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Hi All, I'm looking for a pre-2003 instrument cluster panel plate (y'know, the plate that the gauges and indicators are mounted to). This is the type that is attached to the triple clamp and moves WITH the handlebars. It doesn't matter what condition its in finish-wise. Thanks!

When I lived in Seattle I rode in the rain a lot and constantly fought the "pea soup in the gearbox" syndrome. My solution was as follows: 1. Remove the vent plug from the gearbox. 2. Tear off the venting thingy from the top of the plug. 3. Solder a short section of 1/4" OD copper tubing in place of the venting thingy, making sure that the copper tube sticks out no more than 1/2" from the top of the plug. 4. Slightly flare the top of the copper tube. 5. Put the plug back in the gearbox. 6. Attach a section of rubber hose to the plug with a small hose clamp. 7. Route the hose somewhere up under the seat where water doesn't splash up. Haven't had a problem since.

Done!

I found that the reason the pegs get locked in the upright position is that the spring loaded ball gets a groove worn in it where it makes contact with the hole in the little lock plate (ball metal is softer than the plate metal + wear from dirt). The groove prevents the ball from rolling out easily when you try to put the peg down. Once the groove is there, you'll have to replace the ball since it'll lock up again... On my last V11 I replaced the balls with some stray ball bearings (probably from one of my three torched rear wheel bearings ). You can also get loose bearings from Home Despot/Lowes/Whatever in their fastener section. They're generally harder than the ones that come on the bike. And as stated before, use a dry lube when you put everything back together, since grease can attract dirt.

My rear Diablo met an untimely demise last weekend; something poked a nickel-sized hole in it in a construction zone. Cheers,

I think more often than not, carbon fiber is laid up using epoxy type resins instead of the more traditional poly/vinyl ester resins. IIRC the epoxy resins are more resistant to acetone than the poly/vinyl ester resins. Instead of doing the buff/wax on the carbon fiber, personally I'd spray several layers of a UV resistant top coat, then buff and wax. For my stuff I use clear System Three WR-LPU topcoat. Not cheap at $54/Quart, but well worth it.

Argh. The shift return spring on my '04 Ballabio broke on Monday night, in a teeny-tiny little town, 215 miles from home. Stuck in first gear. My spare spring? Somewhere in storage, 215 miles away. Thought the '04s had the 15mm boss, so I didn't bother putting it in my incomplete tool kit. After struggling with getting the gearbox open with inadequate tools, one of the four circlips that anchor the two cogs, decides to fly ten feet away, landing in either grass or gravel. Great. Fantastic. So, I was able to re-bend the broken spring and get it working well enough to get home. Some friendly local-yokels were able to scrounge up a replacement circlip and loaned us some proper tools. We got back on the road around 10:00. About 40 miles later, we pulled of the highway for gas, and my shift lever became disconnected from the linkage. Someone forgot to tighten that part. Oops. Fortunately we were at a truck stop and I was able to buy some machine screws and nuts to get things back together. I finally got home at 2:45. I had to get up for work at 5:45. Last night as I was replacing the broken spring, I measure the boss and it was 15mm.

Hi Woody, Disconnect the rear shock from the swingarm. That'll give you just enough clearance to be able to use the swivel tip. When you reconnect the shock to the swingarm, don't forget to slather some marine grade grease on the long bolt the shock pivots on.

If anyone is looking for a CF seat cowl, I make them. They aren't perfect, but they still look pretty good. PM me for info. I'm also experimenting with putting a new top layer of CF over the original, using UV resistant resin and a UV resistant top coat. I messed mine up pretty good last year and I figure it'd be cheaper to do that than replace the whole thing since I have all the materials. I'll keep y'all posted and if it works out, I may offer a refurbishing service for this.

Yep. Did it but left all the wedges in. We'll see how it feels. If anyone is interested, I measured the durometer of the wedges and they averaged at 72 (they're about four years old.)

Aces! That and a couple squirts of WD-40 between the splines on the plate and hub-tube ((for lack of a better term) did the trick. Thanks! I'm doing a huge ride-prep on the bike and I'm finding a lot of things on the bike were grease inadequately or not at all at the factory. Grrrr.

So I'm trying to get to the rubber blocks in my cush drive, but I'm stuck. I got the six buttonheads from hell out without any trouble, and the silver pie plate is off, but I can't go any further. For the life of me I can't get the steel plate with the rear drive splines & vanes out. I've looked at a few other threads but they're either unclear how to do it, or their links to special instructions/tricks are outdated. Tips & tricks from the peanut gallery?

So you're saying you don't need to remove any exhaust parts to get the alternator cover off of a V11 that has a front x-over?

Thanks all. Great advice on pushing down on the opposite side of the rocker. Someone mentioned that somewhere on this forum many moons ago, and I've done it ever since.

When checking valve clearance with feeler gauges, how do you tell when the clearance is right? Should the feeler gauge go freely between the rocker and the valve, or should there be a slight resistance? I've done my valves many times before and always went with a slight resistance (that's what I was taught back in my welder/fitter days), but I'm curious what other people think/do.

Duh, got it. Figured out I can remove the headers and front x-over all in one piece. Rocket scientist I ain't...

Oh, wait. I think I figured it out...

Any tricks to removing the alternator cover from a V11 with a front x-over pipe without disassembling the whole exhaust system?

Thanks everyone. I'll poke around a bit more, though there's not much I can do since all my tools are 170 miles away.

So I'm over on the east side of the state for a few days visiting family and what do you know... Heat wave... Temperatures the past couple of days have been in the upper 90's to low 100's. Personally, I like it, but it seems like the bike doesn't, at least that's my best guess. What's happening is that the engine semi-frequently hesitates, misses, lurches, maybe even pops a bit when below 3K rpm, especially when it's under a light load. Above that it's fine since I usually try to keep it above 3500 rpm, but when slowing down to go through small towns it's a bit unnerving. Here's the setup: '04 Ballabio with: - Guzzi Ti pipes w/race ECU. - Stucci X-Over. - Stock intake & filter. - Stainless x-over shims up front - Old style fuel tank w/external pump, mounted on the side of the spine. - Always run 91 - 92 octane fuel. Intake boots look to be in good shape and throttle bodies seem to be mounted fine. No obvious exhaust leaks at the headers or x-over. I have a brass temp sensor housing which I plan on mounting this week when I get back home... It wasn't doing this when it wasn't so hot... Any ideas? Many thanks!

I was sort of happy with mine (that bike is no more

The pork chops threw me off. Didn't realize that the were/look the same on the V11.

I know I just wet myself. I know it's beautiful. I know Motorhead's version of Louie Louie is dreadful. I know the motor won't last too long without filters on those velocity stacks. I know if the owner left that in my garage, I would assume ownership and he/she would never see it again. Now the guesses: Alpina wheels? Ghezzi Brian tank & frame bits? Rossopuro foot controls? V11 frame?

Here's my LED Turn signal thread Bruce: I totally spaced it... I'll finally have a bit of free time next weekend, so I'll try to do one for you then.

How are they not working right? Do you have two (left and right) or one lamp (left & right combined) for your turn signal indicator on your dash? If you have one lamp, you may be in for some fun...