GuzziMoto

Yes. He is. With a widget and some software you can write new maps to the ecu.

Many years ago we had Penske build us a shock for the wife's V11. I can't remember if we gave them her shock or simply gave them the measurements along with weight and riding style. What I do remember is we were tight for time and they came through for us and we had the new shock in time for our motorcycle trip. The original Sachs shock had done what they do, the lower eye had cracked. And as such the shop doing the new clutch would not put it back together with a broken shock. So we needed a shock quick, and Michael Himmelsbach at Penske came through for us. It has been a great shock as well, but back then nice shocks usually didn't have as many adjuster knobs as Phil's sweet shock.

Yeah, and while I value Phil's knowledge and expertise, Pete has such a way with words when he is telling you things you need to know. "CF on a Guzzi is like shaving an elephant to make it lighter!" Classic. (sorry, this post is wandering off topic)

The OEM Ohlins shock is better than the OEM Sachs shock. But an aftermarket Ohlins shock is dramatically better than the OEM Ohlins. And that set up that Phil has blows all three away. There are plenty of options to have a shock made for you and your Guzzi. That should always be better than buying something off the shelf, even if it is an Ohlins. The one nice thing about an off the shelf OEM Ohlins is any decent suspension guy should be able to adjust the valving to match you and how you ride. Nice ride, Bill.

I concur with docc. A piggyback shock is a shock with a reservoir directly attached to the shock body. A remote reservoir shock has the reservoir attached to the shock body via a flexible hose, usually steel braided because of the high pressure. There likely would not be enough room on a V11 for a piggyback reservoir on a rear shock. You would want a remote reservoir shock. Also, the nature of the suspension geometry of a V11 is nothing like the geometry of a typical linkage suspension. So the valving and possibly travel of a shock made for a linkage rear suspension would likely not be very suitable for a V11 with its cantilever ( I believe that is the right term ) rear suspension. That said, there are a number of options for having a shock made for a V11. It hardly seems worth it to go with something not suited for the job.

Yes, I only blocked one hole and it made a big improvement. I reckon you could block both holes, but then you may want to run a lighter fork oil as all the oil would have to go through the valving in the piston. Blocking one hole allowed me to continue using the stock weight fork oil. Nice picture.

I have GSXR forks on my spine frame Daytona. I am sure there are others. I was able to make the GSXR forks fit simply by using a different steering head bearing set with a different ID, and I added a small spacer below the bottom gearing to adjust the length. I have another set of GSXR forks that will likely end up on the wife's V11 some day. But a Jeep keeps eating all my expendable time..... I am also the guy who found the odd damping set up in the early V11 forks. The early forks have two bleed holes that allow fork oil to bypass the valving until the forks compress past them. That means that only the last quarter or so of travel actually has compression damping. By blocking one of the two holes I was able to get not only damping, but now the adjuster actually does something. Previously it had no effect because the oil simply bypassed everything else and went through the two holes. Sorry, I am not around here much lately. I feel guilty, but in the end I am happy to be alive.

The steering damper needs to be able to move freely. Any resistance or friction in how it is attached at either end is generally bad. As the handle bars turn, the damper needs to be able to allow for movement in more than a single plane. Because generally the damper isn't perfectly perpendicular to the axis of steering. It is close, but not quite. I would rather have it a little loose than a little tight. I would rather run without it than run it in questionable condition. It really isn't required on a bike with fairly relaxed steering geometry like the V11. On a TZ250, yeah you need one with 22 degrees of rake and not much trail. But a Guzzi isn't nearly that aggressive steering geometry wise.

That is a very disturbing trend. One that doesn't bode well for small brands like Guzzi, Royal Enfield, and even Aprilia. But it sounds like it also doesn't bode well for larger brands if they simply can't meet the requirements. To have a city as large as Indy lose its BMW dealer, that is crazy. Are you saying that was the only BMW dealer in the state? Holy moly! I am not sure that was the outcome BMW expected. I have been to that dealer I believe, on the way to and from the track from downtown.

We are definitely side show freaks...... For a long time Ducati was in the same boat, Ducati was a brand that successful mainstream dealerships sold as a side show. Now Ducati is a mainstream brand.....

I hope that is good news. Around here most Guzzi dealers keep their doors open by selling a mainstream brand or two. Guzzi is almost always a side show brand.

That is sweet. I love it. Nicely done. I hope you are able to get it finished soon.

I was going to say, if my Guzzi clutch makes a screech like that my first response would probably be to do a couple hard launches on the clutch. It could just be surface rust or glazing of the friction material.

I would be more concerned with air pockets in the system than thermo-syphoning. It is, after all, a fairly high pressure system. Flow is going to flow when the oil pump is running. And I think that is why he wants to set it up the way he described. Running the oil in at the bottom of the cooler and out the top would help keep air pockets from forming in the cooler. But I do prefer the horizontal set up that the V11 originally came with, for reasons Phil described.

That sounds like an electrical issue. Check connections, as mentioned. Also, check your ignition switch.

Welcome to the forum. Yeah, that is one of the things that is way easier once you see how it works. But until then, it can be quite perplexing.

Congrats. Now the work can begin.....

Swedish gas..... Is it blonde with big knockers? Nice first post, an advertisement for some fuel company with zero Guzzi content.

But I can swap footpegs without changing the porkchops...... But I am glad it worked out for you.

Good to know. Hopefully it will never come in handy, but you never know.....

You have a different way of looking at this than I do. That you have never enjoyed a peaky powerplant is your opinion. But your opinion on that doesn't mean someone else who does enjoy a peaky power plant is wrong. As to the width of the V11's power, ours delivers very usable power from 3,000 rpms to over 7,000 rpms. That is, it delivers good power for around 2/3's of it rpm range (looking at it as from idle (around 1200 rpms) to redline. Compared to the previously mentioned FZR 400, which delivers good power for around 1/3 of its rpm range. You are looking at it as "how many rpms does it make good power in. And that is one aspect. But another, possibly better metric is to look at it by how much of its available rpms does it make good power in. And I don't know about your V11, but the wife's V11 makes good power from 3,000 rpm to over 7,000 rpm. A great example of it is way back when I was riding the wife's V11 with a couple friends. One was on a new R1 (new at the time, this was probably 20 years ago when the R1 was new), he was a buddy I roadraced with. After a while he said to me he was stunned at how badly the V11 would pull him out of corners. His R1 had way more power than the V11 had, but to use that power he had to really rev the engine. Where as the V11 seemd to pull hard out of the corners without effort, no extra revs required. Could an R1 go faster than a V11? Sure. But not without bringing the revs up. I have ridden a number of small displacement streetbikes, bikes like the Ninja 250 and Eliminator 250, the aforementioned FZR 400, and others. They were all peaky, and they were all good fun to ride, especially on a twisty road. And yeah, when you have 200+ hp you need to worry about making it usable. A V11 doesn't have that problem.

Nice to see an older bike getting all that attention. Very nice.

As long as they aren't taking a perfectly good Guzzi and turning it into some stupid "chopper" abomination I am good with it. These are all cool Guzzi's. The MGS 01 is, to me, the coolest Guzzi ever sold (the V8 GP bike was never really "sold"). But it was really a factory Ghezzi & Brian as I understand it. I especially enjoy the current trend of build what look like old cafe bikes but with modern suspension and brakes. That is kinda what my Daytona has become. But I haven't put the effort in that some have. Mine isn't nearly as well done as the first bike in the thread.

I suspect the deleting of the airbox has more to do with the "steps" in the power curve, not the mapping. And while for most people removing the airbox looses too much power where they want it to put what power it does add elsewhere, if that sort of power delivery works for you I say go for it and have fun. I fully understand how a more peaky power delivery can be fun. One of the most enjoyable street bikes I have ever had was an FZR400. It wasn't until you hit 10,000 rpms that things got seriously entertaining. But once there it was quite entertaining. While a Guzzi lump with the air box and proper exhaust can deliver an incredibly wide spread of power, take that air box away and the spread of power becomes less wide and more focused on certain rpms, depending on intake tract length and cam profile. While that may not be something everyone wants, I can see how it could be fun. Most people focus on the total area under the curve, generally for streetbikes that is what is considered optimal. But sometimes it is worth sacrificing some of the area under the curve to make things a little more aggressive. Sometimes people need to relax. It isn't always about what gives the best curve on a dyno. Sometimes it is just about what makes it fun.

I like what the OP has done. I am a fan of bar end mirrors. But the wife isn't, and the V11 is her baby. I feel compelled to point out, though, that another option is to upgrade the original bars / clip-ons themselves.