Skeeve

Actually, solid pegs have some drawbacks: they'll catch on pavement and cause a bike to tumble [making repairs more extensive] and they'll catch on body parts and tear'em up. Folding pegs are a huge improvement over non-folders, trust me!

Everyone is entitled to their opinion; I agreed w/ you based on the pix I'd seen until I glimpsed it in person, when I started coming around. Griso vs. Centauro: I don't think it will have the same poor sales experience as the Centauro, because the best the press ever had to say about the latter was "it has very advanced styling," whereas the press has pretty much been saying that the "Griso's styling is the best thing since meat on a stick!" Worlds of difference in the reception the machine is receiving, which can only help. Still wish it had inherited the 4v donk; that would have looked rad!

The huge can was the one reservation the Aprilia hottie made in her praise of the Griso; I took that opportunity to educate her on the whys & wherefores of such a choice, while complimenting her on her good taste & fine eye for detail. After the initial compliment, her eyes quickly glazed over, so I left off discoursing on the finer details of harmonic volumes, etc. & just left it at "air-cooled engines are noiser than water-cooled ones, so they need bigger mufflers to sneak in under the bar for regulations covering maximum noise output..." to which she gave grudging allowance as to why Guzzi gave the Griso such an obtrusive exhaust can. Suffice to say, that unless there is an over-riding access issue [say, a single-sided swingarm or a chain that needs oiling], then there's no real reason to put a single huge can on a Bike. I strongly suspect that there will be a replacement can for the Griso that will make the exhaust a 2->1->2 configuration, allowing for better muffling while simultaneously providing less backpressure and superior cornering clearance. Talk about win-win!

Some pix I took of the Griso at the recent Cycle World show in Long Beach. I coulda taken pics of the MGS-01 too, but they actually didn't have it situated as well wrt space [right next to a pillar, other bikes, etc.], so this is all you get. As I posted some time back, one of the Aprilia honeys staffing the booth actually said this was her favorite of the Guzzis. I have to admit that the first pic I saw of the Griso from the Milan? Cologne? show last year were nowhere near as good looking as this Bike was in person, which is hopeful for future sales success! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Ske...er/e76a90a2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Ske...er/e227a1ca.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/Ske...er/9b139bff.jpg

No, all of you Guzzisti are "da man!" Wow, there truly is nothing like earning the admiration of your peers! Thanks, all of you, for the generous compliments! I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to have made a positive contribution to this site!

Well, I posted a question a while back about how to fix the problem with the fast-idle lever not staying open w/o my holding it in position. It was then explained to me [in small words that a newbie like me can understand] that Moto Guzzi had screwed up somehow and put way, way, WAY too heavy a spring on the end of the cable by the injector housing on the right cyl. and that all I needed to do was take the wimpy spring out of a click-y pen & substitute it. Discussions then ensued as to the sanity of the engineer at Mandello responsible for this screw-up, etc. etc. Well, today when I finally actually checked under the seat and used the "trunk latch" for the 1st time, I discovered the real answer to this mystery in a flash! You see, the spring on the trunk-latch is WAY too light for it's application, as well as being somewhat longer than needed. Hmm... Hey Pinkie, are you thinking what I'm thinking? Guzzi didn't spec too strong of a spring for the fast-idle: they mixed-up the correctly spec'd. springs locations! Getting that skinny little spring back off the cable-end for the trunk-latch takes time & patience, but is easily done w/o damaging the spring. [i can only [i]imagine[/i] how many man-hours of labor time are lost putting the wrong spring on the end of the cable in the first place!] Once that's done, the rest of the swap takes less than 5 minutes. The spring originally [incorrectly] placed on the fast-idle lever cable fits perfectly in the appropriate space between the keeper & latch on the seat-release cable, and provides a suitably stiff resistance to the latch movement that you can't just smack the seat hard and have it bounce loose! The spring originally [incorrectly] placed on the seat-release fits splendidly in the correct spot on the end of the fast-idle cable, and provides precisely the correct resistance to the fast-idle lever up on the left handlebar. Ain't life grand when you can solve its little mysteries? Beware, Luigi! I'm out to get you!

There's some stuff on "home porting" on the cage hot-rodding sites; try rooting around in here: http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/techarticles/index.html & similar sites to see what you turn up... G'luck!

Definitely! As TX Redneck sed: buy a pushbike & pedal your butt in! I wish I still lived 3mi from work; saved a fortune in gas & parking costs! Lunch was cheaper too; bike home, make a P-nut butter sandwich, watch some MTV [back when it was good], bike back to work. Funny, I was a lot slimmer back then, too! Failing that, cover your oil-cooler w/ your bandanna [you have one of those, right?], and start the bike prior to putting on your gear so that it can be warming up on the sidestand while you're getting ready. Engine'll last a lot longer too; air-cooled engines hate being driven before they're fully-warmed [kinda like women that way... ] Off to work wit'cha!

Never heard of'em. Pointer to a website, please? [Too dang lazy to look'em up myself...]

You are: styling-wise, the Centauro is, shall we say, "challenged." Love the 4v motor, tho'. Wish MG had standardized on it and let the 2v fade away, instead of the reverse. Ah well, gotta go w/ what works, and the 4v unfortunately, didn't (as delivered) which led to problems. If they'd only invested a little more time in it & sorted it out properly, there might have been a future where the MGS-01 actually arrived in '01!

Congrats! You must be really feeling the holiday spirit now that you were able to get your fix of "holiday Goose." WRT the loud pipes thing: didja forget your earplugs? That would account for why your Bike seems much louder than you remember...

Those cautionary speed signs [in yellow, vs. the max. speed signs in white] are set based on the safe speed for a model T w/ wood wheels & balloon tires [ie, pre-bias ply] or a heavily-laden tractor trailer rig. So yes, it is usually quite easy to exceed that suggested speed in any other vehicle.

These links don't seem to work anymore. Anyone have a copy of the contents? TIA

Nah, they're on one of the sets @ Pinetree Studios...

Isn't the Marelli unit also used in some model Fiat or Alfa? Maybe you can get your Snap-On guy to let you try several different connectors for various Italian cars to see if any fit/give you likely-looking results... Of course, I thought the big diff. between OBD 1 & OBD II was that OBD II standardized the connector specs and fault coding? I dunno; I'm not a mechanic...

I think you meant "...hasn't any exhaust...", but if you look closer at the photo, it's pretty evident that he took the stock headers, put a 90 deg elbow on the left and routed them both directly into an automobile muffler [Cherry Bomb glass-pak? Who knows?] This is very likely a home-brew equivalent to the Quat-D can that is both much, much cheaper and reasonably quiet. Somehow I don't think he can get TUV to sign-off on it, but it seems a practical alternative to dragging the stock cans on the ground, and allows for good mass-centralization. Ugly as spit, tho'...

The key to ram-air efficiency is in your last statement: it isn't just feeding the engine higher-pressure air [a la' turbo- or super-charging], but the fact that the higher pressure air is stolen from some point on the vehicle's aerodynamic envelope, effectively decreasing the vehicle's drag coefficient. Since motorcycles typically have much higher drag coefficients than cars, they have more to gain by pursuing this source of increased engine output. BTW, 7hp at top speed on a 'busa is good for another 3mph? or so, which is very important when the primary source of your unit sales is the title "fastest production motorcycle sold..." Ride on!

I've looked at the "runners" you mention, at first thinking they *were* some evolution of the Sport/Daytona "ram air" fairings, but if you stand in front of a V11 Le Mans & look thru them, you'll see that they pretty clearly are there to direct air at the inside of the (air-cooled) cylinder heads. Stealing cool air from those might not be the best plan for motor longevity? For ram-air to work, the air must be taken from a high-pressure area (in cars, this is done a the base of the windshield) and fed to the engine. This works by simultaneously reducing the parasitic drag on the engine from creating a vacuum in the airbox, and reducing the aerodynamic drag of the vehicle. So yes: it works best when the vehicle is going fast. Motorcycles typically have dreadful aerodynamics [up around .5 to .8 where a flat plate pushed flat side forward = drag coefficient of 1] and actually stand to benefit more from the reduction in drag coeff. than they do from the intake [since they already tend to have very efficient i.c. engine designs and exemplary power/wt ratios...] Unfortunately, on the Le Mans, the traditional round headlight is sitting smack dab in the middle of the highest pressure point on the fairing. If you look at the MGS-01, that's right where the fake ram air port is located. Hmm; seems someone forgot to connect the ductwork!

The reason the 4v engines had full systems was because the "colostomy bag" x-overs were found to be a major stumbling block in extracting [extraction?] performance. Once you're going to the extent of replacing the x-over AND the cans, you might as well toss in new headers as well... It's interesting that the Griso is using a 2->1 exhaust that looks very much like a derivative of Enzo's, except for which side it is on. [A result of perhaps deeper thought on the engineering front; doesn't the rt.-hand cylinder fire first? Ergo, the rt. hand side has a 90deg lead over the left, and should have the longer header for proper flow perf. I'd really like to see a dyno-run comparison between Enzo's pipes and a Griso-pipe on the same engine; I suspect that Enzo's extremely flat torque curve would not be found on the Griso-type, but that the peak hp would be higher for the latter pipe. But that's all just guesstimication...] Whee! This is all good propellerhead fun...

Is not. I know, I've checked...

The *right* side you say? No wonder I couldn't find it! Never even looked at the right side of the Bike! All the seat latches on any motorcycle I've ever seen were on the left! Learn somethin' new every day... Thanks for the info, & the wake-up call to never expect the routine from my new Goose!

Um, I checked the FAQ, but... How does one remove the seat? Is there anything under there? Dang I feel dumb, but I can't seem to find how to get the seat off. Helmet lock sure works smoothly: perfect spot for the seat release, dumb spot for a helmet lock ["Hey Ma! Lookit how my helmet melts resting against the hot exhaust pipe! ] Anyone care to enlighten me? PS: I'm hoping the owner's manual is hidden under the seat, so don't go referring me to that; if I coulda, I already woulda checked that resource!

WRT Ram Air: I'm not certain I understand this: how does stealing air from a high-pressure area to feed to the engine "destroy" the aerodynamics? If designed properly, it should help *reduce* drag, if anything...

Aha! That's just the info I needed. Thanks much!

Because it's an inane waste of my precious time? Because riding an incompletely warmed-up machine is a fast way to a shorter lifespan [for both man & machine?] This was a trick question, right? There's gotta be dozens of correct answers as to why it's ridiculous to work around a mechanical failing that should be easy to correct....