dark_bike

OK... Took the whole rear drive off yesterday and to my surprise the front yoke (ie the one on the gearbox shaft came off just like that. Not quite like it should be is it? I also noticed that the rear drive can slide for about 1-2 mm on the axle. There is a distance piece but it doesn't seem wide enough. Feels like a part is missing The drawing in the parts manual isnt to clear about what goes where...

Hi all, recently I bought a Sport1100 which needs a bit of work here and there. The driveshaft UJs feel rather sloppy and I suspect too much wear on the pinion shaft bearing or bush (how much is tolerable there?) I noticed that Guzzi only sell more or less complete driveshafts but surely those UJs are nothing special and could be replaced with sealed-for-life items? Does any one know the dimensions of the UJs? Tom

the item arrived today. It gives a whole new meaning to the word 'overengineered'..you can probably lift a tank with it,too...

which means what? is it a legal liability/approval issue or has it to do with the shipping?

You also need two size 18 sockets, mind. Shouldnt be a problem by the look of it...if you require assistance don't hesitate to PM me..

Just did

on second thoughts, I found this: a centre stand that allows either wheel to be lifted of the ground. Should do for most jobs...and can be also be used on one of those big lifts, should i ever buy one..

as far as I know it is also possible to tie the bike down to the lift with belts. hmm I think I'll give it a try. And have plenty of blocks of wood handy thanks for the comments guys. tom

I don't want to go to the length of dropping the engine from the frame, at least not in my lock-up, but everything else would be within my capabilities. I need somthing that gets the wheels off the ground and raises the whole bike so its easier to work at. Thats why this lift seemed appealing as it does both, but I'm a bit worried about the narrowness of the lifting surface, and that's not entirely unjustified, see Steve's post what I could do is fit a two rods to the bottom plate of the lift that are in line with the bike, so it wont tip forward or backward so easily. hmmmm

Auch, yes, that is exactly what worries me Steve as the load bearing surface is a bit narrow. I've seen similar product here in Germany. Is it possible to take off the wheels with this one, though? Tom

A question for the dirty nails brigade. As I plan to do most work on my Guzzi myself I find that I need a decent lift or some other device to get the wheels off the ground. I found lifts of this type (see image) but are they suitable for a V11 as the oil pan is not flat? Or would a paddoc stand be better? It will have to be something I can safely use alone. cheers Tom bike lift

Water-coold or air-cooled is probably the least of their worries. THE bugbear of Guzzi and other Italian manufacturers, be it cars or motorcycles (their coffee machines are very good though;-)) is poor quality and poor customer support. I bought a new Guzzi only once, a 750 Targa, and of the twelve months I had it, not one went by without a visit to the dealer, and none of the problems were permanently solved. The build quality was in one word: crap. After that I swore never to buy a new one again. I refuse to pay a lot of money for a bike and then also have to do the product development. Quite few people who would buy a Guzzi shirk back because of their reputation for unreliability. And lets face it, our bikes only become bombproof one you've ditched most of what the Guzzi purchasing department put on. But a manufacturer cant live on selling second-hand bikes, they have to find people mad enough to buy them new. so, to go back to the original question, a water-cooled, poorly put together Guzzi isnt going to work either. The big transverse V2 is the distinctive feature of these bikes (they made parallel twins as well and they look like poor copies of Hondas) and if BMW can update their boxers successfully why shouldnt Guzzi? I think more people were prepared to put up with the idiosyncrasies of Guzzis is they were reliable from the start and didnt need to spend weeks at a dealer because of poor parts supply. You see that with Ducati. They're much better built these days but havent fundamentally changed, and they sell like hot buns. The problem for Guzzi is that is has been owned for the past decades by companies that didn't give a toss about the marque. Begs the question why Piaggio bought them... I'm sure that with a some hundredes million Euros it can be done (6 or 7 ) . They just need to have a concept and do it. ha thats better, what a little rant cant do ;-) oh by the way, I bought another Guzzi...again not a new one ;-) tom

Aye aye, doc :-)..done. inches I can cope with, Fahrenheit is beond me...too bloody complicated to convert. Next on the to-do list is to repaint the tank and the seat cowl, but that has to wait till either the next bike is ready or the weather turns so foul I wont ride. I use this bike to commute Tom

Hi Søren, yes those pics do help :-) it appears there is something squarish visible between the carbon panel and the the crown plate. I had a further look on the Stein Dinse parts drawings and I found those bits. Logically they were not on the LM 2001-2002 pages but on those for the V11 2002.. they don't look like something I couldnt make myself, so back to the workbench Tom

About 2 years ago, when I was searching for a V11 to buy, I found one for sale in - I believe it was Arizona - which had been fitted with a Le Mans fairing. I didnt have the funds ready then so I couldnt buy it, but the idea of fitting a fairing to a Scura stuck. A few months ago I managed to buy a complete fairing from Slavek on here (it was not without upheaval - Slavek had wrapped up everything and left the box in his garage. The next morning his garage had been cleared out...tools gone, and parcel gone . Fortunately enough the police managed to catch the thieves..and found the parcel with the fairing poor Slaveks tools were gone forever though. ..) a couple of weeks I managed at last to get the lot painted in matt black and last Friday I fitted the lot. It went fairly smoothly except for the oil cooler brackets. on the fiared bikes these are different as they also have hole for the rubber nut that secures the fairing. Of course, after 8 years the bolts holding the oil cooler to the bracket refused to budge. I couldnt be bothered to take the oil cooler off and have a go at the bolts with a grip plier. It turned out these mounting points arent essential, I could fit the fairing anyway. so there it is the other change I made recently was to swap the standard cans for Staintunes ones. They look very good and sound much more purposeful. They're quite illegal here but you cant have everything . They don't make too much noise so they dont draw unwanted attention from the men in green (ours are green) and they'de probably meet the EU specs if Staintune could be arsed to get them homologated but there you are. the only problem I have is the mounting of the instrument panel. the bracket carrying the panel is mounted on the headlight brackets, which of course I had to take of. Using the upper thread holes in the crown plate. the bracket ends up too high, making the panel stand proud of the crown plate :-(... could any of the Le Mans owners tell me how the intrument panel is attached on his bike? those parts drawings don't show anything useful. On the road the main difference is less wind roar around my helmet. Havent had the opportunity for a longer ride as it has been raining cats, dogs, camels, elephants, hedgehogs, anything once everything is sorted I'll make a state portait of the bike Tom

Thanks Jaap. There weren't any so I guess I'll have to make or find some.

Maybe this is a stupid question, but here goes: I bought a used rossopuro torque arm/ reaction rod/ thingy on ebay. so far so good, as new condition. Looking at it more closely I saw that those ball swivels are a lot narrower than the original rod. Shouldn't there be any rubber bushes/disks or whatever to prevent it from sliding about or is it meant to be this way?

Interestingly, in German there is an expression which says that the better is the enemy of the good. It may be better designed but if it thereby gains the character of an appliance, is it therefore a better (more fun) bike?

With old Bitish cars and bikes the quip usually is: if you don't have any oil leaking, then you should get seriously worried. In a way it's the same with Guzzis, only with noises. They come and go, some stay. I guess you have to learn which ones are expensive noises and which arent. If they get worse quickly it's usually a bad sign. I had a faulty oil sender as well, it didnt light up with the ignition on. I replaced it (bit fiddly) and not long afterwards that side of the engine was wet with oil. OMG. Leaking cylinder gasket? cracked crankcase? blocked breather? head bolts needing tightening? no, the new oil sender got ever so slightly damaged during fitting causing it to leak ( why didnt they put the @&%$§!! thing in a more accesible place? and why didnt they put the oil filler on the other side of the engine?) . Morale: the cause is usually quite simple, and 99 out of 100 times in a crappy part bought in by Guzzi. Its the owners of overly reliable BMWs etc who should get seriously worried about noises... Guzzi et al are machines, Suzukis et al are appliances.

Of all the suggestions this seems the easiest one to try out so I'll give it a try. It's probably more of an ergonomical problem than anything else...

I've been commuting on my Scura for most of the past year (added 8,000 miles) generally problem free, but a change of route to work, with much more slow traffic, is playing havoc on my left arm. RSI and all that. to cut a long story short, are there any tricks for reducing the force necessary to operate the clutch? I have no idea really of whats available in terms of aftermarket parts. the bike still has the single plate clutch. I sometimes have the feeling I need to learn to ride all over again.. I had a ducati 900 SS before and that sort of steered itself..The Guzzi really needs to be persuaded to change course. Having said that, for such a heavy bike it handles well, once persuaded Tom

numbers 180, 191 and 642 are also in Germany. They're presently for sale on www.mobile.de apparently the majority of them are in the hands of people who have never heard of v11lemans.com...

I want to get a slightly more upright position on my Scura, and to that end I'm looking for a pair of raised clip-ons. Stein Dinse have them, but I baulk a the price of €200 each. Anyone got a pair he wants to get rid of? FOUND SOME AT TLM :-)

hmmm, so if I understand it right no matter whether the original system is working well or not, its always a good idea to put the headlights on a separate relay. Just ordered this kit from Eastern Beaver. Meanwhile I'll see if those grounds can be improved..never hurts. thanks for all the tips guys at least it's some more tinkering to do...I was already getting bored now that my classic car is sort of finished (for the time being)

As the days shorten and I do more driving in the dark I noticed the instrument panel lights, and more importantly the head light, change brightness intermittently. Of course this only happens during driving I cant relate it to anything else, like revs of hitting a bump in the road or something. feels like an earth problem to me, but where? so, a few questions: a) there are 3 wires on the negative terminal of the battery. Are they connected to the frame or engine somewhere, and if so, where? could it be a relay issue? if so, which relay is for the lights? I checked all the connectors at the front and they seemed all ok, nothing loose there. other than that the bike has been suspiciously reliable over the past months, once a few niggles were sorted. regards Tom