audiomick

Ahhh, first loser then.

Indeed, but still on the other side of the country. I had a search a while back, and immediately found at least three luthiers in Leipzig, one of which who specialises in electric guitars. No idea how good they, but if I wanted to start looking, I could start here. However, as you say, good guitars cost a fortune, and I can't even play very well, so I'm not looking. Deliberately. If I did even think about looking, things might get very expensive very quickly.

I reckon there might be a couple of things happening there. Firstly, have you got a workshop manual? There is one here: https://guzzitek.org/gb/ma_us_uk/1100/V11_1999-2003_Atelier(Compil-GB-D-NL).pdf On page 457 there is a listing of the fuses, and two pages later a wiring diagram. But have a good look at it yourself. The document is a compilation of several versions of the workshop manual, and you should make sure you are looking at the section that refers to your bike. Anyway.... The "click, click, click, start" is well known. Mine does that. Starts mostly, but often enough the first couple of presses on the button just produce a click. I cleaned up the electrics a bit, and it got better, but it is still there. The basic problem there is that too many volts are getting lost between the battery and the starter solenoid. There doesn't need to be anything specifically broken. It can be just a cumulation of slightly dodgy connections. The other one, no fuel pump prime and nothing, sounds like a different problem to me. Hard to say what it is, maybe "just" an intermittent connection somewhere, maybe something really broken. So... have a good look at the circuit diagram, so you have an idea how it all works. The relays are really important. Most of the important things, crucial to the bike running, involve a relay somehow. Then... go through and check and clean all of the electrical connections. Ok, that is a fair swag of things to look at. Start with the strap between the negative battery terminal and the back of the gearbox. That is your main "earth" connection. As far as the fuses go, dont just check the fuses. The fuse holders (and the relay sockets) are a plastic block that accepts a female spade connector with a barb on it to hold it in place. These connectors are the socket that the fuse or relay sits in. One can get the connectors out by going in from the fuse / relay side with a very small flat bladed screwdriver to depress the barb, and pulling the connector out to the rear side. Electrical contact cleaner might be enough to clean things up without actually pulling the connectors out. To sum it up: have a good look at as much of the electrical system as you can. As I already wrote, it sounds to me like you might have a couple of things happening there, not just one.

Yes. That is the "growth" that the economists are always raving on about.

Yes, that is the method that I have seen recommended by any number of reliable sources for looking for air leaks in the intake passage. If you spray and the revs go up, there is a problem.

Yes, Tommy Emmanuel is their principle sponsored Artist, I would say. https://maton.com.au/artists/tommy-emmanuel As far as electric guitars go, I believe the company made electric guitars right from the beginning. Apparently George Harrison played one once, but only as a replacement guitar for one, maybe two shows. Whatever, the acoustics are much more well known. The last time I looked at their site, there were a number of electric guitars available. At the moment I can't find any, although there is a link there to electric guitars. Don't know what is going on there. Doesn't really matter to me actually. Buying a Maton is definitely exclusively on the "when I win the Lottery" list. I'd love to have one, but....

Funny you blokes should write that... I started riding motorcycles in about 1984. My impression of Guzzi (in Melbourne at the time...) was red, eccentric, and sporty. I.e. Le Mans. The first time I saw a California (or was it a Nevada or a Florida? Chopper style, whatever...) I thought "why on earth does a company that builds such beautiful sport bikes even bother to build something like that?". Then I came to Germany, got a bike, got a Guzzi (the first one was a V35 Imola. No power, but red, sporty looking and beautiful...) and started spending time on a German Guzzi forum. It turns out, in Europe (or at least in Germany, but I'm convinced it is not restricted to Germany...), the Tonti California is considered to be "the" iconic and defining Guzzi. The beautiful, sleek, sporty things are just a niche product. Weird, really, because they all know about the V8 race bike, and the the first Tonti frame was the V7 Sport (sleek, sporty, beautiful...) and so on. But the California seems to be considered to be the "mainstream" Guzzi model. I still can't quite come to grips with the idea.

157 mV measured across the TPS with the throttle completely closed... Yeah, I know, that doesn't help much. If you are only just starting in on working on the bike yourself, I would suggest looking at these three threads first. I only bought my 2002 V11 Le Mans about 18 months ago, and found them very helpful in quickly getting to a point where I can start to do sensible work on the bike (which needed it, and still needs a bit more...). read that one first, then look at these A tip for getting the tank off: your 2003 V11 should have the "click-on" connectors for the fuel lines. Be careful there: the plastic elbow coming out of the tank is fragile, and about as easy to find as hen's teeth. What helps a lot: pull the plug on the fuel pump, start the bike and let it run until the motor dies. This relieves the pressure in the fuel line, and makes it possible to disconnect as easy as it is possible to get it. To disconnect, push the connector firmly towards the tank, pull the ring back and pull the connector off. PS: mine coughs too. Pretty much as you describe yours. Going through the "decent tune up" helped quite a lot. Further research remains to be done...

You can look at that ad without signing up (I'm allergic to facebook too....). But here's a summary: 2003 model California, 38.600 miles, $2.500. Comes with a set of panniers, looks like Hepco & Becker. Looks clean in the video and photos.

Look at this...

Ah, ok. As far as I know, they are the standard mufflers, so that could well be the case. PS, I actually quite like the colour they have now.

I found an explanation for that: a forum acquaintance from a couple of german forums turns out to have fotos of my Le Mans from the time it was owned by the owner previous to the bloke I bought it off. According to the papers, he had it from some time in 2017 until the middle of 2022. The bloke before me bought it then, and sold it on to me at the end of 2022. Anway, in the one photo there is a conventional handle bar on it. Also, the mufflers in the photo are light gray coloured, not the purplish ones that are on it now. So the old girl is obviously a way off being "original". Unless, of course, one means "original" in the sense of "one of a kind"...

I worked for this band for about a year in the first half of the nineties. I reckon this "concert" was recorded within about a half a year after I gave up the job. The bass player was always on about the "carbon fibre" bass that he was having made, which I never saw. I reckon the one in the video must be it. The trick to the bass sound is, it is a double bass, but it has a magnetic pickup in it like an electric bass. The one he was using when I was doing their sound was a cheap wooden double bass, but it had the magnetic pickup, and sounded great. The brown guitar is a Maton. A truly beautiful guitar. I think the black one is a Gibson. The guitarist bought it from a bloke in Adelaide during the time I was working for them. I reckon the Maton was better. They are/were all truly excellent musicians. The songs were all "pop songs", but good. It was fun while it lasted, but it is probably good that I stopped doing it when I did. What came after was also good.

Accordion again. This bloke was big in the german speaking countries through the nineties. The accordion he is playing is one of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steirische_Harmonika At the start of the video one can hear how important the bass side of the instrument can be. Part of the fun of mixing a band with one of those is getting that out, and making it sit with the bass guitar, should there be one. By the way, even if you think you can understand a bit of german, don't bother. They're Austrian, and singing in dialect. I can barely understand what he is singing, if at all.

Can't imagine that being a danger with you. Nice music. I've grown to really like accordions. The only thing is, they are a bugger to mic up. The descant side isn't such a problem, but the bass side moves so much that it is really hard to capture. It seems the bloke in the video has a mic mounted on the instrument on the descant side. The bass of the accordion was a little under represented, too. The other thing, an SM 58 for a soprano sax? Ummm, no. But I want that bass. Can't play such a thing, actually, but that one is really cool.

I bet it was. Reminds me a bit of an occasion when I had a broken throttle cable. It was on my first bike, a Suzuki GSX 250 E. I was a student at the time, so money for maintenance was thin on the ground, and the awareness of the necessity thereof also a bit thin on the ground. So the throttle cable had probably not seen any lubricant since I had bought the bike. I was working as a motorcycle courier at the time. The cable broke in the middle of the day as I was on the way to a delivery with a load in the box. I made a loop in the broken end of the cable that I could get at with my forefinger, and rode the rest of the delivery and the way home through the middle of Melbourne with a "trigger throttle".

It seems pretty obvious that someone has had that apart for whatever reason, but it doesn't look like the work of a "professional" workshop to me. Maybe I'm too critical, though.

That does exist, for instance these ones from Silent Hektik https://www.silent-hektik.de/Zub_Kabel.htm but in the case of the NGK plugs in the link, I'm fairly sure that is not the case. When you are ready to attempt the change, pull the boot back on the cable side of the plug, and try and screw them off. Given that they are going to be changed anyway, there is no great risk in that. The advantage is then, that you know for sure how they are put together. Having said that, cutting the leads back a bit (assuming you don't change them...) to give the new caps a fresh end to join to is probably a good idea.

Obviously an offical, approved video....

Then maybe one or the other of these. Looks like the same thing to me, just red or black. The inscript "5K Ohm" is visible on the picture of the black one. https://hmb-moto.de/Zuendkerzenstecker-NGK-LB05F-R-rot https://hmb-moto.de/Zuendkerzenstecker-NGK-LB05E Edit: a closer look reveals that Mike apparently perpetrated a typo in the listing. The red one is listed as "LB05F-R", and the black one as "LB05E". In the text body, however, they are referred to as "LB05F-R" and "LB05F" respectively. A look at what appears to be the NGK site turns up these, which are apparently the items in question, and both are 5K Ohm caps. As already mentioned, seemingly the same, except for the colour. https://www.ngkntk.com/de/produktfinder/motorrad/zuendstecker/lb05f-r/ https://www.ngkntk.com/de/produktfinder/motorrad/zuendstecker/lb05f/

Happy birthday to you, too. That arrangement has got to be for the convenience of the state. Can't see any other good reason for it.

I haven't tried it on a bike, but going by my experience with the car I have, I reckon I would prefer electronic to something mechanical. Good, I haven't tried any mechanical systems either... The thing is, the electronic cruise control in the car gets more useful if you practise using it, and use it conciously. I dare say, the usefulness of a system on a bike would be similar. What I see as positive in the electronic system is that you only have to tip lightly on the brakes, and it turns off. I can't visualise a mechanical system that is so easy to disengage. Apart from that, I tend to use the "don't go faster than xxx" function much more than the "hold speed xxx" function. The latter actually almost never. I could see myself using the former on a bike, if I had it. The latter probably not.

Come on you blokes, we're talking about breather hoses here.

I had a bit of a look. First of all, I would tend to just replace both plug leads and caps. They are old, they age, and they don't get better with age. I went looking at Stein-dinse, Wendel in Berlin, and HMB Moto (kennst Du den schon?). Wendel and SD both have plug leads, but list the original cags as no longer available. Mike at HMB has leads and caps. The leads are cheaper than those at the other two. If I remember rightly, the caps are just screwed on to the leads. Anyone here who knows better, please correct me. The other end of the lead, which has an odd looking sheet brass fitting on it, is just plugged in to the coil. So changing the whole business is no great drama. Here are the parts at HMB: https://hmb-moto.de/Zuendkabel-V11 https://hmb-moto.de/Zuendkerzenstecker-Gummi-rot not "dirt cheap" perhaps, but I think once every 20 years or so is probably affordable. Schöne Grüße aus Leipzig.

"Stromdieb" here, and yes, I think you are right.