guzzi323

I've had the oil light come on a couple of times under hard acceleration or braking when my oil level was not kept at the top mark. There have people who've talked about windage plates to help keep the oil in it's place but the only patterns out there I've heard of are for earlier Guzzi's. It's funny this topic came up again this weekend because I'm doing my 42k maintenance and had decided it was time to make a plate up. I doubt I'll have anything done today but before I install it I'll trace out what I end up with and post it. I make my parts the old fashioned way, with a vise, hack saw drill and dremel so it won't look as nice as custom machined stuff but it'll do the job. More info when I have it to share. johnk

My apologies for not writing about this when I did it. The truth is when I had it all back together I couldn't believe I didn't document any of it for sharing and with the grinding I had to do on the outside of the brass fittings to get them into the tank it wasn't looking too pretty. As for dlaing's thoughts about the fuel on the right side of the tank. You're right. Some fuel will remain on the right side, just as it does now. I figure as the left side gets low some of the fuel on the right will slosh over. The remaining gas I think of as an 'emergency' reserve. My BMW has a single petcock on the left side. A couple of times I've accidentally found myself at the end of reserve and was able to lean the bike and get the last bit from the right side of the tank and drive another few miles. I think of this extra gas in the Guzzi in the same 'extra reserve' way. Hopefully I'll never need it, but peace of mind knowing it's there is a wonderful thing. Especially since when I'm far from home I'm typically ridding alone. My johnk

I actually did this about 6 months ago though I don't have any images of the procedure. It was kind of done on a whim out of misc. brass fittings and some copper tubing I had on hand so I know what sizes or anything I used. I typically do less planning and more seat of the pants improvisation for my mini projects. It's not the right way, but it's what I do. If I recall I ended up cutting threads into the return hole on the top of the regulator and putting a small brass fitting with a length of flexible copper tubing on it. I had to enlarge the hole in the tank for the o.d. of the fitting (and I think I also had to ground down the outside of the fitting too.) I haven't actually checked to see if I get more max. range out of the tank but it's a little more peace of mind when that light comes on and I'm in the middle of nowhere. The nice thing about this mod is if anything goes wrong, the worse that'lll happen is it'll go back to the stock set-up with some copper and brass bits sliding around in the tank. johnk

Could it be 'extra' grease getting flung off of your drive splines? Did you recently get a new rear tire? The shop might have greased the splines and used a bit too much. Just a thought.. johnk

38k on mine. I've have the timing cover gasket go. The paint peeled. I don't know how many fork seals replaced. The tranny spring went. The rear shock blew at the reservior (I think when the dealer serviced the tranny. They might have damaged the reservior because that was a strange failure.) The final drive box torque arm bushings went twice. My clutch started making a funny noise and when I pulled it apart the flywheel bolts seemd looser than they ought to have been. The rear wheel spacer was too short and it ate the bearings. The front wheel bearings went too because one bearing weasn't driven into the wheel far enough so the inner race got side loaded when the axle was tightened. It detonates quite a bit if you don't drive around the problem. The ignition switch fell out of the top triple clamp while I was diving (one bolt broke it's head off and the over backed out.) Jeez, I think that's it. That was perversly fun. I've never tried to put it all down in one place before. All of that being said, I love the bike. I'll keep it a good many years. I know, I must look like I do too much of this. So be it. johnk

I put the Givi huga-ass 41 liter bags on my Scura. They don't make a kite for the V11's so I bought the bag mounts and their generic mounting hardware kit and made a set-up that works just fine. I also rarely carry a passenger so I mounted my bags further forward. Check the pics out here ( you'll have to scroll down about halfway on this page)... http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...opic=2887&st=15 It's been a year and a half and I have no problems with this setup. If you want a more 'reasonable' size bag, Givi has quite a few that use this same mounting system. johnk

All I know is I felt no difference. In theory, there'd be some kind of difference but you might need all those high-tech sensors and data aquisition stuff the motoGP guys have to tell the difference. I was replacing it because I went though 2 of the stock arms with deteriorating bushings in under 20k miles. If I recall, the dealer wanted $174.00 for one. johnk

I don't have any pics, but what I ended up with is a big ugly version of the sculpted looking pretty piece that Rossopuro sells. Nothing of the original piece is used. McmasterCarr sells big heim joints and threaded aluminum rod (I think it was 5/8" diameter.) I started out ordering the heim joint to the correct size for the mounting bolts but then the mating rod diameter seemed thin so I went for a thicker rod and had the bushing made for the bolts. Next time I've got the bike on the stand I'll take some pics and see if I can reconstruct the process I did. If I recall the parts were much less expensive than any replacement bit. I just poked around www.mcmaster.com and I think these are what I used. 6072K223 Ball joints $12.79 each 6516K43 Threaded rod 24" long $13.75 each You'll also need a couple of jamnuts. I'm not certain of the length, pull yours off and measure it. Your results may vary. I'm not responsible, always work with a qualified mechanic, etc. but that's basically what I did. It's been at least 15k miles and the bronze bushings in the joints are just showing a little bit of slop in them. If you want I think they sell ones with zerk fittings as well. johnk

You could get one of these from Rossopuro.. http://rmcube.abd.it/RMcube/servlet/contro...deObject=MT1030 It replaces the torque arm with one which has heim joints at either end. I got tired of the rubber failing on mine so I made one with big heim joints and a fat threaded aluminum shaft which I got from McMaster Carr. I did have to get some bushings machined to make up the difference between the i.d. of my heim joints and the o.d. of the mounting bolts. It looks to me like this premade one from Rossopuro might be the way to go. johnk

Well I've written about this on one of these threads, but just so you have the details here I'll briefly go over it. My Scura started making an awful CLANK noise when you'd pull away from a stop only with a stone cold motor. If the bike was running more than a minute, it wouldn't do it anymore. I pulled everything apart and everything seemed OK until I pulled the flywheel bolts. Now I wasn't expecting anything wrong here so I wasn't really paying attention but the bolts seemed only snug. I was able to easily loosen them with a 10" handle on my socket. I replaced the friction plate while I was in there and put everything back together and it hasn't made the noise since. I believe this was around 16k miles and I now have 38k on it. The only thing I can think of is the aluminum heated enough after a minute of running to make it expand enough so it wasn't able to rotate slightly on the flywheel bolts. I know it's not a great theory, but it's all I've got. My bike is scura #385. John Koester

I'm in the resonably snug with no thread locking compound contingent. I've been told on my BMW that many people overtighten the pinch bolts and break the casting for the fork slider. All it's got to do is keep the axle in place so it can't losen. My johnk

Thank you for getting back to us with that information. Now if we could onyl find out if it's a matter of improper assembly or some design/material fault with the flywheel. I guess next time I'm in there I'll replace the entire assembly with a RAM unit. Their flywheels apparently have been updated from what's fitted to our bikes, but there's no official reason why they changed. I haven't heard of any problems with the aftermarket RAM kits and they've been available for years so I'm thinking their probably the ticket. Glad you failure was catastrophic like some of them. johnk

Can you give us (anxious) Scura owners more information? What's the nature of your failure? Do you know if anyone has worked on the clutch since it left the factory? If possible, can you check the torque of the flywheel bolts? One theory is they either aren't tightened properly or they loosen. Anything you can tell us would be appreciated. Thanks, johnk

That's what I see when I look at that picture. I'll stick with my initial theory. I think these failures are a result of improperly torqued bolts at the factory. johnk

When I was into the clutch on my Scura, i wasn't paying much attention but after I loosened the flywheel bolts, I thought 'Gee, that didn't seem very tight.' but to be honest I wasn 't paying much attention. I was simply disassembling everything. Personally, I think it's a flywheel bolt torque issue and the next time i'm in there I'll replace the entire assembly i. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing, ya know? johnk

Just when I think everything's pretty much settled down on my bike, this rear's it ugly head again. I love my bike, but can anybody remind me why? I guess there's nothing left to do but this.. Keep your ears open out there.. johnk

I'm up to 37k miles. I recently had a nice couple of weeks for a road trip and was able to get some riding in. I changed the seal that blew about 3 weeks before the trip. I was hoping that time was also a factor but it seems more mileage realated. johnk

I was told at my local parts place (also an Aprillia dealer) to use a high quality 5w synthetic. Of course using anything other than the Ohlins oil will mean that your damping rates might change enough to cause you to want to adjust your forks. Seeing as I just blew another seal (is anybody getting more than 8K miles out of their fork seals?) I'm using something the shop recommended, I think it's called Motormex or something like that. They've been using it on their Aprilia's with good results. I was able to score from them a minor crash damaged Aprillia front fender that I'm going to be putting on the bike as well. My best theory as to why I'm going through seals is the Guzzi fender allows more road muck to get flung up onto the forks. johnk

Even though they are often under greased at the factory, I've always felt that the nature of the loads placed upon these is the largest cuprit in their early demise. Since all of the hard load bearing they do (hard braking, and for some folk coming down from wheelies ) usually has the front wheel straight, there's just no way for them to deal with it long. I replaced mine when I was replacing fork seals sometime around 20K miles. When I had the forks off doing the seals, I could feel a little bit of wear with the steering bearings. I've found that I rarely get 30K miles out before I start noticing them and since it was mostly apart I just went ahead and did them. johnk

POINTS!!!?? That's ridiculous. Big, fat honking carbs? Hell yes! johnk

I've had my RKA 26 liter tankbag for about 3 years and it's been great. They have a few different designs available. Check them out here.. http://www.rka-luggage.com/pages/08tnkbag/tank.html cheers, johnk

I chose the 'free gear' option and after waiting more than a year took the matter into my own hands and dealt with MGNA directly. I asked about every 3-4 months at my dealer (Moto Italiano) as the the status and they 'checked with Moto Guzzi' and said it was in the works. When I finally contacted MGNA myself I quite easily found out that they hadn't filed the papers correctly and was able to fix the problem. I wouldn't recommend counting on them to stay on top of it. They don't make any money doing case swaps and don't seem to have much interest doing work that doesn't immediately benefit them. That's my John Koester

Only the clean bike guys post photos. If I had a recent photo to post you'd feel much better. I don't have enough time to ride my bike, let alone wash it. John Koester

Take a look at this thread.. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...opic=2887&st=15 I've got some pics of the Givi's mounted on my bike on the second page. I compromised and mounted the bags further forward than some people might. You can't have the bags on and carry a passenger because they wouldn't have access to footpegs, but for my useage it's great. johnk