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Just had a 2 week tour of France and Switzerland and the bike was running rough from 2 to 3k rpm , suspect bad tps as it was only in a limited throttle position got home and ordered a new PF3C from a Ducati parts supplier on eBay, much better availability and a bit cheaper from Ducati, the bike is so smooth now and hopefully sorted for a while

Most of the ‘Poor mileage’ thing is or was to do with the shitty factory mapping, especially with the early maps, along with the problems associated with loud pipes/short pipes. Certainly if you ride around at higher rpm fuel economy plummets but that’s the result of the side draft heads and narrow included valve angle + cam timing. To get it to produce the *Needed* 100 RWHP the sacrifice was made in VE at higher rpm. As long as I’m not really sticking the spurs in both of mine will return 220-230Km before the fuel light comes on and that happens when there is still about 4.5 litres in the tank meaning my range is about 300+Km before I sputter to a halt. I don’t think that’s terrible? Yes, the flat tappet fiasco was a disgrace but it is what it is and once rollerised there are rarely further repercussions. While there are other issues with CARC series bikes generally most of them are now well known and usually easily addressed. I don’t see the 8V’s as any more or less reliable generally than the 2 valvers and both, using the W5AM controller, are prone to abuse by those ignorant of how the system works and the beetle-browed followers of the ‘Loud pipe and shitty air filter will make it go faster’ brigade! As most of you know, I’m an 8V evangelist. I love the motor and the CARC bike series and feel they were generally overlooked and ignored with no real justification. As for Griso? No, they aren’t for everyone but the day I can’t ride mine any more will be one of the saddest days of my life……

So it begins. Let me say first, I'm not riding a Moto-Guzzi. A nice '04 BMW R1150GSA Adventure got thrown at me instead of a V85TT, thanks a lot guys. I'm leaving tomorrow morning, 28 June from El Paso. Should be an easy ride through Albuquerque to Chama. I intended to ride the Toltec Steam excursion but looks like weather doesn't want me to hang around there Sunday. I may post some pictures here, but mostly just put them in a Google Album with this link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RLJDCUNS6Pwux8gj7 We'll spend plenty of time out of cell service, and I'm not carrying anything with a keyboard. Oh, already had someone ask why I don't post a thread in the ADV forum. Well, because there are only 2 people I know on that forum, one is in this forum and the other is the old friend meeting me in Bozeman. Or Billings, or Sturgis, if I don't dawdle too much on the way up. Besides, the ADV forum is full of menies.

Why would I be rattled by that? Most of what you say is, IMHO, correct. Where I would disagree is the combustion chamber shape. The 8V motor has a delightfully *modern* combustion chamber and I’m sure the air/fuel mixture that gets ignited in it burns pretty well. The attention to detail in regards to squish would seem to back this up if for no other reason than to clean the motor up. As you say the higher consumption is down to waste, not poor combustion and it’s not so much a need for ‘Resistance’ in the pipe/s although I too have used that description because it’s easier to understand, but a need to slow down the gasses exit and use the pipe harmonics to try and limit excessive charge loss on overlap. While I agree that there is a certain ‘Raw’ and unsophisticated feel to the earlier Hi-Cams the fact is they are much, much less efficient. Everything in them is heavier and the frictional losses in that motor are enormous which is the reason the factory was never able to get satisfactory, reliable, power out of it. It is also far more complex and heavy overall than the ‘Nuovo Hi-Cam’ and believe me, having humped enough of the wretched things around over the last sixteen years the new motor is no lightweight! Neither motor was at the time of their introduction, anywhere near the cutting edge of IC technology but head to head the later motor is superior in every way to Todero’s swansong.

I'm always the last to find out, but Canadian Sue Foley tears up the blues.

No food at the campsite, at least that's the story- but the other two are Canadians so I'll bet all my gas money there will be grilled cheese sammiches for breakfast. Got insect repellent jammies, skeeter nets for over helm, bear spray across the border where they take it seriously. Lunch in Cuba, NM.

Yeah, you know I like to travel light, and this is as light as I could get it given that we're camping whenever possible and reasonable, so there's tent/bag/footer and a lot of cold weather gear that I hope I never have to take out of the drybags, which I hope never get wet. One thing I did assemble, which I've meant to put together for a long time is a trauma kit. I've always carried simple band tourniquets, but studying up for this trip revealed how remote much of the travel is, and also the frighteningly frequent, almost daily, news of bikers killed or seriously injured in Canada and Alaska. Let's hope it never gets opened. I built my own, in a Pelican case; C-A-T tourniquet 'Israeli' bandages clotting bandages and powder chest wound valve bandages Leatherman surgical shears plastic airway helper SAM splint Of course I have some Ibuprofen/Acetaminophen, burn cream, allergy pills etc. I figure anything less than serious can ride on to the next pharmacy. I forgot forceps, duct tape, and parachute cord. I suppose I can pick the tweezers up at an Albuquerque head shop lol.

Another Guzzi Club meeting this evening My silver V11 & a V7 next to a Harley Amazing sky this evening

The only thing I ever caught w/those things were a buzz !

The 8V Griso gets less mpg then the 2V Griso it replaced, I commonly got 45 - 48 mpg with my 2V Griso. You seem to get decent mpg, better then most report. But that can come down to how you ride. If you rode a 2V Griso the way you ride an 8V Griso I suspect you would be in the upper 40's to 50 mpg. The 2V Griso and 8V Griso are pretty close to exactly the same size motorcycle, they should get the same fuel mileage. Some would say the 8V Griso should get less fuel mileage as it makes more power. But that would only hold true if you were riding it in a way that uses that extra power. At 70 mph going down the road both the 2V and 8V would need almost exactly the same amount of power to go down the road. To make the same amount of power the 8V motor uses more fuel, and thus gets worse fuel mileage. I think two things offer a clue as to why that is the case. The 8V Griso does not seem to like free flowing exhausts. It seems to have a lot of valve overlap and without enough restriction in the exhaust air and fuel goes into and straight out of the combustion chamber. That wasted air and fuel does not make power but it does reduce fuel mileage and contribute to poor running. And even with a more restrictive exhaust system the motors is not as fuel efficient as the 2V motor, and that is usually indicative of an inferior combustion chamber shape, which results in needing more fuel to make the same amount of power. Of course, as I mentioned, all that being so I would still take an 8V Griso over the 2V version, as I am not buying a motorcycle for purely logical reasons. It is for fun, and I think the 8V version would be more fun. As mentioned, I bought mine long before the 8V version was a thing. And other then the tappet fiasco with the first version of the 8V motor I would rather have the power of the 8V. To make this even further into the weeds, and to rattle Pete, I will mention that when they showed the protype of the Griso it had the 4V motor of the Daytona and Centauro. And that is the motor I really wanted in my Griso. I was disappointed that by the time they released the Griso it had basically the V11 Sport motor. I really wanted the 4V motor. My Daytona is so cool to ride. The motor has a feel that other Guzzi's don't, it has a feel like a hot rod tractor.

... its for fly fishing ...

I don't recognize that fishin' lure ?

So what was the "appears to be a spacer but it won't fit" turn out to be? Phil

Indeed! Lest one becomes a snack oneself....

All good stuff. Bug repellent and head nets, sunscreen, bear spray...just some last minute goodies. Food bags and some way to tie it up high. No snackies in the tent.

"Oh, no, man. They're like medical. Like, seriously, man ."

The GSA looks perfect for this trek. You would need two V11 to carry that load-out!

The one above certainly looks clean but the pipe without a dB killer is a problem. I suppose if you think making a ‘Look at me’ racket rather than actually having the engine perform well is your thing then fine but the 8V does not respond well to an open, (Or short!) pipe. It will gut the bottom end and midrange. The other thing I see that rings alarm bells is the crash-bars. Grisos actually tend to crash well but those bars, in fact any of the bars I’ve seen, are liable to direct force to the engine case/timing chest cover area and of they get damaged it’s essentially bye-bye engine. I personally would prefer to take the hit on a rocker cover and the oil cooler cover. If there is any more substantial damage it’s going to get written off anyway.

Looks like you have everything. Safe travels!

Good luck and safe travels mate! Cheers

Now l have to do some organizing in my shelfs with the enormous amount of parts. Many new, Titanium ex, carbon fender, side covers, complete fuelpump asembly ++++. 10013km, all original. Cheers Tom. Sent fra min SM-S906B via Tapatalk