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Sounds nasty, Carl. Hope you get well soon.

Tom, When I was getting my exhaust done the other day the guy was suggesting somewhere to get the suspension set up. He said they put the front forks on a dyno to set them up since even though they have same springs, etc they always perform different one to another which means they need to balance the two sides up before they start setting everything up. I don't know if this could explain the difference you are seeing ?? Rgds, Ken

Al, I already had the HID upgrade from Nippy Normans - unfortunately the full beam isn't working properly anymore. I mailed for a quote for a new bulb - and the new running total for repairs including the bulb is $500 !! The bulb alone is $200 ! I'm starting to wish I had gone after the truck driver and got his number

Today was the day ! I had the V11 booked in to fit the Mistral cross over, exhausts, and power commander. The day started really badly - I was late leaving and in a rush, started up the bike to let it warm up while a got my helmet on, threw my jacket over the bike and when I turned around there's lots of smoke coming out of my sleeves ! I hadn't realised that the lining had touched on the exhaust and was melting Fortunately the damage was only slight. I finally set off and got less than 5 minutes down the road when a truck coming the other way dumped a stone around the size of a tennis ball. I watched in slow motion as it bounced once and then hit the front of the bike ! There was a loud bang as the headlight exploded and showered me in glass, but since I was in a line of traffic with nowhere safe to pull over I decided just to carry on my way. When I finally stopped the damage showed how serious things could have been. The stone had bounced up from the road - if you have a V11 with a fairing there is a small section at the bottom middle under the headlight, and the stone had hit this with such force it had distorted the metal surround of the headlight. It was the force of the distortion that had shattered the glass rather than a direct hit from the stone. After hitting the headlight the stone had put a small scratch in the front mudguard as it had dropped back to the ground. I arrived at Moto Corsa just as one of the guys was heading around to Conquest to load up an MGS01 - apparently it has been sold to a customer who has managed to get it registered for daytime use on the road ! I took a walk round to take a look. The bike IMO looks fantastic. I didn't get a real close look as they were loading it into a van at the time but from what I could see the finish didn't look that great - particularly on the carbon fiber, but I guess this is a race bike first. Anway, I would definitely make room for one in the garage So back to Moto Corsa (stopping briefly at the van outside Three Cross which makes the best bacon butties youve ever had !). The guy is at work fitting the power commander and getting everything else sorted when - the cross over which they ordered up specially has been delivered wrong and won't fit ! After a bit of discussion we decided to go ahead and fit the Mistral cans to the stock cross over so work continues when - there's a big mark on one of the exhausts. It looks like something was stuck under the carbon fiber weave and has left a really noticeable mark. After some more discussion we agree to go ahead and fit the cans and they will order up a new outer and replace it later on. So I am stood behind my bike which is up on the ramp when just as I am thinking it really isn't my day I suddenly notice a nail in my back tyre !! Its right in the middle so we talk about taking the wheel off to get it fixed next door while everything else is finished off. I figure if it is going to get fixed I might as well try to find out how bad the damage is, so I try to prise the nail out with a scredriver, and out pops a small stone ! So my tyre is in one piece after all, and maybe not everything is going to go wrong for me today. So having finally got everything on and set the bike up using a stock map downloaded from the web (we cancelled the dyno booking until the cross over comes in) the next thing was to get the headlight back together. Fortunately they had just one spare in stock for the V11 and so apart from the small peice of the fairing which is really wrecked everything was pretty much back to square one. The guy in the parts department was telling me that getting hold of spares is getting increasingly difficult - he heard that they haven't been building V11s in the factory for around a year or so and apparently a lot of the spares that are coming in are parts that have been stripped off of bikes that are already built. It's kind of worrying if this is true - not sure what this might mean for spares availability in the future. btw - if you happen to be waiting on some parts from Italy just now apparently there is a 5 day public holiday to respect the death of the pope. So now for the highlight of the day - the ride home. Even without the Mistral cross over and with only a standard map from the web, the bike drives much better. The power is more linear through the whole range, midrange is much stronger, and excessive speed comes up much more quickly than it did before. The bike really feels much better and it will be interesting to see what difference the cross over and a custom map will make. So overall: MGS-01: Gorgeous looking bike, although finish quality looks like it could be better. Mistral: Order processing and Q&A obviously not a strength. I'm also not over impressed with the quality of the finish TBH - the glaze over the carbon fiber is so thin you can feel the weave underneath. But having said that in combination with the power commander the performance gain is significant, and they aren't the most expensive exhausts out there, so fair enough, and I do like the look of them with the bike. Power Commander - went on easy, and obvioulsy a top piece of kit. Ride home - Trucks = 1 Ken = $300 down but still in one piece Part 2 to follow - I just hope it all goes smoother than Part 1

Duke advert...

OMG....

Will do, Alex.

Hi Søren, I will post up my results as well - I am looking forward to getting it all set up, hopefully in the next week or two. I am hoping it's going to sound a bit more exciitng as well as running better. Ken

A few weeks ago I ordered up a Power Commander, Mistral Oval Carbon exhausts and a Mistral crossover. I was undecided what to do about the air intake as I quite like the stock look and didn't want to start pulling bits off to fit the K&N filters, so after a bit of indecision I decided to order the Fast-by-Ferracci airbox filter that just replaces the standard airbox lid. I placed the order on the web on Monday and the kit arrived in the UK today !! Pretty impressive service. I heard today that they have everything else except the exhaust (which is on it's way) so I am just waiting to hear when they can book some time on the dyno and should be all set up. I will try to post up some dyno results once everything is set up. Looking forward to summer Ken

Mike, I have a 2003 Rosso Corsa also and the ECU is the same way up as in Randy's pic - so it look like they put yours in upside down for sure. Obvioulsy a new Luigi first day on the job

you're very welcome - nice to see a Guzzi get a fair and positive review !

Hi Jim, Can't wait to see the pic's - hope you enjoy the big day ! Ken

Well I guess it's not as bad as the one with the sidecar

if you want a dvd of the full program I have a spare made up - you will need to let me know your address.

I did get a couple of late requests for the full DVD so if one of the US guys who is already expecting copies wouldn't mind forwarding one please shout up

For me the bigger dissapointment in the article is that it takes so long to get new bikes like the Griso out. Who's gonna buy one of those in October ! It's a shame to see Guzzi miss out on what could be really a really successful opportunity given the state of the company - if they could launch that and the MGS01 in time for summer I might even raid my savings account

For those that requested a DVD they went out in the post Monday, so you should have them in the UK by now, and in the US early next week. I sent 2 copies to the US guys just in case someone's don't show up - maybe one of the other guys can forward a copy and it will be quicker than re-sending from the UK. I had hoped to make up some nice DVD inserts, etc but my photo printer died at the weekend, sorry.

Hi guys - ftp is up and running. Nogbad - I didnt get a pm from you - let me know if you want to download and I will drop you the login. Otherwise I need your address and I can ship you a DVD.

Hi guys, I have a recording of the Bikes Aloud program featuring the review of the Rosso Corsa that was on in the UK a couple of weeks ago. I should be able to run some DVDs up over the weekend so please PM me with your details if you would like a copy. I will assume you want NTSC if you are in NA, and everyone else PAL, but please tell me if you want otherwise. I will also set up a DivX ftp of the Guzzi bit so let me know if you want a login - I will mail you when its on line. I am happy to pick up the costs for everything - please make a payment to Jaap if you would like to contribute. Happy viewing - its quite an interesting piece and pretty positive about the Guzzi Ken

Do they do palm reading in there ?

Do you recall which part numbers it was for the Guzzi ?

I was in the US last week so took the opportunity to pop into the local Buell garage and pick up the replacement mirrors for the V11 - only took 10mins to fit and looks like it gives better visibility although I haven't had chance to try it out yet. While I was there the spares guy was trying to entice me to spend even more money - the replacement indicators cost $5 each which is pretty amazing considering the cost in the UK. I considered buying a complete set of 4 (the plasic cover is clear with an amber insert behind it wereas mine just have amber covers so I would need to do them all - turned out he only had one in stock, but maybe next time ). One of the other things he tried to sell me on was some replacement levers which do look really nice - has anyone tried these ? Which ones fit the V11 ? I never seem to be able to resist an opportunity to spend more money on the bike Ken btw - I think I got a recording of the Guzzi program on my Sky box, need to catch up at work but I will see if I can sort out copies when I get some time

Hi Steve, IMO forget mini-disc - you won't want to be trying to change disks while on the bike and carrying a bunch of disks isn't too convenient either. The main difference between MP3 and Ipod is that Ipod uses a proprietary codec with copy protection built in. What this means in practise is that while you can freely transfer your mp3s wherever you like your Ipod becomes 'married' to one PC. You can transfer your Ipod music to another PC (and play it using Itunes which is a free download) - if you want to use your Ipod with this new PC its not a big deal - when you re-associate your Ipod with the new PC it wipes it and re-loads the music from scratch (takes a while but you can just leave it until its done). If you go for mp3 the downside might be needing to carry mulitple memory cards -not a big deal but again a bit of a hassle on a motorbike. Whichever way you go I would check out : 1. Cost of memory cards you will need if you go mp3 2. Sound quality - often can be improved by upgrading the headphones that ship with the player. 3. Battery life (obvioulsy dont want to be fiddling with this on the road - but you can probably rig it up to run off the bike battery). 4. You definitely want to be able to put together a playlist on your PC before you set off. (Itunes does - most mp3 players too). I have a 40Gb Ipod which I am very happy with - I have hundreds of albums on it and still its less than half full - there's nothing additional to take with you (minidisks or flash cards) and I can set up a playlist from any of the albums I own without having to change media. I didn't look at mp3 players for a while since I bought the Ipod but I remember the IRiver players got a good write up at the time. Ken

In case anyone from the UK is interested in joining A Tsunami Aid Ride