Murray

You're asking a bunch of motorcyclists which car is cooler?? yes you're nuts. The one thats not cloging up a twisty mountian pass.

I spent a few hours tooling around on a 2002 Lemans today while they serviced the 1100 sport. It had 1600kms on the clock so the motor was pretty tight didn't think the vibration was an issue thought it was pretty minumal to say the least. Felt a bit slow to steer compared tot he sport think that might be down to the steering dampener is still fitted and the 180 section rear tyre which on a bike with the output of a guzzi is just a victim of fashion. I think it would be more confortable with lower clip ons but thats my opion seat was pretty good. Overall is was a lot more refined than the sport athough I missed the mongrel factor that my bike has. My bike also stomped on it in the department of spin up speed and engine response 93 000kms will do that for a Guzzi motor.

Switch gear on Guzzis is as good as anyone else uses these days and has been for a number of years. Common with Honda Yamaha Ducati Aprilia etc etc. Start witht he simple stuff, looked at your battery terminals lately? Are they clean and tight how about where the earth connects to the frame? Then start lookinf at the various side stand swtches kill switches etc etc they usally tend to build up a green cooper corosion on the contacts which is not conductive. I would find it very unsual not to be able to disasemble switch gear but havn't looked at the V11 recently couple of screws undernath. If you havn't taken a switch block apart before be very careful as they usally have small ball bearings and springs that are ready to jump out a disappear given the slightest oppourtunity.

I can't remeber where I read it but this is supossedly Brando's personal machine at the time fairly heavily tuned. Dunno the photo often appears in block mounted posters etc etc if anyone can firm this ethier way it would be usedful.

Surely a true Mad Max fan would be after a 1974 XB GT Coupe? Scarily there is a company in Japan that does Z900 Goose replicas

Welcome to the wonderful world of Dyno testing. It is useful that the brand of dyno has been mentioned Dyno tune dynos have a reputation for been a bit optimistic they are still useful tuning tools but thier actul number results should be treated with a little suspcion. I have a 1100 sport with Kliens (with pod filters and full termi system (equvilent of pipes and remapping fuel injection) Have never got past 75 hp at the rear wheel no dyno tune dyno avalible locally. However it is very nice to get the air fuel mixture sorted one and for all properly without endless months of stuffing around.

If you read the reviews the Breva output is somewhere between the cali's and the V11's. The reviews I have read make it sound like its tuned for a flat spread of torque rather than high rpm kinda like the boxer BM's they have done a bit of work to get then engine to spin up quicker but they havn't done a whole lot to the actual redline. My 1100 sport and I suspect the V11's are best between 5000 and 8000rpm anyway. Breva powered MGS01 and V11? the V11's frame would require extensive rengineering to take the drivetrain. Anedotaly eveidence says if you grease the unis on the exposed drive shafts regualry they will easily outlast the fully encolsed older unis. Single sided swing arms are really for looks and make the rear wheel easier to remove they do nothing for the handling if the bike and in fact detract as the have to be heavier to achive the same strength as a double sided swing arm adding to unsprung wieght. Ducati orginally fitted one to the 916 series of bikes as they orginally intened to go endurance racing. They never did thats why they went back to the convetional swing arm on the 749/999's. If they are going to make a MGS01 style bike with the breva motor they better have some serious hot up bits the Breva 1100 according to the factory specs is down on the V11 let alone trying to be any serious performance machine. Athough the Breva 1100 has new cases. NB: this is purely speculation but one of the problems of making a larger capcity motor was even the fourvalve heads/ cases had to have a extra bit of metal welded on the cases to accept the cylinder studs where they fitted the constraints on space probally lead to some of the problems the fourvalvers have had when they are run lean enought to pass the current emissions. The current cases have been around 40 years and are pretty well at the end of developmen they can't physically be stroked or bored any further (remebering the factory is in the mass production getting bike past emissions buiness ie charlie in (country of you chioce) has just built a 2000cc special using the guzzi cases). lets face it if they had any kind of buiness sense have moved the cylinder studs out a bit furtherm anyone prepared to convice the local guzzi dealer to strip downa n 1100 breva so someon can go ove it with a set of calipers?. Then it may well be easy to redesign the four valve head to fit the newer motor which was supposed to be a stop gap side project anyway. But saying the breva 1100 is tuned to be a rever like a jap bike is a bit of a stretch spool up speed inprovments don't neascarily affect the outright power. At the moment in the Guzzi range the V11 is still top of the power tree.

Depending on how far and wide you plan on touring and of course your mechnical ablity. I used to carry all sorts of stuff but found I was just wiehging the bike down No point in having the spare if you have no idea or lack the gear to fix it. Owners manual/ maybe workshop manual, if stuck in the middle of nowhere you can probally find someone with some mechanical knowlegde. Parts list and diagram may be useful. Spark plug cap and spark plug if the bike takes a minor fall in the carpark generally these get a hiding. Locking set of vice grip pliers as the foot levers are cast aluminium they tend to break in the same type of fall, keep the broken bit they usually can be welded by someone who knows thier way around a TIG. Couple of fuses possibly some relays and a test lamp. If you are feeling super cynical throttle cable, clutch cable (not relevant for V11's) ,tubless puncture repair kit you can get cheap and nasty compressors from wal mart Marlows similar auto store for not much with a couple of battery clips they will easily inflate a rear tyre from nothing without draining the battery. Beats trying to jump up and down on a pump in the middle of summer on the side of the road with all your riding gear. Contact details of a Guzzi store that does have a good supply of parts and knowledge anything beyond those kind of repairs probally better off shipping the bike home but they usally are stoically reliable. Its a good idea to knock up a few thousand miles locally at least if the bike is new or new to you then most stupid things that are going to happen happen close to home and you get a feel for how the bike is supposed to run. To be honest they are pretty good these days.

There should be three wires on the back of the solieniod two heavy ones and a really light one. Actully before doing this go make sure your battery terminals are tight and cleam and the earth to the chassi has a good metal to metal contact. Without doubt the starter is the highest current drian on the bike anything to hinder it will cause a problem. Take your battery/ bike down to the local auto sparky and get a loadt test done (usally very minuimal - free cost) This will tell you if your battery is ok. Back to the three wire the upper heavy one leads directly to the battery there is no switch fusable link or any other interuption be careful when messing with this. Check that the terminal is tight (disconnect earth lead of battery before using any metal tools on this) and clean. With battery connected bike out of gear remove the small wire and arc with ethier another piece of wire or a screw driver from the top terminal of the soleniod to the small tab. The starter should turn the motor. If it does then you probally have a switch relay side stand switch or some other issue. If you get a clunk but no turning then the dreaded magnets are probally shagged. If you get nothing its probally the soleniod. Disconnect battery and remove starter motor to confirm the solieniod with a battery and a set of jumper leads connect the earth/ negative lead to the body of the starter with the postive lead touch the lower of the two large terminals place foot ( in insulated boot) upon motor and the accleration and torque of these things tends to flip them everywhere with no load usally with a few sparks on intial touch. The motor should spin freely you could try hooking the postive up to the upper terminal and shorting the solieniod again you should be able to see the gear of the starter motor throwing out and then the motor should spin. NB do not run a unloaded starter motor for an extented period of time they are desinged to work under load and will contiuniously acclerate until destruction.

Had a blowing smoke episode out of my bike a few years back. Basically I was full time studding didn't have much money owned the sport outright though. So it was n't costing big heaps of money to have around. Used to ride it around town a bit and if I had a few dollars to spare take it on the odd country run but at the time the majority was just tooling around. Went out into some back roads with some friends and wound the old thing up and I mean really up close to redline in fourth or fifth. Backed off and started to slow for a intersection and was greeted with a great plume of blue smoke out of the exhuasts, !@#$ that isn't good brought it to a stop, crap can't afford this etc etc. Started the bike no clunking orrible nioses idles perfectly no oil leaks what the and after the intial puff no smoke? Had a meachnic with us he counldn't pick anything wrong ethier. The He related a story about a Bonnievellie he had new in the 70's went out for a flog and it did the same thing and never gave a ounce of trouble afterwards. Basically we determined because the bike hadn't had a decent run recently and the oil might of been getting a little old there had been a deposit build up on the bottom of the piston winding it up the backing it off had disloged it and it had worked its way past the rings and incinerated itself inthe combustion chamber. I finshed studding a few years ago and bike gets ridden often and probally a little harder than it used to its done around 40 000kms since with out ever doing it again. Certianly do a compression test etc etc but its no unheard of.

Removing bar ends : Dunno how old your bike is but if they have been in there a while they tend to get a little differential metal corrsion or Gino in the assembly hall was a little ham fisted that day they could be a little tight. Back the screw off most of the way then with an appropiate drift gently tap on the end of the screw till it sits back into the bar. This should dislodge the tapered nut if you are lucky you may be able to simply unwind it the rest of the way if not you will have to pull the screw out so the nut has something to grip on so you can unwind it. Been a relativly new bike shouldn't be too much of a problem. Bit of Lanolin oil or anti sieze on the screw before you put it all back together is not a bad idea one of thos ones you don't remove real often but if you do and it doesn't want to come its a real pain.

Think around 15-18 AUD can't remeber been a bit slack and taken it in to get serviced rather than doing it myself the joys of working away. These are the genuine UFI jobbies, Thunderbikes Perth WA.

More inportantly from my piont of view is the Scrua R exists and will be going into/is in production. Some of the current rumours was everthing but the Griso and Breva's would be dropped from production. Now about the single seat version ..............

If you are stuck for vacum gauges you could try the garden hose down the throttle bodies trick. Short pice of hose and listen for the hiss. Adjust the synch till the hiss is the same whislt the engine is running. Other way to do athough i have never done it on a fuel ijected bike and you will have to remove the airbox. Engine iff procdure this one stick a finger on each butterfly/slide get an assitant to slowly crack the trottle off closed might take a couple of tries to get a feel for it. If they are in sync both butterflys will start moving at the exact same time if they don't adjust till they do its not as accurate as gauges but it will get them pretty close and is not a bad bush get us out of a spot thing.

Actually the new Breva 1100 witht he altenator between the cylinders presents some possibilties. You could move it back the where is was at the front of the motor and put the compressor between the heads. Stronger six speed gearbox behind it as well that should get some people thinking.

Something like that athough against the trend I prefer a bit of a fender. Why? cause I'm not a selfish a*#@hole and don't like to chuck rocks at the people behind me that often are on the goat tracks they pass off as roads around here. I'd much rather let them die of embarassment that thier 140hp+ japanese litre bike just got overtaken buy a..... errrkk!! Guzzi! The good thing with the single seat is you could make a lightwieght aluminium frame for the rear rather than the 4" diameter water pipe that is currently used triming a few more kilo's. Surely radial calipers wouldn't be that hard all the Aprilia RSVR/Factory Rs have them these days. The biggest thing Is I don't want to buy another 1100 sport I already got one of those I want similar but better. Maybe I get of my rear and build myself something along those lines one day. Supermotard racing will probally be accounting for a lot of funds for the next little bit anyway. After all the moster S2 supposedly is in high demand.

The V11 refernce when talking about the cali's seems to be a USA thing only everywhere else they are refered to as stone califonia EV titanium etc etc. The cruiser thing might be big in the US but I think elsewhere its fairly miniumal here HD has about 6% of the market and I would suggest thats probally reflective of the rest of the world. Guzzis major markets are still based in europe so specifically catering for the US market doesn't make a lot of sense. However for me its disapionting to see them drifting away from more sports oriented options to middle of the road allrounders eg handle bars on the naked V11's why is there no clip on option? A scura R with the twin plug motor single seat like the orginal V11 prototype, clip ons high rise exhaust or the Ghezzi and brian arrangment Ohlins front and rear maybe with radial mounted calipers lightwieght OZ racing wheels would be a fantastic last hurah for the V11 if it is indeed doomed as the roumours suggest. Athough I think the cali series might be more under threat as it uses a completly different fram and the older five speed gearbox as opposed to the six speed that everthing except the 750's use. Maybe I can find a Daytona RS or import a Magni Sifida from Japan, my thoughs and opions anyway.

Two options find a decent aluminium welder won't be pretty but cheap and it will work. Or get a billet one made at a decent machine shop it will be cheaper than getting the factory orginal one. Its unlikely the dealer will be able to get you one as the factory no longer stocks/manufacturers the specfic one for the 1100 sport. The really crude but readily avalible option is to get a set of locking vice grips and lock them onto whatever is left of the orginal leaver perfably a few zip ties or lock wire around the jaws of the pliers thats the usual road side repaier for gear leavers at least.

The cheapest and easyest way to get a 1100 sport to steer quicker is remove the steering dampener. Even on its lowest setting it slows things down quiet significantly. Then pull the forks through.

And the piont of the exercise would be???

Keep looking at these things for my carbed 1100 sport mainly because getting soft rubber for the 18inch rear is very difficult to say the least. The current rear (factory fit brembo??) doesn't have a cush drive so that I'm not so worried about. What more concerns me is most of the after market rims are at least 5 inch and usually 5.5 to 6. The current one is 4.5 takes a 160 tyre quiet nicely and I really like the way it turns so I'm not real keen to go massively wider. Apart from bolts ons like exhaust and carbs the motor is stock (I'll probally wait till I wear it out before doing any engine work 92 000kms so far) so its not like I have to get 100's of hp to the gorund. So what can you fit to the older sport/daytona swing arms and how much work is involved?

Part of the internal combustion process actully makes water (don't bother asking me the exact chemical reaction formula I don't know). If the exhaust system isn't allowed to get hot enough like when the vehicle is used for short distances it will gather in the exhaust system. Dunno about franken sport but on my carbed 1100 sport a few of the connectors have been prone to the green copper corrsion on the connectors. These are the older molex style ones the amp ones usally pretty good.

Heated grips are for limp wristed wanna be's who can't handle a bit of airflow! BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY WESTERN AUSTRALIA REGIONAL OFFICE FORECAST FOR THE PERTH METROPOLITAN AREA Issued at 8:30am WST on Sunday the 13th of March 2005 for today and tonight FORECAST: Cloud increasing with a shower or two developing. S/SW winds slowly freshening. MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE: 30 UV INDEX: 9 [VERY HIGH] decreasing to 6 [HIGH] under cloud FIRE DANGER: Coastal Plain: HIGH Hills: HIGH Today should become cloudy and warm with a light shower or two developing from the north. Cloudy conditions are expected on Monday. Tuesday should be fine and windy. MEDIUM RANGE FORECAST FOR PERTH FOR: Monday : Cloudy. Min: 16 Max: 27 Tuesday : Windy. Min: 16 Max: 29 Wednesday : Fine. Windy. Min: 17 Max: 31 TREND FOR THURSDAY, FRIDAY and SATURDAY: A few showers, clearing late week. Maximum temperatures: Low 30s to high 20s. Temps are celcius in case anyone is wondering. Just another average Autum week.

No direct experince I don't own a fuel injected bike at the moment. (1100sport cabed and VOR530ENE converted to a motard). But anedotally there have been some mumblings about PC's not been that reliable. Most on my friends with them gave up in digust as there is no local mapping faclity (Dyno Jet sanctioned at least) and the local Dyno guys don't really want to know about them them maps on the net seem to ethier fix only on part of the rev range to the detriment of the other bits. Most of these bikes been Honda's Kawa's yammies Suzi etc etc not some odd low volume european thing. Combined with the average litre bike punching out 150HP+ stock they have stopped bothering with them.

When comparing prices its probally worth remebering that the Aust dollar has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride in the last few years as well as the US dollar. Six months ago the Aust dollar was buying around 55 us cents so 23K was pretty close to the 12-14k the bikes were in the US. Now the Aust dollar is trading close to 80 us cents 23K looks postively rude unfortantly the importer probally brought thier stock in around 6-12 months ago. Bodes well for next year though!!