Steve G.

Reading the threads on the single plate clutch, as well as other things related to Moto Guzzi in general made me want to bring up a fact that a long time Guzzi fanatic recently related to me. Guzzi research and development is not what you would see at, say Honda. Not enough money, not enough size, apples and oranges. When they first designed the v-twin shaft drive layout, among other things, they had to test the shaft drive/transaxle system. This involved improving on the weak links of the system, and to show the weak links, they would push the bike up against a wall, and at very high revs, would go through a long series clutch drops, until something would break. They would then look at the part, improve on it's strength, and do it again and again, till the components were brought up to a level of reliabilty which they could live with. Obviously their reliabilty acceptence on the single plate clutch was pretty low on that day. Ciao, Steve G.

So this clutch 'malfunctioned' simply from high speed operation, not from power shifting or such? What a #^*@ing joke! The engineers at Moto Guzzi should be ashamed with themselves. Imagine giving the green light to producing this clearly inadequete device, my head is shaking! Ciao, Steve G.

Thanks for the offer on the hd spring Mike. I'll just leave it alone for now. I'm happy enough the way it works now. Availability of this size [160/70] is quite easy with the Bridgestone 020 Battlax radial. Ciao, Steve G.

Baldini, I've always been tough on my front tires. For one, I'm over 250ib, and second, I am in a habit of braking into a corner instead of braking to a corner then letting off. As a result, the stock size front tire I have quickly tend to get quite a bevel on it, with perhaps 1/8" [3mm] of virgin chicken strip left. My suspension, I must admit has been set up crudely, mainly set up to take my extra weight. Rear spring preload is near absolute maximum, and all other settings front and back are set right at the middle of their respective adjustement values. Of course, my bike has the Marzocchi front, and Sachs rear. The original equipement tires [bridgestone BT57s] at the back were the 170/60 size, which because of the wheel being too skinny for the tire size, made the profile of the tire somewhat domed, allowing for a rather large "chicken strip". My maiden voyage tour, the spring of '03 , down to Sonomafest at Sears Point, had me grinding hard parts to the point that once I performed a basic rear jump/soft highside [first time ever, holy shit]at 75 mph, which really pissed me off. I had gained and built up a confidence in the machine, and this really buggered it up. Yet, looking at the rear tire, there was still lots of rubber available for even more potential lean angle. Advice taken from this very forum to use a smaller tire turned out to be a good one, for me and my bike anyway. A 160/70, with a taller sidewall to hopefully raise the rear even more. I would'nt consider changing the front tire size. The rear to me is the rear, but the front tire for me, the front end is where I really feel my bike. I'm a real muscleman when riding, and putting the front into a corner for me is like sticking an ice pick into ice. You're going into the corner Mr. Guzzi, no arguing. And I like the front of my bike, works well, and putting a skinnier front tire would quicken and already quick steering machine. Don't thing I want to make it any faster. Ciao, Steve G.

I've got one of those pre-02 V11s, and have tried my darndest, not to get rid of my chicken strips, but to prevent my bloody side stand and exhaust can from hitting down. I've installed a 160/70 rear tire to lift it up, and to install a proper size tire to the smaller rim the older ones have. The result, I now just touch the left side stand, but intermittent now because 1" [25mm] is now ground off of the foot at the end. Chicken strips of 1" or more confirm a very conservative rider, any less, and it could be a number of things, like tire size/profile, suspension ride height, bike payload, tire inflation preferences, and different tire manufacturer profiles. Just checking mine, the front is the shape of a V going over to 1/8" off the edge, and the rear has a large 'safety factor' of about 5/8". Looking at my other bikes, for whatever reason, there appears to be much less of that chicken factor, and yet I ride all my bikes with the same % of what I like to call my safety zone, which is when hard parts grind. Who knows? Ciao, Steve G.

Lubrimatic. Great! I can get that stuff most anywhere here. Thanks! Ciao, Steve G.

I keep forgetting that the U.S.A. is the lawsuit capital of the earth. Some good points, but in this world of "retail" it doesn't cut it. So the guy may have had his wife trash the place, too bad, deal with it, or realize you are a basket case and get someone else to greet the public while your anti-depressants kick in. And as for eating a warrantee claim, well, deal with it, or tell the customer the truth, or go stock shelves at Safeway. I work in automotive retail, and we eat things, it's just part of the business. Once we had to repaint an entire car, [a true beater] because the guy said we put a scratch in it [could'nt identify the scratch]. It seems for decades now that motorcycle shops and the motorcycle business in general has perhaps had a higher percentage than normal of people one would regard as undesirable in commerce. The good operators know this and are concerned. One undesirable drifts away, another fills the hole. In the past while owner of Ducati product, I had a miserable [as well as most everyone] time with 2 dealers. Now former dealers. I'd like to think that I had a part in their present position as 'former Ducati representatives'. Enough said! Ciao, Steve G.

Man, this sounds like a great thing. Can you give me a manufacturers name and part # on this 180 deg swivel adapter attachment? There are no Ace Hardware stores in Canada, so will have to dig for it at another outlet. Ciao, Steve G.

It's really quite simple, the guy is a @*$^ing ass. First thing I would do would be to contact MGNA, like now, ask to the procedure of changing official outlets for warranty issues, and tell them why.Take pictures of the cracking on your bodywork, take pictures of the odometer. If possible send them by digital camera to MGNA. Document everything. Do not give the guy one red cent more of your money, do not let him touch your bike, and make it a mission to smear this guys name in every way you can. Say bad things about him when ever you can, try to kill his business by word of mouth warnings. Post leaflets warning motorcyclists of this shop. Tell everyone on bikes he is by far the most expensive shop in town for oil, tires, all the stuff he makes money on. This kind of loser should not be selling motorcycles, he should be serving beer at a skid road hotel. If your nearest dealer from this guy is a long way away, I hate to say it, but I would deal with it. My buddy in Portland just bought himself a new MV Agusta, and his nearest dealer is in Post Falls, Idaho. Sometimes it's the price of owning a unique and enjoyable motorcycle. And most important of all, enjoy your bike, and don't let that scumbag taint your ownership of it. Thank heaven there are 2 Guzzi dealers in my town, as I don't think this kind of thing would happen in multiple dealer regions, the guy wouldn't last 5 minutes. Ciao, Steve G.

You must be carefull with the French made Valeo starter, they really are total pieces of shit. Whether superheating of the injectors themselves, or other parts of the 'fuel delivery system', vapour lock is the result. And the cause is clearly from stopping the bike after a lengthy ride, and stopping for 10-20 minutes, with the air temp over 80 F. Mine will start, and as long as I don't touch the trottle, it will happily idle, but turn the throttle and back firing and surging are the result, and this lasts maybe a couple minutes, a long time if you have an audience at the gas station or bike stop. The electric fuel tap is another weak link, or rather the feeble wire loom coming out of the end, which suffers from vibration/movement induced wire breakage. Some have recommended replacement of the unit with a manual one, which makes sense. I got a free electric one on warranty, and modified it to protect the wires, by coating them with a liquid rubber, then wrapping the wires tight. It will be ok now. In your case, I don't think the fuel tap would have quit from the heating effect. It must be a coincidence. Ciao, Steve G.

I'd have to find my fastener catalog and read up again, but yes there are different types of s.s., but as all bolts are graded by strength, tagged on the top of the bolt head. I seem to remember s.s. bolts never reaching the strength grade the original steel bolts had. Ciao, Steve G.

Hi Jim, how do they bend them without breaking them? Ciao, Steve G.

My brother got titanium rods for his Norton, seems to me they were $200us for 4. I got chrome moli, can't really notice the difference. The main advantage would be in extreme cam profiles, where lightening the valve train for quicker actuation is the goal. Ciao, Steve G.

I've never been one to drastically change any of my machines cosmetically [don't like the way it looks why did you buy it?], I've never had a problem with cosmetic upgrades to fasteners. Stainless steel has long been my favourite, as it polishes up nice, easy, and can be redone 5yrs down the road if need be. Stainless will most definitely gall given the slight chance to, and Stainless must NOT be used for applications requiring strength, such as securing calipers to forks, etc.. I must admit to going one step further, with the use of titanium. My Laverda has had a tastefull upgrade of custom made S.S. nuts and bolts, from kits available from Laverda parts suppliers in England. However, some bolt sizes were not available from anyone in S.S., so a visit to my favourite local fastener supplier [Fuller Metric Fasteners] found that these very odd sized bolts were to be had in titanium. Lovely stuff really, super featherlite, and with a fantastic semi gloss finish, or it can be mirror polished, is VERY strong, so can be used for high strength specification applications. Price? Well lets just say that I found myself buying one bolt every paycheck, so I would'nt shock myself. Let's ust say it is 10 times the price. One bolt, a 10mm by 10mm by socket head, which I needed as it was unavailable in S.S., to hold on of all things the choke lever bracket to the handlebar, cost me $29cdn. I did by 4 bolts to hold the front caliper on, and was happy when a young stupid guy sold them to me for the wrong price, because they were regularly $38 each, I got them for $8 each. I havn't gotten any for a while as the stupid guy has been let go! Ciao, Steve G.

Just last week I purchased a fitting for my grease gun end, designed for those hard to reach grease nipples, basically a hollow needle with an end pointed and shaped to enter the nipple by slightly pushing the springed ball bearing sealer carefully back, and introduce grease. Made by Lincoln, model # 5803, called the needle nozzle, I must admit to not having a chance to use it yet. Long overtime hours at work is one problem. Secondly, I thought it might be an idea to slightly bend it into a slight hook, making it easier to get to that bugger of a u-joint closest to the gearbox. My ever enterprising neighbour offered to do this, but it turns out the devise does not bend, it breaks. So, as I write this, Saturday morning, I will be getting a new one today. I think it cost $10 cdn. I'm confident that it will help in this most difficult maintenance task, and I'd like to think it would help in eliminating the need to lift the rear of the bike, drop the rear axle off the shock etc.. Ciao, Steve G.

Hi Jim, Given the opportunity [and most importantly the chequeing account balance] I would be proud to have any SFC 750 in my garage. Magnificent hand made machines. Wolfgang always seems to have at least one in his stable for immediate delivery. Oh well, one out of two is ok for now. Ciao, Steve G.

I won't use the word 'carefull' breakin, but 'proper'. Moto Guzzi designed the engine, do what it says in the book. If you follow the instructions in the manual, the only thing you may unknowing ly do, would be to lug the engine, which may be actually worse for the engine than premature over revving. I would say that the main effect a proper breakin would have on an engine would be to allow it to offer a longer service life, without wear related preblems. Ciao, Steve G.

That's funny, I don't seem to recall anyone mentioning 50 mpg @ 90 mph. Then again, with the profile of cam the V11 based engine is equipped with, it's efficiency [and in turn power output] does not really start to come into play until around the 4600 rpm mark. With this in mind, puttering around in city traffic would of course return some pretty discouraging numbers. I've probably mentioned this before, but my 'low fuel' light never has worked, since new, there were so many other problems with my bike, this one was never given any consideration. Now with the bike 18 months into warranty, I most likely would get groans of laughter from Moto Guzzi North America. Alot of my riding has been with others bikes with confirmed high mileage range, so I knew I could get a litre off them to get to the gas station, As a result, I have stretched my tank distances to 250 kms many times, and recall once on the GPS a run of 179.2 miles in between fuel fill ups. For the guys outside the U.S., that's pretty close to 288 kms. I don't know about you guys, but after 150-170 miles, I'm ready to stretch my legs. It should be mentioned that this kind of mileage has started to happen only after this little engine has seemed to loosen up, with now 26,000kms. Ciao, Steve G.

Scrubbing in the front tire should be done with a bit more care than the rear, for obvious reasons. Last fall, after spooning on a new rear tire in Sparks, Nevada, by the time we had gotten to the top of the hill at Virginia City, the rear was most definitely ready for action! 1/2 inch chicken strip. Ciao, Steve G.

Where are those pictures taken? Looks like a desert area. Ciao, Steve G.

The BT020 wears out quickly? Are you kidding? At 8000miles, I've got some minor cupping, but not wore out. Ciao, Steve G.

I have an oil thermometer devise [i won't use the word probe, people will think oddly of me] which indicates that after my bike arrives home in our current 85degF summer, the temperature is around 200deg F. My other bikes are more or less the same, and are all air cooled. My low fuel light has never worked since new, and at one time ran 290kms before filling up, and took over 21 litres. And she really is not impressed unless I put in 92 ocatane or better. Ciao, Steve G.

Last year when I lost both my brackets within 45 miles, between Grand Coolee Dam and Tonasket, Washington, it was the left one that broke through first. Perhaps the unique vibration characteristics of this machine are producing more severe vibration cycles on the left side bracket. I still get pissed off thinking about this application. What kind of engineer would use thin guage aluminum for this task? Surely this was a cost saving move forced upon the engineers by the accountants. I really, really hope so! So much for saving 5$ per bike on this one. It probably cost 25$ per bike to get these bikes in question rectified. And I think we can rule out the use of aluminum as a weight saving measure, something that would be utterly pointless on a sport-touring/cafe racer type bike, more understandable perhaps on a full-on 600cc "crotch rocket". Ciao, Steve G.

Backfiring generally would be considered a condition of a lean burn. But, at elevation the general condition is of a rich burning situation. So that rules out elevation as a factor. I agree with the other lads, you got some bad fuel. Water or H2o in the tank can give the same symtoms as a lean fuel mixture. Burn off as much as you can, try to drain the rest of the crap out, and go on that ride to Vancouver Island, and be aware that we are all very envious. And also be aware that in Canada, Chevron and some Petro Canada stations have the highest available octane in North America. Your Moto Guzzi will like it very much. Ciao, Steve G.

Like I said, you guys put bunker crude oil in yours, I'll put the best in mine. Everybodys happy. Oh, and ignore everything that the manufacturerer of this machine recommends, any kind of oil will do, and, oh yeah, that break in procedure, the regular maintenance, greasing the u-joints, well we know better. Ciao, Steve G.