MotoG5

Looks like I will need a replacement battery for my 02' V11 Sport this spring. Any one have any tips on what the best deal on the market is these days? Any information will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Thanks Again Brain, Your time and consideration in answering my questions is appreciated. Take care and have a good 08' riding season. MG5

Thanks Brian, I am going to pull the swing arm for sure. I want all the access I can get. Did you just hook out the old seal clean up the contact area for the new one and drive it in? This is more or less my plan but not having worked on one of the Sports before I am not sure. With the bike assembled that area is a bit hard to look into and the shop manual is short on any detailed pictures. This bike was one of the ones recalled for the transmission up grade a few years ago and I think that is why the seal is leaking now. I doubt the shop that did the recall work put a new seal in and may not have been too kind to the old one when reassembly on the box was done. It started weeping soon after the recall but up until this last summer it had been little more than a minor issue. Its bad enough now that it leaks on my exhaust cross over on longer rides.

Just wondering if anyone has done this on the bike with the rear wheel/dirve shaft, ect. removed. Possible or not? Or is removal of the tranny unit needed. Any information would be appreciated other wise it will be learn as I go. As of yet I have not had to do alot to my 02' Naked Sport but this has reached the point where I cant ignore it anymore. Thanks

Went for a morning run today and after returning home found that my tranny rear out put shaft seal is leaking. Not real bad but I will have to deal with it this winter. The bike has about 17K on it and up to now I have not had a lot of trouble. Any one know if I can get at the seal from the outside or will I have to crack the case to do a replacement? As I have had few issues with this bike and my other Guzzis are all Tonti frames with the old five speed unit I dont have a lot of experience with working on it. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Oh yea, the bike is an 02' VllS naked in what I have been told is Frozen Piss Green.

Thanks Guy, That is what I was looking for. The Roof here in the US is a pretty pricy unit. What you have said about it is right on for most flip face units including my current Nolan. The crash testing on all of the flip face helmets says that you may as well be wearing an open face. The full face types are indeed the best. As it is I have already gone the route of riding with a flip face so thats not a concern for me. What I really like about the Roof is the feature that allows for the chin bar to rotate all the way to the back of the helmet. And the fact that it does not make you look like a gum ball machine due to its size. I love my Nolan flip face but its a butt ugly helmet. I may well go for the Roof Boxer just on style points only as what you have said at least lets me know that it works much the same as the hemlet I have been wearing.

Hey Guzzirider, I am in the market for a new helmet. I looked at the Roof units a few years back but was unable to get any real feedback from anyone who owned one. I am ineterested again now and was wondering if you could give a review of yours. As it sounds like I could order one from the shop you purchased yours from I would like to take another look at them before I replace my old Nolan flip face. Its been a great helmet but after seven years of service its time for a new one. Thanks

You are not alone. I haven't dropped my V11 yet or my G5 but I did manage to do my wife's Cal III. I was moving things around in the garage, went to move her bike and lost balance on the machine. It fell away from me so I could not control the fall. Like you, there was not a lot of damage, mainly due to the fact it is a touring machine with both front and rear crash bars. They took the brunt of the scratch and dig action. I do have a set of front crash bars on my V11S that I bought directly from Agustini's in Mandello. Have you checked there for a set? It my well be that they no longer have them. The only other place I had seen them in the past was at MG Cycle but I haven't looked in a long time. I hope I can manage not to drop my Sport but I know that I am fully qualified for the job if I work at it.

I bought one new in 81 and it is still my daily work rider today. Great bike but like jrt says just plain ugly. Other Guzzis have come and gone from my stable but the homely old G5 is stll there. Its just so darn usable and economic to operate. Reliable, smooth and handy. A great all round bike that has tons of charm and is unique enough to stay interesting. At 2k its a bargan. I would not sell mine for that.

I love my 02' VllS. I got one of if not the last green/red units. Not a color everyone likes but it suits me fine. I do like the Griso and new Breva derived Sport but not enough to replace the V11S with one. I ride two other Guzzis I consider to be "old stuff". A 93' Cal III the last of its kind and a 81' V1000G5. I bought both new. The G5 is still my daily commuter rain or shine. With the passing of the V11 series it seems to me that this will only make them more desirable as time goes by as there are really not that many of them out there. I have bought all of my Guzzis over the years as new machines but that is just a very temporary state. For the time being I still see my Sport as the new kid on the block. It will be interesting to see how the "new stuff" sells and holds up over the next few years until it also is looked on as the "old stuff".

It quit snowing at last so I was able to get the V11S out and on the road. Had a good time trying to fiqure out why I could not get it started after installing the battery. Hit the start button and all I got was "click-POP" no starter and now no head light! OK, I am supposed to know about Guzzis so the fun begins. I go through about every thing I can think of an no luck. About two hours later and with a great deal of fustration I happen to notice that the hot lead to the starter is not connected to the battery! Now I know why that 15 amp fuse was blown and I had no go. The starter really works better if you give it some power. Sure felt good to get out on the Sport again. Did a complete oil change on the bike and discovered that I have picked up some water in the tranny oil last fall riding in the rain. I had seen somewhere that this could happen but had never seen it on my O2' until now. It was not a gread deal of water but enough that you could see it in the milky look to the fluid. Hope to get my new hand grips on soon but that will be a fight for this up coming week end as it looks like rain this time around. Oh glorious spring!

Pete, Thanks for the input. It has helped me to make up my mind as to how to deal with this one. It starting to look like the learning curve on this one may get a bit to expensive. I think I will just go ahead and pull the bevel box and ship it to the dealer for the seal replacement. The shipping costs and a couple of hours of shop time will be much easier to bear than a damaged bearing cage or drive housing. Sometimes it can pay to be a little bit of a chicken. RR

Hello, First off many thanks to Pete Roper for the great write up on the new bevel box. I now at least am able to have a good idea of what my problem is. It looks like I will be getting into my bikes unit soon.Oh yes, my little dog who likes to lay in my lap while I use the computer thinks Collin is pretty cool. I just got my bike back form the dealer after having the recall work done. All is well with that but it seems that the outer rear drive box seal is now leaking. This one would be on the right side sitting on the bike. I get gear box oil with molly in it leaking past the outboad support needle bearing Collin so kindly pointed out in Pete's pictures. On one hand if I dont fix it I would not have to worry about any water ingress or rusting in there but more than likely I will wind up fixing it. As the trip to my dealer is almost 700 miles round trip I will tackle the job myself. It would have been nice if this had shown up prior to taking the bike in for the recall as I would have had the dealer fix it. Now I get to do it instead. Oh well, that's life in Guzzi land. My question is how much touble I will run into in getting the needle bearing cage out to replace the seal? If anyone has any ideas I would like to hear them. Or if anyone knows of a puller set up that may work. Pete, any input would sure help here. Maybe there is a special tool for this but so far I haven't found one. Thanks RR

Hello All, I retreved my 01 V11S from the dealer yesterday. A long trip for me at around 620 miles round trip. The bike seems to run about the same as before. Shifting may be a little smoother but it was not bad to strat with. The dealer said that he found no problems with the trany when it was opened up. The good news was that there were no internal leaks in the bellhousing area and the clutch looked great at 10k on the clock. All in all a lot of fuss for little diffrence but its done now. Really great to have the bike back. RR

Its not needed. I would just follow the factory recomended oil change chart. A few shavings in the screen on the first change is no big deal. Ride your new bike as much as possible and only work on it when you have to. Later on as stuff starts to wear out or you just get bored and start changing things for the fun of it you will get in plenty of wrench time.

Hi All, I was under the impression that most of the parts kits had been sent. I took my bike in to the dealer last week after he called and said that he was ready to work on it. I rode mine up until the day before it went in. If you are not having any trany issues I would ride it. RR

Hi All, I had the same rear wheel bearing problem on my 01 V11S at about 8000 Mi. I noticed a clicking noise as I was pushing the bike into the garage after riding. When I went to replace the rear tire I checked the wheel bearings. In my case the left side bearing had not been seated all the way into its well and was side loaded when tightened up aginst the spacer. Put in new bearings and all has been ok. Now I need to get it in to the dealer for the recall work. I am waiting for a call back from them as I write this. Later RR

Hello All, How interesting. I bought one of the first 850 Eldorados sold here in the states way back when. I only had it a few months when it was recalled to replace the then all new five speed gear box with an updated version. I had not had any trouble with the bike at all. Now all these years later I buy one of the bikes with the all new six speed gear box and the same thing happens. I have 11k on my 01 V11S with no problems. I just checked with my dealer and I am involved in the recall. On the steering head the month and year of the manufacture of your bike is stamped. My "01" was actually built in 6-2000 as stamped on the VN plate. All in all I am really glad to see Guzzi taking care of this issue. I know many like me have not had any trouble but I am going to get it taken care of for sure. They are not going to this much trouble for the fun of it. I have had my bike for two years now and really enjoy it. Getting the work done will be a pain but as much as I like my Sport its worth the trouble to me. The dealer said to wait until I recieve my offical notice from Guzzi and then contact him to set up a repair date. He as yet does not have the parts on hand for the job. In the mean time he did not feel that I needed to stop riding the bike. Here in Nebraska ridiing is on a vey once and a while basis anyway and if the repairs are done before next April any true impact on my riding time will be nill. RR

Dont feel to bad, this has happened many times to people over the years with the inspection hole plug. It is possible to do this in removing and installing it for tune ups and valve adjustments. Ray

Hondas they are not and praise be for that! I have nothing aginst Hondas or any other brand for that matter. Its just that all of my Guzzis have pushed the right buttons for me and flaws and all I have loved every one of them. Ray

In my area here in the midwest there have been several bearing failure events with the older five seed transmissions in the last year. In these cases it has been said that this may have been caused by the use of synthetic oil in units that were equipped with phenolic(sp?)bearing cages. These trannys did not come with synthetic oil and it was not recomended by the factory for use in them. This may or may not be the case but there have been at leat five failures that I know of and all were using synthetic oil. On the other hand there are several older bikes that have been using synthetic with out problem for many miles. As I understand it the new six speeds come with synthetic and it is recommended by the factory for these newer units. I think with the new trannys I would go either way and not worry about it. With the older units there may be a problem as one does not know for sure what type of bearing was used in the box. In Guzzis case it would not supprise me if some were plastic and some were not. For now this is how I see it. I got the information on the tranny failures form the guy who rebuilt all five of the ones that I mentioned. He feels that the synthetic was the cause as all of the bearings in these boxes had failed yet there was no other dammage to the rest of the componets in the unit. So far my 01 V11S tranny is doing fine at 9k and counting. Ray

Hi All, Well for the most part I am still stumped on this. I have had the light pod apart. Poor quality sockets I guess! At any rate the bulbs were good and the light actually worked after fiddleing with it some and putting it back together. Then it started doing the same thing again on the next strat up. I really dont think its the voltage regulator and more than likely it is the crappy bulb sockets. These really look like great candidates for vibration related problems. My dealer has made note of the whole thing in case it does turn out to be the regulator after all and for the time being I am just going to ride and let it go. This winter I will look into some type of up grade if nothing else shows itself to be the problem. I wil be on the look out for suggestions and comments on this and of courese any ideas people come up with. Ray

Hello All, In the last few weeks I have noticed that my charging light does not always come on when the ignition switch is turned on. This usually happens when the bike is first started up in the morning. The next time it will come on in the prestart check mode and go out when the bike is started as it is supposed to do. I will be looking into the porblem in the next week or so and will be back with an up date. I did check the black ground wire on the voltage regulator mounting screw. It was snug but not tight. I backed it off and turned the connector a few times to break up any possible corrosion and retightened the mounting screw. I will have to ride the bike some to see if this has any effect on the problem as it is an on and off type thing. If this does not help I will have to look into the bulb socket and wiring to see if a problem is developing there. Has anyone else seen this? Ray