callison

It's too common. Aim a heat lamp at it over night and drive the moisture out (not too close!). Don't use a hair dryer or something really hot. When you think it's really dried out, wrap a dry towel around it while it cools and hope the towel traps any moisture that might make its way in. Honestly, I don't know which way the moisture gets into these things, but it does and it's irritating. Maybe the faceplate isn't as tight to the gasket as it could be and a tad bit of clear rtv rubbed into the bezel periphery might stop the moisture intrusion.

Nobody is going to ding you if you drive over Mike. If it's wet and dangerous, you do the safe thing so you can ride later. We're going to drive over from Modesto. A lack of riding gear will probably mean we'll sit in the back and try not to look like poseurs...

"Cold hearted orb that rules the night Robs the colors from our sight Red is grey, and yellow white But we decide which is right And which is an illusion" Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin I have white LED's for my instrument lighting. They're actually a very, very light blue. Kind of peaceful, yet spooky, like a 1000 rad Cobalt 60 source under 10 meters of water. Really. We have one at work. No swimming allowed...

The beauty of this is that Mike, Al, Joe and anybody else local with a V11 Sport and I can get all of these bikes together to compare more directly. That should cover stock V11 LeMans/Sport suspensions, Penske, Ohlins and WP. What a combo. Bet it doesn't happen till spring though.

Oh good!!! Lucas "Prince of Darkness" electrics added to Moto Guzzi wiring! This seems, er, somewhat counter-productive to me.

Not yet. Still checking with some of the more likely dealers in the USA.

The early Daytonas had no zerk fittings on their exposed shafts. Some failed. Catastrophically (ask Rex Marsee about his 100+ mph trip on the pavement). The lawyers obviously come into play at this point, so the manual is EXTREMELY conservative, despite the fact that the new design can be lubed (but not easily). There are Sport 1100i's out there with 80,000+ miles on the original shaft. Keep it lubed and if you really get curious as to whether you feel a vibration (right footpeg) that is suspicious, you can get the bike up to speed, put in neutral, kill the engine and assess the vibration mode. Chances are, it will go away. If not, and you have been lubing the shaft on a regular basis like you're supposed to, check the wheel bearings for wear. That's exactly how I determined I had bad wheel bearings and not a shaft problem. 57,000+ miles on the Sport 1100i, 30,000+ miles on the V11 Sport. No shaft problems. Every other kind imaginable at the moment, but not the shaft.

Good work Mike. Now if I could get my hands on the timing cover for a V11 Sport (none in the USA at present), I could fix the silly thing and try out a complete set of WP stuff for comparison. Unfortunately, it looks like there will be no parts available until spring.

The whole instrument cluster weighs in the neiborhood of four pounds or less. If you never plan on selling the bike and therefore do not need an odometer reading, then by all means ditch the speedometer. You will notice a lack of oil pressure in your wallet before you will notice it by feel - because by then it's too late. Idiot lights are nice, I like the purty kolors... You are obligated by vehicle code to have a high beam indicator and probably turn signal indicators as well. Without the cluster, you will have a bunch of wires with no good place to stuff them. So, IMHO, it's a pointless effort to remove the cluster. There are other instrument panels available from after market sources, primarily in Germany, so you might want to do research along those lines.

I think MG built something like 6000 bikes or less in 1999-2000. 680 would probably represent the entire production of V11 Sports in that case. I recall that the highest number of Sport 1100's produced in one year was about 1400 and that was on a model already in production, not ramping up as the V11 Sport was. For that matter, I doubt that MG has sold more than a couple of thousand V11 Sports/LeMans/variants in the USA since the introduction of the V11 Sport based series.

September 18th, just leaving my driveway and getting up to about 20 mph, I looked down to check my speed and in that portion of a second, my neighbor backed out of his driveway at 15 mph and right into me. I only got 210 feet from my house. Bent forks, front wheel, destroyed fender, broken brake lever, pedal and footpeg, mirror, bent brake disk etc. Massive bruises and some good scrapes. And now, 2000 miles after the repair, the motor mounts have shown the long term effects. At the impact, the front wheel came all of the way into the motor. I might have a sprung front sub-frame that is placing stress on the mounts, I don't know, and won't until after I have detached the timing gear cover and taken some measurements. This is the first bike I've ever bothered to put back together after an accident. Obviously, there are some details that have to monitored. The bike never felt squirrely or anything else, except that I thought the crappy feel of the forks was the LeMans forks I put on the bike. That could still be true, but I now have a complete set of WP components off of a Sport 1100i, so those go on along with whatever repairs are done to the front cover. Since it looks majorly fractured and there are chunks out of it, I'm electing to replace it and not chase after traveling cracks or anything. Unfortunately, MGNA is doing inventory, so nothing can be done for a while through my local dealer. I will be checking in with some other well known dealers though, to see if they have the parts and can ship them to me. I literally need only four parts, the engine mount bolt and lock washer, timing cover and it's gasket. Not too big of a deal as long as the sub-frame isn't bent. At least I have other bikes nearby to check against.

The dramatic thing about digital cameras and photo editing software is that you can heighten contrast, change lighting or whatever is necessary to show something like cracks in engine mounts.

Maybe we should all do that...

Just bringing over some info from the MGNOC forum. http://www.piercemanifolds.com/products.htm The Guzzi type TPS (Weber Marelli PF3C) is $110 through these guys, which is less than half the price MG or Ducati gets for them in the USA, but still about twice the price of a Harley PF4C. Still, it's an improvement.

Well, I gotta get it home before I take pictures, but I will do that because it's so "interesting" to look at. Well, whaddya know... while I'm sitting here, the WP forks and rear shock have shown up. Good time to uh, take a bike apart, you know? I wonder how fast I can get a new timing cover and gasket. Jeez, all I need are four parts. It's not major surgery either, the hardest part is to pull the alternator.

Probably a week. Or more. Too long. And I didn't spot it. A Guzzi with hanging tits :-) rider did. I might owe him my life. Scary.

Having just gone outside to look at the fractures in the case, I'm inclined to go with your suggestion.

Might be the front engine mount bolt that's gone missing because your front engine case has cracked at both front mounts. Rats! Looks like the V11 Sport is out of commission yet again! Now if I can just make it home in one piece...

That is a pretty good article on starter repair.

Well, John, at this point you're probably looking at replacing the starter or repairing it, dependent upon your mechanical ability and willingness to obtain parts or look for a shop to repair it (which is what I recommend). I think you've probably pretty much eliminated everthing else, but you can certainly check the solenoid by hooking a wire to it and touching the other end to the plus battery terminal, preferably with a fuse in series, but all you would be doing is confirming what you already more than suspect is the problem. Okay, a replacement starter is the easiest choice, but not cheap. What are your options? Number one. DO NOT order one from your Guzzi dealer, the list price through MG is more than double (more like triple) the purchase price. Since you're on the big offshore island off of the continent, U.S. parts options are not something that my providing will do you any good. But - Valeo starters are pretty common and you should be able to shop around locally for a shop that can replace or rebuild the starter. It's a pretty simple thing to replace a solenoid, and should not be very expensive. You will have to remove the starter and haul it down to wherever the work is done, but the starter is not terribly difficult to remove. Unhook the negative terminal wires from the battery, then the positive wires and then remove all of the connections on the starter, remove the two mounting bolts and slide it aft, and out. Voila, you're ready to take it somewhere. I can't imagine that a solenoid is not available somewhere or that a shop cannot be found that will not repair it, but just in case, there are alternatives. If you can't find a place that will repair it, post again to that effect and I'll post one or two places in the U.S. that sell starters or parts for these things. It just seems ridiculous to look them up at the moment when the starter is built in France anyway. Don't let them tell you you have to replace the entire starter, you do that when the magnets in the housing detach or the gears wear out. Magnets might happen on a bike this new (from trying to continuously start a bike with problems - don''t ask me how I know...), but I'll pretty much guarantee that gears do not. The only way to actually bugger the gears up is to try and push the bike in gear while pushing the start button. Guess who tried that little stunt?

It's working without problems on mine. Hose re-routed so it doesn't crimp itself shut. OF course, it hasn't been above 60 degrees F since I did it either.

Comment? Sure, but... it's very dependent upon what type of light you have. I find the stock V11 Sport light quite good. I commute over 11 miles of twisties every night at midnight. I find the stock light to be sufficient. And I'm not traveling slow either. Narrowing down the projected beam on that road would be counter productive. I have a Sport 1100i with the rectangular headlamp. The beam pattern on that headlight is so bad that the PIAA bulb actually adds to the usefulness of the headlight pattern. What I really need is the motorcycle helmet dreamed up for the movie "Timerider".

Neither could I, since I didn't say it to begin with. Look at the top of the post. I attributed it to it's source, Daniel Stern (http://lighting.mbz.org/). He makes for interesting reading. I only posted a part that was germane to this thread. Don't expect to go to his web site for the FAQ though, it is not currently posted as it is being "updated". I do have it on my hard disk from a while back though.

From Daniel Sterns FAQ on lighting: PIAA's wattage equivalence claims ("55w = 85w", etc.) are very misleading. They cannot be verified with proper laboratory equipment, and they CERTAINLY aren't true when compared with real overwattage bulbs on the road. Here's the full scoop: CLAIM: PIAA "SuperWhite" bulbs produce 85W of light from 55W of electricity REALITY: PIAA "Superwhite" bulbs produce exactly the same amount of light as any other bulb in a given bulb format (9004, 9005, 9006, H4, etc.), plus-or-minus 15 percent (which is the US FMVSS 108 Part 564 tolerance for variations in luminous intensity from headlamp bulbs). The "55W = 85W" type claims are a sham. Here's how these kinds of pretend wattage numbers are cooked-up: The filaments in PIAA "Superwhite" bulbs are wound on a larger mandrel than regular filaments, so there are fewer filament coils, of a larger diameter. When these bulbs' luminous intensity is measured using the appropriate device (called an integrating sphere), they come up within the FMVSS 108 Part 564 tolerance range for whatever bulb type is being tested--no more. (If they didn't, they would not be permitted to be marked DOT, and they are, so they do.) When a bulb with such a modified filament stack is placed in a headlamp, the different dimensions of the filament alter the beam pattern. In most US-specification headlamps, what this does is reduce the size of the central "hot spot" of the beam and put more light in it, while taking away light above, below, to the left and to the right of the hot spot. Then the PIAA marketeer comes up with his light meter, sticks it in the hot spot of the beam, and says "Nifty! The hot spot is almost as bright as it would be with an 85W bulb!" and rushes off to order-up a new batch of boxes festooned with "55W = 85W" banners. Then Mr. Consumer comes along, plunks-down some $70 (!!) for a pair of these bulbs, puts them in, and though his headlamps look "whiter", he has just screwed himself. How? Well, the reason why many people find many US-specification headlamps in need of upgrading is because many US-spec headlamps have insufficient foreground light, which creates a "black hole" on the road in front of the car. There's often insufficient lateral light (left and right) to see critters or people before they run into the road. The "hot spot" creates a narrow tunnel of light that disappears "out there somewhere". By making the hot spot smaller, this narrow tunnel of light gets smaller. By taking away (already scarce) light from the foreground and sides, the situation is made worse. CLAIM: PIAA "Superwhite" bulbs produce light that is whiter and brighter than regular bulbs. REALITY: It is a mistaken notion that "whiter" and "yellower" qualities in the white light of a headlamp have any direct link to the amount or usability of the light. PIAA capitalizes on that mistaken notion to sell their bulbs. The "higher light color temperature" trumpeted by PIAA is created by a purplish-tinted glass bulb globe. It's not a dichroic coating like the "diamond blue" junk, but it is a tint, and as such physically must subtract from the available light. Remember, color temperature is independent of the amount of light, and there is absolutely *zero* evidence that light of a higher color temperature is better than light of a lower color temperature for driver performance at night. A 4-watt flashlight bulb dipped in the purple coating applied to Piaa "Superwhite" bulbs would look "whiter", but produce less light. And so it is with these headlamp bulbs. People seem to have the notion that the eye is more sensitive to light of higher color temperature. This is probably as a result of claims made by car salesmen trying to sell HID headlamps more than anything else; it's false. The eye is not more sensitive to the blue cast created by the subject bulbs. There have been several studies done showing improved driver performance (due to improved vision at night) with headlamps of LOWER color temperature (less blue, more yellow). Color perception is much better under lower color temperatures (within the IEC "white" boundaries, of course), and the acuity of the human eye is really quite lousy under light colors that even begin to approach "blue". CLAIM: "I've got pictures that prove the brightness difference!" REALITY: You have proof of nothing. Not only can photographs not accurately record or represent the intensity of a lamp or beamcaster, but photos placed on the web are even less true to reality. At best, what you have is something of an illustration of the color difference between the regular bulb and the "Superwhite". BOTTOM LINE: The laws of physics are the laws of physics. They don't bend even for PIAA's advertising department. There is no way to get "85 watts of light for 55 watts of electricity", unless the light meter you use happens to go spastic when hit with blue-tinted light. There is no seeing advantage to these "Superwhite" ("ultrawhite", "hyperwhite", etc.) bulbs, and quite often a disadvantage. They aren't as bad as the "ion blue" junk used by poseur kids who want to pretend they have HID headlamps, but they're not magical.

There aren't a lot of things in the starter circuit, but there are a couple of simple things that can be checked. BTW, the ECU doesn't need to be plugged in to check the start circuit, so if you don't want to run the fuel pump etc, you can just unplug the ECU connector. This is an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY IF THE FUEL TANK IS REMOVED! Just thought you all would like to know. Remove the spade terminal electrical connection to the starter solenoid on the starter and try the starter circuit again. If the fuse does not blow, you have eliminated the starter switch, relay and clutch switch as parts of the problem and the starter becomes the likely problem. Re-connect the starter solenoid wire. The next easiest step is to bypass the starter relay, so pop that off and use a short jumper wire to connect socket pins 30 and 87. If the starter works, then the next step is the starter relay itself. Substitute one of the other relays for it and see if the starter problem persists. If it does, the relay is not in question. The clutch switch is not a real likely culprit unless the wires from it are caught under the gas tank mount, so that would be the next check. There is also a very small possibility that the clutch switch wires have been compromised somewhere along the path to the clutch handle. You can check this without a meter by unplugging the clutch switch connectors (under the tank) and using a short jumper of wire in the non-clutch switch connectors to jumper them together, bypassing the clutch switch. Try the starter, if the fuse does not blow now, then the problem is the clutch switch. If the fuse does blow, that pretty much limits the problem to the last thing in the chain, and that's the starter switch on the handlebar. I think I have all of this right. Remember to disconnect the ECU if you have open gas lines, that way the fuel pump will not energize when the bike ignition is turned on. Alternatively, you can just remove fuse #1, but I like to ensure that the ECU is out of circuit and can't get clobbered.