, I too came to the conclusion that placing a board (6X2/2X6) behind the rear tire then rolling the bike onto the board allowed the stand to touch earth much closer to vertical. At that point, balancing it all is a bit delicate, but rocking it onto the stand is then much easier. The fix would be to make the legs about 2" longer and raise the pivot point an equal amount.

Welcome from the Land of Evil Spirits! Kindly note that all known and some unknown issues with V11s have all been solved here - or at least made workable.

The forum consists not only of beta testers, but also beta fixers.

Have not tried the shift extender yet, but that is coming soon. The fact is that lever travel is a large part of missed shifts, up or down. While I have not measured the actual travel of the lever tip, my foot tells me that it is greater than the on the Japanese machines I have owned to date. Demographics is another aspect of the phenomenon: We are no longer kids. By itself, aging naturally reduces both flexibility and muscle strength. That lost flexibility and strength - even in virtually unnoticeable amounts - can translate to missed shifts. I take note of this particularly as I am combating post-transplant "graft-versus-host-disease" which manifests it self differently in different patients. One aspect of the disease is a thickening of the fascia which lies beneath the skin. Another is scleroderma (scarring/thickening of the skin) which together can greatly reduce range of motion and add to the effort required in normal functioning. But, pre-loading the shifter makes an immense improvement.

My experience: H4/9003 LED units have the familiar three-pronged flange which locates the bulb and is held in place by the retaining spring. However, quite a few of the LED light units will rotate within that flange so that the beam dispersion and lo/high beam patterns may be adjusted. Due to the design of the headlight bucket, this requires the the lens/reflector be out of the bucket in order to do this. Usually, some fiddling with bulb positioning will net you the classic "Z" low beam and decent hi beam patterning.

Good news. Thank you. The bike came with a Teo Lamers centerstand, and I have a block of wood for the rear tire so as to make the stand usable.

First 'Guzzi' valve adjust here. The manual advises to set the clearance and nothing more. Does removing the alternator cover reveal a nut underneath so as to hand rotate the motor?

So, TDC is found by looking in the spark plug hole? No nifty cap to pull on the crank nose with a rotor clearly marked "TDC1" and "TDC2" on them?

Greatminds... I think the Japanese attraction to the V7 is somehow related to the Marusho/Lilac V-twins of the 50s and early 60s. Regarding "catch cans", did a very elementary variation of that on my 650 Yamaha, which being a 360º crank, had tons of oil mist (653cc exactly) pumped out of the breather each rotation. Fabbed up an alloy baffle and connected hoses from the OEM "Y" splitter to the countershaft sprocket cover. In three months, rode 15K miles through 38 states with zero lube and one chain adjustment.

I like the Bronco. Funny thing with Ford is that their badges run all over the map. The various gens of Broncos are related only by name. But, after the Bronco II rollover "thing" Ford wisely decided to increase the track substantially. That is clearly a very decent off-roader.

OK, fair enough - the 360º crank of the KZ400/440 provided a pleasant exhaust note. But, the XS360/400 Yamaha, Honda CB350s, CB360s and Hawks, basically all of the commuter bikes were 180º twins with that Lawn Boy sound. For me it began with 250 and 300 Hondas in the 60s. In an age of Triumphs, BSAs, Nortons and Sportsters, the universal condemnation of a bike was "It sounds like a Honda" The redeeming factor of the EX is the 7K-10K power band when it sounds more like a Waring blender.

Soulless? Ride a KZ440 or a Honda 400 Hawk. But add an airbox mod, jet kit, WebCam 245 cams, some Cobra F1 slipons and its ready for the UJM special olympics.

You can do a 270º or 277º XS650 if you prefer less vibes and a Guzzi soundtrack, Hugh's Handbuilt does those conversions.

A cranky old man on the Kawi EX-500 forum described the 1100 Sport he rode as "a truck." Clearly, he never rode another spine frame.

T5 LEDs are plug-n-play. The caveat is that many of them are really low-end products. But, the OEM bulbs may have welded themselves into the now hard=-as-granite rubber sockets. Heat was the enemy and bikes originally equipped with LEDs will not have this problem in the future.

I guess anything is possible, time, money and energy permitting.

Although under vastly different circumstances, culture and technology, he was the Rossi of his generation. Oh, the stories he can tell! Still sharp as a tack, but what's worse, he still has all of his hair!

Absolutely sterile and devoid of soul. No wait! They can have the stereo make Geo Metro three-cylinder noises!

My impression is that the 1100 Sport is more of a GT bike, whereas the steering was quickened substantially on the '99-'02 V11, then slowed up just a bit. The 3.5/5.5 wheels also affect handling, in a plus or minus trade-off.

Never thought all that much of Staintunes. Now, I can't seem to get them out of my mind when I ride.