GuzziMoto

I have a set that are in nice shape. Both of you are a good ways from me, but either could have them for the cost of shipping. The main warning is I am not the best at making time to do things.

In my limited experience with Mike Rich; 1) He is really busy. 2) He might be off for the holidays. 3) I would call him on the phone vs email.

It sounds like what emry said. If the tach is screwing up when the horn fails, it sounds like the horn is shorting and dropping the voltage enough that the tach goes wack.

I can talk general cam knowledge, but I don't have specific info on cams for the V11. I am interested in a cam for a Griso 1100, but that is another story for down the road. I have heard that the intake port of the V11 is somewhat limited in flow. If that is true, a cam that holds the valve open further is not necessarily what you want. If that is true, a cam that holds the valve open longer would be better than one that hold the valve open further. Personally, I would be happy to give up a little in some areas to make more power in other areas. But then, I am one of those stupid people that likes race motors on the street. I don't commute, I ride strictly for fun.

It would take some pretty heavy oil to get any dampening with the two giant bleed holes that were in her V11's stock cartridge. It was crazy. Heavier oil might help, but it will make the transition from no dampening to lots of dampening even more severe. In general, I would rather run thinner oil and actually use the oil by pushing it through the valving. Trying to make those two giant holes work by running thicker oil is not what I would do. But if you can't / won't fix the valving issue then that might be better for you than it is stock. Part of that likely involves how much you weigh, because if you are too heavy for the stock springs anything you can do to slow down blowing through the travel might help. But in my opinion, step one is setting sag and using that info to decide if the springs are the right rate for you. If they are not, replacing them with straight rate springs of the correct rate would be next on my "to do" list. From there, decide if you need to change the dampening, and if you do I would suggest mod'ing the forks so that there is dampening, The best part of the mod is that the adjuster actually adjusts. As I recall, later forks aren't as bad and lack this design deficiency. But it sounds like the OP has one of the last sets of the crappy forks. As mentioned, if you are taking them apart to work on them I highly recommend you put them back together without the springs installed. That was when I realized how bad they were. If yours are anything like my wife's forks were it will be self evident if you put them together without the springs and run them through their travel. If they are not the same, that should be apparent as well. By the way, I now have a cool tool that compresses the spring to take them apart. But I did the V11 forks before I had that cool tool. So I put a nail into the door frame of my shed at the right height, compressed the spring, and used the nail to hold it compressed so I could take it apart.

For shocks, other than Ohlins we have a Penske shock on the wife's V11. It is great, zero complaints. She runs the original fork modified as mentioned. My Daytona (another spine frame Guzzi) runs the stock WP rear shock and a GSXR front fork that has been re-valved and sprung by the Ohlins guy in the east (Stig Peterson, PPS). I am not sure he is still in business. But honestly, I think most rear shocks out there are better than the stock Sachs shock. Especially when you consider that the Sachs shock tended to crack / break at the eyelet. That is why we replaced ours, it was broken. Of course it was found right before a trip, but luckily I knew the guy at Penske in charge of the motorcycle shock dept at the time and he was able to build a shock for us quickly. I do prefer shocks that are built to spec and not off the shelf. As to the forks, even if you only upgrade to a GSXR fork, that fork tends to have a lot of upgrades available for it. They can easily put Ohlins internals in it, or adjust the valving, or whatever your budget allows. It also allows you to run a better, lighter, front wheel along with better brakes.

I like Ohlins, even the factory "Street" Ohlins. They are better after they have been valved / sprung to your needs, though. The early V11 Marzocchi forks have near zero compression dampening. And the adjuster does nothing except in the last inch or so of travel, kinda like a hydraulic bump stop. I modded the compression side fork (only one side does compression, the other side does rebound) to give it more compression dampening and make the adjuster relevant. I blocked off one of the two bypass holes and switched to lighter oil. That made a massive difference to the control of the front forks. If you take it apart, you can see what I mean. I took it apart and put it back together without the spring. I could then feel the dampening or lack there of. The valving doesn't do anything until the piston travels past the two bypass holes as those holes flow so much oil that it doesn't need to go through the valving in the piston. By closing off one of the two holes I reduced the amount of oil that could flow without going through the valving. That made the valving relevant and it also made the adjuster relevant as it was also being bypassed by the two holes. Also, with the two holes, the dampening hit rather suddenly as the piston passed the holes. By blocking one hole and running lighter oil the transition as the piston passes the remaining hole is more subtle, allowing you to better use the full range of travel.

Gutting exhaust components seldom does anything positive except increasing noise. People who have gutted the stock crossover, as I recall, reported increased noise. But that does not mean an increase in power, Odds are, gutting it will reduce power output. From an exhaust flow perspective, the last thing you want is your exhaust flow to dump into a larger section of pipe for no reason. That typically causes a drop in velocity of the exhaust flow, that is not helping. You want to maintain exhaust velocity. You want the flow to be controlled, especially where two flows are merging together or apart. In this case we have both.

I was riding an FZR400 on the street, a KTM 440 in the dirt, and racing a Ducati 750. The friend that bought the Daytona was the team owner for the Ducati 750. He and I started Gotham Racing (before the video game) team to race Ducati twins. I had never ridden a Ducati before then. The FZR 400 was a really cool bike, it was ahead if its time with an aluminum frame and spinning to 14,000 rpm. It was also near opposite of the Daytona. I think the KTM 440 had more in common with the Daytona than the FZR or our Ducati racebike did.

Was that to me? Sadly, that was "My Daytona is the first Guzzi I ever rode", "I don't think they will top it in my lifetime" "other than an MGS-01". Meaning Guzzi will probably not make anything better than the Daytona during my lifetime other than the limited availability MGS-01. I have not had the pleasure of riding an MGS-01. But the Daytona was the first Guzzi I ever road. It was literally the day my friend bought it. I went with him to buy it (it was a few hours away). He rode it home, but bfore we got very far from the dealership he said " you have to ride this" and let me take it for a spin. When I came back to him I told him " if you ever decide to sell this, I will buy it". When he found out he was dying some 12 - 15 years later, he decided it was time to sell it to me. My wife had already had a V11 for over 10 years, that was her second motorcycle she has owned. It was influenced in part by my experience with the Daytona. She did test ride a Triumph Speed Triple back to back against the V11. The Guzzi was more fun and spoke to her. In the end, that is the deal with Guzzi. They are not the best engineered motorcycles, but if they speak to you there is nothing better.

Well, the V11 is the wife's, and it is her favorite bike. But my Daytona I bought from one of my best friends before he died. I don't think I could chose between those two as far as selling one, because the V11 is not mine to sell. But if both were mine I would sell the V11 first, emotional attachments aside. I like my Daytona better. But my Daytona is not stock, it has a GSXR front end on it and a V11 rear end (the subframe, seat, and rear bodywork are from a V11). It is pretty much the V11 with a better motor. The only thing about the V11 that is better, in my opinion, is the transmission. The V11 has a better transmission, But the power of the Daytona motor is very widespread and its legs are long, so you don't have to shift much. To me, the Daytona was a high point for Guzzi. I know the motor has a few "issues", but they are mostly sort-able issues. The combination of the spine frame and that motor goes together brilliantly. It is stupid fast but in a subtle way. You are just having fun and next thing you know you are over 100 mph. My Daytona is the first Guzzi I ever rode, and other than an MGS-01, I don't think they will top it in my lifetime.

I very much prefer my wife's V11 over my Griso. If we had to sell one or the other the Griso would go first out of all our Guzzi's. I think that is the only way to really know which one I like better, which one would I sell first (or last). But I do enjoy riding the Griso. And on longer trips the Griso is, by my standards, a couch. So it certainly has its strong points. But for me it is, strange as this may sounds, too refined. It lacks the hot rod tractor feel of my Daytona or her V11, and it does not have the coolness of the Lario. But, to be fair, every time I ride the Griso I do smile.....

I have a 2 valve Griso along with the wifes V11. I really don't think it is much of a rival to a V11, if at all. Perhaps a rival in the greater concept of being a motorcycle. But I can't see being in a situation where I was trying to chose one or the other. They are very different motorcycles. Both are fun, but they arrive at this fun from opposite directions. The V11 is a very sharp edged bike that is surprisingly comfortable and the Griso is a very comfortable motorcycle that is surprisingly good in the twisties. The Griso is more like the old Centauro, without the cool motor (I wish mine had the motor they used on the Griso prototype).

Interesting...how did you figure out which is the right one for the V11? Looking at their site, I just see dampers for Harley and other Japanese bikes. They are listed by stroke and overall length. You need a replacement that can at least match the stroke of the stock unit, and the length of the shaft over all should be about the same.

Yeah, at some point not too long ago KTM became a maker of really fast but seriously ugly motorcycles. I love that KTM, other than its looks. That is one Fugly motorcycle. But I bet it is seriously fun to ride.

Yeah, the previous gen 900 SS, especially the Super Light version. That was a sweet bike (in yellow or the dark green). Not a fan of the PT version. But I reckon you don't have to look at it while riding.

Mine were two separate lines from the factory. But T'ing them together (with a T or a Y) makes sense.

As fuel could come out of either of those two nipples, I would either run two lines down past the (hot) engine or T them together and run the line down past the (hot) engine. As I recall, one is the internal tank vent and the other is the overflow drain. Fuel on hot engine parts can lead to a bad day.

So, I'm having trouble understanding what the three transverse bearings are doing. The right side (deeper one/ the one found missing in this case) is pressed into the rear drive housing and its inner sits on the axle? (Neither of those things actually spin . . . ) And the other bearings (on the wheel side)? They are pressed onto/into the crown wheel (ring gear)? The larger (outer) allows the crown to spin in the housing cover and the smaller (inner) allows the gear to spin on the axle? Yes, I agree. I don't see what the "missing bearing" would actually do. No offense was meant putting that in quotes, just not sure that bearing is actually doing anything. A bearing is (sorry to state the obvious) needed when you have two parts that move in relation to each other in a circular fashion. The housing clearly doesn't spin, and the axle doesn't spin. Where is the motion? I don't see how there is relative circular motion between the two. Maybe I am missing something, maybe there is relative circular motion between the housing and the axle. But I don't see it. Perhaps everyone else's rear housing has this bearing and yours doesn't. Or maybe you aren't alone, maybe the bearing is not really required. It seems hard to imagine that the bearing is required but yours was able to go as far as it did without catastrophic failure. But I am not looking at one in front of me, I could be totally wrong.

Sure, now. But back then Guzzi was actually way ahead of the curve. The sweet ohlins cartridge forks you have arguably owe their existence to Guzzi. But they are still really old tech, so by today's standards they may seem a bit crude. I bet they still work pretty well when they are working right.

This made me chuckle. It will work either way. I would put the tighter coils up top for the reasons mentioned, but I can't imagine it will make a lick of difference on a bike that big and heavy.

Whatever the oil level / air gap is, it should be the same in both fork legs. Otherwise one is going to behave differently than the other at near bottom.

The V11 should have almost as much torque as your VFR 1200. I find the V11 does like to rev, but it is also a midrange motor. I remember ages ago riding with a buddy on an R1 (this was over 10 years ago). The V11 would just gap him out of corners without downshifting. If he downshifted the R1 was clearly faster, but the R1 had to spin up before it made more power, The V11 was so easy to ride, you just twist and go.

It is what they were built to run. Use whatever oil floats your boat. I use SG oil in my motorcycles. Which SG oil varies, but I only use SG oils. In part, because that is the oil formulation they were built to run. Will using any other oil cause my motorcycles to blow up? No, probably not. But I think they will last longer and perform better if I run the oil they were made to run. I tend to keep my motorcycles for a long time. We don't put the miles per year on them that some do, but over the long haul we do put a good bit of miles on them.

If we would pay halve as much attention and religious efforts to suspension topics as we do to whether the battery must see 13.5 or 14.3 (and all in-between)this would be another place here I agree 100%. If my battery has enough charge to start the bike, that is all I care about from the battery. Tires and suspension are far more important to me. Quality suspension bits, better shocks and sometimes forks, are always money well spent. But I do admit to also truly enjoying money spent on motor. It may not have the safety aspect, but nothing puts a smile on my face than more power than I need. That they do. As many times as I have done it, I have never had a picture of it, though. I did have a buddy of mine behind me on one such occasion. He had a lovely view of the whole thing. But alas, no pictures. Even my wife managed one spectacular high side way back when we were parking lot racing at a BattlTrax event. She launched her V11 big time. So as a family we say, slow riders low side but the fast riders high side :-)