PDoz

Clif, I've gotta say it's very impressive watching the level of support you've offered both here and via the myecu forum. I'm farly sure I know what I'm getting for xmas. Mind if I throw another question your way? Is there anyone in se oz that can do the finetuning ? ( I live in gippsland victoria but would travel interstate to get the job done well) . A previous owner fitted madaz pipes to my 03 lemans, so it'd be a one off map I presume.

For an example of what you can do with a cal, look at machine 3 here http://www.returnofthecaferacers.com/2012/02/moto-guzzi-cafe-racers-by-kaffe.html

It sold a couple of days ago, I stopped looking when it hit $25 k with a day to go. It was interesting watching the other mk 1 's and real v7 ' s get listed at the same time!

The original clipons are about 22 mm and the forks sit flush with the top ( on my 03 lm) I can get a screwdriver between the tank and frame rails from above ( seat removed)' and with the persuader and a bit of lube the collar turns. Wouldn't want to do this for every ride....

I recently replaced my sachs with a wilburs. The sachs had about 7K on it but I just couldn't get it to behave. Straight out of the box the wilburs is so much better than the sachs that I haven't even bothered adjusting anything yet . Even teh spring preload was right for the weight I specified. Yesterday I did a 200 k run through some tight bumpy back roads that with the sachs I'd be really struggling on. Halfway through I realsied I was going faster and hadn't even bothered changing gears I was so relaxed. Now about those forks.....

Thanks for that, so presumably a diablo rosso (not 2) is an old stock slightly sportier tyre than the angel. Given the lemans is more rear biased than most bikes the angel front and diablo rear sounds ok, or at least a whimpy rider like me will survive on them until they wear out. I'm still struggling to get my head round how good modern tyres are, and am in awe of anyone who can push even an angel to the limit.

Can someone please explain the pirrelli line up to me? In particular, where along the ST range do the angel / diablo / diablo 2/ diablo corsa et al all sit. I suspect I've made a mistake fitting a diablo on the back when I already had a near new angel on the front. Truth is I'm never going to approach the limit of either tyre - the angel gives enough grip for me to get the (lowered) pegs down in the wet. Modern tyres are absolutely amazing (hey, it's been 20 years since I last had road rubber)

Well I had a moment of clarity this morning - whilst paying a bill to fix my ride on lawn mower I realised it was the same price as a wilburs shock! Perspective is a wonderfull thing, I've ordered the 641 and look forward to my next ride. (after which I'll be asking how to fix the forks, no doubt)

Gavo, you can add have the bike confiscated under anti hoon laws , and from memory down in Vic the threshold for loss of license has been reduced to 25 k over! There is a lot to be said for sticking to the back roads.....

There's a guy in europe who fits knobbies with spikes for snow riding Last week I took a chunk out of my sump hitting a rock pretty much doing what you've just done. I think I'd be fitting a bashplate if I was considering dirt tyres. Many moons ago a mate and I did a local dirt ride, the "blue light", on a cx 650. We actually ripped the whole sump off and had to ride out without any oil in the motor....he fitted a bashplate for the next years trip.

If you're worried about feeling the vibration aren't you worried about how effective the mirros will be with all that vibration? I hadn't noticed the v11 vibrating, but I ride a ktm 640.... sometimes on the 640 I can barely tell there are lights behind me ,never mind working out if they are police or ambulance lights.

This has been an expensive thread- you made me look how old my arai is so now I've ordered another one. I guess I should say thanks, but the old lid felt and worked wonderfully- I had no idea it'd been 8 years! Can't say I've ever kept a cheap lid for more than a couple of years, so crashes aside the arai comes out cheap in the long run (and fits, is quiet, etc.) ps I once crashed first day out in a top of the range fox trailbike lid. I was more than happy to go to the shop the next day and buy another. It did what it was supposed to.

Thanks, the trouble is the 640 model has NO compression adjustment - just rebound. About 20 years ago I fitted a similar ohlins into my transalp and to be honest it was so much better than standard I didn't miss the lack of compression adjustabilty. Trouble is, in the interim I've been spoilt with several KTM dirt bikes with multi adjustable white power suspension. I don't expect my guzzi to handle as well as they do, but it'd be nice if it was at least as good as my transalp used to be. I reckon I'm going for the 641, thanks everyone for the input

Thanks, but I'm in love with the V11 so it stays- besides, I've got a KTM 640 I usually use for that sort of riding. This particular ride was still 90 % tight but bumpy bitumin and I felt like giving the guzzi a run. Even on the bitumin the back was playing up on some of the harder hits, and if there were more than 2 in a row on corners things were getting interesting. The rest of the time the bike was flawless, so I'm hoping a new rear will improve things. Then again, if you know of a nice NTX 650 for sale in australia...... I have a soft spot for small bore guzzis.

Sorry, I can't work out how to continue directly underneath the picture. If it's any help, I'm re -learning road riding after 20 years of almost exclusively dirt riding, I've had the guzzi for 5 months so far and have well and truly reached the limits of the suspension both ends. I'm not a particularly fast rider - out of our group of 50 this weekend I was about 10th most of the time. I'm looking for safe suspension, not race suspension.

G'day, I'm wondering if anyone has fitted a wilburs 640 rear shock into a v11 and if so, have you been wishing ever since that you spent the extra $ on a 641 with dual compression dampening adjustment? I suspect I'll be spending the extra $ on a 641, but I'd love to hear that the 640 is so good I can spend the extra $ on the forks instead. I've just spent 2 wonderfull days exploring the limitations of the standard suspension on my 03 lemans. Lots of fantastic memories of twisty roads with stunning scenery, but a few moments I'd rather forget where I'd have been better off on the KTM 990 I was chasing. Australian "roads".... what more can I say. Perhaps a picture might help?

Just a heads up that screens for bikes ( http://www.screensforbikes.com/ ) now offer a v11 lemans screen and it looks / fits fantastic. He'll update his website eventually with pics of my bike. It's an australian company but they do deal internationally. They offer various tints and can also do varying heights. I've stuck with standard but a dark tint. I'd been waiting months for another company to not supply a screen.... but when I sent Peter my old screen he had a new one made within a week. Very impressive.

Sorry, make that http://www.motointernational.com/main.htm

Sorry to go straight off topic, but are those footpegs lower than standard and if so how do you find them? I've been considering the set advertised in the US from moto ittaliano but yours look neater.

The plot thinkens..... the photos above made me look again and my caps are as per the 2004 model shown. The left is definitely adjusting compression and right adjusting rebound. I have teh hollow axle which apparently came out with the 2003 upgrades, but I've got all the other 2003 upgrades like fuel punp in smooth tank, exhaust crosovers, and my bike still has engine paint. So I'm intrigued Rob, can you try turning your left and right adjusters fully in and see which part of the stroke each affects?

Rob, you're probably correct that for most people standard is better than what they adjust their suspension to. My problem is I come from a dirt riding background and over the years have developed a tendency to ask my bikes to do things they were never really intended to....so learning how to fine tune suspension helps. Trouble is, everytime I get on a new bike now I have this irrational urge to fiddle / fine tune / personalise / screw things up.... Since 90% of people who ride my bikes ask me to set theirs up the same I figure I'm either super fussy or as stupid as everyone else. As an experiment / learning exercise, try lining up a bit of lumpy road and adjusting rebound dampening to fully closed / open, ride it then return to standard settings and do the same for compression. It's surprising how quickly you can get a feel for what each does and how much more enjoyable your bike is when you have tweaked the bike to what you like. Note I say what you like and not what's right- life would be too boring if we all liked the same thing. Warning, this may result in you wanting a bike with both high and low speed compression and rebound adjustment...then fiddling with oil viscosities, volumes and shim stacks.... personally I'm just happy to have a bike that feels right.

Rob, I can't tell from the photo, are your caps labelled compression or rebound adjustment? You could be the magical person mentoned above with 2 compression caps IN all seriousness, despite having R on my left cap it's definitely adjusting compression dampening. The reason I went back to the manual is I could feel compression changing and not having found a compression dampening adjuster didn't know what was happening. Whilst I could easilly keep the caps as they are and warn any future owner, I'd ideally like to have bleed valves anyway. Coming from a dirt bike background I release the built up pressure before every ride- fork seals seem to last longer that way. If I can't find caps with bleeders then I might just earn myself a bodge by using a permanent marker to write "c" on teh left cap

I consider myself reasonably capable of adjusting my suspension, but the past month with my 02 lemans had me stumped! It probably doesn't help that the settings it came with were WAY out - how does 35 mm static sag on the front sound- the first ride was pretty interesting! Ok, so I got the sags close (need stiffer fork springs but it's close), the rear seems to be getting close, but I was REALLY struggling with the forks. Finally I bit the bullet and lined up a rough patch to do some serious fine tuning. Back and forward, adjust the settings, try it again. Something was very wrong - every time I adjusted the rebound it felt like I was adjusting compression as well.... so back home to read the manual.....Hmmm, Ok, so LEFT FORK IS COMPRESSION...that explains a lot! One day I'm going to visit the moto guzzi factory and find the genius who fitted 2 right side fork caps on my bike..... and I'm going to make damn sure he never does it again! Since I'm considering replacing my fork caps... does anyone make fork caps for the marzochis with a bleeding screw? If not I'll just drill and tap my own, it's just that right now I'm a bit tired of fiddling with the forks.

For sure, but the interesting thing that the original post added was about the effect that carbon fibre itself can have. While we're very aware of the curse of metal to metal reactions, particularly in damp climates with added water and salts, I hadn't thought about cf in the same way. It's not dramatic, but it's interesting. Congrats on the V11 acquisition: enjoy! Which model? Oh, looking at your info, it's the LeMans, with fairing..? Sorry, I didn't mean to pull a know it all type first post. Mine is a late 02 lemans in black, it seems to have the 03 upgrades- eg cross over pipes, fuel pump in the tank etc. Pretty much standard apart from some madaz mufflers (custom built stainless pipes- VERY nice note). I'd had a weekend lined up to look at a high milage 02 a few thousand km away when this one came up down the road as part of a deceased estate! We're still getting to know each other- I haven't had a real road bike for over 20 years (dirt background- hence lots of experience with rusted bits of metal). Anyway, sorry to get off topic.

G'day guys. I think you'll find the problem has more to do with using stainless bolts in alloy forks , ie it'll happen even without the carbon fibre bits. IN the boating world we use duralac between dissimilar metals to try and reduce the problem. Some genius put a stainless bolt into the alloy end of my yachts boom and it's never coming out! I've tried all the usual things- soaking with wd 40, heating and freezing it, impact driver...it's there to stay. And off topic, since this is my first post, this site is an amazing resource! I'm up to page 40 so far and getting just a little paraniod about all the problems I'll be having in the next few weeks - having just picked up an 02 lemans with 5000 km on the clock. Surprisingly I've added 1000 km and nothing has happened in the last couple of weeks, so perhaps it's the honeymoon period?