GuzziMoto

Land Rover still has a "Defender". It is not like it used to be, the current version being all swanky and complicated while the old one was rugged and stone axe simple. But it is still a name in use by them.

No doubt Fabio Di Giannantonio would like a spot in all this shuffling. He may have to settle for going to WSBK. I think the old Marc Marquez would be a serious threat on the current Ducati. Not sure how well the current Marc Marquez will do on it. I suspect he will do well, but I am not confident he will win the title on it. It could happen, but it is not highly likely in my book, just possible. I think the winner in all this is the fans.

I think Zarco will move up from LCR to HRC next year, and Lacuona will move from WSBK back to MotoGP to ride the LCR bike Zarco was going to ride. I would love for Vinales to go to Honda, that would free up a spot on an Aprilia for someone else. While Vinales will always have those occasional great races where he does amazingly well, all to often he struggles in the races. I would be happy to see his seat go to someone else with more consistent talent. I think Quartararo would do well on the Ape. It will be interesting to see how Marc Marquez does on the Ducati. I don't think he is the all conquering racer he once was. But he clearly still has talent.

It varies from one manufacturer to another, but generally a 170 will fit on the same wheel a 180 will fit on. The later V11's have a 5.5" wide rear wheel. Here is a screen shot of a chart on the Dunlop website listing recommended wheel widths. You can see that both the 170 and 180 are listed for a 5.5" wide wheel, and the 160 is listed as fitting a 4.5" or 5" wide wheel. The 170 will also fit a 4.5" wide rear wheel, which was the original tire size for V11's that came with the 4.5" rear wheel. But in both cases, using the narrower tire for that wheel width will result in lighter steering. That is not something everyone wants, but many do.

I would not run the 160 unless you have the 4.5" wide rear wheel. The wider 5.5" rear wheel is not really suited to the 160. To deal with tire wear I recommend the multi-compound tire options. They seem to really help with tire wear. A 500+ pound bike is going to wear its tires.

As mentioned, there are two different rear wheel widths for the V11, a 4.5" wide rear wheel on the earlier V11's and a 5.5" wide rear wheel on the later V11's. You do not want to install a 160 on a 5.5" wide wheel, but it works great on a 4.5" wide wheel. If you have the 5.5" wide rear wheel you can go with a 180 or a 170, either should fit that rear wheel just fine. I would prefer the narrower 170, as it will give lighter handling all else being equal. And reality is the V11 does not make more power than you can comfortably use with a 170 rear tire. That said, some people like the wider rear tire and the way it makes the bike feel and look.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of the major players. The Dunlops are fine tires. So are Michelin, Bridgestone, and Pirelli. I like the multi-compound tires they have nowadays. For road bikes they are a step up. I also prefer a narrower tire for the rear, the V11 doesn't need more than a 160. It just doesn't have that much power. But you should pick the tire size based on the wheel size. A 4.5" wheel fits a 160, a 5.5" wheel fits a 180.

While that is sound advice, that is usually more important for car brake rotors where they are turned down to resurface. There is a limit to how much you can turn them down before the reach their minimum thickness. Motorcycle brake rotors rarely wear enough for thickness to be an issue. I would say, if you have no braking issues you don't need to replace the rotors. If you have any pulsing or vibration in the brakes and it isn't the pads I would look into the rotors being the cause. To be fair, I haven't turned down car brake rotors in a long time. They have gotten cheap enough that I just replace them. Some car manufacturers don't even allow for turning down the rotors, they just replace them with the pads. Odd side note, as a brake rotor wears it looses mass. That reduced mass can lead to the brakes running hotter, the same amount of heat fed into a rotor with less mass results in the rotors temp being higher.

Also, personally I would only buy Brembo parts from trustable sources. There is a market in counterfeit Brembo parts made in China.

It was the first Moto Guzzi I ever rode....

Sure, but a 1200cc Buell will easily loft the front wheel with all that torque. You just have to ride it accordingly. The V11 is likely just as fast, but the low end power of the Harley engine in the Buell will pull out stumps. The V11 engine is something of a mid-range beast. It doesn't need to rev as high as some twins to make power, but it also doesn't have the low end power that a big twin can have. Perhaps it is the best compromise. But that Buell with the torque it had and the handling just this side of a TZ250, it was great. Sadly, it had issues keeping internal fluids internal.

Yeah, Binder had his best lap in qualifying interrupted by a yellow flag. That put him further back on the grid. But he still did a good job making his way forward.

The snorkel is number 8 in the diagram, the airbox lid itself is number 7. The airbox lid and snorkel are under the front of the seat. You can remove the snorkel from the top of the airbox, it is rubber.

The intake noise is pretty much the same between the two. As Pete said, if you remove the airbox snorkel on the Griso that muffles the intake noise it is going to make more intake noise. My Griso has an aftermarket airbox lid that is an open filter, so it has even more intake noise. The wifes V11 also has an aftermarket airbox lid that is open, but many here just cut holes into the stock lid. One glitch with the V11 running an open airbox lid is there is heat reflective material on the underside of the fuel tank. With an open airbox lid that material can fall down onto the air filter and block airflow. If you want to open up the airbox, make sure that heat barrier is properly attached to the underside of the gas tank. The Griso with its two into one exhaust will sound different then the two into two of the V11. But I actually prefer the Griso's two into one exhaust (especially with an aftermarket set up that is more open). It has a little more of a snarl, sounding meaner than the V11. But both sound great.

Not sure it is more than a rumor at this point. It is a serious rumor and it may pan out to be true, but so far it is still a rumor. All Ducati said is they hear what we all hear, but they have no say it Gresini's rider choice. But they did say Gresini should get the best rider they can. Many are taking that to be an endorsement of Marc going to Gresini. But I suspect whether or not Marc leaves Honda has more to do with whether or not he ends up at Gresini. If he leaves Honda Gresini is about the only place he CAN go. But if he can't or won't leave Honda he obviously won't be at Gresini. I too hope Marc stays at Honda. They did show him a massive amount of loyalty, but to be fair what else were they going to do. They did not have anyone else that had the talent he has. Although even he doesn't seem to have the talent he used to have. The Honda is off from the sharp end of the field, but it is not that far off. People seem to think Honda needs to re-invent the wheel, but this past weekend showed that Honda is a small amount off, and a different track, tire choice, or set up, can put them back in competition. Not just with Marc, but with Joan Mir. Jake is killing it, but Cam hurting himself helped. I think next year, with Cam being healthy and better adapted to the BMW will be interesting. I don't think it will be as easy for Jake next year.

I would much rather have a Lucid. Or a Taycan. Or even a Kia EV6 GT.

They do appear to be some sort of footpeg relocation brackets, as mentioned. They look like they bolt to the porkchops and give you a more forward place to attach the foot pegs.

It has been quiet around here about this. But the rumors have been flying about it. Marc was looking real good in Friday practice at the new track in India. Both factory Hondas get to go straight to Q2, When was the last time that happened? Meanwhile rumors are that Marc has decided to leave Honda for Gresini Ducati. I don't know if that is true, I am skeptical. But it will be interesting to see what the truth is. I tend to think he will stay at Honda for the last year of his contract, then leave if Honda is still the worst bike on the grid (or one of the two worst, along with Yamaha). Side note, Aprilia is looking good at the Buddh circuit in India.

Almost. I had a Buell X1, one of the best bikes I ever owned when it was running right. That thing was wicked. I loved it.

Or this classic

Burnouts = Good Burnups = Bad

Both those look awesome. Must have been great fun. Riding in the snow can be great fun, but it can be hard. It does make it hard to judge terrain, easy to hit something that you never saw. As to the adventure bike ride, that looks like fun but I would do that same trip on a normal bike. I don't need a two wheeled SUV to do that. The wife has rode her V11 down "roads" worse then that. But that does look like fun. Most of our travels down roads like that are now in a Jeep.

It comes down to garage space and time available to actually ride it. We have more bikes right now then we have time for. Sad, but true. I can't justify buying another bike without getting rid of one or two to make room for it, both space wise and time wise. @ScudOur two Huskies are bikes, 401's. One is a 401 cafe bike and the other is a 401 in some sort of Mad Max style with street knobbies and dirtbike handle bars. I get that some people like SUV motorcycles. It just isn't my thing. An actual Dual Sport bike, I could and have done that. But I don't need or want a motorcycle SUV. If someone else does? Fine. No problem. I just don't need something that tall and heavy. I prefer smaller, lighter, better handling, motorcycles. @p6xThe Ducati Monster is the odd bike out but it is the wife's bike. It leaves when she says so. I have a long history of Love/Hate with Ducati's, and if it were up to me we would not have one. But the wife likes the Monster. Always did.

Not a fan of two wheeled SUVs, but I really like the new drivetrain. If they make a sporty V11 sport style V100 we might have to consider it. But we already have four Guzzi's plus a Ducati and two baby Husky's, not sure at our age we need another.

What Pete said. It is true that you can't properly set valve clearance if you are at the wrong TDC. But if you spin the engine in either direction you will see both TDC's, the one that has both valves open followed by the one that has both valves closed, followed again by the one that has both valves open. It just goes on. As to spinning the engine backwards, in my opinion it is not critical with the V11 engine but just as a matter of practice I always spin the engine the direction it was built to spin. Spinning it backwards will not damage it. It will not affect setting valve clearances. It isn't going to make your wife leave you. But I would still suggest as a matter of proper practice spinning the engine in the direction it was made to spin. If we were setting cam timing or ignition timing it might actually make a difference. We are not, so it doesn't. But it is still the right thing to do.