Janusz

You can still buy it at any newsstand I am sure.It is a yearly special magazine published by Cycle World. Its title is SPORTBIKE 2003. They issued SPORTBIKE last year too. Editorial and main ad office is located in Newport Beach CA ph. 949 - 7205300. I see it still on the newsstands in BC. There are three bikes on the cover: Ducati 999, Aprillia and a H***a. Basically you take all the dampers down to zero and then take a series of test rides, then bump gradually rebound only test riding after every change. Then compression but only what you really need, then adjust rebound again. But there is much more then that. Finally I REALLY understand what it is all about. If you understand what is going on it is so much easier and fun. Buy the magazine, Al and everybody.

I weigh 230 lbs + gear and my bike never impressed me too much with its handling. It was good but never on par with Jap rockets which I've owned before. I ride fast and hard on the street and we have some great twisty roads around. So I increase preload. Two turns, then three. Played with damping. Ended up with a set up which seemed to be the best compromise: forks 12 and 14 clicks, rear rebound 28, compr. 22. Still no cigar. Then, following some knowledgable guys on this board, I bought and installed harder springs from Lindemann. Definite improvement. But bike still had some head wobble on occasion and was difficult to control when really pushed. I thought only Ohlins or some other expensive route will be needed. Then I came across Sportbike 2003 magazine, a Cycle World special, and found an excellent article on handling and suspension by Kevin Cameron (thank you Kevin, you are the best by a countrymile). Seemed nothing extraordinary, supposedly things we all alredy know there, but written so well thet I could not resist; I went back to square one and started to follow Kevin advices to the letter. Eureka! My bike is transformed! It is hard to believe, really. It handles like a dream. My favourite stretch of canyons which I was riding mainly in 4-th gear I can do now in 5th! It so much faster and effortless. Just for the record I ended up with: Front: R-+8, C-+7 Rear : R-+20, C-+12 So I was way overdamped after all.

Yeah, but what bike is it, Cali?

I have an official Moto Guzzi V11 Sport parts manual for 2001 with every part numbered, described and pictured. The fuel filter # above is correct. I will have no trouble to look up any part # you want. Air filter # is 30 11 36 00

That would be true only in case of older Guzzis which do not have a filter. A stock filter is more then enough for 10,000 km.

No, Al.

If you want to be a skeptical you might say that he only possibly made more profit on a cheap oil.

The long trip is the least taxing on the oil. If you do mostly long trips you might as well prolong the intervals between oil changes but for sure not shorten. It always amuses me when somebody doubts a factory official recommendation. Look, Moto Guzzi uses and recommends a fully synthetic oil in new bikes changed every 10,000 km. You will never make a mistake if you follow that. I challenge anybody to show ONE documented case when following manufacturers advise caused a failure. The ONLY conclusive and sure thing to PROVE the best oil change interval is an oil analysis. Based on these most big OTR rigs change oil every 100,000 on average and run for milions of miles on modern synthetic oils. On my diesel car I change a quality synthetic every 25,000 km BASED ON OIL ANALYSIS. The engine works extremely hard, hot and at over 20/1 compression. Paying a little extra or even double for a good quality real synthetic (no semi synthetic gimmic) is an excellent economy; these oil are vastly superior. And MG factory, again, recommends the synthetic (not semi) for use. The oils today, all of them, are so much better then even 10 years ago that all the rules our fathers taught us about oil changes HAVE NO MERIT. Our engine is a low revving (my Miata has higher redline for God's sake) traditional engine with a separately oiled and cooled transmission and clutch. Of course that a statement like that : "my XYZ had oil changed every 1,000 miles and run for gazilion miles with no problem" might be true but proves absolutely nothing. Frequent changes will not hurt you at all. Only your pocket.

My dealer has a collection of these after people replaced them with aftermarket cans. He offered me a pair for next to nothing. Good stuff.

I am the one of a very few or maybe even the only one who actually PREFERS the clean and elegant looks of the factory cans so drilling idea was very appealing to me. The drilling process was already well discussed on this forum. It would be the best if you use a "search" function and find it; it is very detailed and includes pictures. Let me just add additional information. I found that if you just drill no matter how many holes and put the end cover back in place you just revert yourself back to stock sound and performance. Without the cover (you would never leave it like that so it was only for scientific purposes) and with a multitude of holes drilled (more then 10 on each side) the sound is very loud, seems almost unmuted and reminds a Harley with open pipes (yuck). The way originator of this idea (sorry, forgot who was it) dealt with this problem was cutting off the sticking section of a middle small diameter pipe and thus creating a large opening in the end cover. This not only left the middle pipe unsupported at the end but also would leave the exhaust still too loud and unrestricted IMO. I just installed the finishing plates back in place and started drilling small 1/4" holes directly in them. First one on each side - no, not enough. Then two - better but need some more. So I ended with three holes each. The sound is great, surely better and deeper then any aftermarket pipe I've heard so far. The performance DID NOT SUFFER for sure. One more observation: I left my bike completely stock for first 15,000 km. There is no question that a STOCK bike changes very significantly; the performance improves a lot and, more importantly for this topic, the sound of the exhaust surely deepens and grows in volume.I would never attempt to modify any new vehicle before it is fully broken in and for sure not the Guzzi being famous for its personality metamorphosis when fully broken in. I have now a Ferraci open box, K&N filter, Stucci X-over, drilled cans and Power Commander with weeks of tweaking (I love that thing and being able to play God with your bike). The bike rides like a rabid bat and sounds like no other bike does. And looks completely unmolested.

That would be really funny since the factory fills the tranny with synthetic and the recommended oil quoted in an owner's manual is synthetic too.

Rich, I formed exactly the same opinion years ago; applies to all my bikes and cars as well. I took it one more step ahead to the only logical conclusion - I always buy my vehicles new (just like it that way) and take care of all the maintenance and service SINCE DAY ONE. I treat the warranty only as the replacement parts generator when needed. Even on my new VW diesel where the service during warranty period was free I would not let the mechanics touch my vehicle. The service manager would hand me an oil, filters etc., stamp the warranty book and happily send me on my way. In my opinion dealers generate more problems then solutions with their generally sloppy and careless attitude. Just reading some other people's horror stories makes me sick. I was always very satisfied with that decision and I am sure you would be too.

My advice (and no,I do not have a black engine so it is easy for me ) is: 1 - take one of the accesories options and, 2 - sandblast your cases clean and spray with alu paint to have pre '03 look. This way you will end up with this showcase beautiful engine properly exposed like it should be plus some nice accessories.

Okay Smart Guy! Mine's not green anyway, nor is it a "Goldmember"!!! Forget the member, that sex with farm animals arouses more of my interest in a snobish way.

Sorry fo saying that, but your point is moot. Say, you're riding one day nice and slowly on your familiar road. It was sunny an hour ago but now light rain developed so you turned around and start heading for home. Suddenly a kid runs out of a driveway chasing a ball. You brake hard and try to swerve. Your tire almost slides but you recover. Here. You not only approached but even touched your tire limit without any intention to do so. Had you bought a little bit lesser tire you'd smashed your bike, injured yourself and maybe even somebody's kid.

The last thing I would try to save some buck would be the tires. There is nothing more crucial to your safety then tires, no matter how slow and carefully you might ride your bike. I always buy the best tires available. On any bike. If during the lifetime of riding they saved my skin or life only once I consider it was a good deal. The front/rear set of BT010 cost below $200 US delivered to your front door. How much saving is your life worth? I'd rather economize and save on oil, dealer fees, insurance, engine, fancy adorments etc. etc.

I bet you did not take stiction into consideration Gio. See my post at the suspension setting thread. Had you done it your averaged sag would be less, I am sure. I would advice you to replace the springs with the heavier ones before you decide to play with the spacers and risk the soft spring binding. If yoy still insist on installing longer spacers that will obviously decrease your sag and increase the ride height. Then if you raise the forks at the same time you will DECREASE the ride height so you have to deduct not add.

You're just about right Baldini, do not worry. There is quite pronounced stiction on the front forks, in my case 1.25cm with the rider on. To be exact you have to allow for it. The best way is to measure "upper" and "lower" position of your fork with the rider on and take an average (midpoint) measurments to calculate your sag. You took only "lower" measurments for your front sag calculation, I bet. My sag carefully and properly measured was 35.5 mm on the front forks (I am a heavy 230lbs man) and 48 mm rear stock bike. My son (156 lbs) sag was 33 mm rear which was just about what you want. I had to preload rear spring three full turns to decrease sag (should change into heavier spring really) and installed heavier springs in the forks (1.05) just few days ago which is a proper thing to do. Rear sag decreased to 39 mm now and front I still have to measure. But the handling improved tremendously mainly due to proper front springs. PS. The rear stiction iis so small that almost negligible in my case.

I can't believe nobody mentioned the best tire for v11 family of bikes ; 010. For narrower rim 160/60, wider rim 170/60. Wears 5,000 miles rear on the street, sticks like nothing else, front cupping minimal. The price is great too. The only choice IMO. None of you guys uses them? I am really surprised.

As the Romans said, de gustibus non disputandum est: but boy oh boy, these pipes look horrible to me. Two pieces of bent sausages come to mind. Sorry.

I'd asked before but nobody answered. Risking being a nuisance I try again: 1 - does anybody know what spring rate are the stock ones? 2 - which make/rate would be recommended for 230 lbs rider? 3 - since I do not live in California I have to buy/order/have it shipped to BC. What is the best source of new front springs? 4 - I never saw specific Moto Guzzi aftermarket front springs advertised. Do they exist? How to make sure that the new ones will fit? Thanks, John.

The way I do it: " Honey, come out from the kitchen for a minute, will you?"- I call my wife and she comes to the garage. "Hold this bike while I put it on the stand. Fine thanks, you can go now" Done.

My dealer when asked says there is no Moto Guzzi specific harder fork spring. Did anybody located a good source for a set of harder fork springs for us?

I am really impressed with Stucci X-over; if you have any pronounced dip at 4k RPM that baby cures it for sure. I heard (no experience on my own) that Mistral X-over does not improve your driveability so much. It does not look as cool as Stucci that's for sure. The techno bags are really nice and work very good. They better since were especially designed for V11S family.

But Carl, your tire circumference is DECREASED now not increased...