jtucker

The headlight on my V11S seems to be identical to the headlight on my Ducati Monster. Not sure how much Ducati sells the part for, but you might want to look into that.

Dont't get me started on speedo cable problems! After installing my Magni fairing, my speedo worked just find for quite a while. Then one day... it started jumping and soon died. I blew out an angle drive. Got new agle drive, installed it, still not working. Now the angle drive on the other end was shot. So I replaced that, rode 10 feet, and blew out another one! I've routed and re-routed the cable. It turns real smooth by hand. Same with the speedo... I can manually turn the drive on the back and it works fine. However, when I connect the cable to the speedo and try tuning it again, it binds up for no apparent reason. This time, I'm letting my dealer take a shot at it - I've tried everything I can think of.

I've driven both the Z3 and Z4. I was actually shopping for a Z3 when I decided to get the MINI. I really liked the Z4, but it's too pricey for me. They are fun in a roadster sort of way, but the MINI will out-handle both of them on dry pavement, and on wet/snowy pavement - the FWD MINI will run circles around them! Plus, I have useful cargo space in the MINI! I'm very glad I chose the car that I did! I guess we're getting a bit off-topic, though... sorry! EDIT: one other thing... I wanted a car that was nearly as fun as a motorcycle, and the MINI Cooper certainly is! It's the kind of car that makes you want to seek out twisty roads, and go out driving simply for the fun of it!

According to my window sticker - yes, it is "british racing green". However, it is a metallic paint, which "true" british racing green certainly is not. I've heard some refer to this MINI color as "bavarian racing green" instead. And it isn't *quite* a BMW... no, the MINI is much more fun than a BMW!

Sorry... nothing new to report here, Al. I haven't spoken to my mechanic about the bike in a while. I'll probably try to stop by there this week. Last news I heard from them is that my Carrillos arrived, and they were still waiting for my right head to return from the shop that was repairing the cosmetic damage that I inflicted upon it. To my knowledge, my heads haven't left for Mike Rich yet. It may be some time before all is back together again! Besides... I've been kind of preoccupied with my latest aquisition:

Stucchi! Stucchi! Stucchi! Stucchi!

Al, the only news that my mechanic has about the heads is that Mike is currently up to his eyeballs with Daytona work, so probably won't be able to get to them for a while. That's OK for me though, because I still have plenty of other work to do in the meantime... BTW, my aluminum timing gears just showed up from Raceco the other day!

OK... I guess I was mistaken earlier when I spoke of disecting the actual lever assembly. It's been a while since I've had my controls pulled apart, so I'm a bit foggy...

Hmmm... I don't think there should be fuel leaking from the throttle body under any circumstances. The injection of fuel is controlled by the computer - the throttle or fast-idle (choke) lever don't directly control the fuel... the only control the butterfly valve in the throttle body. There is a sensor that measures the position of the butterfly, and relays this to the computer, which then determines how much fuel to deliver. If the bike is turned off (which I'm assuming it was) and you still have fuel dripping out, then you might have a bigger problem. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong! As for your question about the fast-idle (choke) lever: you may have to remove the left grip and disect the lever to see what's going on. Some folks have reported that they've improved the feel of the lever by replacing or modifying a spring that is inside of it. The odd thing is that both my Ducati and Guzzi have the same exact lever system, but the Ducati is very easy to move, and the Guzzi is relatively difficult.

Rumor has it, there is a guy out there with a dual-plugged V11 Sport (Rosso, I think). I wish we knew who that was. Perhaps we can send out a "bat signal" to summon him...

Well, my mechanic just checked the stock coils on my bike. The primary resistance of both coils measured precisely 0.7 ohm. Conveniently, Dyna has a 0.7 ohm, dual output coil: part number DC9-1. PS: with this post, I finally became a "forum flooder".

My bike pinged from the day it came out of the crate. After about 18K miles, I started to experience the hot-stall problem too. To my knowledge, nobody has identified the #1 cause of either of the problems yet. Personally, I think there could a variety of problems all causing the same symptoms. Welcome to the world of motorcycles that are assembled by wine-drinking italians, rather than robots!

OK... I'll bite... Grew up in Corfu, New York (small town about 30 miles east of Buffalo). After spending about 4 years living in north-central (Coudersport) Pennsylvania, I moved to the Philadelphia area about 2.5 years ago. Got into motorcycles when I lived in Coudersport. Actually, I wanted to get a bike my whole life, but couldn't afford to get into it until then. My first bike was a '78 Yamaha XS750 triple. Probably not the best first bike, but it was cheap... and got me hooked. Unfortuantely, it had carburation problems, and an issue with the front brakes dragging (but only on hot sunny days! LOL!). All I wanted to do was ride, but I wasn't confident in the reliabilty of this bike, so I decided to buy a new bike after about a month or so. Then came the Ducati M900. Fun bike, and reliable too! Still love it and use it for track days and such. After about a year, I decided I wanted a bike that would be a better "touring bike" and also better at carrying a pillion passenger. I had a number of friends with Guzzis, and became quite fond of those bikes, which is probably what convinced me to get the V11 Sport. On the ride home from the dealer, I remember telling myself, "this is the bike I'm going tour the country on!" I've just fallen more and more in love with this bike ever since. So far, I seem to be averaging about 12-14K miles a year on two wheels, which isn't too bad considering I don't ride much in the winter. Motorcycling gave me an affliction, and now I decided that I needed to get a car that was *almost* as fun to drive as a motorcycle, so I am currently awaiting delievery of a new 2003 MINI Cooper S - about as close to a go-kart that I could get and still be street legal! It's on the boat as I write this, and I will hopefully have it within the next few weeks. I can't wait to get a trailer hitch on it and use it to haul bikes around! And similar to Al, I work in the tech biz. However, I'm a system administrator for a small internet company. Oh, and if anyone is int he market for a '78 Yamaha XS750, I still have it and would love to get it out of my garage!

After my spill, my right exhaust was pushed in a bit. With some brute force, it can be made even again. No biggie. Actually, I was tempted to drop the bike on the left side too in an attempt to make them even, as I liked the "pushed in" position better!

Personally, I like the look of titanium over carbon. I would have gotten Ti on my V11S, but the light silver color of that bike looks better with aluminum cans rather than Ti. The color of your bike is darker than the silver I have, though... so I say go for the Ti... I think it will look great!

Hey Victor, why not Monster? My Monster and V11S seem to have identical brake components...

I had a wheel bearing go bad also. You can see it on the Shrapnel Italia page: Guzzitech.com - Shrapnel Italia It fractured pretty bad. The folks at The Spare Parts Co said that they've never seen a wheel bearing fracture like that before!

According to the Stucchi documentation, you can install their X-over on a totally stock bike with no retuning needed. Pros: the Stucchi will eliminate the dip in the power curve around 4K RPM. Cons: Zero. Go for it! I installed one on my bike this past fall, and I really wish I would have done it a long time ago...

Yes and no. According to the Stucchi documentation, you don't need to retune for their X-over. Based on my personal experience, I would say that this is true... of course, there may be exceptions. Now, if you plan to open up the intake on a bike that already has an aftermarket exhaust, then yes... you will definitely need to retune the EFI somehow as these bikes don't use an airflow sensor and will run lean with a stock map.

Spacer? I'm not sure what that would be for. In stock form, my fork tubes were nearly flush with the top of the triple clamp. Now, the fork tubes are nearly 1/2" above the clamps. I don't know where a spacer would come into play here...

I use a 160/60, but I've also dropped the front end down a bit. Works great.

Yes, 3 +/- 0.2 bar.

Took a look at the shop manual last night. According to that, it runs at 3 bar. Now, this could be a result of wacky translation in the manual, but the way I read it, it seemed to indicate that if the pressure is running below 3 bar, the fuel may not atomize properly. Also, it said that the pump has some sort of cut-off at 5 bar, which is intended to keep it from overheating if the pressure gets too high.

FWIW, my bike is one of the ones suffering from the pinging problem. I just ordered a pressure gauge just to see where I'm currently at. Will post results when I have them. Emry, you said you had to boost your pressure 10 PSI to get rid of the pinging - do you know what your original pressure was? It would be nice of we could establish a link between the pinging problem and something as simple as fuel pressure...

I have a sneaking suspition that this may be the case on our Guzzi's as well... I might have to get my hands on one of Ken's pressure gauges just so I can have a looksee at what pressure my bike is really running at. Curious minds want to know...