Guzzi2Go

Well, the bike has lousy ground clearance as it is with the forks fully backed out, so I would think twice before making it even lousier. :!: Unless you want to remove the flaking paint of the oil sump. Seriously, I am not much of a squid, yet I managed to scrape the side stand more than once. The bike is forcing me more and more to ride "hanging off" (so keeping it as much upright as possible), as I'd like to. So I was actually thinking about how to raise the back of the bike, rather than dropping the front. However, apart from adjusting the rear spring preload, there is little to do.

Somehow I am under impression that we should not aim for the original part as these bushes tend to get FUBAR after a short service life (3-4 years). If motoguzznix can confirm that the bushes fit and provide us with a cost indication for the parts and labor, that would be sufficient for me.

Please forgive me for asking an obviously stupid question, but what is the difference between the "rubbery thingies" on the torque arm and spherical bearings (like these: http://www.alinabal.com/mtd/sphericalbearings/)? Not knowing much about either "rubbery thingies" nor spherical bearings, I am afraid.

Ok, after some rainy week(end)s that the Guzzi has spent in my garage I pulled it out today again. The "clonking noise" is still there, and an apparent reason for it might be radial play of the drive shaft. Now I am wondering... a) Is it normal to be able to wiggle the shaft in its bearing? If I grab it I can noticeably move it side to side (along its radius/section). \ Has something gone wrong with a potential of going even more wrong? How are things on your Guzzis? The way I understand this there should be no play whatsoever, however the dealer that sold me the bike believes (not knows, as he claims he did not see too many of V11s) this should be ok. Reason might be that I still have some sort of warranty on it, although it is a used bike.

Hello, I am fairly fresh to the V11 riding community, although I owned a MotoGuzzi (Mille GT) before. So far I managed to make 600-700 km on my new, used, 2002 V11 LeMans, and on two of my last rides I noticed a clonking sound coming from the whereabouts of rear wheel/swingarm/shaft (somewhere down, under my ), so I came here to seek for some advice. The sound is noticeable at low, practically walking speed with clutch pulled in, or throthle released. I don't say that it is not there at higher speeds, but then it is most likely obscured by other noise and if something is loose, it probably occurs on higher frequencies. Anyway, I can't detect it during a faster ride. I also have an impression that I can "feel" the sound, but that might be psychosomatic. It is not constant, it is more like "clonk, clonk, clonk", and then it goes away. At first I thought it is petrol splashing around in the tank, but now I am worried it might be something else. Would broken rear wheel/swingarm bearings produce such noise? What is the life expectancy of the uni-joint(s) on V11? On my previous Guzzi it would tend to part at 40,000km mark. The mileage on this one is 23,000 km. Any comments, speculations, and horror stories are welcome.

Would that be it?

Ok, my turn now.... Although having an account here for a month-or-two, so far I kept pretty silent. Mostly reading posts looking for potential troubles my newly acquired Guzzi might have in store for me. Born and raised in Zagreb, Croatia, 36 Yold ('ll be 37 in a few days), now living in Duesseldorf, Germany for almost 8 years. Married, two children. Still working on the remaining 0.4. Started riding only a few years ago, buying as a first bike a 22 year old Honda CX 500 (Maggot in UK, as I've been told, Güllepumpe or (cesspit pump) in D). Love that bike, still have it, and will most likely opt for it rather than wife if she threatens to leave me for poligamy (sharing me with two bikes). The bike is zero maitenance, which if course did not stop me to open it up just so I could see what's inside. Currently, it is undergoing an open heart surgery for no good reason. Let's see if it will survive the op. Here is a short video of one of my rides: Also had a Moto Guzzi Mille GT, which I hastily acquired from a colleague at work when I learned I had to spend a summer working in Sweden. Been there on two "summerly" occasions already, boring myself to death on weekends. To counter that I rode up on the Mille (1300 km), with the luggage for 8 weeks (including a business suit) doing in average 170km/h on the autobahn out of fear that Guzzi would be hurt if I rode it flat out (Mille can run 200km/h according to specs). The Mille spat out its entire oil supply along the way, which I noticed only as I dismounted in Stockholm and checked. Buzzed around for a few weeks, with an ad running in local papers wanting to sell the bike there, so not having to explain to my wife that I bought another motorcycle without her approval, only to learn that Guzzis are "unsellable" in Sweden. A local dealer whom I offered my bike a day before my trip back told me that some time ago they had a single Guzzi in the store, which stood in the corner for some three years. They popped a champain open when they finally got rid of it, vowing never to "own" another. If it only had been a Harley... Also I applied for a "Most distinct bike competition" on a local event, presenting my road-dirty-ridden Guzzi amongst a bunch of chrome/gold/platinum plated Harleys. I was pretty comfident in winning, since this was the only Guzzi in probably 100km radius (I bet if you later asked the audience who was there, they'd say: "a bunch of Harleys and a guy on a Guzzi"), but somehow Swedes did not get the joke. So I rode it back to Germany to face the wife's wrath. Broke shaft seal along the way and I rode last 700km with a transmission oil smeared all over the rear wheel covered, stopping every 150-200 km to top up the oil level. As that did not kill me, so did not the wife. I loved the bike, but somehow never got really familiar with it, so after long contemplating whether to keep Honda or Guzzi, I decided it to sell the Guzzi. But now I have another one. After all the careful consideration of pro's and con's between a 2nd hand, 4 year old Guzzi V11 LeMans and a brand new Honda VTR 1000F, I said to hell with it and got myself a Guzzi (price was comparable). Have it for a short time, did not even put my 1000km on it. Anxious to see if I'll be a "proud Guzzi owner", or just a "Guzzi owner". Over and out (for the time being).