GuzziHutch

Hey Darryl, The Guzzi dealer in Charlotte is NOT the BMW-Ducati dealer but a mom and pop dealership about 3 miles down the road from the BMW dealer. Name of the place is Union Cycle, run by Carl and Dorothy Merrill. Nice folks, small shop. There is also a dealer in Asheville called Myers Ducati that carries Guzzi, Triumph and something else. Hope this helps. Joe

Hey Darryl, That's great news and you're gonna love it. I just purchased my '03 Lemans last October and it was the best decision I had made in years! Have a great time buddy! Joe

Guess I'm just lucky. The Stucchi I purchased from MPH a few weeks ago went on with absolutely no problems, using the Guzzi Ti's and stock (longer) hangers. (Also worked with the shorter hangers supplied with the Ti's but I elected to stay with the longer hangers to accomodate soft luggage.) The pipes aren't PERFECTLY aligned as you view them from the rear but they look well enough. Joe

Ben, I don't have a picture. But the Guzzi Ti pipes fit the same as the factory mufflers, so if you have seen any bike with the Teckno soft bags, that is how it looks, except with titanium pipes. No big deal. If I take a pic I will display it. Joe

Rocketman, You don't have to lose the soft luggage option with the Guzzi Ti's. Just use the standard hangers and the Ti's fit at the same angle as stock mufflers. My '03 Lemans is setup this way, with Guzzi Ti's and Teckno soft luggage. Have fun! Joe

I like the MPH risers on my '03 Lemans. The installation requires new, longer hydraulic lines (supplied my MPH) so they do not install in 15 minutes. However, once on the risers look very clean and stock and give you a good bit of flexibility with placement. Also, Todd and Mike at MPH Cycles are both very helpful. Good outfit to deal with. Joe

Jonathan, Al is right, as always. The Guzzi Ti mufflers can be installed in the lower position using the stock hangers, thus retaining leg room for your girl friend. That is the way I have my '03 Lemans set up. My objective was to use the Teckno bags with the Ti mufflers and it all worked out very nicely. Joe

Hey Al, I'm just curious why you narrowed your selection down to two tires, the Avon and the Pirelli. When I need tires I will probably also consider the Metzler M-1 in the mix along with the Avon and Pirelli. Curious as to why you nixed Metzler. Joe

I went with and like the gel grips. They have a slightly tacky feel and probably mute some vibration. Also, they are slightly larger in circumference compared to stock grips. Joe

My '03 Lemans has the wrinkle paint, so I guess it must be an early '03 model as all the other '03s I have seen have the smooth paint. I purchased the bike new in Sept. of 2004, so the warrenty runs for a good while yet. So far the paint has held up pretty well, but I have two questions: Do all the wrinkle paint bikes ultimately suffer from the bubbling paint problem? If one elects to have the engine cases replaced does that mean the resulting bike has some cases (engine) with smooth paint and some with wrinkle paint (tranny, rear drive)? That sounds horrible! Any one who has had the cases swapped please let me know. Thanks for you help! Joe

Michael, Your torque gains are absolutely awesome, especially the gains below peak torque, which is exactly where you would like to have torque curve improvement for a more ridable, responsive highway machine. Thanks for the info on DUC SHOP. I live in the Charlotte area and would like to have a custom PC III map done for my Lemans but I don't feel comfortable taking a Guzzi to any of the dyno shops around here. Maybe DUC SHOP is the answer. Joe

Hey Ratchethack, Thanks for your excellent and very informational review of the Metzler M-1. The bulk of my riding is done in the western NC hill and mountain terrain where pavement conditions can go from dry to wet to dry all in the same corner. Your analysis of the Metzlers makes me believe they would perform well in that environment. I too am a "Sports Geezer" and years ago I ran Metzlers on an ‘83 Honda V45 Interceptor. I believe they were ME33 and ME99s. That heavy bike with those tires would also slide rear or front and rear together in a very controlled fashion. Not necessarily something I would aim to do but once an event occurred it was predictable and controllable and ultimately became very repeatable and even repeatable in a safe manner when no traffic existed. Also, riding in the rain was great practice for riding near the limits of traction in the dry because the bike and tires seemed to act pretty much the same way wet or dry once traction broke, except of course that this occurred at much lower speeds in the wet. Is that the kind of thing you are talking about with the Guzzi and the M-1s? I must also say that I was never able to consistently recreate this phenomenon with later model sport bikes such as Ducati. I guess the traction limits are so much higher and I, being a geezer, didn’t approached the limits of the more modern machinery with anywhere near the same frequency. Make sense? You may have convinced me M-1s are the way to go. Joe

Can anyone advise which of the plethora of slip-ons available for the V11 will work with the stock brackets. I have the HB bags and don't really want to get rid of them in order to put new mufflers on. So far the only ones I'm sure use the stock brackets are the Neptunes. Does anyone know about: Mistrals FBF's M4's Staintunes or even Guzzi's own TI's? Randy, I can say for sure that the Guzzi Ti mufflers will fit on the stock brackets and do accomodate Guzzi's soft luggage. That's the way my '03 Lemans is set up. However, the Guzzi Ti muffler kit also comes with shortened hangers which will give the pipes more upsweep, if you wish. Of course this set up will eliminate any saddlebag type luggage. So you get a choice with the Ti's. Joe

When FBF shipped the air box eliminator I had ordered they neglected to sent the brackets that hold it in place! When I called them to point out their error the guy on the phone acted like it was MY fault that THEY had shipped an incomplete order!! I wound up having brackets fabricated in order to get the bike back on the road. The FBF brackets arrived 10 days later! Moral of the story: Make sure you have all the parts before you begin the project. And don't depend on FBF to ship the order complete. Joe

For cylinder head guards and other speciality Guzzi parts check out Joe Kenny at: http://www.swva.net/jkenny/ Joe

Don't get me wrong, I have a GREAT PASSION for the Commando and owned them for many years. My best friend still has a very fine example so lots of experience and admiration BUT facts are my '84 Lemans III will smoke a Commando! So what is this debate about the V11 and the Norton? Come on now! A little reality please! Joe

Thanks dalainq. I've got a 2003 Lemans (new in Oct.) with Guzzi titanium pipes, Race ECU, FBF open air box with K&N, plus PCIII from Todd. No flat spot but I have wondered what a Stucchi would do for the bike. As it is the bike revs up quite a bit quicker than stock.

I have a question.........Is the Stucchi crossover really necessary with the '03 & '04 models which come from the factory with the front crossover? I thought the purpose of the standard front crossover was to eliminate the "hole" around 4,000 RPM, which should eliminate the need for the Stucchi crossover. What is the story on this??? Joe

Sergio, Also check out the bar risers from MPH Cycles at: http://www.mphcycles.com/BarRisers/RISERS.HTM They come complete with longer brake lines and the finished installation looks like a stock application. Really nice! Joe

This is an older topic but I just made the change today to the Buell Firebolt mirrors. Thank you Edge for the original post. These things are great!! If you ride a V11 Lemans and are tired of looking at your arms in the mirrors and would like to actually SEE WHAT IS BEHIND YOU then perform the Buell mirror swap. It is inexpensive ($40) and quick. Also, the new mirrors vibrate much less, though I have no explanation for why that is so. All in all it is total goodness with zero downside! Caution: Check to mirrors before purchasing them from your Harley dealer. Make sure you have the right ones. They should look just like the Lemans mirrors, only with longer stalks.

Is it possible that road conditions contributed to this accident? A little bit of diesel fuel can be near invisible on the roadway and yet result in an extremely sudden, violent accident. Unfortunately I speak from experience. Fortunately it was 3 years ago and led to my meeting my wife! Joe Hutchens

That's my seat that Rich Maund has displayed in a picture at the beginning of this thread. High quality and high comfort. It has made a big difference, especially on longer rides. I highly recommend Rich Maund for seat work. He is easy to deal with, fair, no surprises, provides quick turn around and has a great product with exceptional value. What a deal! So get that new seat NOW before riding season starts. "Your ass will thank you." Joe Hutchens

Fonz, For some reason I can't send you a PM, but I am interested in purchasing a set of the footpegs. How do we do this transaction? Contact me at: HutchJ1997@aol.com

Could one of you guys possibly include a picture of the newly installed footpegs? Worth a thousand words, ya know.

I want to thank everyone that responded. I will be contacting MPH based on the info at their website. The Rosima's look great but THE COST, Whew. Thanks again.