Hairy Cannonball

Generally you might put a little dry moly on automotive splines on assembly and forget about it. Most cars have a heavier flywheel to dampen the power pulses from the engine so it isn't nearly so hard on the splines. BMW never had a significant number of spline failures back when they still had the heavy flywheels. A little tacky moly fortified grease seems to go a long way to slow down spline wear on the newer ones though. I think some of the bikes are coming with a misaligned transmissions or soft splines and no amount of magic fortified wonderlube is going to prevent wear on these. The Optimoly paste that BMW dealers sell is equivalent to Honda Moly 60 paste. Buy whatever you find first, they are both kinda spendy. Just remember though, if you have improperly hardened splines or a misalignment, the splines will fail whatever you do. Remember too, MoS2 is expensive. If you find a cheap moly grease, it is cheap because it has very little moly in it. Lots of so called moly greases have only around 3% by weight.

BMW has changed the recommendation for clutch spline lube several times over the years. I think now they are saying some Optimoly paste, however most people I talk to including BMW shops are using Honda Moly 60 paste. Its not a "super grease" though, just a suspension of 60% MoS2 in mineral oil. Great for splines and other sliding surfaces. Some folks mix a little good ep grease in with it for added corrosion protection. You could also get some Dow Molykote Z powder and mix it in whatever grease you wanted to use. Honda Moly 60 is easier to get though.

Thanks Diesel, very helpful. I am going to order exactly what you have. Tim

I am looking for a tank bag solution for my '03 LM also, and appreciate the pictures. I did have a few questions. I like the bag you chose and it looks like it fits well, did you try any of the other Engage bags on the bike to see how they would fit? Also, from your pictures, it looks like you have some choices, fore and aft, where you mount the bracket to the bag, and it looks like you have yours so the bag is all the way forward. Would it also work to have the bag back just a little? Thanks. Tim

Hi Rob, Where bouts in Montana? And why would you leave Gods country for Cali?? :P I had a DRZ400 for while too, actually came from a friend in Montana, but I traded it for a 750GT Duc project. Figured I could find another DRZ easier than another roundcase. I miss it though and am casually searching for another one. Tim

Ratchethack, we are going to have to find some of those God of Fire seeegahrs and a good bourbon and enjoy em some time. Dlaing and all others, this has been a very interesting thread, and I must say it prompted me, since it was too cold out to ride here anyway, to take my cush drive apart for a clean up. Now I ain't never ever gonna tell anyone nohow noway whether or not I drilled or greased the rubbers in there, but I did find the bearing surface between the cush drive plate and the hub rusty so I cleaned that and gave it a good lubing. And, just for clarity, no gerbils were harmed during the maintenance procedure. :rolleyes:

No, it actually came from my inability to swim. Thank you!! Not on myself You never need to Once, but not from the gerbils Gawd I sure hope not. We can try!!!! :lol:

Guys guys, you are going about this all wrong. What you need to do is replace all the rubbers, not just half of them, with genetically engineered gerbils. Under acceleration the gerbils would initially squish because they were asleep and relaxed, however upon being awakened they would become angry and tense firming up the dampening. Then they would frantically run inside the cush drive adding race winning horsepower as long as it was Friday. You could drill holes in the gerbils if that is your thing. Once in a while you could add a nice stinky cheese to the cush drive to keep the gerbils happy. I am pretty sure this would work.

Ok I dug through some more of my pics and actually came up with a pic of the V11. This was taken on a club ride last summer before I adopted it. See I was lusting after it even back then The green one belongs to another member of our local club.

Ha ha ok, well I don't have a very good pic of the whole group together, the best I can do is this older photo which doesn't show all of the bikes. The DRZ is now gone, traded for a roundcase 750GT project bike which is pretty ugly at the moment so I don't have pics of it. The Diesel Royal Enfield was in pieces when this photo was taken and now looks like this: I don't have a good photo of the V11 yet, when It gets warm enough here to clean it up a bit I will post. Tim

Hi all, Just a quick first post to introduce myself. I recently purchased a 2003 V11 LM from a very good friend who had bought it new. The bike only has a little over 5000 miles on it and it is in perfect condition. I am not sure why I need another motorcycle to go with the other 7 already in the garage, but hey, my loving wife said we didn't have a red bike yet so go for it. Whats a man to do other than get out the checkbook ? Its not my first Guzzi, years ago while attending the University of Grand Forks in North Dakota I had a '74 850 Eldorado police. Despite having numerous other fine motorcycles along the way I have regretted selling that bike since the moment it left my hands. This V11 brings back a very very nice feeling. Although it was only 3 degrees C here today I spent most of the afternoon riding around giggling like a total fool inside my helmet. The only other bike that has made me feel this way this strong is my 900SS Duc. I am hoping my roundcase 750GT will too when I finally get it restored. From reading the posts, most here understand what I am talking about. Don't get me wrong, I have loved all my bikes...just some quite a bit more than others I actually just found this forum a few days ago while researching any issues a V11 might have prior to buying this one. Happily I didn't find any I can't live with. Thanks to all who have posted valuable information. I look forward to learning lots more. Tim