callison

Yup. I'm uder the recall. The dealer loves this one - he doesn't have to address the removal or installation at all. I'm not sure that it would be a good idea for everyone to do the same thing though.

Yeah, I've got that leak too. Didn't see it until I finished removing the starter the day I took the transmission to the dealer.

Both. I tried the Megacycle site last August and gave up it was so useless. Looks like they've upgraded.

Hey cool. My tansmission is already in the shop for the cracked case repair and if it's just the last 6 digits that apply, I'm eligible for the upgrade. Me first! Me first! Me first!!! ZGUKRAKR21M113598

I still haven't figured out how to contact Megacycle. Al, give me some info. BTW, I had my heads set up for the 630 in anticipation of getting that cam. Then I wrecked the V11 so all "upgrade" schedules are in limbo.

No. The mounting lug appears to have run up to the early 2001 models. The jury is still out as to whether the extra support will mean anything.

Bill Doll has over 80,000 miles on the shaft in his 97 Sport. I have 57,000 on mine. No problems yet. Regularly greased, they'll probably exceed 100,000 miles.

This is getting weird. Originally, I was certain that all of the Sport 1100i era spine frames had the addtional support, but now you're telling me that the Daytona RS didn't. Obviously, the support eventually was deleted from the later era spine frames, so MG doesn't consider it necessary anymore. It just seems crazy that Daytona RS's and Sport 1100i's being built by hand on the same line would differ on this additional point. More likely, considering MG's lack of quality control at that time, some didn't get the plate. Whether they needed the support for the transmission may have been less of an issue than it might be now. The 5 speed case is very robust. I think I can speak from personal experience when I say that the 6 speed case is less so. When I took the transmission up to the dealer last week so it could be disassembled and the case crack heli-arced, two more cracks were noticed. These were likely the direct result of the accident. These would not be unexpected considering what the transmission case gets exposed to in the way of stress when the frame is tweaked. But the existing crack, which has had me smelling gearbox oil for nearly a year, probably occurs in a location where the case is not as strong as it should be. Hopefully, adding the additional of the support back into the driveline will diminish the likelhood of developing another crack. I also hope that the bracket tames some of the handlebar vibration as an added benefit. I'm months away from getting all of the parts back together. The completely different frame will probably negate the value of any comparison of old and new on my particular bike.

Well, yeah, but I'm not going to take that bike apart just to measure a plate. I have a plate coming from the U.K. along with the Sport 1100i rear seat frame because the V11 Sport is probably going to come back to life as a 6 speed Sport 1100i and not a V11 Sport. Hopefully, I can make it convert between either "species" without too much work if I want. Son of FrankenGuzzi...

I have one shipping from England this week. I'll scan it and get the dimensions posted when it gets here.

In the old days, the crankcase breather vented to atmosphere through a filter. Nowadays, environmental concerns mean the vapors have to be recycled, so Moto Guzzi does the vapor collection in the spine and then routes it back down to the sump on the Sport models or into the valve covers on the California types, where it dribbles down the pushrod tunnels to the sump. The rubber hose used on the Sport models up to the forward underside of the spine is prone to deterioration. The banjo bolt fittings seem to mist a bit, but not much. Keeping them tight is probably enough, but you could try teflon tape at the very bottom of the threads if you're very careful not to get tag ends of the stuff out into the spine area where it might migrate down to the sump. The mesh filter should catch it if it does, but reasonable care should be exercised an any event. The spine volume is about .35 U.S. gallons. There is one Sport 1100i in New Zealand that has the crankcase vapor recovery in a separate container with the spine having been plumbed in parallel with the gas lines to increase the fuel capacity.

Nope. Red. Unknown, and with the buckle in it from the accident, I'll never know.

Scroll to the top of this topic and look at the Sport 1100i spine illustration. Part #15 is a plate that bolts to the lug on the underside of the frame. That's the lug. In the PR photo, the transmission/plate is quite visible. No V11 Sports actually got the plate. Some early V11 Sports did have the spine mounting lug though.

The MGS01 is using a Daytona type motor. 100cc's smaller. From the 97 MG sales brochure: Sport 1100i 1064cc 9.5:1 66 kW (90 CV) at 7800 rpm 95 Nm (9.7 kgm) at 6000 rpm. Daytona RS 992cc 10.5:1 75 kW (102 CV) at 8400 rpm 88 Nm (9 kgm) at 6600 rpm

The shop manual (pages 45-48) says to remove the fork tubes and turn them upside down to drain. Yanking the fork tubes out takes 30-60 minutes. They're not that difficult when you have a good stand (I use Pit Bull stands front and rear). It's not something that has to be done that frequently either (once a year or 12000 miles). Assuming you already have the bike on a stand...: Remove front brake calipers letting them hang free Remove front wheel Remove fender mount bolts Turn the fork legs brake mounts around 180 degrees, drop and remove the fender Loosen the allen head pinch bolts on the bars and the triple tree Gently drive a flat blade screwdriver into each pinch area of the triple tree and bars and slide the fork tubes out If you have a model with the street bars like a Ballabio, it's even easier, no bar mounts to slide the fork tubes through

That picture is the V11 Sport introduction PR shot from a long time ago. I don't have the mounting lug for the forward transmission bracket shown in the photo and I don't have the fairing mount brackets on the steering head either (ALL of the other V11 Sports/LeMans I've looked at have those fairing mounts on the steering head). I suspect that my frame was an in interim model between the 2000-2001 V11 Sports and the LeMans. The vin is ZGUKRAKR21M113598. It is a USA only variant called the TT, that being a silver bike with a black tank and seat cover cowling to make it "special". All fifteen of them. MGNA has no clue as to why this bike has no fairing mount brackets either. Just that "things change".

That's a good question. There are significant changes for everything on that bike compared to current models. I think that the rear shock area will be more akin to that of the Quota but that's a guess. The transmission is shorter in length than the current 6 speed, allowing for a longer swingarm. The engine is further forward in the frame by something like 2 inches, also enhancing the length of the swingarm. The frame has to clear the new alternator, so the direct line of the spine from the shock to the steering head is not possible. It would be nice to see the Breva in something besides mock-up form. Especially as a naked bike sans plastic. As of last November, the wheels were made of plastic as no manufacture of alloy ones had begun yet. I think at that time, no one had even been selected to make them. It could have been worse. The Griso was made of plaster of paris at that time - they should've called that one a "Stone" model.

Mine still has it. It's a later model 2001.

Looks like the original V11 Sport engine concept had the transmission support bracket.

I based my reply on what the Guzzi Land Speed Record Team tried. Personally, I don't think the gains in performance of a super large airbox with forward facing horns will outweigh the loss of esthetics. On a race bike, where form follows function, it makes sense. Tracy's sewer ram air is functionally the same as the intakes found on the Sport 1100's. While the Sport 1100's fairing does provide some improvement, it apparently isn't optimal as DaS MotoTec offers yet another fairing modification to move those inlets and make them larger. From a practical standpoint, endless amounts of money thrown at improving a Guzzi will make it only marginally competitive against the current crop of much less expensive bikes available elsewhere. What I love about my bike(s) is the feel, the sound, and the looks. Performance is really a lesser concern out of the many aspects of owning a Moto Guzzi.

I don't recall reading about anyone having re-shimmed the six speed. In fact, the only person I know of that has had work done on the six speed is Mike Stewart when his failed. The only other one I know of was the cracked case replacement mentioned by Todd Haven. The six speed is totally un-related to the five speed and to date, very few individuals have felt the need to peek inside as they are generally a much better gearbox than their predecessor. Interestingly enough, the original plan for the six speed was to make it a cassette transmission so that the gear sets could be easily changed. That obviously never came to be (along with the VA10 water cooled engine), but the basic four shaft transmission design did come to fruition. Along with any teething problems of a new design. The six speed transmission case is a lot shorter in length than the five speed one and on the Breva 1100, it is shorter still - which means yet another transmission case and maybe another change in the design and arrangements of the internals. Since it is MG's intention to base future big blocks bikes on the Breva 1100 frame, the days of the Tonti frames and our spine frames are numbered. The "V11 Sport" of the near future is going to look quite a bit different than what we're riding around on now.

My seat of the pants evaluation of the Marzocchi/Sachs combo compared to the WP combo of the Sport 1100i is that the WP components are far more compliant. The V11 Sport has always felt more harsh to me than the Sport 1100i. Unfortunately, I will not be able to give a direct replacement evaluation when the WP stuff goes on my V11 Sport because the V11 Sport is not getting a V11 Sport frame as a replacement (that accident in September really messed it up), so it is getting one from a Sport 1100i instead. They're very nearly identical except for the steering head angle and various attachement points for fuel filters etc. The spine length may be different too, but I don't have a way to measure that. Side by side, they look the same though. As far as the steering head angle is concerned, the Sport 1100i's exhibit none of the steering "wandering" at speeds above 100 mph that the V11 Sports do. There are likely a number of things that affect this, frame rigidity, steering head angle, aerodynamics of the bike (the fairing on the Sport 1100i, while not useful for wind protection, does add a measurable amount of down force to the front end of the bike at normal highway speeds), and the tire combination. The Sport 1100i runs a narrower rear tire and an increased steering head angle which makes it very stable, but slow turning. After I get finished putting my bastardized V11 back together, I'll get to experience the differences and I hope to have better answers. When the weather improves, I suspect that the Ohlins crowd (Al and Mike) that live on the other side of the hill (San Francisco bay area) might be induced into swapping bikes around to ascertain the differences between stock V11 suspension, WP stuff and Ohlins. FWIW, the standard V11 Sport fork tubes from MGNA list for $1470 USD a pair. The WP's list at $3400. I would certainly hope the higher price equates to better quality and performance.

Unless you're going to add a blower to actually pressurize the box, you won't see any significant (or perhaps any discernable) difference. Even a ram air setup won't provide any benefits until you're well up in the triple digit mph range, not useful for street driving in any form. The only passive things that can be done are to reduce the impediment to air flow and providing a larger plenum for the throttle bodies to draw from. There isn't a larger plenum then the great outdoors though, so theoretically, the pods are superior to the airbox. The airbox might be technically superior for weather resistance and noise though. I used to run foam sox on my RD-350. When it rained, they'd get soaked to the point where I would have to stop, reach down, and squeeze the water out. On my R65, even with a stock airbox, in heavy downpour, the element would get wet and I would have to stop by the side of the road, remove the air filter and squeeze it out before the bike would run. The airbox design on the V11 Sport/Sport 1100's doesn't allow for this to happen, which a technical plus if you ride in inclement weather. The downside is resonance and a lack of volume. The Sport 1100's (carburated) were notorious for a flat spot because of ae resonance in the airbox. The same airbox performs better on the Sport 1100i's only because EFI can be programmed to accomodate the resonance (not that MG did a very good job in this regard) but the resonance still affects performance. If the airbox were larger, the resonance problem would probably not occur, but making a large airbox on a motorcycle is a nasty engineering challenge. Because of requirements to accommodate noise regulations, EFI etc, airboxes have grown in size, typically sculpting their addtional volume out of the gas tank volume. Hence, reduced range on modern bikes because the fuel tank capacity is diminished.

They must have bounced. I'll give you my standard email address through this forums mail mechanism.

Do some web surfing for Swindon roundabout or variations thereof. One site has diagrams on how to use the darn thing. There about 5 of these in England. Better there than here...