callison

I have 57,000 miles on my 97 Sport 1100i which is basically the same engine. My valve stems were the worst Mike Rich had ever seen. My 2001 V11 Sport TT on other hand, has 28,000 and shows no signs of problems. Now it's just wait and see.

I ran my V11 Sport for about 10,000 miles with Mistrals and no PCIII. No problem.

Pivot pin, otherwise known as: Ducati 000046664 Brake Lever Axle $5.50 I'm not even going to try and guess how long it would take to get this from MGNA (2+ months???) or how much it would cost, but there's no way MGNA gets my money for these types of parts anymore.

Dark gray, lever only. Pivot shows some wear on original part, so I rotated it 180 degrees. No matter, if I need a new one, I'll order it from Ducati where the price will be reasonable.

That's how I did mine. I've long since pulled the photos from my posting, but I can dig them up if someone is really interested.

Well, if you're going to get a GB in California, you'd better do it quick! CALIFORNIA DMV TO ALLOW DIRT/ STREET 'CONVERSIONS. FOR A WHILE... Under pressure from the AMA and other motorcyclists' advocacy groups, the Department of Motor Vehicles will allow street registration of some dirt bikes, up until early next year. Under the new arrangement, you'll have to buy the bike by the end of this year, and begin the paperwork at the DMV before Feb I of '04. The change affects any bike from the 1978 model year to present, but if the bike is '03 or newer, it can't be a noncompliant (ie, red sticker) bike. Bikes earlier than '78 will always be eligible for street conversion, and bikes already wearing license plates will be allowed to keep them. In July, the DMV abruptly decided that, because dirt bikes built after '78 weren't in compliance with street bike emissions rules that went into effect then, they could no longer be registered as street bikes. An outpouring of outrage from several groups as well as thousands of individuals caused them to reconsider. ------------- On a more positive note, it will become legal to wear standard foam earplugs in California on January 1st, 2004.

Okay, okay. So I'm a cheap bastard... I went to my local Ducati/Buell dealer (some combo eh?) and bought some Ducati parts to put the V11 Sport back together. 45610081A LH Footrest $29.39 45610101A RH Footrest $29.39 62610031A Lever,Clutch/Brake $25.99 And a Buell turn signal: Y0504.02A8 Turn Signal, RH/Front $5.28 A Napolean bar end mirror $30.95 and there was a shop discount on all of this stuff as well. The footrests will fit right on if the spring is left off, otherwise, some modification is needed. The Buell turn signal likewise requires some modification if you're going to substitute for the Guzzi one. The mirror get's the Mike Stewart treatment to mount it on the hand lever pivot pin (Thanks Mike! - much more effective mirror set-up than the CRG's). An unused Marchesini 3.5x17 wheel and some used brake disks off of eBay coupled with Al's forks mean that the V11 Sport could be on the road within a few weeks. Sooner, if the parts show up.

Didja take any photos?

The loudest Fiamm horns available do more than impress dogs.

$200? They don't even cost that brand new. From TLM: 014300000012" CENTER STAND V11SPORT Eu 144.82 $170.65 (exhange rate 24/10/03) I popped $100 for mine on eBay. Just finished mounting it on the Sport 1100i about an hour ago. Springs are a nuisance...

You absolutely do not want exert pressure on the sump in the vicinity of the oil filter cap. The casting is very thin there. A wooden cradle, as suggested above, seems like a very good approach.

I know I've removed mine once, but can't quite recollect the process. I know I did go and buy and inner gear puller of dubious quality. Although it was the right type and size of tool, the gap on the spacer/bearings was too small for the teeth of the puller. I think I did the screwdriver thing, which opened up the gap enough for the gear puller.

Absolutely. If the EPA were to have it's way, the port would be so small you couldn't flow anything through it, thereby stopping the engine and all possibility of pollution! It should be interesting to watch the details of the Breva 1100 unfold. There are two injectors per head and stepper motors are mentioned in the specs, but no mention of where. The only application for stepper motors I know of for motorcycles have to do with exhaust systems as in the new Buell adaptive muffler. This, to me, means that the intake ports have the stepper motors. This would be a logical application. There are two injectors, one small and one large, just like the primary and secondary ports on multi-barrel carbs. At low rpms, the stepper motor would mask the large injector and it's port runner to keep intake charge velocity high and improve combustion efficiency and reduce pollution. At higher rpms, the ECU would tell the stepper motors to unmask the large injector in response to engine demands. As the current engine is configured, at low rpms, the charge velocity is quite slow, which is a bad thing. Your Ducati guy could be right, but the evidence doesn't support his statement. A correctly ported Guzzi runs better than a stock one. Guzzi engines also have a terrible squish band that contribute to their inefficiency, so changing the pistons also helps. As does a cam, a bore job, a stroker crank... Look, it's an antiquidated, push-rod engine (not as antique as a Harley though), or as Mike Rich puts it - "An overgrown lawn mower engine". It should respond to the same kind of backyard, shade tree mechanic engine modifications as any stock car race engine. Speed is not just measured in units of distance per unit of time but also in cubic yards of money invested. Ducati's are already optomised so heavily from the factory (and priced accordingly) that there is little benefit for them in addtional porting etc. unless they're actually going racing. That may have affected your Ducati buddies evaluation a bit. Guzzi's obviously aren't in the same class, so there should be more latitude for improvement.

The additional damage from the sloppy valve stems and loose rocker bushings brought my total to $1610. I sent the heads in in April and got them back in late September. Mike is one busy guy. He has to lose a lot of time just to phone calls from customers though as he likes to explain in detail and shoot the breeze as well. He loves Guzzi owners, we're very patient. Probably something learned from dealing with MGNA while waiting for parts...

Here's a stand eBay Center Stand for Sport/Daytona

About that "Alternative View", I'll just leave it to the people with experience and not try to improve my hardware with verbage. There are simply too many variables in improving engine performance to be as didactic as this guy. Pick your tuner based upon his experience and track record. The Guzzi LSR bikes sported RaceCo ported heads the first year. They went fast. The second year, the same head ported by Mike Rich. They went much faster. There's always much more to it than that, but there is definitely an advantage to having someone that is really good at his craft involved.

Reg and green lines (lower) are flow rates before the port job, the upper lines are after, and there is no "Best V11" baseline on the plot, that's just part of the program text for the computer graphics. Someday I'm going to actually put these heads back on the bike.

Sure. Anywhere that they'll clamp tightly. Take a look at some of the Bonneville bikes sometime. Clipons all the way to the bottom of the triple tree.

I had mine do that once too. One backfire and the throttle body popped out of the rubber mount to the cylinder head. Still injects fuel, but has no control over the air coming in through the gap so it just runs. Weirdly, but it runs.

Sigmas have a wireless kit as well, but I've heard that they work very poorly in the motorcycle environment. I wonder how the Speed Zone version fares.

The Sigma BC800 has all of the same features, is at least splash resistant, is good to 183 mph and cost about $13 these days (Nashbar). Too bad they aren't lit. I have a hokey looking white LED aimed down at mine from a coat hanger wire support. There is a place in Germany that repackages them (Sigmas) into a handlebar mount thing for the big Harleys. Kind of awful to take such a small elegant design and make it suitable for a garbage truck, but at least they did get it lit as I recall.

I hear ya Mike! Have a good time at the rally - I won't be going. Drat! Ya wanna haul down the infamous CD T-Shirt? Just kidding, the logistics to get it to your house are a bit extreme for that. Think I'll save it for the next Prescott Rally. Maybe the guy who donated it the first time around will get it back.

That's $207 USD. Not too bad compared to the price we pay in the USA, which is $264 for the same part. Still a major rip-off though, considering the nearly identical HD part is $50 in th U.S.

Overkill. The Sport 1100i has TWO of these spine to sump return lines.

I have a Daytona RS fairing and the front fairing sub-frame I was going to use on my V11 Sport TT. Then I discovered that my particular V11 Sport is one of those that do not have the fairing attachment lugs on the steering head. So I put that project on hold. Then I wrecked the bike - mildly, but the damage estimate is nearly $6000 at the local Buell shop, of which only about $600 is labor, so it will probably get the totalled tag (along with a salvage title). I'm hoping to fix the bike and not go the totalled route, otherwise, it will probably donate drivetrain and rear end to my Bugswatter. At this point, I'm not certain what I'll be doing with the Daytona RS fairing and the mount.