Foxy

Cheers chaps. Had another quick look at the bike today alot of the damage looks to be easily or cheaply repaired. The scratching on the silencer (matt black) is surprisingly light, so will hopefully polish out. Any idea of a suitable colour match for the respray though? Indicators I have discovered are the same as used on the Triumph Tiger, so very easily obtained for me. As soon as I'm able to wield a tool or ride I'll be putting her into some form of naked guise, and then sort the fairing out. Which could be fun, but I have had an offer of a used one already, so fingers crossed! Still immensely annoyed at myself, but on the upside the bike isn't too bad and neither am I - although I'm gonna be in a bit of pain for the foreseeable.

It only took a month....but I managed to stack my lovely LeMans today Bit of damage to myself, plenty to the bike. Essentially I had other things on my mind when I shouldn't have and as a result had to slam the anchors on, locking and losing the front. It hurt plenty, although nothing broken. Bike looks rough, but was ridden home by a colleague. The fairing and OEM head guards took the brunt and most of the damage can be put right fairly easily. Bent footpeg - easy swap. R/H head guard and plug cap - again an easy swap. R/H side of fairing is scuffed but useable with a few repairs, but the left hand side is mullered. Frame undereath is bent out of shape - no idea if it'll be repairable. The headlight shell is broken and one of the indicators disintegrated. R/H rocker cover and silencer picked up quite a few scuffs but nothing deep or nasty so will hopefully polish out. Might swap out/polish the easy stuff and stick the headlight into a new shell and mount it to the forks as per V11 Sport until I can find a new fairing - any idea if these can be bought anywhere, and dare I ask how much it would set me back? Still quite surprised at how well the old tractor stodd up to it Bloody sore and hoping that I've had my three bits of bad luck - wrote off my Tiger at the end of January, got rear ended at a roundabout on the Bullet last week and now this. Hoping my luck improves soon!

Either complete or left hand side only. Not wanting to convert....merely repair after a moment of stunning stupidity Happy to pay a reasonable price of course....

The seat hump would need two grooves filing into it to give the front supports of the rack space between the hump and the tailpiece. I was going to photograph it but the wife appears to have buggered off to work with the camera...

I've got one. Seems to be very well made, but won't fit with the seat hump on without modification. Front is secured by the two allen bolts under the rear of the seat, while the rear has rubber feet which sit on the tail piece. Because of this it's not really suitable for carrying any sort of heavy load, but is fine for a small bag of bits - which is what I bought it for. It is also alot cheaper and better looking than the MG rack.

It does feel much more natural to shift the correct way, instead of shifting up for up. I had thought about looking into a change if only to harmonise things with my other bike, but even then the shifter's still on the wrong side But seriously, shifting down for up makes for quicker, smoother upwards gear changes - which is where you want it. There's also some old tosh of a story about not unsettling the bike when making up changes when cranked over on a track. But if you were to try a "reversed" shift pattern for long enough to get used to it then you'd see how much more intuitive it feels. And I have no problem switching back and forth between a modern 1 down 5 up box and a 1 up 3 down box.

No knowledge of these particular motors yet but it does sound like a knackered battery. Most big twins need quite a bit of heft to turn the engine over properly, and if fuel injected will also need enough juice to pressurise the system. Getting it started the once could well have drained most of what life was left in it. Even if the lights illuminate there is no guarantee there is enough power to crank over the motor, especially from cold. Check the voltage across the battery with the ignition off and see what it's producing. A healthy battery should put out atleast 12.7v.

Thought I'd say my hello. Yesterday I shocked myself and put a deposit down on a 2004 V11 Le Mans. Completely new to Guzzis, having been on Triumphs for several years and Jap bikes before that. My last bike was a 1999 Triumph Tiger which was my pride and joy for about four years until two weeks ago when an off in the snow was followed by a bad landing for the bike, holing and writing off the crankcases. Was sorely tempted to buy another, later Tiger but thought I'd make the most of the opportunity and try something quite different. Only had an hour or so test ride on the Le Mans but it grew on my immensely in that time and I'm sure my new wop tractor won't seem too bad at all against my other bike - a Royal Enfield 350 Bullet. As for me - 27 years old and originally from Wiltshire, now living in Surrey and working in London. . Married with dogs and enjoy tinkering with the Enfield and trying to make it go that little bit faster. Looking forward to a return to working on my own bikes again - the Enfield allowed me to find my confidence again after several years of entrusting everything to main dealers, mostly out of surprise that I could afford it!