callison

Okay laddy, I'll match you on bodgy wiring... There are at least four or more different funky additions or changes/functions to this Sport 1100i. Lets see if anyone can figure them all out. Don't expect a rapid reply from me though, I've got to go back through my memory to figure them out myself!

If I could get it from Italy to the USA... but noooooo, the wife says it's "Too ugly".

I don't know about Phoenix per se, but Encore Performance in Prescott and Renaissance Cycles in Tucson come to mind. Both are good folks. Don't miss the Guzzi rally in Prescott in early May.

I watched the movie. I think they bruised her navel...

I think your advise is 100% on the mark.

Very pricey. No poles at all! AirZone

Almost right! You can get a Ural sidecar rig and combine the BMW and walker parts...

I would guess that the Super Bowl fans are largely Nascar types anyway. They could no more understand a Griso than my wife overhauling a car. It would be a whole lot more fun to place a Griso ad right smack in the middle of one of those "American Chopper" shows with a tag line of "Looks good AND drives good!".

War bike of the month...

I think it's because MGNA stopped doing anything years ago - including the website. If Piaggio is smart, it'll disassociate itself entirely with the moniker MGNA and come up with something better without the bitter memories.

I took my swingarm to the local Ducati shop and paid them to remove them. Pretty simple for my part really. I think it cost $25. I bet the tech that removed them ran out of swear words though

Send your rain over here. Oklahoma is dry as a bone. Got a quarter inch of rain here Saturday, but that was the first rain in 89 days. So far, 430,000 acres and 238 homes and businesses have burned in wildfires.

Yup! Mine too.

I'm getting a better feel for this bodge point business. I don't want a point for this one because it's a little embarrasing. I built a custom seat for my Yamaha RD350 cafe racer back in the '70's. I didn't protect the wiring in the tailpiece from a bare sharp metal edge. The wires got cut through by the metal and the bike caught fire. In a gas station. I damn near strained a gut pushing it backwards to the edge of the parking lot. Bad enough, but if you want tried and true stupid things to do, you can visit my humor page Truly Stupid Things To Do With A Motorcycle. They're all true, so help me Carlo Guzzi.

Wow. Max as a brolly girl. Who'd a thunk it!

I don't even remember what year it was, probably 2001 or 2002, but I was getting ready to go the the Prescott, Arizona rally. I put a new rear tire on my Sport 1100i and headed for the gas station. I didn't buff the tire first and at the second corner, I departed the bike as the rear tire slipped out from underneath at about 10 mph. A bystander said it was the most graceful get-off he had ever witnessed. That did in the windshield and messed up a few things though, so I rode it home (minus a rear brake lever, my dignity etc.). I still had two weeks until the rally though and I had the 97 California as an alternate. It also has a set of Givi bags so nominally, it's a better camping vehicle. Snatching a giant handful of misplaced impressions of Arizona, I surmised that it would be quite warm there and perhaps there was something I could do to make the trip more comfortable. Never mind that the destination is high desert/mountains and the date is very early May when Arizona isn't really quite as warm as I thought it would be. In fact, it was damn cold! But I digress. The idea that came to mind was to "air condition" the motorcycle with an evaporative cooler. I bought a windshield wiper washer pump, some aquarium air hose tubing along with some aquarium air valves, manifolds and so forth. The pump I hose clamped to the bottom of the rear luggage rack, the tubing ran forward with the wiring harness and up to the handlebars, I split the tubing with a manifold that routed the two ends to two mister nozzles from my patio mister system (which never really worked all that well - I would've needed a couple of thousand of them to actually cool my yard in the California summers where I lived at the time). The misters mounted to the mirror stalks (no windshiled on this bike either), an electrical switch was mounted in a very cobby bracket near the left mirror mount and I was in business. Almost. I still needed a reservoir for the the water. The local hardware store sold some fairly flat 1 quart plastic containers. I bought a pair of those (primary and spare), some styrene tubing and a bunch of ABS plastic. With the ABS plastic I made a pair of holders for the water tanks. They fit between the back end of the Givi bags and the fender and weren't readily visible. The cap of one bottle was pierced and the styrene tube stuck through the cap into the water with some more aquarium air line going to the input side of the windshield wiper washer pump (wow, way that three times as fast as you can!). It worked! Off to Arizona. I met Mike Steward at Harris Ranch where we spent the night at a hotel, eating a good meal. The next morning we headed for Prescott. It was cold. Too cold to try the mister. I had hopes that it would be warmer in Arizona but that didn't happen. At the rally, the strange tubing on the mirrors was noticed by a lot of people and they sort of just shook their heads that anyone would go through so much effort to kluge up something when it was so cold out. Nevermind. On the return trip, it finally got hot enough in Kingman, Arizona that I got to try it out. It worked amazingly well at speeds between 50 and 65 mph. Faster than that, the mist blew away and slower than that the misters just didn't seem too effective. I left the cooler on for a few more months and ran it irregularly while commuting. I wish I had photos, but in reality, there just wasn't that much to see. There's a definite downside to misting water on leather in hot weather. There's an even bigger downside in misting water on leather that's covered with bugs in hot weather. Smell. Bad. Real bad. I'd overlooked that possibility. The cooler was removed from the bike before the first hot spell had even subsided. All of the parts are sitting in various boxes in my garage somewhere awaiting the call to duty again if I should ever decide that being cool (physically - not image) outweighs negative aspect of having a leather jacket that smells like someone died in it. So far, I'm making do with just being hot.

My wife, daughter and I are going to the U.K. for 3 weeks in June to visit my son who is stationed at Lakenheath. I obviously will not be bringing a bike along, but I would enjoy meeting some of the forum members at some point if it is possible.

And you're not the least bit interested in the "air conditioned" 97 California? I bet Mike Stewart remembers it! While not quite a "bodge" point, it would certainly qualify for a wingnut.

Absoflogginglutely! (one meaningless point if you remember what movie that came from. Hint: Bob Hoskins)

Yeah I did, but after 31 5 amp fuses I figured what the hell and went for it. Remember, I have spares of everything. When all else fails, making it burn is a valid trouble shooting technique - as a last resort. I was actually concerned about catching on fire though. We're in an incredibly severe drought right now in Oklahoma and the last thing I wanted to do was set the state on fire!

This is what we Colonials call a "BFH". Big F&^%ing Hammer"! I wasn't worried, I have a spare ECU, wiring harniess, TPS, injectors, coils etc. The only thing I didn't have - was a fire extenguisher. Brave, aren't I? However, I gracefully accept my Bodge Point. Now, did I ever tell you about how I put "air conditioning" on my 97 California for a trip to Arizona?...

The saga of the blowing ECU fuse is over. Maybe. Having finally gotten so disgusted with myself for not riding the thing, I dusted off the seat today and went for a ride. Previously, the ECU fuse would blow anytime the throttle was whacked open. Only on the road, never where you could conveniently try to trouble shoot it. So, I removed the 5 amp fuse and put in a 30 amp fuse. "That out to do it!" says I. "Not so fast says Murphy". And nothing happened. I didn't go into Luca Electrics mode and let all of smoke out thereby rendering the bike inoperative. Nope. Nothing of the sort. The silly thing just sang it's heart out and accelerated like a bat out of hell. Mind you, this comparison is only valid when you've been riding a very anemic Ural but, what the hey, it sure feels powerful. Since I couldn't let the smoke out, set the bike on fire or anything else that I was prepared for, I sauntered on down to the local auto parts store (they thought the bike was pretty good looking) and bought an assortment of 7.5A, 10A and 15A fuses and figured I would just narrow down the fuse blowing current. First step was a 7.5 amp fuse (stock is 5) and it's off to test the throttle. Works fine. Did all of the things that used to make the fuse blow and it's fine with a 7.5 amp fuse. Okay, WTF? As near as I can tell, whatever causes the fuse to blow is something that causes a current drain that is just barely into the 5 amp fuse blowing range. So, the 7.5 will remain and I'm going to ride the bike. Next it's change tires on the California and then tackle the Sport 1100i.

I'm not even close to being an expert at this and have in fact, only done it twice on the V11 and twice on the California. The California massively sucks compared to the V11 Sport for ease of maintenance. You only have to crab the frame 2 inches to get the transmission out. Some three dimensional puzzle work to be sure, but it can be done. Battery disconnected, starter removed. Rear wheel off, driveline out. Rear subframe gets unbolted at the front and pivoted down and out of the way. Jack under sump. Various other bolts & nuts loosened or removed as required, a nice assortment of swear words and the little bugger is out. I actually did it in an hour and a half. I never get anything done in that short of time on the Guzzis. Yet somehow...

I can get the transmission out of my V11 Sport in an hour and half - and I'm not really good at this stuff. I would say that it is possible to do two a day if you're going assembly line and have everything at hand and ready to go. If Pete ever gets around to working on these new fangled models he'll probably turn a pretty good time. Of course, he has rubber chickens to help...

I screwed up! There's been three days this year when I didn't ride.