pete roper

Docc, after many years of working on queer european motorbikes I always go completely over the top with earthing Why. Simply because in my experience 99.9% of all prblems are earth related! The way I do it is to simply run extra wires, (They don't have to be a heavy guage, I just use standard 1 or 1.5mm cabling.) from one of the instrument mounting bolts to an allen bolt on the crank case and another extra one from a mounting screw for the reg/rec to the same bolt. In both cases I use a simple 5m eye on each end. This can be done very unobtrusively. Then by using a sodding great earth strap, (Available from 'Napa' or any other 'Wotta-lotta-crap' auto shop.) I attatch one end to a bell housing stud, (Once again this can be done unobtrusively up by the bracket on the top two studs.) and connect it straight to the battery earth. This ensures that the block and gearbox are the main return path. While as i said, the V11's are better in respect to earthing than the Sport 1100's, (where the earth path is positively bizzare!) the earth strap on the V11's is a bit weedy and is bolted to painted bits with very little effort having beenput in to ensuring good contact. If one bolts the major return paths securely to clean metal on the block it is a lot less likely that the electrics will play up. I hadn't actually thought about the relay earth wire at all! Given the propensity for early relays to go tits-up at the drop of a hat perhaps running an alternative earth wire from there to the block too wouldn't do any harm, but that is probably overkill and will have the electrical engineers amonst us grinding their teeth!!!! Pete

Paul, I honestly don't think the problem is related to Guzzi or even Aprilia directly. Yes, they are Italian companies so they do things a bit differently, but I don't honestly think that they really don't give a shit about their customers. While I can't talk about the situation in the USA I have observed the bizarre antics here in Oz with a mixture of disbelief and increasing frustration. The last proper distributor we had in Oz was back in about '96. Up until that point Guzzi was distributed by Ted Stolarski in Perth. Ted ran a tight ship and his head mechanic, Mario Pugglioli, (Sp.) bought up the business when Ted retired and then, shortly thereafter died, in about '97. Mario remains one of the most respected sources of guzzi lore in Australia. The only real problem with Ted's operation was that it was in Perth. Perth is the most remote major city on the planet. Sydney is closer o Jakarta than it is to Perth so communications were sometimes difficult, (Although I can get parts from Mario overnight in an emergency!). Since then there have been at least three importers and as far as I can make out the standard of service, information and product support has been laughable with all of them. I really don't think that anyone in Italy actually knows what is going on here, it's not like Holland or Germany where you can send a factory representative over on a plane in a morning if you hear rumblings of discontent from customers. It's a 24 hour flight from Europe and even ifyou fly first or business class it is a real gruel getting here. Maybe they do get lots of e-mail, fax and written communication from deeply dissatisfied customers, the thing is if they do what happens if they contact the distributor and they just make all the right, soothing, noises about customer service and improved standards? There is no way the Beggio mafia can check it out easily so the situation continues to slide. Simple geography is one reason why this sort of situatuion exists here but it's not the only one. Australia is a Federation and all the states are nominally independent. The situation vis a vis representation by Moto Guzzi in different states varies wildly. Victoria has always had a very active club, good workshops, although most of the good ones are small independent outfits, and at least the marque has been visible in a dealership network. Queensland too has always had a good workshop in the Newells, albeit in the south east corner of the state, the rest is a bit of a wasteland. South Australia has a couple of good people in Adelaide, Western Austarlia has Mario. Tasmania has at least one good shop but they aren't a dealer, the Norther Territory? Nothing. and finally, NSW, the most populous state has a couple of dealers in the bush, North Coast V-twins in Coffs Harbour on the North Coast who have a good rep and Sydney, the largest city in Oz has, to the best of my knowledge ONE dealer. There are only 20 million of us in Oz, 6 million of them live in Sydney,the largest and most affluent city on the continent and they have ONE shop about which I can say nothing. In the Australian Capital Territory, a few Km away from me we have an official dealer who is periodically without a mechanic. I don't think that Beggio or the Guzzi management are getting anything like the true story of how dire the situation here is. Nobody would want their product marketed so badly! It's not just that in doing so word soon gets out that the product back-up can't be trusted, it's the fact that everyone associated with the marque is labled as a crook and a liar. Fly-by-night, is the term most often associated with dealers in NSW and needless to say Guzzi sell next to no motorbikes here. I'm convinced that if the marque got the proper support that it deserves and especially if the importers had someone on the books who actually had some product knowledge half of the problems would evaporate overnight but when you have dealers saying that curing an oil leak from the bell housing requires *Special Tools* that are unavailable in the country and the so called *mechanics* are so lacking in skill and imagination or are so fearfull that they cannot improvise or simply build their own tools there isn't really an awful lot of hope is there? I can't stress strongly enough how much I like and admire the Guzzi product, you'll not find me slagging the marque off, not after living with and loving 'em for 25 years. What enrages me is that such a good product can be so undermined and white-anted by stupidity and greed on the part of lazy people who simply want to milk prospective purchasers of money and offer nothing in return! All power to Guzzi for sending you the new Scurra donk and box Paul. I'm sure if we had someone in this country who could COMMUNICATE with the factory and who the factory trusted to know what they were talking about and not try to rip them off we would be able to get similar results, even here, at the arse end of the earth. My problem is that i think it will be a cold day in hell before we get to that point. And that makes me very sad and very angry!!!! Pete

Yup, it's the older five speeders that benefit from shimming. While I haven't yet had a six speeder in bits the fact that the selection is taken care of by geared cam plates rather than a drum means that you'd effctively be dependent of the plate channels being accurately machined at the factory as there is, as far as I can see, no leeway for fine tuning. Having said that all the V11's I've ridden have selected well as long as the boxes were in good condition and well lubricated, (With oil rather than mayonaise!). Other things I'd recommend are running an extra earth from the regulator/rectifier and the instrument binacle to the block, (I know that there is now a separate earth wire from the reg/rec, I just don't trust it ) and adding another, more substantial earth strap from a bell housing nut/stud to the battery negative. While the V11's have their batteries located in a far more sensible position than the 1100 Sports the earth path is still pretty crappy and I like a direct run from block to battery. Pete

Are we talking paddock stand or centrestand here? I can't help with the centrestand but I have a stand made by Anderson's in Oz. It's not as good as the Guzzi stand but I can't seem to get a reply from the importer about such things, (Or anything else for that matter.) so I went for the Anderson. It's like a huge paddock stand on steroids and picks the rear of the bike up from a bar slotted through the passenger footrest hangers. Personally, while it will do the job quite adequately and very securely, (The bugger will never fall off in a month of Sundays!) it does require the removal of the mufflers before it can be used. I don't mind this as it's onl a five minute job and I don't have many customers with V11's but I do think if it had been made 50mm wise it would of been more sensible. If I had the choice again I would of gone for the Guzzi stand I think but when I was in the market I couldn't find any info on price or availability for the Guzzi item and I needed a stand! Like so many other things with the new models, when I try and get information from the importer I'm met with a deafening silence which is thoroughly enraging Pete

Sorry, I still reckon Ed Milich's advice was the best I've heard. "Oil should come in a sealed container with the name of an oil company on the front" Some of the best advice on oil I ever saw. Pete

Hello, unlike most people on this board I don't actually own a V11 six speed variant of the Guzzi marque but I've been around Guzzi for over 20 years. I currently run a small workshop in rural NSW, (Australia.) that deals almost exclusively in Guzzi and do have a couple of customers who have V11's, most of my work is with the older Tonti framed models though, of which, for my sins, I own four. I'm also a cyber slut and spend far too much time on the 'pooter discussing Moto Guzzis and seem to have built up an international reputation as an overbearing, one eyed, cynical, opinionated rat-bag. While entirely justified the reason why I'll always put up a forceful defence for moto Guzzis products is because I honestly believe that they are one of the best on the market. Strong, robust, long lasting and fundamentally well engineered. I'll argue their merits till I'm blue in the face and the person I'm debating has slipped into a catatonic state from boredom When the V11's start getting crashed or are old enough for impoverished uni students to buy them and paint 'em matt black with spray cans then I'll probably buy one. Until then I'm more than happy with my prehistoric collection of fossilised Tontis. Having said that there is so much that is in common between *old* and *new* Guzzis that I'm sure I'll be able to offer some meagre advice, or at least totally biased subjective opinion, on any issues that arrise with the newer bikes. Pete

Carl Alison has wiring schematics for just about every model built since the dawn of time on his website. You'll probably find he's also got a schematic for the wiring in the Ark! Pete

I may be quite wrong, I don't have a 'Broad Sump' model in the workshop now, but I don't think that the Harpers unit will work with the Daytona/V11 'Broad Sump' Apart from not actually fitting physically I believe the whole pick-up/strainer/delivery system is very different. I could be wrong, as I say I haven't got anything to check my theories against right now but I'm pretty certain I'm right. The Raceco V sump was originally designed to help overcome the problems with oil surge and pump cavitation. It also has the added benefit of offering better cornering clearance, always an issue of Datona RS's, dunno about V11's. Pete

Please don't Pete! Geez, I wish the old wife and her tales would die already!!! Leaks and synthetics: This old tale started WAY back when synthetics did not have seal swellers in the formulation. After awhile the seals would shrink and cause leaks. Today, all synthetics have the seal swellers and do not cause seals to shrink. The only problem is that modern synthetics clean your engine much better than dead dino oil. After awhile, all the crap is cleaned away from the seals and small leaks can appear. If synthetic leaks, you have a leak! Fix it! I had three new Guzzis running synthetic from day one. They even say that synthetic is in the sump from the factory and all new bikes are recommended to run synthetic. No leaks. Even my freshly rebuilt sport engine is completely leak free.(Completely.) Modern "stone age" Guzzi engines put out maybe two to three times the HP of the old round heads and run much harder. Synthetics benefit these old dogs that are run hard. Even old Guzziology concedes that synthetics are the best oil to run. Back on topic: My dealer drops the pans on all sport motors after seeing the "manhole cover" get cross threaded and ruin the whole oil pan. Must get a new one at big bucks. Drop the pan, clean out the crap, have a look at the insides, change the gasket, (they don't cost much, sheesh) Button it back up and enjoy! Life shouldn't be this hard, it's just an oil change! (required smile thingies) John wrote; *I had three new Guzzis running synthetic from day one. They even say that synthetic is in the sump from the factory and all new bikes are recommended to run synthetic.* Re-read my post John. I didn't say that using synthetics would cause leaks. Simply changing from a mineral to a synthetic after a period of time greatly increases the risk of leaks. I'm not just talking seals here, I've had 1100 Sports, ('Modern' enough?) that have started leaking like sieves after their owners have changed over. No, I don't want to start a bloody oil thread either. But neither do I want people to SWAP from one type of lubricant to another without being aware that there can be problems. Run with it from day 1 and the problems don't seem to occur. Why? FIIK???? Pete

ARRRRGH!!!! Please! Don't make me say it again! OK, I'll leave alone the subject of whether synthetics are better than boring, stone age, oils and whether a boring, stone age engine needs anything better but I will say, categorically, that if you swap from a Non Synth to a full synth after any period of time using one or the other you greatly increaee your chance of leaks. I'm not saying anything more. On the subject of the filter? Surely you had it changed, and the sump dropped as part of the first service? This should exclude Guiseppe the Wog, who is guilty of lots of crap with Guzzis, from the equation. The fact is even the service book sez that the sump should be dropped for the forst filter change to *examine* the screen. While the one or two *Broad Sump* odels I've done this to have been OK tales are leigion of swarf and crud in the sump, especially since Aprilia waved their magic wand over Mandello. As Al sez, don't worry, it's fixable, probably a lot cheaper than *factory* if you use a bit of common sense. But Don't risk fart arseing about and not doing the job properly. When installing filters the gasket should be oiled and the filter put on *hand tight* no more. If you put it on dry and tighten it up till you fart you've got no-one to blame but yourself if the bastard won't come off next time! Having grown up with earlier bikes where you had to remove the sump to get at the filter, (Which I never found a big chore.) and the docuented occurence of oil starvation caused by the new pick-up system. I find this new fangled whining about filters silly! Good God man! Grow up and take your sump off like true 'Leather-clad God of Speed' rather than whining about your leaky tube!!!!! Are you mouse? Or Moto Guzzi rider!!!!! Pete

Just on this subject one of the very few V11's I have anything to do with belongs to a short, hairy, wog from Yass about 60Kms away. Due to warranty issues etc. he's tied into having his work done by the clowns who sold him the bike. Last weekend he dropped over and told me the source of the mysterious gearbox leek he had was that the clot who'd given it its first service had filled the oil to the bottom of the window with the bike on its side stand! With this level of advanced product knowledge and undertanding Guzzi will go far in Oz! He drained off the excess and? Voila! No more leak! Jesus H christ on a bicycle!!!!!!! Pete

Oh Gawd!here we go, I promised myself I wouldn't join this forum for two reasons. 1.I spend far too much time on the bloody 'Pooter anyway and 2. Most of my limited knowledge pre-dates your newer models and while I like them I have no real desire to own one, (yet, they ain't cheap enough yet ). On the subject of crabbing the frame though, (I haven't done it on a six speeder yet.) I usually find it easier to take both the sideplates off. it only takes a couple more minutes but I find it allows you to see more easily if you've disconected everything and you can clean up the rotten earth paths while you're in there. No doubt though there are a million and one far more skilled and experienced people here than me so I'll bugger off back into my burrow. Cheers. Pete