mdude

come to think of it, another problem I've got is that frequently there's a jerk ON my bike. how to get rid of that??

the kick is normal, but I didnt see it as severe on my bike... maybe a checkup would be on place? My kick or flat spot disappeared with the purchase of the Titanium cans and ECU. Now its wonderfully smooth and tractable. The sudden death is something I also have problems with. Probably due to too tight valves or incorrect idle adjustment. I'll adjust my valves first, then tinker with idle adjustment and throttle syncing...

had the same experience when visiting Tuscany last autumn. The landlord at the hotel (Antonio With the Bellowing Voice) was an old racer and was deeply unimpressed when I told him about my Guzzi. My wifes Laverda on the other hand, got his juices running. He was a Beemer/Honda man.... we are indeed a bunch of old fogeys....

chilling news, it was only last thursday I was looking again at the pic's of his gorgeous bike. R.I.P christian. All others, drive safely!

Yep, mine to. 2001/-02 and the bike has done a lot of standing still in its life (9000 kms now). Lots of life in the battery, only needed an hour of charging every two months during winter. TIP: One can also look to the BMW gel batteries if Hawker is unobtainable. They are a bit pricey, but top quality. If I'm not wrong they are also a bit smaller/lighter.

yeah yeah, but after THREE hours everything should be all glory and hallelujahs...

of course its a nice bike, and of course i wouldnt mind having one. But with all due respect: it looks a bit like a huge gnat, doesnt it?? Edit: I mean, we cant just stop dissing other kinds of bikes, just like that. Even though all of us wants one.

My wifes Laverda 668 (same as the later 750) has the same engine arrangement, cant seem to find how big the offset is, and one balance shaft. I picked it up from the mechanic after a small rebuild yesterday and it is sooo sweet running and completely without any vibrations as long as it is kept on the boil above 3500 rpms. Lovely smooth power delivered with a hard metallic cackle up to 8500 rpm. Rock steady chassis... (FYI its engine was opened and examined and there was no signs of wear at all at 20.000 kms. This mechanic, who works on all kinds of sports bikes japs or others, reckons its one of the best mediumweight sportbikes ever built.) The only snag with this arrangement it that the engine is prone to sudden stops, this happens when one decelerates and then pull in the clutch. If you do this with the engine in the wrong place in the firing cycle, it dies instantly. Happened two or three time with the Laverda.

congratulations, y'all made the strangest thread ever come alive. reading this makes my brain soft and mushy, just the way I like it....

I've regularly filled up immediately when the light comes on, and I find that the tank still holds in excess of 4 litres. Which will give me about 60-80 kms of driving.

Yesterday, after returning from an Easter holiday of skiing in the sun, reading crime novels and drinking beer with my father it was finally time for first run of the year in cold but sunny weather. I left last season with a hopelessly understeered and nervous bike with soggy performance, which at more than one occasion made me wet my pants by suddenly directional changes midturn. luckily I wear cordura pants, which dry up quickly. late last autumn I put on the MG Tis but didnt have time to test them properly. and I've put on the tail tidy as sold by corsaitaliana and rossopuro. pics will come when I learn to use my new digicam. So last monday, the last thing I did before leaving for holiday, I cranked the spring adjuster on the Sachs nearly 20+ mm towards the firm side. I wanted to really firm it up just to see what happened, and I used Ouiji Vecks method of "visual sag adjustment" (which must be qualified as a bona fide bodge) because I had no one to help me. The ride height went up nearly 15 mm on the rear, and rear laden sag is now just a tad longer than front laden sag. I also released damping and compression all around to try to make a more compliant ride. What a revelation. Now I understand what you guys are talking about. The bike tracks as on rails, no nervousness, neutral and nicely controllable turn in and no surprises mid-turn. The Titan pipes gives a beautiful bark and lovely bassy thunder on the overrun, no flat spots anymore and infinitely increase in driveability. It might have had more poke though (can you ever get enough??), and a problem is that it doesnt idle, at all, but that may be because of tight valves: next thing to do. So despite my completely numb and freezing hands and aching butt (being the first ride of the year) I couldnt help myself from laughing in my helmet through the hairpins on my favourite run. The bike rode especially well downhill which leads me to belive that I should try to lower the fork in the clamps 5mm or so. The fork feels a bit dead with not much feedback from the road, that may be helped by the Wilbers fork springs I picked up on the post office today. And I must say, as a complete novice when it comes to wrenching (as opposed to any kind of carpentry, decorating, masonry...) I hugely enjoy this fiddling about. Aided by this forum I now feel confident enough to take on more complicated tasks; changing fork springs, adjusting valves and so on. Kind of cool to pull in to the bikestop as the only barking, macho Moto Guzzi amidst masses of anonymous jap machinery and Ducce 916s. I like that. Its driving season!!

Gilera 500?

my 2001/2002 greenie fell out of both recalls (supposedly)

Lucky guy, at 190 cm my head was forward of the headlight last time I tried the seat of a Buell. And that was the LWB model....

ooohhh...that Ducce was cooool. buybuybuybuybuy!!!!

36,5 yrs and 5000 in fines. I'm surprised I didnt get more. Proof that the world is a liberal place after all.

that's correct. "some old CCMs" wasnt quite to the mark. Point to Guzzirider! may you use your point with finesse and discretion

lacking exact name for bike model no 2, otherwise you've got it nailed. One more try for the quiz point.

all no! my similar named Guzzibrother Martin, is close EDIT: closest, not close. you are all circling around the answer like vultures...

aaarrrgh..... at least you've got Hoodoo Gurus for comfort I see.

touché

probably too easy, but we deserve it what bike who makes its engine (on this I am 95% certain) name at least two bikes with same engine (not sure on this last one myself, surprise me...)

just to get us back on line both bike and babe makes this highly relevant on a technical level as well as on the emotional, I'd say

this is all about tax (which in many european countries are calculated on cc's, hp's and weight) and insurance (850s will get appx half the insurance premium as 1100s in Norway!). Norway is one of the most expensive countries in Europe, but other countries use these types of calculation too. As an example: start price for a Griso 1100 in Norway is 200.000 kroner = 25.000 Euros The 850 is 149.000 = 18.200 Euros Thats a considerable saving from shaving 250 ccs and some hps off. And as some people see it: when will I be able to use all those power anyway? And then the insurance will be nearly half the price for the 850. I pay around 730 Euros a year, fully covered. My wifes 650 Laverda is 400 Euros a year. Had I been 25 with the same bike I would pay up tp 1600 euros a year! So there you have it. Smaller bikes makes an easier and more economically sensible buy. To debate the moral of it is quite useless. MG thrives on bigger sales. The more bikes they sell, the faster the next superMG will arrive. And Italy has always made smaller engine versions because of tax reasons. They even had a Ferrari 308 with a 2 litre V8 engine in the eighties (208 GTB).

I've just seen a long tv-documentary about "Lollo Ferrari", or Eve Valois as her real name was and her freak bastard boyfriend. That must be the saddest, bizzarre and most nauseating story I have seen. Not funny at all. The poor girl was a nervous, disturbed wreck, exploited and forced into all kinds of things by a sick sick man who really wanted to be a woman himself (true). French police belives he killed her in her sleep when she was of no use to him anymore, but has trouble proving it. He spent time in jail nevertheless. I am no opposer to sassy pixxers of fresh hooters, but this girl should be allowed to rest in peace now. Remove her please, Jaap.