Dr Gil

Man, and I thought I had a crappy 2005. That's certainly good news that you managed to beat back the cancer...and here I was being all pleased with myself for getting my bike repaired, you repaired YOUR BODY! My hat's off to you! Congratulations!

Proof of insurance is only needed when dealing with law enforcement. If you cannot produce proof (generally a card issued by the insurance company) then there is a fine. "Roadworthiness" is not required in California. In order to register a bike (and this is the process I'm going to be starting today because I'm getting a salvage title on the "totaled" bike) you must have a form filled out by either the California Highway Patrol or by a qualified motorcycle shop stating that the brakes and all the lights are in working order. Then the bike has to be taken to the Department of Motor Vehicles office and have an agent verify the VIN numbers on the bike and that they match the paperwork. Once this is completed and all the fees (fines? Oh I hope not!) are paid they simply issue you a new plate and number from a pile of motorcycle plates they have on hand. No one can make vehicle license plates in California other than the state (historically done by the prison system although I don't know if that's still the case).

I lost the plate in the accident antonio. In fact the CHP officer and I spent quite a bit of time looking for it. When I first reported the accident at DMV and explained the circumstances they issued me a temporary license for the bike good through October (figuring that would give me PLENTY of time to get it repaired and to get it back down to DMV for a VIN check). Well, Oct has come and is long gone so yesterday was a short "outlaw" run just to put some fuel in it and test the bike. Today I'm off to DMV to get new temp plates and start the re-registration process...it's possibly the part of this rebuild that I'm looking forward to the least...wish me luck!

Steve, You're right. Part of my incintive here, and I know it sounds corny, is that the road (and the insurance industry) simply wasn't going to claim this "moderatly" damaged, gorgeorus bike from me/us. There are too few Guzzi's out there on the road as it is and to remove this one for such "cosmetic" damage seemed an insult. The work and acquiring the parts was a MUCH bigger job than I expected but in retrospect well worth the effort. The trick is to take it one step at a time and to ignore the "BIG" picture. Yes, I was wearing Aerostich when I had the accident (two-piece, black on black...no bling). I had owned it for exactly one week. I got such a great deal on my Le Mans that I treated myself to the gear I've always lusted after. It served me well in the crash. All my gear did, with the exception of my gloves. I replaced (my insurance company paid for $1.5K US as part of my collision coverage...Foremost Insurance, highly recommended for their cost and coverage) ALL my gear today is the exact same stuff I was wearing (with the exception of the gloves which I replaced with Helimot's Buffalo 365's) during the crash.

Back in July of ’05 I crashed my ’02 Moto Guzzi Le Mans. I had only owned it for a little over a month and had put just 2,000 miles on it. The bike and I slid about 200 feet down the tarmac, never rolling or hitting anything. I escaped with a cracked rib and a partially collapsed lung. The bike didn’t fair so well. The entire left side of the bike sustained damage from being ground down by the asphalt. Mirrors, valve cover, turn indicator, clip-on and all the plastic on that side was toast. The bike was totaled and even though I only have very moderate wrenching skills, a tumbledown garage (with concrete floor) and some basic hand tools I still figured I could fix it. Looking back on it now I’m not sure that was a smart decision, but it was my decision. It has taken me 6+ months of running down parts, fixing things, fixing them again, discovering new things to fix and then repairing them. I discovered more damage than I initially anticipated. The worse moment (if you don’t count the time the bike tipped off the jack and crashed on its good side) was probably finding that the timing chain cover was cracked and needed to be replaced. This was totally beyond my modest skills but with the help of the people of the V11 Le Mans forum I was able to locate the part (Germany) I needed, got the advice that was necessary and was walked through the complete process step by step. The repair to the cover has seemed to have worked…in fact everything seems to have worked! Today, during a break in the rain I took the out for the first time. The subsequent, short (10 mile) ride has showed no obvious problems. The bike ran fine, shifts fine and seems to be handling perfectly. There are a few small “adjustments” I have yet to make (for instance the throttle too stiff which I suspect is because of the new grips) but in light of what we’ve been through they should prove to be no problem. I would like to thank the members of the V11 Le Mans board, the members of the Sport-Touring.Net? (for their incredible caring and moral support), Todd from MPH Cycles, Teo Lamers (for those tough to find parts), HMB Guzzi and Reboot Guzzi Spares for all their help during this crisis. I would also like to thank all those wonderful individuals who sold me (or in some instances simply gave them to me) their extra parts and made this rebuild possible. Mostly I would like to thank this whole wonderful Moto Guzzi community. I’m still the new guy on the block but you’ve made me feel welcome and taken care of me as one of your own…I’ve now been totally converted to the Church of Guzzi and fully plan to be a lifelong convert! Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, I give you my new, improved, Moto Guzzi Le Mans! Thank you all so much! This “thank you” announcement will be cross posted on the ST.N, Wildgooseand V11 Le Mans forums…please don’t think less of me for doing so or as being a lazy bugger (which I actually probably am) for not doing something original on each site.

Geez Ben, I didn't realize that you've had such a cute body!

I don't know about all this stuff (and must confess to having skipped most of the "deep" research and wordiness of the article) but I do know that in my crash last summer (55-60 mph slide 200' down the tarmac) my full faced Shoei saved my face (and maybe more). 90% of the damage to my helmet in the accident was on the face shield and chinpiece. I wouldn't consider riding without a full faced helmet, never. That's not to say they couldn't still be improved.

Orson, Becky and I are going to be in Northern Wales April 8, 9, 10 and the morning of 11th although we won't be on bikes...we'll be on the Llangollen Canal in a narrow boat with some friends of ours from Salisbury. We'll be leaving from and returning to the Chirk Marina (east of Llangollen, south of Wrexham). We're traveling out to the west to Llangollen and then returning to Chirk a few days later. We won't actually be traveling very far, the boat only does about 4 knots/hour and nasty things like locks and bridges slow us down a bunch. The boats also don't travel at night. So if you expect to find yourself anywhere around Chirk on those dates let me know. I'm buying (or perhaps we can trick Becky into buying)

Yeah, I'm having problems with ST.N also and I don't just think it's because I use Firefox for my browser. The administrator switched the site over to vBulletin just a few months ago hoping to get rid of some of the downtime. It ran fine for awhile and now they seem to be experiencing loading problems again...although the downtime is considerably reduced from what the old system did to us. ...and I agree, the folks at the Sport-Touring.Net are aces (much like the people here).

Being somewhat of a new guy here yet and certainly being new do doing "deep" mechanicing (if that's a word) I must confess to not only not understanding what "bodge points" are but am most certainly sure that I may be the King of Bodge Points and could teach you whippersnappers a thing or two about acheiving them.

Hooray! Crisis over. Thanks to all and especially to Bill (I was this close to going the TX Redneck "thinking out of the box", shadetree mechanic) route...hey, it might have actually worked).

Alas, no 14 mm in any of our bikes toolkits here.

I'm trying to remove my front wheel to mount some new tires on the Le Mans. I've removed the front calipers and am following the procedure from the shop manual. Suddenly I'm up against what looks to be about a 14mm allen head to remove the axle. The shop manual calls this a "special tool." Can this possibly be right? 14mm socket (have to torque it back in so must have socket) is impossible to find here locally and tough to find to order...and I'd really like to deal with this today. I know people remove their wheels "all the time" so I'm hoping there is an easy fix, something I'm simply overlooking or am just ignorant of here. Anyone?

A hilarious site posted over on the ST.N board for creating your own motivational posters. HERE! My own modest effort...

Yeah, Martin's absolutely correct on this one Ben. The kill switch (and the mounting bracket) had been removed by the PO. I foolishly left my sidestand down. Having never even seen this doo-hicky on my bike I was having a devil of a time figuring out how it all fit together with the sidestand.

That's perfect docc! Just what I needed. I twisted that little bracket that holds the switch into every different position I could think of and nothing seemed right. Your picture should make the job of getting this end of the switch MUCH easier. Thanks.

Yeah, I love 'em too...the bike had the red covers before the crash and I can't even begin to describe the hassle/obsession and expense necessary to replace them. I wouldn't have even attempted it if I didn't love the look SO much! p.s. "Golden Goose"...I love it!

I have every intention of doing so orange guy but alas my connections have been severed and I can't suss it out. I have purchased the replacement parts but can't figure out how they are mounted nor can I figure out how the electrics connect. I have two bare wires that are connected together (ala' hotwiring) under the tank but lack the connection I need for the replacement plug in. I fear I must order one and then remove the tank, etc. Meanwhile if someone could send an upclose pic of how the actual, mechanical switch is mounted at the sidestand it would be helpful. I WANT a kill switch...it's just that I've never actually seen one (the root of my problem) and have no idea how it's configured.

Somewhat true RH...while I do feel "closer" to my bike now I sometimes wonder if regaining the time lost in the saddle wouldn't have also made me "closer" to it. 6 months is a long time to do without. I'm sure you're right though...and that's the way I'm determined to view it. Down the road I think this experience will stand me in good stead. Some of the fear and mystery of working on the Guzzi is gone...and that's probably a good thingie. As for sleeping better...ahh, well that's another issue. I think I must be one of your more "sensitive" sorts of guy. I can't tell you how many times I've awoken in the middle of the night and agonized about some current aspect of the rebuild I was worried about. But it was time well spent. I seem to do some of my best problem solving when half asleep and feeling the pressure.

I'm jazzed and I wanted to post here first. You guys have been such a help with the rebuilding of my Le Mans that I crashed back in August that I thought I owed you at least that (plus beers whenever we meet). I'm not quite done yet but the last bits and pieces arrived with today's post and I've got them installed (thank you Teo Lamers). Not only will my reconstructed Guzzi be as pretty as the old crashed Guzzi but actually has also gotten some improvments in the rebuilding process (more about that later). But I don't want to go on too much. I just wanted to post and say that "I'm very close." I may get to actually ride my Le Mans (albeit illegally...DMV issues still to be resolved) possibly as early as tomorrow. I fired up the bike for the first time today since going through the "cracked timing chain cover" ordeal (see the thread in "tech topics"...I won't bore you with it here). I admit to being a bit nervous about bringing the engine up to temp. I'm not sure I could have dealt with another setback. It's been 6 MONTHS dammit and I've been over my head much of the time. I needed something positive to happen. It did. After re-installing the fuel tank I cranked 'er up this afternoon. A bit of a wait to get fuel to the system and bless her heart she fired right up...with NO discernable leaks. Oh joy, oh rapture! I cranked her up again this evening and still nothing and the engine sounds smoother (there was a bit of a disturbing knock on the first fire up). Tomorrow I button the bike up. Front fairing, mirrors, hook up heated grips and plug in turn signals and then I think I'll take a ride. I will admit to you guys about being a bit nervous about this first ride. I've not had the bike on the road since the accident and am worried (and here I'm pretty sure I'm just being an old lady in my agonizing about it) about endless transmissions, clutches, tracking problems, overheating, breaking down under a load, etc., etc. It will be good to put those fears to rest. I'll leave you with a couple pics "as of now":

Which side is the broken mirror on? I believe I have a right side mirror in good condition that I would be willing to part with for shipping costs.

I'm afraid taking the pan off is something you will eventually need to do even if you do manage to change the oil filter without removing the pan. There is a screen inside that should be cleaned periodically (sludge...er, pasta builds up on it over time). Me, I'd probably try combining a couple of the above suggestions. Go with the "paint and varnish stripper" procedure...then "whack the f**ker with a huge rubber mallet!" Good luck!

I find these ads to be somewhat titillating.

Come on now, a two-wheel drive bike that you can ride in the snow, has a reverse and you can bring a friend along in semi-comfort (or shop for groceries)! Sounds like fun to me!

Man, that's awful! So the problem here is that these are warranty items that you're waiting for and for those that they must come from the factory? Surely if these were "must-have-now" parts that they would be available from some of the parts people previously listed (I understand that you would then be out of pocket for the cost). Still, it's a downer.