richard100t

Just buy some high temp automotive spray paint for the valve covers. They'll look just fine.As for the oil sump I'll leave that to the guys in Europe to give you the right salvage links.

I have the same flex hose setup, but I ground the grease fitting down as far as I could on a grinding wheel to make it an easier fit. Does anyone else have fun trying to get the darn grease fitting back off once the front joint is full & expands outward?

That has to be the best v11 lift I've seen so far, & I've seen a lot of them here. The welding looks perfect. very clever how you put a mounting point above the alternator. That must be what makes it very stable when its up. You may find this is a good place to make some money if you're into making a few dozen of those.

Speaking of tire choice, wrt the rear tire, switch from the 170 to a 160 size. That will improve the ride & handling a great deal. Tire brand is up to how much money you want to spend. The other thing you need to do if you are under 175lbs is make sure you get the suspension sorted for your weight. Its way too stiff up front as it comes from the factory for a light rider. Other than that adjust the bike to suit your tastes.

Well if you really want to save money WalMart sells the textured black paint for about $4 a can. Its probably the same stuff Harley sells. I was thinking about using that stuff for touch up work on my torque rod & rear drive this spring.

One of this sites sponsors probably has just what you want. They are called RossoPuro, they are Italian & their stuff is high quality. The link to them is right above this & a little to the left under the site sponsors section. If they dont have what you want theres at least one other person here that may have what you need at Moto International in Seattle. Or try the other site sponsor MPH in Houston. They're all good people to deal with.

I have seen bikes with custom crinkle paint jobs on them. There are places that specialize in doing that kind of paint if you call around body shops or try a custom bike place. The bikes that I did see that had the wrinkle paint on the frames etc, the work was very very cool looking. The first thing I thought was man I want that on my bike! And theres nothing wrong with the wrinkle paint on mine. Its just the aftermarket jobs are so much better. If you dont mind spending the extra money to get a pro to do it your bike will look beyond cool.

The fact of the matter is the Rosso Mandello numbered series v11's will be the most collectable v11 in the long run. All the other v11 "special" bikes lingered in the dealerships & were as hard to sell as a "regular" v11. I believe its not just my biased opinion that the RM was the most desirable v11 that came from Mandello, the marketplace has determined that. I hope to keep mine for a very long time & maybe someday perhaps I can sell it for almost half of what I paid for it! As far as anything performance wise theres probably not a nickels worth of difference between all the v11's except for the Ohlins suspension pieces on the Cafe/Scura etc models.

Would that paioli fork fit my Rosso Mandello? I'd like to see some photos of the forks if anyone has a pic. My fantasy parts list for the bike right now is a set of Mistral Carbon exhaust cans, carbon fiber rims & better suspension (forks & shock) but especially the forks. I just need the money! Is about $5000 too much to spend on a 7 year old obsolete motorcycle?

I cant seem to find the old thread on how to re torque the head bolts. I remember that it had good clear instructions & had the torque settings for the bolts. Could someone please post a link to that thread here? Tyvm

It sounds like you have what we here call "tank suck". Try using the search feature here & enter the words tank suck & see what you find. Another thought is the tipover valve may not be sitting right.

Lets see...you had race cans on the bike & pod filters. We dont know if the previous owner got the tps setting right when he did those mods. Then you switch back to stock cans without calibrating for that. The good news is that you almost surely have an easily correctible problem that can be solved by you. If you want a really good running bike take it to a Guzzi shop where they have the computer that connects to the ecu for a perfect tune up.

When you have pod air filters that will make your bike run more lean. You probably need to adjust for the pod filters & richen the mix a little. I have pods as well & had a similar problem. Tb balance is important but you also have to set the tps higher than you would with the airbox. Others in here can give you specific numbers for the tps setting with your mods.

Mine was leaking from the right hand side seal as well. What I did was remove the vent cap & I found that it was "stuck" in one position. Its supposed to rotate freely. I just gave it a gentle turn with pliers, lubed it a little & put it back in. Its never leaked since then.

I'll have to remember this thread when it warms up enough to play with the bike in the garage again. Merry Christmas everyone

The last thing I remember from Edge was that he was shipping off to Afghanistan. He may be a little preoccupied at the moment! I'd like to buy one of those guards he makes when he can make them again.

I'm 5'8 so I'm certainly no giant! The thing in front of the bike? I think you're talking about my little stepladder?

Its kinda funny Ben...I was thinking of your bike while I was painting that tailpiece. I hope I got the aesthetics right, its hard to beat the Italians when it comes to style though. I was thinking maybe I would get some of those angry eyeball stickers to put on the rear, other than that I'm pretty happy with it & I still have the original piece in the closet if I want to change it back.

I got mine from RossoPuro & I like them a lot, they come with the custom milled footpegs as well.

I bought a used tailpiece from Joe Camarda & painted it black. Just thought I'd change the look a little. What do you think? Better? Worse? Dont care? lol

I agree with Ryland about keeping the idle speed at no less than 1100rpm. There have been several posts by other members that confirm the low oil pressure at reduced idle speed. Fwiw in the winter I keep the idle closer to 1300 & in the summer I turn it back close to 1100. When the temperature drops below 35f I recomend warming the oil in the sump before starting the motor as a good safety measure. I use an electric space heater against the oil pan for 15 minutes or so to heat things up. There have been many other suggestions on how to do it but thats the easiest way that I know.

If Dainese's textile pants are as versatile as their textile jackets, I'd go with that hands down. I have the 3/4 length gore tex jacket with liner & its perfect in all but hot weather. Even hot weather would be tolerable on the freeway. The material breathes yet resists letting water in. I guess you'll have to demo one to find out. If I were traveling across the country in April I'd have the 3/4 jacket & matching pants with heated gloves & socks. You wont need a heated vest or chaps with the liners the dainese come with unless its below freezing temperatures.

So you really do agree with me that it has $12 written all over it!

I dealt with Paolo when I bought my rear footpeg brackets. They werent in production yet when I bought them but they had a photo of them on the site & I wanted them. Paolo hooked me up with them & gave me a discount on the price too. I highly recomend dealing with Paolo & RossoPuro. Now if the us dollar would get a little closer to the Euro I'm getting those rearsets they have!

I have a hard time believing anyone would pay 30k for that bike. It looks kinda cool, & the performance is good but not up to modern standards. For double the price of a Ducati I dont think you should have to make excuses for less power. That bike has $12k written all over it, I dont care how they market the thing.