Ouiji Veck

Hi and welcome Matt. Hang in there and with us... We'll get you sorted. These are the usual small problems. Your going to need to search around a little on this forum but that's what the "search" feature is for. New relays are a must...from Ryland or Dan as stated above. Fresh gas and tektron too...get the cooties out. I'd start with a fresh valve adj. "world specs" not "Guzzi specs" Makes a load of difference. Boots like everyone else said. Your low battery may even be causing all your problems and jump starting may be un-advisable. The ECU et-al are sensitive to strange voltages. I believe.... After that if it's not a lot better; Check your TPS and TB balance...it's all here in the forum. Got after market pipes, cross over, PCIII or airbox ? You came to the right place and that's a sweet bike you got. We can't stand one not running. Don't worry. It's always something simple and stupid with these things. Once sorted out your good to go for a long time.

Yea...it's a squeeze getting a 180 in there. I let the air out... but also went down to a 170... a very popular move around here. I like it fine. I also quit balancing my tires at all. I started skipping the back one about 3 yrs. ago...and the front maybe 2 yrs ago. I've never noticed a difference in handling or wear. I go through 2 sets a year and change 'em myself. If I ever felt the slightest vibration or feed back that might be a balancing issue on a tire I just put on I'd be at my buddies shop ..pronto. So far ...nada. My other hobby is defying logic..... Don't try these tricks at home!

Dam.... That was my first guess...TB blown off it's moorings. Happened to me twice in 35K mi....last time about 20K ago. No idea why. Little raw fuel got somewhere it shouldn't outta... No harm done and better to blow a boot off than bend a plate. (don't tighten those clamps too tight ) Set those valves to "world specs" while your (or your fixers) in there. Your bike will love ya for it. Good luck and happy motoring.

Lefty here too. Was known as Southpaw in certain circles. Play guitar upside down and backwards and fiddle backwards. Play tennis lefty, hockey righty, bat right, throw left. I got a different way of looking @ everything. Comes in handy but I haven't made it made a million ....yet. Of course I own a Guzzi

Ha...thanks...that was fun. Keep 'em coming.

Ahh...good Paul. I'm curious..did you do the ride/ adjust / ride / method? There's a few more goofy glitches that may pop up but there as easy or easier fixes. Clutch cut out...(wire under tank) Kick stand cut out, relays (Get some GEIs or others mentioned on the "relays" threads). Wheel bearing / spacer foolishness...Floppy instrument cluster.. Get 'em sorted by 20K and enjoy the next 150K. Now you need to find that 50 / 60 mph Guzzi groove for when your around civilization. AKA the "patrolled" motorways. Save your license for where you can really play. Have fun

Ha! I hope I don't cause an international incident. I laughed my butt off....being surrounded by Beemer drivers and 1 Concourse infidel....

For those with video capability. http://www.brainsweb.co.uk/uploads/the-wrong-bike.wmv

A nice day in the Bershires w/ Curious bikes and even more curious old coot. "Save This Date: May 17, 2008 Vintage Trailbike Museum is having Open House on May 17th from 9 to 5. Located at: 192 Henry Wood Road, Cheshire, Mass. Hope to see you then."

Tis a quandry........ All will be reveild this week end I do believe.

Hi Redhog.. Good to see someone older than me here. and sorry about your misfortune. Removing the back wheel is kinda straight forward. Drop the caliper, pull the axle, keep an eye on the spacers. Particularly the 1/2 inch one inside the hub. You might want to do a search on that, there were some V11s that came through with too short a spacer causing bearing failure. (while your in there) The real trick is getting it up in the air...no center stand sucks. I use a bike lift like Sears has. I like it a lot. Takes a little to secure the bike on it well but once it's up there it's really neat. I can pull the front or rear or both apart and still roll it around the garge. Welcome to the asylum and don't hesitate to ask.....

Brentt..... I think your TBs are out of sync. Mine was doing the exact thing. Hiccuping around 3.5K at flat throttle. It also popped and barked loud on deceleration from higher Rs (Does yours do this too?) At risk of derision I'll again post my cure. I simply ran the bike @ the offending RPM range, reached down and twisted the spigot (white knob that connects the throttle plates) in tiny micro turns one way then the other until the offensive hiccup was gone. It took about 10 - 15 minutes of fiddling.. running in 3rd gear(2nd? maybe...whatever is safe) on a secluded road. Once I got going in the right direction there was noticeable improvement and it was obvious when I got "there". I made about 6 or seven 1/32nd turns in the wrong direction. Got off and zeroed back to my starting mark and tried the other direction. It was soon obvious I was on to something. Disclaimer..... No halfway decent mechanic would use this method. I think there would be a possibility of back firing and bending a throttle plate or at least blowing a boot off. I'm more like Goober from Mayberry. Maybe I just got lucky but my bike runs flawlessly through all RPMs and I get about 40+mpg. (In the summer ) for the last 30Kmi. If you are a reckless idiot Goober like me and decide to try it, keep in mind .. tiny turns, mark your starting point. It should be clear if it's improving after 4 or 5 turns. I accept no responsibility if you blow it up, but will happily accept accolades if it works. This may be some truly diz-astous advice but it's what I did and it worked for me. I've read many a post about putting a V11 on a Dyno and squeezing out the n'th degree of HP only to still have an annoying stumble @ mid 3K. What's up wit dat? Oh yea... Euro Specs on the valves first...the only way to fly...it's the single best thing you can do to get a Guzzi to run happy. Now to suffer the slings and arrows........

Docc..... Sputtered out?? Or light came on? It's the 4.6 gals to fill that gets me. That means you had at least 1/2 gal. of usable gas in there. I put 5.2 gals in once. Who knows...every one of these things is "unique". I've got a good one. Must have been built before lunch. The paint never flaked, the spring never failed, the relays never failed, I get decent mileage, ..... (knocking on my desk like Gene Krupa ...I do believe in spooks...I do believe in spooks )

Yup....I did 198 one day last year. On the slab, consistent 80mph, summer. Mr.tripple.. When I'm in the Guzzi grove and having fun (most of the time) I throttle hard away from a stop sign or any time I get in the lower gears just to shake rattle and roll (just to get the Guzzi grin) then shut it down once I'm doing 60 or 70. (traffic congestion permitting). Most of the time I'm just riding, keep it between 4K and 5K Rs. maybe winding it to 7k or so out of the corners for a gear. A lot of the time I'm feeling frisky and don't let it drop below 5K Rs Sometimes the fangs come out and it doesn't get below 5.5K and is between 6K & 7K a lot. I imagine on the track it would stay between 6.8 and 7.8 where the power is. In my experience good aggressive cornering is incumbent upon being @ the RPMs where if you let off the gas its like hitting the brakes or if you throttle it the front end gets lite. On a Guzzi thats almost anywhere from 4k to 7k Thats why I love 'em

Paul...fear not. Your gonna be real happy when you get it right. It sure sounds like the Adj. I ended up just searching on "acorn nut" ...you'll see what I mean when you read >>> http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...ic=5866&hl= Good luck...have fun. ( I cut a wrench and an allen to do it on the fly and 1/8 turn may be too much at a time)

Thanks all.. First off..I didn't include the fact that I've noticed this before. Just not this drastic. Which will be of importance latter... My 2 favorite explanations. (in no particular order) Guzzimotos : Evaporation of winter blend. I haven't rode half as much as usual this winter...ergo...the gas has had longer to evap between rides. Pete Roper : Yup...an ok convecting temp sensor may get me ok mpg in the summer but not so much in the winter. It's warming up so we'll see what the next tank or 3 get and report back. I've been getting a good 40+ mpg since crossing the 20K mark. Something for you guys getting less to consider...among other things. Thanks to everyone.

My fuel light is coming on early by about 30mi (@ 125-130mi) Do ya suppose this is just winter gas? I often rationalized that the denser air would give higher mileage but I can see that may be only true w/ carbs. Maybe with the cold days my temp sensor doesn't come up to normal opp temps too. I HATE getting under 40mpg.!!

Oo Oo Oo (Dragging my knuckles into the conversation. ) Being a world famous bearing chef ( I like 'em fried in yak fat with a little garlic) I say over torquing is my favorite method of cooking 'em up to that nice glazed blue perfection that will keep your friends talking about it for decades. As you get proficient at it you can tighten just enough to ensurer dinner is done just as you reach the furtherest destination of your trip. I've managed this twice in nearly 40 years and I'm sure it will be engraved on my head stone. (with a hammer and screw driver by my friends) First time was in 199? on the Prince Edward Island bridge on a CBR and there was a lot of joking about tightening the axle per length of trip. Last time it was on the Guzzi and no matter what I said about fromunda cheese spacers I was voted guilty of over torquing~~again~~ and had to go to remedial torque school and be re-certified by a panel of my drunken, taunting, anal BMW driving piers. I arrived at the shop armed with a new set of bearings, torque specs and a 12 pack of IPA. Replaced the offending bearings and torqued the axle back on to my normal SAE / chimpanzee method. Then the panel of orangutans each armed with their own TW checked my ball park tightening against the specs. I was in fact nominally over tight but we were all amazed at how low the specs were so we must have been going by the 22 ft lbs. For the rest of the evening we played "how close can you come to the specs w/o the TW?" which harkens back some 25 years ago when we used to blindfold ourselves and play "name that part" when someones tranny or carburetor was apart on the bench. What's my point? Either I forgot or I never had one except that wheel bearings and gorillas bring up wonderful memories of side splitting fun and camaraderie. I now go with 40lb. chimp torque instead of 60lb. chimp and haven't lost the axle nut yet and I continue to alarm, distress and amuse my friends. Things would be different if any of them had beaten me on the track back in the day...but they didn't so "nyahhh." I do live in mortal fear of letting them down on a long trip however but we've all had our turn @ it. Nothing a credit card can't cure. And we had a wonderful time with my CBR parked in a good Canadians yard (with a seemingly endless supply of Molson Gold) while 3 guys cruised down to Monkton (!) and had to go to the stripper bar while they waited for the girl to come back from a 5:00 dinner to re-open the Honda shop (!) only to come up with only one of the 2 different bearings. 20 minutes latter we were on the road again. 15 years latter we still laugh about it and that bearing is still on the wall in my shop. Monkeys and bearings, friends and motorcycles...priceless. Our first camping trip of the season is 2 weeks away. 8 of us and the twisty mountain roads of VT. I better grab the duct tape and bailing wire and head out to the shop.

Nice one Skevee... Take note all. I'm always blasting my back brakes with air and pulling 'em off and working them, I just figured it was the unfortunate upside down position loading 'em up with grit and grime. Timely too. I was just about to flush 'em for the season. Kudos for the heads up.

Bloat-o-Glide That'll get a little mileage around the ol' campfire this summer. I gave 6 of them a "Nice day for it huh?" out side a pub I stopped at on our first 70deg. day Thurs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~silence~~~~~~~~ not even a nod. Tough guys on Bloat-o-Glides, bandannas and sneakers..(really) Is there a name for their mental disorder?

It's a Guzzi. Do what you want but your first customizing obligation is to replace all those zeros on your odometer with numbers. God those zeros are ugly!!!! I think a 2 looks really nice in the far left position.

From what I read they're all good. People are real happy with the Mettz Z6s. I liked mine well enough. The Pirelli...I would imagine they're pretty good. My long ridding Beemer friends like the Michelin Pilot whatever (Road?). I'm on my 4th set of Contis. They've never done anything stupid. I think they all get about 7Kmi. I'm waiting on a ride report on GT Johnny's new Avons. The one tire I hear dissed a lot is the BT 020 Never tried 'em...probably never will. I just want one as good as any of the aforementioned that gets more like 10Kmi. I ain't that fussy but I surely hate changing tires. Ha!

Hey JHH... Not to worry. 550 first ride is wayyyy over the top. You'll mold your bones into after a while. I think you said you've been away from riding a while.? I bet there's 2 things at work. 1 Your holding on too tight. (Squeezing the grips more than nesc.) 2. You've got too much weight on the bars. Try loosening your grip if you can and don't lock your elbows. On long trips I also move my butt around...swap cheeks. It not only spares your butt but gives your shoulders, back and arms a break from holding a constant position. The real trick is to do it before you start to ache somewhere. Congrats on the BillyBob...your gonna have a fun summer.

hi JHH and welcome to the asylum.. I'm 5'9...200lbs ..29" inseam and my LeMans fits me like a glove. No matter what you get a 1000mi first trip is going to twist you like a pretzel but after the V11 breaks YOU in you'll be fine. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Yup...If I was at the track I'd be running a different tire...(on a different bike) at lower air pressure..........and if I was racing I'd be buying new tires every 2 or 3 races....... Are we talking about the safest tire to race on the public roads? Ha! .... I run what will get me from here to Cape Bretton and back in good order and carve up some glorious corners on the way. I'm more interested in NOT going through 3 sets of tires a year than running what Joe Rockets running on his track bike. Hey..all through the 70s and 80s I ran Dunlops... I know what it's like to slide a tire around.. I switched to Metzlers finally...and now I run the Contis and have yet to slide them through a corner. It don't matter much to me. All the new tires are much better than back in the day. I've spent a lot of time sliding tires on purpose. Give me a tire that will grip on antifreeze or sand...then ya got something! (or one that's easier to spoon off) Hey...I'm an old school blood and guts caveman. I ride a Guzzi.