GuzziMoto

I assume your system is the sames as what is on mine. The crankcase breather system Guzzi uses on the V11's works pretty well. The crank breather vents to the front section of the spine, where the oil is separated out. The oil then drains back into the sump while the air is vented to the air box. If you want to replace the section that vents to the air box and just have it vent through filters to the atmosphere that is fine. But if you get rid of the rest you may find that it blows a little oil and you may want to engineer some other form of oil containment. I personally would not remove the first part of the system. I tried that on a Daytona (basically the same system) and the results were not good. It spit too much oil. The stock system works really well and returns the oil back to the sump. The only thing I would consider doing is changing the last part where it vents to the air box. I don't think it really matters, I don't think changing it from venting to the air box to venting straight to the atmosphere is going to make any sort of improvement. But if you want to change any part of the stock system that is the part to change. There is only a line from the cases to the front section of the spine frame, a line from the top of the spine frame that tees and goes to the air box, and a return from the middle of the spine frame back down to the sump.

Pretty sure the "Core" being referred to is a base set of headers to start from. Like when you buy a rebuilt alternator and they charge you a core charge which you can get back if you return your old one. The point of the pipes offered by Todd at GuzziTech is that they replace the often fragile front crossover of the later version stock pipes with a heavy duty set without the front crossover. That front crossover tends to cause issues with rattles and even cracking. I have not priced a set of headers pipes but I would think new they are not cheap. And it could take quite a while to get them. You should be able to use a stock set from an older V11 but how much they would cost and how long they would take to get I don't know. There have been cases of people taking their front crossover equipped pipes and cutting the crossover out and welding them up. That would work as well, but it is more work. The pipes from Todd just bolt up. I think any of those options would work. The only questions are how much and how long. If you can get older version stock pipes for less and in a reasonable amount of time go for it. The one thing I can say about Todd and his stuff is while it might not be the cheapest option out there it will probably be really nicely made, especially compared to stock. I have a pipe from him for my Griso and it is very nice.

The ethanol does not eat at, erode, or corrode the plastic the tank is made from. The prevailing theory seems to be the ethanol combines with water in the fuel and the combination of those two is able to be absorbed into the plastic of the tank causing it to swell. There should be no long term damage to your tank other then any damage to the finish due to the change in size and any bubbling from out-gassing. Letting the tank dry out, as mentioned, should allow it to return to original size and shape. Once there, sealing it should prevent further issues. That is where sealers like Caswell come in. It is basically a two part epoxy tank sealer. As to the carbon wrap, yes you can. But the newer tech version of that is a water transfer decal. Hydrographics. That delivers a much nicer end result then using vinyl graphic film. It conforms the shape of the part pretty much perfectly. Google it. It can even be done at home although paying a professional may be a good idea.

Plain bearings for the crank, while they should be available from Guzzi, are not something that has to be purchased from Guzzi. Any machine shop worth its salt should be able to make bearings for the crank. They should be able to, if nothing else, machine down larger bearing to the correct final size. Is it just the big end bearings? What about the crank bearings the crank spins in or the small end bearings? They should all be doable, in my opinion. The one advantage of plain bearings is they are simple. Roller and ball bearings are harder as they come in set sizes and are not easy to alter said size.

I guess I am the other end of the spectrum from fotoguzzi. One of the things I enjoy about Guzzi's is how easy they are to get more power and better performance out of them. All of mine except for the Lario have at least some work done to them to make them faster. Even the wifes V11 has porting, milled cylinders for higher compression and more squish, and a PC3 (that is just the motor parts). You can't get 15% more power out of Honkawazukiha that easily. I think what you are doing makes total sense, throwing a little money at your V11 and getting alot back in improvements. As to DynoJet and the PCV, as I tried to say before, Todd has done a fair bit of work with making them work on a Guzzi. DynoJet seem to want no part in that. If you want one, talk to Todd. The other option is Guzzidiag, which offers more room for improvement but requires more effort from the end user. It is not plug and play. I would suggest you talk to Mike Rich and see what he thinks. He knows more about getting power out of Guzzi's then just about anyone else around here. I like the PCV but IMHO for what you are doing the Guzzidiag option may be the better choice if you are willing to put in the effort.

Todd himself (GuzziTech) has done a lot of work with PowerCommanders and if he says he has made one work on a V11 that means HE has done it. DynoJet has little to do with Guzzi's and they are not going to do anything with a V11. That said, you can go with the PC/PCV or you can try GuzziDiag. That allows you to change the actual mapping in the ECU. I don't do it, I had long since installed PC/PCV's on my Guzzi's. I am also not as big a fan of the basic premise of re-writing the map as others around here are. The potential for improvements is greater but the risk of screw ups also seems to be greater. With a PC/PCV you can always just unplug it and it is back to normal. But both ways can work. If you search here you will find a ton of info on GuzziDiag. If you want the PC/PCV I would suggest going to Todd and GuzziTech for info.

The scary thing with the Sachs is that some of them (my wifes V11 included) break at the shock eyelet. This is a potentially bad failure. As to would greasing the swing arm bushings help, that depends on what is making the noise. If the upper or lower shock eyelet is binding and making the noise obviously no amount of greasing the swing arm bushing, or anywhere else other then the shock eyelets, is going to make a difference. Sorry to state the obvious. I would, at the very least, suggest inspection of the Sachs shock, paying close attention to the eyelets where it mounts. Greasing them, assuming they are not broken, would be a good idea and is not that hard. The lower one is more exposed and more likely to benefit from greasing. But both could use it, as could all the other moving parts in your rear suspension. Think about how old it is and how little grease was likely used when they built it. That is really not a Guzzi thing but a common issue with most if not all brands. When we found the Sachs shock on the wife's bike had broken (as I recall it was the lower eyelet, but not sure) we replaced it with one from Penske. But I doubt you could buy a shock worse than the stock Sachs shock. Almost anything would be an upgrade. And a higher quality shock would be rebuild-able and should last the life of the bike, a "Buy it once" kind of deal.

The reason to change it BEFORE you put the bike into storage is that by products of combustion can produce acidic compounds in your oil that could cause damage if left to sit over winter. That said, I store my bikes for the winter with the oil that is in them at the time. The only reason I would do an oil change prior to storage is if that change was due. In that case I would change the oil at the time of storage and not when I bring it back out. Like others have said, use quality oil.

I don't use RTV at those joints. I do put some anti-seize there, not for sealing but to make any future dis-assembly easier. Having an air tight seal at those joints is only critical if your bike has an O2 sensor, and in that case it is only critical until the sensor. Beyond the sensor should not matter. Yes, making sure the system is fitted properly without stress is very good, and may help prevent cracking, especially at the crossover.

To try and explain this a little, with progressive springs one end is usually wound closer/tighter than the other. The side where the coils are closer together is not really softer or harder than the other side but if you wanted to put that sort of label on it the tighter side would be the softer side and cutting from that end (and replacing with a rigid spacer) would be stiffening up the soft end of the spring rate curve. The spring would start out stiffer and the rate would increase in stiffness sooner. If you cut the other end of the spring off (and replace with a rigid spacer) you would be increasing the overall rate of the spring but not changing the shape of the curve and at what point the spring gets stiffer. Or you could just run straight rate springs.

This won't work with the stock spring - it's both progressive AND tapered ( ie the top is narrower to fit inside the lip of the spring preload adjuster. My vote is use the $ on decent springs before you bother replacing the bushes . That's what I did, and it transformed the bike ( but I only had 10,000 km on the clock and had a wilburs rear shock) It would still work on progressive springs. But I don't recall the wife's V11 having progressive springs stock. Maybe later versions (hers is an early red frame) have progressive springs. But the trick works by shortening the length of the spring wire, which makes the remaining spring wire stiffer. On a progressive spring you could cut from either the softer end or the stiffer end and that would change the amount of change and how it impacts the rate curve.

I was racing against Pete and Manfred back in '94/'95. We ran the AHRMA BOTT series. It was a serious blast. Got to meet all kinds of amazing people like John Britten. The vintage guys were great, but I never understood how they went so fast on bikes with Fred Flintstone brakes.....

I can't recall the wife's V11, or any of our other GUzzi's having the TB's blow off the boots. We did have a boot fail, rotted and cracked as others have experienced. Were able to rig a temp fix with some electrical tape for the ride home.

I raced against Pete Johnson on a couple bikes like that (one was big, the other was bigger) when I raced Ducati's. They were fast, and the faster the track (like Road Atlanta in the old days and Daytona) the faster they were. I wonder if that was ever one of Pete's Guzzi's? I don't know what the TT course is like but I would think they would do pretty well for their age. And against other old bikes they should be pretty competitive. When it comes to vintage racing it is all relative. Back in the day Guzzi's were not as slow relative to the rest as they are now. There are a few Guzzi's that are not so slow, like the MGS01, and there is the Big Bore version of the Guzzi motor that, especially when put in a G&B chassis or an MGS01, can also go pretty fast. But they are no longer at the sharp end of the field. But back in the day of Dr John, like in that video, Guzzi's were able to race against and beat the Japanese bikes, as long as the race was long enough. Endurance racing was their last gasp.

AFTER you check all that stuff, if you still have issues check your cam chain tensioner and cam timing. A weak tensioner could allow the cam timing to vary and poor cam timing can cause the intake kick back. But check all the other simpler stuff first.

I'm with LowRyter and your buddy. If you are going in to the forks, replace the wear items. Seems crazy to do all that work only to find that they leak a few months later. As to spring rates, measure your sag. If you have correct Free sag (without you on board) and race sag (with you on board) you don't need to change the springs. If your measurements show sag to be off you can use that info to figure out whether you need more or less pre-load, more or less spring rate, or both. There is a cheap way to increase the rate of a straight rate spring, cut a small amount off the end of the spring and replace with an equal amount of spacer. The reduces the length of the spring wire and thus makes the spring stiffer.

The running light part of the tail light has a separate power source than the brake light part of the tail light as I recall. So if you loose both, it is not likely a relay in my experience. I seem to recall on of the two aspect of the tail light takes power from the same relay as the headlight, and loosing that is often a relay issue. I don't remember if it is the brake light or the running light that shares power with the head light, but one of them does.

Whenever someone mentions racing a Guzzi there always seems to be at least a few people out there who say either it can't be done or it would not work well. Personally I know it can be done and I have seen it work very well from the other side. I have raced against, and sometimes lost to (and I did not loose often) a couple Moto Guzzi's. They typically get a displacement advantage due to the pushrods, and as you go older they compare more favorably to other brands (i.e., they were not so out dated back then). The Tonti frame bikes have a good reputation for handling. The two bikes I raced against (I was on a Ducati) were LeMans based bikes. They were fast.

How do you work the injector manually ? What brand spark plug are you buying ? I think he is talking about turning the left hand throttle butterfly, not the actual injector.

Whenever I have had crankcase vent issues I always check the system for blockage. There should be zero pressure in the system to force oil out of the system. A pinched line or a blockage somewhere might be causing pressure in a system that was not designed for pressure. Other than that, I have used that product, it is just silicone RTV in a pressurized can that makes it easy to apply. It does what it is supposed to do.

The main thing is that the clip on V11's and the versions with handlebars seem to use the same top triple clamp (at least my wifes did). That means the top triple clamp casting has lugs where you can drill out the holes to convert to handle bars. Once you have the holes in the clamp (or you can buy a clamp with holes in it from the factory if you want) you just need to decide which bar clamps you want to use. You can use the stock ones from, say, a BillyBob V11. Or you can by aftermarket ones from LSL or others. The key things to keep in mind are whether you use 7/8" bars or 1 1/8" bars, the clamps have to match the bars. The stock BillyBob clamps are 1 1/8" and with them you can use the stock BillyBob bars or a variety of other 1 1/8" bars. The BillyBob clamps are designed to be set up as rubber mounted, which would be a good idea as you are having vibration issues. If you buy the stock factory set up and drill the required holes in your top clamp you should be off to a good start. It is 100% do-able. The only question is how do you want to do it. There have been more than a few threads on this site discussing this.

I have not heard anyone question the fact that it will do what it does. The debate seems to be that some people, the originator of the idea included, don't seem to understand how and why it achieves the adjustment to the fueling that it seems to bring.

If you really think that that big chunk of aluminum called a Moto Guzzi engine can cool down faster than that tiny chunk of brass that is the sensor..... Even if you forget the rest of the engine and just focus on the cylinder head vs. the brass temp sensor. The brass temp sensor is much less mass and will cool down faster than the head. And if the tiny brass sensor is physically attached to the aluminum head it will only ever heat up as hot as the head. It is not possible for it to get hotter than the head. It has no heat source other than the head, how could it get hotter than its heat source. There were some serious assumptions being made in the original thread. The most obvious one is that if you improve the accuracy of the temp reading it would cause the motor to run better. I am not sure why that was being assumed, it seemed awfully naive. But, as there are more than a few widgets out there that can be used to generate a lower temp reading than what is in fact correct and that those widgets are then used to alter the way modern FI motorcycles run by tricking the ECU into adding a little more fuel with the intention of improving the fueling, it seems obvious that by insulating the engine temp sensor slightly from the cylinder head with a slight air gap it stands to reason that you would get a similar result. You would get a slightly lower engine temp reading, especially when the engine temp is at its hottest (the higher the engine temp the greater the effect the air gap would have, I believe), and the result of that is the ECU adds a little more fuel (or in some cases prevents the ECU from removing fuel as it may do if it senses the engine is too hot). Again, to anyone who wants to take that route for fueling adjustment with their V11, fine. Have at it. But please don't try to tell me or anyone else that your air gap engine temp sensor is "more accurate" than the original engine temp sensor. It is simply reading slightly lower, and possibly the hotter the engine gets the greater the offset to the reading.

I am sorry, but if you measure the temp of an engine (that is creating heat) with a direct contact sensor it will read the exact temp of whatever you are measuring. If you try to measure the temp of that engine but with a temp sensor that is measuring the temp of the air right next to the engine it will read a lower temp then the actual temp of the engine. It is not something that is optional. The air right next to the engine will be cooler than the engine when the engine is hotter than the ambient temp. The modified sensor might make the bike fuel better but it could not possibly measure the temp of the engine more accurately. The air gap between it and the engine acts as an insulator. Sorry. It is a case of getting the desired result but not for the reason you think.

As Lucky Phil said, if the cylinder was dead but was still getting fuel that fuel could have been washing down the cylinder and getting into the crankcase. That has two main outcomes, the cylinder is not properly lubricated and the oil is diluted with gas raising the oil level and possibly resulting in an over full oil situation. Even if the dead cylinder was not getting fuel, the dead cylinder pumping up and down could have lead to crankcase pressure issues and contributed to the oil leak. I would try to fix the dead cylinder first. The oil leak may resolve itself when you fix the dead cylinder.