GuzziMoto

That can happen, but it is usually more from having children then a wife in my opinion. I got married and it did not slow me down, but it can slow some people down. Children tend to be a bigger effect, though. But even there some are able to have children and not loose their edge. For me my wife helped me concentrate and go faster. But then she liked racing.

If you hit the rear brake and there is no brakes there, the first thing I would do right then and there is pump the brake pedal to see if the brakes come back. Having to pump the brakes can happen because the brake pads get pushed away from the disk. That can happen for a few reasons, including what Phil mentioned of having issues with the wheel bearings. If the wheel has enough wobble in it from loose bearings the disk can push the pads away from it when it wobbles. It does not take a massive amount of wobble to do that. It only has to push the pads a tiny amount away from the disk. Anything that causes the pads to be pushed away from the disk will cause the brakes to not be there when you next push on the brake pedal. But if that is the issue successive pumping of the brake pedal will normally restore brake function. Other things can also cause brake issues, like the hole between the master cylinder (the part pushing the brake pedal acts on) and the reservoir. That hole must be open when the brake pedal is in its normal position. Improperly adjusting the brake pedal can cause that hole to not be open when the brake pedal is not being pushed. Or you could have a small piece of debris clogging that hole, as mentioned. You could also have issues inside the master cylinder. There is a small spring inside it that pushes the piston back when you release the brake. If that spring can't or won't push the piston back when you release the brakes you will experience brake issues.

Scary anytime someone says "oil was empty". That is bad. But what does "empty" really mean? was there some oil? or no oil? Where did the oil go? It is a closed system, the gearbox doesn't "use oil". Probably the most common shifting issue with a V11 Sport is the simplest. The shift linkage itself. It can bind in a couple ways, including binding on the frame if the shift linkage is mis-adjusted. I would certainly start with the basics, make sure the oil level is right and the oil is the right oil. Next I would make sure the shift linkage moves freely with no binding. The throw from one gear to the next is not always exactly the same, so make sure the linkage moves freely between all gears. If the lock nuts come loose for the linkage that can cause the linkage to drift out of adjustment over time. Next thing to check might be the internal linkage for the trans. And there is a shift spring that can break, as well as some other aspects of the shifting mechanism just under the back cover. If the issue is there you do not need to fully disassemble the trans. The gearbox is just a gearbox. It is not that complicated. But getting it out can be a pain if that is required.

Word is he signed a seven year contract with Yamaha. They provide the bikes, current spec Yamaha's, for free. Yamaha will also pay his riders salaries. So it is a good deal. No word on how much say he will have in who his riders are, but based on an interview he did recently he seems to think he will have a lot of say. But the way he said it seemed to say that it is not up to just him who his riders are. It sounds like it will be a group decision between him and Yamaha. Still, a sweet deal. He just needs to find the money to run the team, but no doubt his sponsors will less keen to spend the same amount of money to sponsor the team when they are no longer getting the exposure the team currently gets. I don't think he could have got that deal with KTM, but I suspect he could have come close. And with KTM he would get a more competitive bike. But it is water under the bridge, now.

I get leaving Ducati after such an insult / slight. But I don't get going to Yamaha. They could have talked to KTM, a team that wants two more spots on the grid desperately and would no doubt have made them a good deal. Perhaps not as extreme as the deal Yamaha made, but then the bikes KTM would provide are worlds better and KTM is more serious about racing then Yamaha will ever be. Yamaha always has been and always will be a street bike manufacturer that races, while KTM is a race bike manufacturer that sells street bikes to fund their racing. Plus they have a long term relationship with Red Bull so their pockets are pretty deep compared to their size.

Perhaps. But it looks like Pramac was going to stay until he insulted them and then Ducati snatched him away from being their number 1 rider next year, moving Marc to the factory team over Pramac's rider whom they had been grooming for that same factory seat. A double insult, maybe a triple insult, and it seems enough to stop Pramac from renewing their contract with Ducati. That was a racer showing who is boss. Besides, it would have been likely that Marcs contract would have been with Ducati, not Pramac, and Pramac would simply have been the team he rode a factory Ducati for. Until he blew up that deal, and with it Ducati's relationship with Pramac. The end result from that one decision by Ducati to sign Marc Marquez is only six Ducati's on the grid next year, only three of them will be current spec bikes. That will be fewer current spec bikes then any other manufacturer, although arguably that is on them as much as it is on Marc. Also, their number two team is no longer their team, and several of their best riders have left their fold. On the positive side of the leger is they will have Marc Marquez, but arguably they already had him. Where was he really going to go if his expressed desire was to be on the best bike? They lost much to gain what they already had. And it will likely only get worse, as Marc will surely bring tension to the factory team.

I agree that really consistent readings are all that is needed. If you have that you can adjust your speed accordingly. That said, if you really want a second opinion on vehicle speed I would recommend adding a GPS. It will not only very accurately tell you how fast you are going but it will also help you know WHERE you are going. They offer a number of motorcycle friendly GPS options. You don't need a motorcycle friendly GPS but it does make a difference. Motorcycle friendly versions tend to be better able to handle wet weather and their screens tend to work better while wearing gloves.

Yes, it seems clear that Ducati were expecting Marc Marquez to go to Pramac, and even Marc seemed on board with that saying all he wanted was a current spec bike. When Marc switched tactics and declared that Pramac was not an option for him it clearly caught Ducati management off guard. And Marc did it in such a way that he also insulted the Pramac team, that along with the factory shafting their current rider. That led to Pramac leaving as well, which Ducati was clearly not ready for. The whole things could be a poster child for how NOT to run a racing team. And as much as they try to say Marc did not cause all those events, anyone watching knows who really made all that happen. And I suspect that was all done by Marc to establish who the number one rider at Ducati is. The way he made them bend over to sign him to their factory team made it clear who the most important rider at Ducati is. And yes, it is interesting that Ducati may be the only brand on the grid next year running last years bikes as well as next years bikes. Although I am not sure LCR has the current spec Honda bikes for both their riders. When Cal was there Honda gave them one current spec bike for Cal and one of last years bikes for the other rider (originally Jack Miller back in 2015 when they added the second bike). I don't recall them ever getting upgraded from that deal, and I would actually guess that when Cal left they reverted to both bikes being last years bikes as they only gave Cal a current spec bike so he could help them test. After Cal left I do recall hearing a number of riders at LCR complaining that they were not being utilized to help develop the bike. No doubt in part to how little development you can do when you are riding last years bike. But maybe LCR now have a pair of current spec bikes. Some would say Honda need the extra current spec bikes to help them develop the bike. I am not sure I buy that, seems to me having to build four new parts every time they want to try a new part would slow down building new parts. Easier to build two, see if they are better, and if they are build more like that.

Marc Marquez is clearly a special talent. I don't like him, he races like he doesn't give a shit about the safety and well being of the other guys on the track with him. In fact he has shown a tendency to go out of his way to make contact with other guys on track, likely to establish his dominance over them. It is something that the late Dale Earnhardt perfected. But that aside, you can't deny his talent. He can do things other guys can't do. I don't think we will ever see him dominate like he did in the past. Put him on the same bike as everyone else, a bike that is not as hard to ride as the Honda was, and he will only be as fast as the other top guys. I don't see him able to go that much faster then someone like Pecco when he is on the same bike as Pecco. But he will certainly give Pecco a run for his money. And if Pecco is able to beat him on the same bike that will say a lot about the skill of Pecco. But if Marc beats Pecco everyone will say "of course he won, he is Marc Marquez". Everyone will put all the credit on Marc if Marc wins, so I don't see why Ducati wanted him on their bike. They would have had the potential for much more credit to them if Marc went to KTM and Pecco still beat Marc. Pecco beating one of the all time greats on a KTM would have made Ducati and Pecco look great. Now no outcome will really make Ducati look good, if Pecco wins, Pecco looks awesome. And if Marc wins, everyone says that Marc is one of the all time greats, of course he won. The biggest question now is where does that third current spec bike go and where does Fermin Aldeguer go. I would assume they are going to the same place, but at this point I don't want to assume anything. Prior to Pramac leaving Ducati the word was Fermin would go there and take one of their current spec bikes. But was Ducati really required to give him a current spec bike? If so, he would have to go where ever that third current spec bike goes. And so Ducati would need to sweeten that pot to get someone to take the rookie AND put the rookie on their only current spec bike they get. That would be, I would think, a hard sell.

You can get one way valves that go at the bleeder, some of them are even a replacement for the bleeder with a one way valve built in. The ones I have used in the past were inexpensive one way valves from a tropical fish store that I throw away after I am done. They are not made to withstand brake fluid, so it tends to destroy them. But they last more then long enough to do the job. With a one way valve you can pump the master cylinder all you want, just make sure the reservoir doesn't run out of fluid. But it is easier then cracking the bleeder and tightening it, then cracking it, then tightening it.

I prefer speeding up the process with a vacuum pump. But my favorite way is to pressure bleed, where you force fluid into the reservoir and from there through the system. That pushes the fluid and any air present out the bleeder. Applying a vacuum to the system can in some cases suck air into the system, which is opposite to what you are trying to do.

By the way, the 2023 spec Ducati had chatter issues last year, leaving the guys on 2022 spec Ducati's at an advantage in the early part of the season until the factory figured out how to deal with that chatter. It seems that they are possibly back in that hole again, with the riders on the 2023 spec bikes again dealing with the bike not liking the tires, even though supposedly little has changed. Makes you wonder how much of fixing the issue last year was in the set up of the bikes and how much of it was the riders changing what they were doing. And it would seem that Marc has already adapted, he has already figured out how to change what he is doing to make it work.

Yes, the math favors running three current spec 2025 factory Ducati's next year and three 2024 spec bikes. That means one of this years bikes will not be used, but that is no big deal. That is bound to happen either way, whether it is one 2024 bike not being used or two 2024 spec bikes not being used. Their issue will be that they are supposedly obligated to provide a 2025 spec bike to Fermin Aldeguer, which means that they would require the team that they give that single 2025 spec factory bike to run Fermin Aldeguer on it instead of their own rider. I would be surprised to see VR46 take that deal, although maybe Gresini would take the deal if they sweeten it by dramatically reducing what they charge Gresini for leasing their bikes. Where as VR46 would likely be willing to pay more to lease current spec factory bikes, they would only do so if they get one for their rider. If they only get one 2025 bike and have to put a rider Ducati signed a deal with on it they really have no incentive to take that deal as they get little out of it. Also factoring into the math is Yamaha and KTM will be running 4 2025 spec factory bikes next year while Ducati seem to be saying, as per Digi, that they will only run three 2025 spec bikes next year. I did not know Digi said that when I suggested they might do that, but it seems that is what they are planning on. That makes sense from a number point of view but it may hurt them from a performance point of view. Yes, I have heard about the testing being done with the new front tire, and I have heard about how they are 3D printing the rear tire. It is very cool tech. Not sure it is the best tech, as they still seem to have QC issues, some tires are not as good as others. But that has always been true with the Michelins, and no doubt this 3D printing is an effort to cure their QC issues. But, as mentioned, the official stance is still that the new front tire they are testing is for use in 2025, and for 2024 they say all they did was update a compound of the old design with rubber that is between the medium and hard tire. Simon Crafer is a great guy, and a good source of info. But I have not seen any info that says the new front tire design is already being used in races. The interesting thing to me about the Michelin tires in MotoGP is that the tire compound seems to directly effect the construction of the tire. Normally the tire is made from two different rubber compounds, the carcass of the tire would be one compound and the tread another. But with these Michelins it seems like the rubber compound of the tread is also the rubber compound of the construction, and a soft compound tire has a softer carcass while a harder compound tire also has a harder carcass. That is not the way it used to be. That results in a difference in the way the tire works far beyond the difference in the grip of the tire between different compounds.

Ducati would have a hard time running two current spec factory bikes and four last years spec factory bikes. That math does not work. You can't provide more of last years spec bikes then you have left over. I would think either VR46 will get the two bikes Pramac is giving up (they previously tried to get current spec factory bikes, so they seem to feel they have the finances to make it happen) or possibly VR46 would get one and Gresini would get the other. It is also possible that Ducati would move to providing three current spec factory bikes next year, leaving them with three last years spec bikes the following year. That math would work, but I can't see VR46 taking only one current spec bike and giving it to the rookie Fermin Aldeguer. I could see Gresini doing that, though. I could see them taking one current spec bike and putting Fermin Aldeguer on it for Ducati. For some reason Ducati apparently made a deal with Fermin Aldeguer to put him on a current spec factory bike in his first season in MotoGP. That was stupid. And a waste of a factory bike. But Ducati has been making some questionable decisions lately. I have heard about the new Michelin front tire in the works, but everything I have read says that it is coming in 2025. From what I have heard, this year all they introduced was new compounds for the same tires they have run for a few years. But it does seem that the 2023 Ducati does not like the 2024 tires, unless you are Marc Marquez.

Issues come into play when people breaking the law get overly cocky and start publicly bragging about what they are doing in an effort to gather more business. The EPA generally doesn't go after individual owners, but they will go after companies selling illegal modifications. And if you are doing something illegal you probably should keep quiet and discrete about it. But when you are rolling in money I guess it is easy to forget that what you are doing to make all that money is illegal. The good thing is, with progress the stock tunes are getting better and better, and the need to actually tune a motor, even after mods like exhaust and intake mods, is becoming less and less.

As Pete mentioned, the stock pipes are stainless steel, not chrome. Stainless is stainless, not stain free. Both Stainless and chrome tend to discolor based on heat. You can polish out that coloring if you want, but it will come back when it gets hot again. The color it goes to is directly related to the temperature it gets. You can cheat that effect by heating stainless or chrome with a torch, making it turn colors based on how hot you get it with the torch. No idea why you would do that, but I have seen people do that. There are even mufflers sold that achieve the same effect by heating the parts to a certain temp gradient to make the parts color a certain way. The stock front pipes between the engine and the collector are double walled, that is why the stock Griso head pipes are so oversize looking, that makes them less sensitive to temp as the double wall acts like insulation. It is much the same as if you have one of those nice YETI drinking cups. You can fill it with hot tea and the outside will stay cool to the touch. It would also affect the hot exhaust gases in the pipe, keeping them hotter longer. But that has been proven to be such a minor difference it really does not matter. But it does reduce the heat the engine gives off, which can't hurt when riding on a hot day. Just don't expect miracles. Hot is hot.

Sucks to be them. Word is Yamaha is giving them bikes for free and paying their riders salaries. So all they have to pay for is the day to day expenses of running the team. The big ticket costs are being covered by Yamaha. But who wants to be one of their riders? Mostly they are going to be looking for guys who are well past their sell by date and on their way down or new guys who may not really deserve a seat. And I would think their sponsors will be looking for the door, they were paying their money to sponsor a team that is running at the front and challenging for the title. Starting next year that will come to an end and they will likely be fighting to not be last. Who wants to pay good money to sponsor that? At a minimum they would likely be willing to pay a lot less, if they even want to continue at all. And sponsorship is generally where teams make their money.

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.

Most modern cars and motorcycles have that feature. Most anything that runs an O2 sensor has it, some better then others. My Buell ran a Weber / Marelli fuel injection system, and it did it very well. In fact, most vehicles today will use the O2 sensor input to adjust back out any fueling corrections you make, hence the BMW tech telling Tomchri that he can correct the fueling but it won't last. I know the PC6 has the ability to use the O2 sensor input, but to do so you must disable the O2 sensor input on the original ECU. I have that set up on my Griso. I give the PC target air fuel ratios and it adjusts the fueling for me. The original ECU does that but it does not allow me to pick what target air fuel ratio it is adjusting to, it only targets the air fuel ratio it was told to target from the factory, which is an air fuel ratio chosen to meet emissions standards while delivering the best throttle response and power it can. But the primary factor there was emissions, because first and foremost the bike has to meet emissions. I wonder if the UpMap allows you to adjust those targets. I know the PC can't, but the Up Map looks like it can write to the original ECU. But if it can do that it should mean you don't need the PC6. But the UpMap site seems very light on details, and I am not going to put any real effort into learning what it does and how it does it. It is hard to balance "best emissions" with best running. Most internal combustion engines make the least emissions they can with a slightly lean mixture while they make best power and best throttle control with a mixture on the rich side. Part of that is because while we think of rich and lean mixtures as a single thing, the mixture is either rich, lean, or right in the middle, reality is that in the combustion chamber parts of it are rich, parts of it are lean, and some of it may very well be right in the middle. The air and fuel in the combustion chamber are virtually never homogenous. Lots of effort go into trying to design the intake and combustion chamber to mix the air and fuel as well as possible. But it is hard to get the air and fuel to fully mix. So if I only add exactly the right amount of fuel for the amount of air in the combustion chamber some of it is going to be clumped together still at the time of ignition, creating some areas with more fuel then the air in that area can burn. But that means that in other areas there will be too little fuel for how much air is there and that results in those areas being lean. Trying to balance that out is tricky.

I don't understand why you would need both. But II am not up to date on the V85TT. It could be the difference between closed loop and open loop running. The V85TT would run in both modes at different times, depending on a couple factors. The PC6 should easily allow you to adjust fueling in open loop mode. Perhaps the UpMap would allow you to adjust fueling in closed mode. Beyond that I don't get why you would need both. That said, if I had a V85TT and was upgrading it like exhaust upgrades I would do the upgrade and see how it ran before spending money on anything to correct fueling. If the Fuel Injection system is decent it should correct the fueling without any extra effort. Christ, back in 2001 I had a Buell that you could watch correct fueling when you freed up the exhaust, ride it and the fueling would adjust within a few miles, smoothing out and getting crisp. The exhaust pipe I ran was a SuperTrap tune-able disc muffler and I could add or subtract discs to vary the back pressure. The O2 sensor would feed the data to the ECU and the ECU would adjust the fueling tables. Even the part of the fueling table that was open loop would adjust based on the O2 sensor readings the same way the fueling tables adjusted for changes in the air pressure reading or air temp reading. That was back in 2001, if they aren't at least as good as that now I am disappointed. So I would do whatever it is you are planning on doing and ride it to see how it runs. The V11 Sport may have needed fueling help, but by now they should be past that I would think.

Well played. Funny story about red vs orange. Among friends we have the term "Scooter orange". Scooter is a friend, and he would paint his racebike what he called orange. It was red, but he insisted it was orange. So we would call reds like that "Scooter orange". His red / orange was something of a tomato red, funnier because he hated tomatoes. But there will always be a grey area between red and orange. Often times it can come down to the light at the time. But I do like your orange Griso.....

That is a nice looking Griso for an insane amount of money unless that is some other version of dollars, maybe Canadian dollars. I guess you can ask for however much you want, doesn't mean you will get it. But you never know, there is always someone willing to pay more then I would. I would rather buy an 8V Griso given the choice. But I already own a 2V Griso and it is great. I just think more power would make it even better. To be fair, I am not super impressed with the 8V motor, I think they made some mistakes in the engineering of it. Evidence of that is in the tappet / cam failures of the original flat tappet versions and in the poor fuel mileage of all 8V Griso's. But given the choice I would still prefer an 8V version if I were buying one today. But even if I was buying a 2V Griso I would steer clear of one that is a collection of parts like the one posted above unless it was so cheap as to make it disposable. Maybe 2 or 3 grand for it, something that I would be willing to write off if it comes to it. But I reckon everyone's "disposable" threshold is different. For over $4,000 I would expect a better example. But whatever I am thinking, I would not let color play a deciding factor unless it was between two comparable examples.

Bikes are fairly cheap to paint. I would buy the mechanically better option. If you need it to be a particular color that is easy enough to do. You could not pay me to have that red 2V Griso, especially given the weird back-story of it. It is a hodge-podge of parts off different Griso's it seems, down to the wheels. But then I like the orange and black 2013 you also pictured. I like that color scheme.

I don't understand why Pramac would leave Ducati and sign with Yamaha. Who would want the Yamaha on the grid. The Yamaha factory team has to run them, why would any other team run them by choice? If Pramac were truly pissed off at Ducati for how they treated them it would seem signing to run a pair of KTMs would be smarter, and I am sure KTM would make them a good deal. But many media outlets are reporting Pramac's defection to Yamaha as a done deal. Although it is not official yet. If Pramac does bail, whomever gets the factory Ducati's that frees up would likely also end up with Aldeguer. Ducati is supposedly obligated to put him on one of the factory bikes, so their factory bikes would come with him as one of the riders. That would work well if VR46 gets the two factory bikes, as they would be able to take FA as well. I think Ducati messed up signing him so soon, but everyone seems really anxious to sign up anyone who might be the next great talent. Look at KTM and their huge score with Pedro Acosta. That worked great. But for everyone that is a win like that there are more that are a fail. I hope Acosta wins Assen. As to Toprak, I think a lot of speculation is being added on top of reality. It sounds to me like Toprak is trying to push BMW into entering MotoGP.

Yeah, the modern 2V heads can all use the same valve covers. I swapped the valve covers on my 2V Griso for an aftermarket set made for V11 Sports and the like. It never occurred to me to swap a set of Griso valve covers on to a V11 Sport, I never really liked the look of the valve covers on the 2V Griso. But to each their own I reckon.... @p6x, Yeah, what you are posting as what they said doesn't make sense. There may be something lost in translation. A 2013 Griso could only have an 8V motor from the factory. In fact, there was never a point when you could get a Griso from Moto Guzzi with a choice of 2V motor or 8V motor. They made the 2V Griso for the first couple years of production and then switched to the 8V Griso. The standard solid red Griso pictured above clearly has a 2V motor in it. Is it a motor from a 1200 Sport? I don't know, could be. But it is clearly not a motor from a 2013 Griso, that would have been an 8V motor, the valve covers would look like the orange and black Griso also pictured above. As Pete said, you could swap a 2V motor into a Griso that originally came with an 8V motor, or vice versa. But it would require a fair amount of work with lots of other little bits also needing to be swapped out as part of the swap. Often with swaps like that it is the details that get you. I am a big fan of the Griso, on my 2V Griso all I needed was a different set of handlebars as the stock bars had a weird bend to them. Once that was resolved I found the bike super comfortable and remarkably fast. For me it is a couch of a bike that handles great and goes fast. A true GT bike. It almost seems wrong for a couch to go that fast. I would happily buy a newer 8V Griso, as long as it is a roller motor. And 2013 and newer are roller motors, but it is easy enough to confirm. The 8V motor has more power, and that is a good thing. The 2V motor is no slouch, but the chassis can clearly handle more.