My new "Canadian" 1100 Sport finally made it Home to her new NC Stable

[MedicAndy]

I finally, after having bought this 1997 1100 Sport four month ago, had time last weekend to drive up to Canada to pick this bike up. She is now in her new stable here in Raleigh, NC. This bike received several nice "One-Off" custom fabricated upgrades, which included a Staintune carbon full exhaust, custom gauge cluster, and a Staintune carbon air box. Some other upgrades included new Brembo racing rotors, a carbon inner fender, seat covers, alternator cover, Power Commander, the engine was blue printed, and the Cam was balanced. This bike was also re-painted at a custom paint shop in LA, just because her original CA owner didn't like the factory Guzzi paint job when he bought the bike new. This bike was then sold in 2011 to a Canadian collector, but sadly enough, he passed a little over two years ago, so his wife decided to sell his bikes. This 1100 Sport was the last bike sold by his wife from their collection.

I don't know the original CA owner who did all of the upgrades to this bike, but he or she is very detailed oriented. Some items that were added or changed, like the new oval versus rectangular turn signals, added a bleeder valve within the final drive, installed a headlight cover guard and cylinder tip-over crash guards, all electrical wires were wrapped in a special wrap for engine heat protection, and the original owner also changed the side stand over to the much more user friendly's V11 stand. So a big "Thanks" to the original owner / collector for doing all that was done to this bike, since I surely could have never spending that much money on the upgrades that this bike received.

I made importing this bike harder and costlier then it needed for it to be, but that is a story for another day. But if someone else is thinking about importing a bike out of Canada into the US, then send me a message, since I know now on what to do, or what not to do...... :)

Either way, I drove almost 34 hours / around 1800 plus miles in three days to pick this bike up outside of Toronto,Canada, and I must say that I'm really liking this ride. I was going to sell my other yellow 97 as soon as I got the Canadian bike home, but ..... I don't think that I can. They just compliment each other so nicely! 


















































































My barn is also full now, so now it's time to make some room. I finally have some time now to start listing a couple of my bikes soon.

[80CX100]

I remember reading the original ad when it was circulated through the local racing circles.

The detailed work and provenance was quite something, sounds and looks like a very special bike.

Glad you're both home safely, and hope that Customs wasn't too brutal with you.

 

Kelly

[Zoom Zoom]

Very nice!

John Henry

[Chuck in Indiana]

I don't think that I can.

Ahem. It *may* be time for an intervention..
 

[rocker59]

 

Love the rearsets on that bike!

[usedtobefast]

Love the rearsets on that bike!

They seem crazy high!  Is that really needed for ground clearance in corners? 

And thanks for posting this up, interesting story and bike!

[Groover]

Congrats, the bike looks amazing, and your collection looks super amazing!

[lucian]

Congrats Andy, she's beautiful It's too bad you have nothing similar to compare it to. 

[kingoffleece]

Geez.  You passed right by my house.  I would have bought you one!

[MedicAndy]

They seem crazy high!  Is that really needed for ground clearance in corners? 

And thanks for posting this up, interesting story and bike!

I think the foot pegs are maybe located 1 1/2" higher than the stock pegs, which doesn't bother me. However, the distance between the foot peg to the shifter lever is also about an extra 1 1/2" further apart, which made it hard for me to upshift while I was riding with my tennis shoes inside of my subdivision yesterday. I'm going to take her out again for a ride this weekend, and I'm going to wear my riding boots, which are pretty robust, and I hope that shifting will become somewhat easier. But, I actually traced the CA Broker who bought the entire motorcycle collection from the original collector of this 1997 Sport, and he told me that he remembered the difficulties with upshifting that he had when he rode this bike for a couple of month before he sold this bike to the last Canadian owner. So, I already foresee having to either modify the food peg to shift lever by reducing the distance between them, or I may need to convert back to the original factory setup, which I really don't want to do, since I really like to looks of the pegs and shifter / brake levers.   

[knockerjoe]

Sweet ride! Thanks for sharing journey.
Looks like your going to need a bigger garage   

[Devildog]

Love the dash and alcantara style seats - curious if they will soak up water in the rain?

[rocker59]

They seem crazy high!  Is that really needed for ground clearance in corners? 

From my experience, taking my red Sport 1100 to a few track days, yes.  If you're doing any track days, getting rid of the stock headers and sidestand, and having higher pegs, would all help with ground clearance.

Once I went to the Staintune exhaust, dragging the header pipes was no longer an issue.  Removing the sidestand is a given.  Then dragging my boot sliders and sometimes the stubby peg feelers was the problem on some turns.

My original sidestand was beveled a bit from spirited street use.

[Groover]

You should be able to find some good Halloween sales today on the boots you need for that shift lever 

[rocker59]

I think the foot pegs are maybe located 1 1/2" higher than the stock pegs, which doesn't bother me. However, the distance between the foot peg to the shifter lever is also about an extra 1 1/2" further apart, which made it hard for me to upshift while I was riding with my tennis shoes inside of my subdivision yesterday. I'm going to take her out again for a ride this weekend, and I'm going to wear my riding boots, which are pretty robust, and I hope that shifting will become somewhat easier. But, I actually traced the CA Broker who bought the entire motorcycle collection from the original collector of this 1997 Sport, and he told me that he remembered the difficulties with upshifting that he had when he rode this bike for a couple of month before he sold this bike to the last Canadian owner. So, I already foresee having to either modify the food peg to shift lever by reducing the distance between them, or I may need to convert back to the original factory setup, which I really don't want to do, since I really like to looks of the pegs and shifter / brake levers.

Andy, is that shifter not adjustable?  The way it's bolted together makes it seem like it could be.

[RinkRat II]

 
  Congrats on a beautiful addition to your er, collection   I agree with Rocker, I believe that toe piece can be rotated every 45 degrees to accomodate your foot.


      Enjoy!!  Paul B

[kingoffleece]

I have the rain solution if needed.

[AJ Huff]

Success! Congrats!

-AJ

[MedicAndy]

Andy, is that shifter not adjustable?  The way it's bolted together makes it seem like it could be.

Hi Mike,

Below is a writeup I found online from "Rare Motorcycles for Sale", which was published online just before the bike was sold to the Canadian owner in 2011. The owner is talking in the writeup below in great detail about this bikes history and his thoughts on the shifting mechanism. I tried to rotate the shift lever, but it is actually keyed, so it can only fit onto the lever the way it is currently installed. I did manage to rotate the shift knob by 45 and 90 degrees, and shifting became much harder. But I only had time so far to spend about thirty minutes overlooking this bike, so I'm hoping that I find a way to keep the current shift setup, since it does look pretty cool!

Here is the actual writeup on this bike:
 
"The seller gives a nice account of this bike.  It’s a little long but be sure to read it.  The bike has some fine details that aren’t obvious by just glancing at the bike:

The previous owner came into possesion of this bike by purchasing an entire Moto Guzzi collection, the other bikes in the collection; including a Daytona RS of the same year, were of a similar museum level quality. Needless to say, the original owner was a true Moto Guzzi fanatic.

Because all four bikes were purchased at once, and because each one had so much work completed, a lot of the details were passed by word of mouth at the time of sale, the description of work completed below is what was communicated to my by the previous owner and various reliable sources including Ken Zeller at Evoluzione Cyclesports; who has worked with the original owner and his bikes through the years. I am unable to reach the original owner for confirmation however, so I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information communicated to me relating to the history of the bike. Details of the amount of time and money spent on this bike could fill a novel, the Cliffs Notes are below.

As communicated to me, the bike was purchased new by the original owner who immediately had Pro Italia pull the engine and crankshaft to balance it. The brand new bodywork was also removed and repainted by Pro Italia in the original color. Why would someone do this you may ask, because the owner simply wanted a money is no object, perfect version of what the factory imagined for the bike. Pro Italia is famous for their paint work and they currently use Tony Marcus who is a true artist and charges thousands of dollars to paint a sport bike. This yellow paint on this bike is simply stunning, glass smooth and perfectly even.

After the brand new engine was put back together, all of the fuel lines were wrapped in heat resistant protection before the engine was reinstalled. The bike features a full Staintune, stainless steel exhaust system including crossover and is finished with carbon fiber canisters, Before I saw this bike I was unaware that Staintune even produced carbon canisters but apparently they do, if you are willing to pay, a lot. They are beautiful, far beyond the quality of any Termingoni systems I have ever purchased. The bike sounds amazing, no other way to describe it, exotic and angry. Staintune does not list a system for the 1100 sport on their site, I would not be surprised if the original owner had this system custom fabricated by them as a one-off. The bike also features a full carbon fiber airbox, I have been unable to locate any information on this piece and in addition to looking incredibly trick it is a wildly complex design and I assume a one-off item as well.

The bike was apparently tuned on a dyno and a power commander is installed under the tail section. Power is unlike any Guzzi I have ever ridden. The bike also features Braking Tech brake rotors with carbon fiber carriers, and a Sport Cycle Pacific carbon fiber alternator cover. It features a rare set of Evoluzione Cyclesports billet adjustable levers and the seat and passenger pillion have been recovered in synthetic suede, with yellow stitching on the passenger grab handle to match the paint. The bike features a custom carbon fiber gauge cluster with a functional Veglia oil temp gauge.

The bike features beautifully made Rossopuro billet rearsets, a note on these, the shifting effort with these rearsets is very high. I contacted Rossopuro who explained that while the rearsets are marketed for the Sport1100, they were originally developed for the V11 and the leverage required to change gears with the 1100 5 speed is higher than with the V11 six speed. If you intend to ride the bike in traffic often I would source a set of the originals, out on the highway and in the canyons I do not find the extra effort required bothersome. Bike features a carbon fiber rear hugger and even a Ventura headlight protector. Only minor paint nicks here and there typical of a bike with only 3K miles can be found. Bike includes three keys, manual, and numerous period magazines featuring tests of this model when it debuted. Bike has a clean CA title with registration paid through March of 2012".

[Groover]

^ That's great information to have on a bike you just bought for sure.