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Right at the moment most of us who knew Steve are in shock and I'm certainly not going to contact his girlfriend to pester her about the forum. I would add that Mark, (Beetle.) has his own site at Griso.org, his contributions to the Ghetto have no financial benefit. Unlike certain other places the Ghetto isn't, and never has been a money making platform for anybody. I'm sure that eventually we, the membership, will be able to sort something out. I'd like to offer to run it myself as I'm retiring soon and it might give me something to do besides wallowing in the millions I make from my midget porn empire. Problem is I'm both computer illiterate and such an intolerant bastard I'd of banned everyone in a week!

Last leg of the trip, 475 miles from Ely, Nevada to home. FYI if traveling on HWY 6 its almost 170 miles between gas stations from Ely to Tonopah in Nevada , high winds and a nice rainy/ snow mix coming over Sonora pass. The bike ran with no issues and did great over the pass in the foul weather, This was really an epic adventure and I'm almost sad to be home. haha https://www.dropbox.com/s/q1tmaj15adp4z7p/image.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/q3gc518ujl3v78x/PXL_20220918_130938248.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qx36lhbr3o48oyw/PXL_20220918_141756679.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/q1tmaj15adp4z7p/image.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/p9307c21dleesqr/pxl_20220919_023319077.jpg?dl=0

Well done. Made all the sweeter because of the history of the bike. Thanks for taking us along for the ride. I haven't done a pass over the Sierra Nevadas for a couple years. This is giving me wanderlust.

Truly. What a joy to share in this V11 adventure. The sun in waning on the US west coast as I post this, and my hopes are @Biglangster is about home with this treasured LeMans.

Yep, I have contacted Jaap because I know him from the German Bodensee Treffen a long time ago Owning a V11 Lemans before the Griso and knowing this forum, I thought adding Griso content would make sense if technical possible and if necessary. BR Jan

Sorry, no new V11 photos this weekend, did go out on the Griso yesterday

Clean California, may be the second speedometer but presents like it could be as low a mileage as claimed. https://www.cycletrader.com/listing/2003-Moto+Guzzi-California+Aluminum-5022746795

Day 4!! Left Grand Junction at 7 and made it to Ely, Nevada shortly after 4 and just under 450 miles Utah is amazing and I wish I had more time to explore! The Goose is running awesome and she runs 80 mph all day. Last leg of the trip is tomorrow, hwy 6 to 395 then 108 Sonora pass to home. https://www.dropbox.com/s/bu3ew686wd6irwr/pxl_20220917_143041692.portrait.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/87hcussfpzl9hav/pxl_20220917_164051365.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/nqr20kyqhnsp7w1/pxl_20220917_211439758.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/bblwc65ahnm0rjd/pxl_20220918_012901030.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/rui7lz9kjhnouwf/pxl_20220918_012951947.portrait.jpg?dl=0

I'm guessing there are few folks here that have Pinlock anti-fog inserts that attach to the helmet visor. I was cleaning my my visor last week and broke a couple of pushpins. I was able to find a supplier on the 'web. They did cost $10 but got to me a 4 days.https://www.ebay.com/itm/304591910462

This time of the year, it's a must, 7c tonight, and snow sticks up already Cheers Tom.

They make a difference.. but as you said, they are a hassle. I just crack it open when necessary and leave the pinlock at home. To me, they seem best when it's cold.

What an impressive stance. So muscular and lithe. As the last of the Sporting line for the venerable air-cooled BigBlock, I feel the Griso certainly embodies Ing. Carcano's original vision for the V700, "should have the presence of a Norman horse." Just that this one seems to be caught in the middle of a full jump!

1) That could be interesting, so the scope here would essentially expand to include the sporty CARC bikes? Which could mean your own 1200 Sport. 2) Yeah that could be a huge task, and you'd have to deal with the transfer of personal information. If you do go down that road, there might be a member who'd be willing to act as a Griso moderator and copy over the main technical topics. But even that would be time consuming and require a lot of filtering.

Biglangster, how many times have you had to use the "extra" fuel from your emergency bottle on this trip?

Welcome Home My friend!!!

19 yoa/ 19º ? 19 years of age, but temperature in Fahrenheit . . . (minus 7º Celsius) Makes the dense fog on the Cherohala Skyway seem absolutely sensible. Even without brakes.

... low

I for one..would like to see it...

whatta run

I finally noticed the Air Hawk, wise move. I love those things. When you get home and have time to decompress and go into fine details; please share the model and type of tank bag you have. Including pros/cons fastening accessibility etc. I'm old school and love a paper map on a tank bag in front of me, but with the plastic gas tank it's the one change and improvement I haven't made to my V11. Kudos & props for doing the spring job on the road on the fly in 3 hrs. Even if it wasn't the problem, you are now just a little more intimate with the bike and it's off your "to do" list when you get home,lol. Loving the adventure and the updates. Safe travels home

Sounds like a proper adventure. Enjoy that ride through Utah today. For future reference (and for anyone else) when the spring breaks you cannot shift at all. Other types of shift misbehaving are most frequently remedied by cleaning and/or adjusting the external linkage (especially the long shift lever pivot bolt).

I also used vaseline. Lately it was not really necessary so no recent experience. I do have a nice anekdote on this however. I had done the righthand switches of my LM2 before going to Mandello a few decades ago. All worked fine and I parked the guzzi outside Il Giardinetto (it was a hotel back in those days) on the side where the ramp to the lake was. Two days later we were about to return home and everything was packed. I pushed the starter and nothing happened. Kill switch was in RUN, so I pushed again and smoke and a smell of burn came out of the switch. Immediately after a large bunch of ants were evacuating the switch. Be carefull with vaseline in your switches when parking in Mandello next to Il Giardinetto. There are vaseline eating ants.

Day three! After a 500 mile day I'm a bit exhausted so ignore the bad grammar and whatever. Haha I left Oberlin, Ks at 7:00 am and pounded pavement on hwy 36 towards Colorado. Once I hit Colorado it was open interstate on hwy 70. One stop on my list was Erico Motorsports in Denver they are a Moto Guzzi and Ducati dealer so I figured I'd swing by and check them out. Once I got off the highway and to my first stoplight I had troubles... All I could do is shift from 1st to 2nd so of course I'm thinking shift spring and first thing I think of is I have a spare from Scud! So boom I take it apart and replace the spring (the old one was bent funky but wasn't broken) get the new one in and it still shifts bad, found out I needed to adjust the freeplay? Or that bolt near the starter... Anyways three hours later I was on the road, had a beautiful ride on 70 thru the Colorado mountains and ended up getting a room in Grand Junction. Next stop tomorrow is the Utah/ Nevada border. https://www.dropbox.com/s/8fearoeikxhe85k/pxl_20220916_142357277.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ctvih5oh1zhgwa3/pxl_20220916_184932309.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qckv2gxmatfmxw6/pxl_20220916_214251682.portrait.jpg?dl=0

Day two! I only got 436 miles in today and ended up getting a hotel room in Oberlin, Kansas. Hwy 36 was awesome till I hit Kansas because they have this 300 mile yard sale down the highway. Haha The 35 mph crosswind was insane, and I ended up soaked in a few storms. I met a really nice guy in Agra, Kansas that let me hangout in his garage as one of the storms passed. The bike is running great and the Michelin Pilots are awesome in the rain https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2cxss402x47zso/pxl_20220915_220100569.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/o0razrpp4yxfw72/pxl_20220916_004113786.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/xjbqiqir74ch0dm/pxl_20220915_202947182.jpg?dl=0

Even the oil leak turned out to be nothing more than spilled gas from the overflow. A lot of silver linings.

Truly a great site. Browse it often. RIP Mr. Daley

Terrible news...RIP

I suggest a quick troubleshooting test: take the fuel hose off the pressure regulator, point the hose into a tin, and turn on the ignition. You should hear the pump run for a few seconds, and you should see a few ccs of fuel run into the tin. If not, find out why not.

I spent my high school years doing high Sierra backpacking in California with friends, going off trail and traversing passes and glaciers — when there were still glaciers up there 😢 — all around Mt. Banner, Mt. Lyell, Mt.Ritter, et al. This was done with USGS topo maps and a compass. It is really great to have an analog in a topographical drawing to look at the land to see things with added dimension. As a youth I spent many happy hours leafing through the map drawers at the USGS office in Menlo Park, CA. Probably about my favorite place to be, second to the library. I like paper road maps. I have AAA maps, Benchmark maps, and some of the Butler motorcycle maps. I also like reading about routes and looking at them on maps. Then I can use my phone’s map app to make a crude distance and arrow chart to put in the tank bag window. Call me an ignorant Luddite or a romantic curmudgeon, but I like not-too-much information, particularly when going off on a road trip. The great thing about a paper map is that the next leg of the journey may only be three inches…..of what? Let’s find out. The older that I have gotten the more I have grown to dislike and resent digital technology and devices. I have a real love/hate relationship with my phone because I have adapted it into so much of my life and so much depends on this tool to interact with and accomplish things, yet it and its ilk draw me away from the real things in the world that I could, and did, engage with. I am to blame for letting myself succumb to the digital malaise that I see and feel in my life. I know better. But I have gone back to writing on typewriters outside of work. It slows you down and is a nice visceral and physical experience in making a text. I am old enough to remember the good old days before computers, when there were plenty of pay phones and public drinking fountains around and everyone did fine. I have always had an analog aesthetic for things, whether audio, visual, or mechanical. And while I am glad to have a bike like my V11 with FI and a good ECU, I am turned off to TBW, different ride modes, etc., on bikes. I understand having ABS and traction control as a safety feature, but I have never had those things on a bike and have never felt the need for them. I am currently looking for a touring bike, and I am leaning toward a Stelvio NTX (it does have ABS and traction control! 😬) rather than a V85TT, partly because it is not TBW and is more old tech. When I throw a leg over a bike and ride away, one of the things I am riding away from is all of the crap of the modern world. All I want to look at is the road. All I want to hear is the bike and the road, although I ride with earplugs to dampen the wind noise. A mileage and arrow chart in the tank bag window and a trip meter or odometer have been enough to get me down the road, as well as keep me from running out of gas. If I need more info I’ll pull off the road, have a smoke and look at a map. I am sure I am ignorant, and probably part or full-blood idiot, but that’s how I like to go. Use maps! They give you something to mull over and mark up while you’re taking a break and having having a cup of coffee, and they will become old and creased.

Hi LaGrasta, Hey, there is another thread here somewhere that discusses swapping the throttle high cam spring with the seat lock spring in the seat tail section. The stiffer of the two springs belongs to the seat lock release, the lesser of the two goes on the high cam return. My understanding is MG goofed and installed the springs in the wrong locations.

Might we make a basic bullet point instructional for this beefing up of the regulator/charging systems? I have a stock wiring system, and my bike came with an Odyssey, so I am now concerned about frying something. I'll go ahead and beef up the grounds as suggested, but I think it would be neat to have a definitive 'checklist' and step by step mod plan for everyone. I often encounter a weak battery, and I regularly trickle the Odyssey on a CETEK higher end charger. So the Rectifier Regulator is actually drawing current with the bike switched off? Although not likely, the RR might be damaged by charging if you don't isolate the battery first? Could a high current battery disconnect switch (kill switch) be engaged when the bike is sitting for long periods or when charging? Could we come up with a definitive reference voltage mod for the RR?

I've been putting the Bugswatter back together. I would have had it back together before now, but there have been a few detours on the path to happiness, namely, totalled my V11 Sport, totalled my truck, married off a daughter and a son and then had the family van get rear ended plus trying to achieve certification for some stuff at work. Busy year. Oh yeah. Things you shouldn't do. In the initial steps of trying to determine just what in heck was wrong with the Bugswatter, I sent the injectors down to my local NAPA parts store where they clean them up and put in new o-rings. If you think that this is a good way of making certain that the injectors are fresh, you'd be wrong. After putting the bike back together, there was no evidence of fuel entering the ports. Assuming (and you know where that gets you) that the injectors were the LEAST likely source of trouble, I spend a lot of time head scratching, gnashing of teeth and bloodying of knuckles assembling and disassembling the fuel system. Eventually, I got it down to the point where every thing was apart and only the fuel pump and the injectors were connected. No computer, nothing else, nada. Energized the pump, hit the injector with 12 volts and... nothing. Zip. So, I took an injector off of the California (also in many pieces in the garage) and stuck it in the same spot and tried the test again. Fuel. Lots of it. The moral of this story is if you're going to have the injectors cleaned or you suspect that there's a problem, find a shop that specializes in injectors and offers a warranty. I'm probably going to have to shell out for a new pair of injectors. I also ran across the following information while trying to find another source for fuel injectors in case mine can't be salvaged. Weber fuel injection specs for the typical MG injector. General Specification Type: Electromagnetic petrol injector, calibrated orifice type. Construction: Fully sealed unit. Electrical: Standard 2-pin Minitimer connector. Weight: 100 grams. Sealing, 'O' ring. 14mm O.D. is available separately. Part Number 4156504700. N.B. Matched sets of injectors are available to special order. Part Product DC Static Flow Number Description Type Color Resistance (3 bar) WFI91 Injector IW031 Green 16.2 Ohms 270 cc/min