New member and 1st time Moto Guzzi owner and rider

[MedicAndy]

Hello everyone,

I just purchased my first Moto Guzzi about three weeks ago. She is a 1985 Lemans IV with 5124 miles on her. She is all original except the exhaust. She was sitting for the better part of her life in a garage, so she is going tomorrow (May 4th) to a local Italian motorcycle mechanic here in Raleigh, NC for a complete tuneup, all fluid changes, and making adjustments of whatever she needs, before I take her out for my first ride on a Moto Guzzi!

She is in need of a couple of minor cosmetic issues, but I am right pleased with the way she still presents herself being almost 32 years old by now.

Talking about of taking her out for a ride....... I assume that she is going to be ok with staying cool enough when I ride sometimes into the city with her? I don't know on how fast these air-cooled engines will overheat if I get stuck on several stoplights on a hot Carolina day? Is there any way to notice if she would get to hot?

Thanks for any advice on the heating or overheating question is very much appreciated!

Andy

 

[john zibell]

The 1000 LeMans is pretty tolerant of heat. Just any movement will help. Dead stop for extended periods is another story. Slow moving is OK, stopped for I'd say over 5 minutes at a time not so much, With so few miles and her age, make sure the tires are less the 5 years old by checking the DOT date stamped on the tires.

 

[MedicAndy]

The 1000 LeMans is pretty tolerant of heat. Just any movement will help. Dead stop for extended periods is another story. Slow moving is OK, stopped for I'd say over 5 minutes at a time not so much, With so few miles and her age, make sure the tires are less the 5 years old by checking the DOT date stamped on the tires.

Thanks for your reply. Sounds like that I'm not going to have any issues with taking her into the city from time to time. The last owner just had new dunlop tires installed, so I will be good for years to come.

Thanks again for your reply,

Andy

 

[Trout]

Beautiful Bike! Very nice find & Happy Riding, you have some nice roads up there!

 

[blacktruck]

One of the best looking models in my opinion. Great find for you. Enjoy and post more pics please.

 

[Hawghauler]

How is your bike running?

 

[MedicAndy]

How is your bike running?

She is running great. I only had her out for a ride twice since I got her back from Moto Motivo who did a tuneup / fluid and filter changes on her early in June. I am so glad that Johann, the owner of Moto Motivo here in Raleigh NC worked on her. Surprisingly enough, she didn't need much to get her ready for the road, but the oil filter that Johann pulled out of the LeMans was the original factory installed filter that the bike came with when new 31 years ago! There was also about a 1" thick oil-slush layer in the bottom of the never removed oil pan. Needless to say, Johann cleaned everything out and installed the new filter. The only thing left to do to her is to replace the front fork seals and the rubber carburetor manifolds, which both items are dry-rotted due to their age. I rode her out the annual Euro bike show here in Raleigh last month, and a lot of people took pictures and talked about her. I rode for about a total of one hour in our cities "Stop & Go" traffic, and another hour on the highway and back roads, and I had no overheating or any other engine issues. I did noticed that she needed a couple of seconds to pick up on speed and torque after I was riding in the city at lower speeds and rpm's. It almost felt like that the carbs had to much fuel within them? I added carb cleaner to the fuel, since she sat for a long time, but I may need to have the carbs cleaned in time, or maybe all she needs is being ridden a couple of times, and she may clear up? But besides that one issue (and maybe that is normal for those bikes)?, everything works as it should. Starting, brakes, engine idling, electrics, is all good! I will post more pictures of her in about four to six weeks when she is hopefully all done with her repairs and cosmetic detailing. I also had Johann powder coat the valve covers, since they really looked bad with most of the paint having flaked off. I had the covers coated in black since I could not find / match the original blue color paint that the valves were painted when new. I think the black looks good. I will paint the Moto Guzzi logo on the covers in red, just to add a little detail.

Andy




I have run out of space in my shop, so this new 24'x12' building will be her, and some of my other bikes new home.

 

[john zibell]

One thing with those big 40mm pumper carbs, the slower you move your wrist, the better she will respond. Quickly opening the slides will drastically reduce manifold vacuum causing a slow response to increased throttle. conversely, if at high RPM, and you chop the throttle, you won't be able to open the slides again until the engine slows down because high vacuum has the slides stuck the the sides of the carbs. If you squeeze the clutch to let the engine speed drop, you can them open the slides again.

 

[fireflyr]

Beautiful bike. Congrats!
Pat

 

[MedicAndy]

My first 100 mile ride since I bought "Mia" about three month ago, and she rides perfect. I'm now looking forward of being with her during her next 31 years!

 

[Bigbear]

Lovely bike, I'm sure you will enjoy it.
I have had most Mk5's including ltd edition, red/white special with close ratio gears & my last a Mk5 an 88 black/red white imported from the UK with 18,000 miles - looked just like the sales brochures!
Bullet proof bikes with great handling particularly if you drop the front 20mm (4 groves on the forks) & have the rears set on highest preload.
Regret not keeping one but enjoying 96 1100 sport (carbs) ex USA tuned to run as smoothe as any injected.
All the best, don't be afraid to use it, they are awsome mile eaters!

 

[MedicAndy]

It's official, I got the MG bug! I added three more MG 1100 Sports to my stable during the last couple of month. I'm looking for one more 1100 Sport in yellow, and then I'm good with what I have!


This is my 1997, which was imported from Germany and spend 17 years at the Wisconsin motorcycle museum, until they closed their doors.


This is also a 1997, which I purchased out of Ann Arbor from a University of Michigan professor


And this is my latest find! She is a 1996, and she is still at the dealer in Vancouver until she is being picked up and shipped to my home in NC around Christmas.

 

[Bigbear]

Wow, I thought I had it bad wanting to buy so many!
Must admit the 1100's are now harder to find, but surprisingly low mileage ones keep popping up.
Yellow? not so sure, when I had Jensen interceptors ( UK sports car with Chrysler magnum 383 or 440' in them), everyone said if it's yellow it's hiding the poor fitting gaps of hoods & doors!
I actually have a 98 Centauro that is yellow - it grows on you, but, it is hard to beat a polished ( even if slghtly marked by use) Red 1100 Sport - sexiest looking bike around ( am I biased????).
Even though the Centauro has only 2000 miles on it ( & yes it still had the original filter!) I have replaced tires & cambelts - I've decided to put an 1100 sport body on her ( Centona anyone ) & have already purchased a rear (yellow!) rear subframe/fairing so just looking for a tank & will probably buy a fairing from Harper's.
Believe it or not, if you put a higher profile rear tire on 160/70 x 18, it puts the top gearing back on par with the sport
Ride the blue 1100 hard & smoothly since it does not have rubber "Cush" drive in the rear hub; - it's also about 20kg lighter than the injected ones, so with air box & original exhaust crossover "can" (the biggest Hp additions according to Dr John - which I testify to ) it will perform strongly from 80mph plus - (riding in 4th gear, as 5th is the weak gear & I only use if cruising on a light throttle or when I want to test mr officer's resolve at higher cruising speeds). Also if you want, drop the front 20mm on the forks it will "handle" normally instead of countersteerring to get her "over" ( NB once mastered it works just as well ).
Despite all the Horror stories, service it regularly (read change oils) & you will not regret it.
If you ever think you have one to many, just give me a call
Happy riding

 

[Bigbear]

PS.
Put an extra earth lead on them NOW, - not later waiting waiting
On the Carb'd Sport a 3mm copper cored wire from the front rectifier frame fixing bolt (at the front under the fairing)' along under the tank to one of the engine/gearbox case bolts.
After a 2 week 4000km trip & only 2km from home my tachometer died! Aaaarrrghhhhh
The dreaded bad Earth syndrome = 1 fried Tacho - The $$$$$$$$ they want for a Viegla is
I purchased an aftermarket electronic one off eBay from the good ol USA, for a fifth of the cost - & believe it or not' being 84mm screw in - it "screwed" into the instrument console ( because there is a lip near the centre).
Take heed

 

[SgtCrump]

My Centauro did that....broke the tach ground internally when I was "dual-sporting" on a section of dirt washboard....mine blew the computer as well.......did it a second time trying to jump start it from a tow truck.......I found out that several Ducatis use the same computer and as they wad their bikes up as a hobby, there were some available cheap.....I did as you did...replaced the tach with the Veypor performance unit....did tach and speedo (that broke, too).....liked it so much, when I got a Jackal, I took off the speedo and put on another Veypor....

 

[MedicAndy]

And then there were 4! A friend of mine, who is also the owner of a local motorcycle custom shop called me up on December 31st and asked me if I was interested in buying another 97 Sport 1100. He told me that the bike belonged to one of his friends, who has over 100 bikes in his collection. My friend stated that I can have this bike for $2.5k, and he also stated that he would buy the bike if I didn't want it, since this was such a great buy! Needless to say, I bought me my 4th Sport 1100...... But, this bike was sitting for seven years, so she will need a little work to get her going again. She will need new tires, new mirrors, a new battery, a good tuneup / full service, get the fuel system cleaned. I think that it is going to cost me about $500.00 do get her right!

 

[Hawghauler]

Some people are too lucky!

 

[MedicAndy]

Some people are too lucky!

Thanks,

I was lucky on the yellow one, since this buy only happened because of my friend knowing the seller, and I guess that I was lucky when I was able to buy the blue one out of Vancouver for only $2.5k too, since she was sold by a dealer, who didn't know anything about MG bikes, and didn't know that only 14 of them made it by mistake into the US. But I'm also Online almost every night looking / searching for bikes located within the US, and I pull the trigger, with me never have seen the bike, as soon as I see a bike that I like. I drove 1600 miles, round trip, to get my last red 1100 home, and almost 1900 miles to get my 85 LeMans 1000 IV home. Most people I know would not be willing to buy anything unseen, or drive as far as I do to get them home, but I'm a little of a gambler. I did buy me another one of my former dream-bikes, a 96 GSX-R out of Baltimore, who was suppose to of only needing a little tuneup work done, since this bike was also sitting for about 12 month. I spend almost $2.5k to get all of the bugs worked out of her until she was right! Luckily I only paid $2.2k for this bike, and the new Keihin 41mm FCR's with filters, which were installed on the bike cost the owner almost $2k. So, I was a little disappointed that the bike was not exactly as stated, but she, at least now, is another perfect running bike in my stable!

 

[Hawghauler]

I stand corrected, you make your luck and pay to play!

 

[MedicAndy]

I stand corrected, you make your luck and pay to play!

Now thinking about it, I be better off with more luck and less paying out! I will try that on my next bike!