belfastguzzi

Look out for a PM with phone number. Such a shame that the weather has turned bad.

I see they call it a sports-tourer. It's got a few special features: '...a well-padded seat and lots of space for a pillion (under the removable seat cover) add practicality, making the 1200 Sport an exceptional sports tourer.' Love that practical feature: space for a pillion passenger under the seat! At last, proper, practical storage space.

Hi Orson I don't have any plans yet. I'm aiming to take Friday off work, so that could be a meet-up opportunity. I could meet you at Larne and then head up the coast to Portrush. There is a programme on BBC1 Northern Ireland, if you can get it – Guzzirider has the technology, whatever it is – on the history of the NW200 from its beginnings in the 1920s to today. How The North West Was One, BBC1 NI 10.35pm, Monday 16th.

That could be where the knocky, rattly noise is coming from?

Nothing's as good as Fireball XL5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XMrLr44JDI&feature=related though Supercar came close http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL2vaSNbPbo&feature=related

Great euphemism, J.

Hi Euan are you going to keep in touch here? I don't know if you're keeping your Scura or not. No 496 has just turned up! I'm 497 and you're 498. The owner has recently acquired the bike and guess what: the spring's broken – so he has emailed me. That's 2 in the last 2 days. The other's in California. The road goes ever on – and those springs just keep on snapping. In my opinion, it would be best to keep the latest version of the list in the very first post. Could that be done? Best David

All I can say is don't let it put you off. While Dave was unfortunate enough to be caught up in the early tappet failure fiasco the VAST majority of his problems were inflicted by the cro-magnon who was the Guzzi agent/dealer in Belfast at the time. Yep, correct. Get a newer one 2009/10 or an earlier one that's been sorted.

There's a nice looking one of those for sale here! Many years too late for me. There's also a track modded pre 97 cbr 600, which would be tempting: but again, probably foolishness as I've only done 1 track day and am not in my 20s.

Those performance mods are a tad ugly, and anyway I fear that a beaky front won't add sizzling *zip* nor a pointy tail, startling *snap*. I wonder what sort of effect the kit ECU has?

OK I found this info on Wild and a thread here from a year ago.

With a Tonti, there's about 3 or 4 final drive options, iirc. For the V11s & CARC models, the final drive gearing is what it is: there're no other alternatives [ie, other models w/ the same driveline that used different final drive gearing.] Now *that's* what Piaggio should do: offer a different final gear set as part of the performance package one has to run to compete in the Griso Cup series in Europe. Then the other CARC models would have an option, tho' it would be rather expensive I'm certain... Reality is that more lettuce and less potatoes would be more effective. That's just as difficult to achieve though. I was wondering what work the Griso race bikes have done / what parts fitted. Do you have any info on what the performance package is for the Griso Cup?

Hey, the Tennisiti are (slightly) more intelligent than I thought. Most people wouldn't have noticed the difference between the two topics. Queeny coming through, any day now, yay! Get yourself to Dublin, all flagged-up.

Gearing change is an interesting subject, for 'normal' bikes. I'd like to try the Guzzi with lower gearing, but with shaft drive, there's no practical way for Joe Bloggs to change it. The Griso has a lot of 'go' in the higher rev range, but in terms of max speed, because of the seating position and wide bars, it gets harder to hold on above say, 90/100mph – so it could stand a reduction. The Griso vs V11 performance characteristics topic has been discussed before but it came into focus again when I did a track day. Bikes that the Griso would catch coming up to corners, ran away again out of the corners and into the straights. I'd a weight handicap (both bike and rider) and the Guzzi twin won't match a sports four, but I do wonder if I'd get more useful snap by 'dropping a tooth or two on the front cog'. The Griso doesn't really need gearing for a high top speed, as it's practically un-useable: both legally and more to the point, because of the seating/riding position. This current bike has a faster engine than my 2002 Guzzi and better overall handling, but I reckon that my 2002 Moto Guzzi V11 is faster to ride (as discussed before by various folk). That's mainly because the V11 has clip-ons and a small bikini fairing: the riding position is just better. The Griso (current bike) is an odd mixture of style/design. It goes well, though it is long and heavy, but the seating position is more like a cruiser and the windage becomes a real problem. I originally fancied trying to fit clip-ons or at least lower risers. In the end, I've decided against it. I reckon that the extra control/leverage of the wide bars has saved the day a number of times when either the front or back end has gone. In fact, perhaps I would have lost it at the track day when another bike knocked my front wheel away, if I'd had clip-ons. The revised 8Vs are re-cammed for the *zip to come in at lower revs at the expense of the higher range of the first motors (as far as I understand). Would a better solution be to have lower gearing? There isn't any practical way to do this, is there? For example, with a car, one easy change would be to swap the diff, but there aren't other variants for the Guzzi. *Edit, it would probably be better to use the description 'grunt' rather than 'zip', a couple of sentences above.

pictures would be handy and a Google map, just for interest

Looks ok. Today, Thursday morning: The bike has been sitting just around the corner from where it was stolen! I did start to look around on Monday night, but then thought there was no point in hunting as it was sure to be away in the back of a van. If only I had gone a few more yards I would have seen it. Thankfully I was able to get the recovery van to come back when the bike was lifted this morning – as otherwise I'd have had to pay £185 or so, to get it released. The Police had gone. I spoke to someone on the phone and asked a number of times if they would check the cctv cameras, as there are a couple covering the street right there. He just kept saying that would be standard practice but wouldn't confirm that they would actually be doing it, so I don't know if there'll be any follow-up or not. There were no forensics done. Whatever, BIG thanks to all involved in the successful recovery. The main damage I can see now is the broken steering lock (a cast part) and bent bolts & steel frame bracket where it's attached. The ignition wires are ripped out. They make the circuit live, but the bike won't start without the chip in the key, or a code being entered – so the thieves abandoned it. Must put a new code in tonight. It's at default, which is probably 0000 or something simple like that!

There IS light at the end of the tunnel. Have just recovered the bike! Stolen by amateurs. More later. Thanks for your support, folks.

Whiskey if it's from the local peat lands whisky if it's from the bogs across the water

Aye, just renewed the insurance a short while ago. In hindsight I should have valued it higher though. I won't get enough to replace it, plus there were the Arrow cans etc. and then there's the policy excess, blah, blah. Anyway, this is just stuff – and it helps to release steam in a fairly harmless, if whining manner. There are other more important things, which don't get talked about or it's not appropriate to talk about them in this type of www setting. I've been holding off on sending a PM – and I owe Baldini a note, so I'll send a few sentences... D

Saw it tonight and well, it was extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary. A unique film of unique experience, stories, commitment, way of life (and death), action... The 3D was interesting, if a bit artificial.

Yep, trackday last month. Survived two bikes colliding in front of me on only the second lap and someone taking my front wheel away on very last session of the day (I ended up on the grass but kept upright). Apart from that, and a severe dose of flu or whatever it was, it was a grand day. I've another booked in June and have been thinking of doing one at the end of this month. Not so sure about that now, as last night's episode will hit the finances, but also I don't have a fall-back bike anymore, if anything goes wrong on the track. Wrong thread topic, but here we go: some design differences may be apparent

Had been taking a break out in the country as various recent circumstances have been difficult. Had the Aprilia SM750 Dorso: would have taken the Guzzi but I've softish, new BT003 tyres on the Griso at the moment and didn't want to be riding up and down a rough stoney track on them in case the Bridgestones got cut up a bit. Came back up to town yesterday evening and parked to go see some music I'd been looking forward to (Drive By Truckers!). Came back to the parking spot at midnight – and the bike was gone. Probably in a van and over the border by now. Opened a letter this morning: Notice of Intended Prosecution, for speeding (on the Aprilia). Is May going to continue the same way that April has been? I thought all this stuff was only meant to come in threes? The bike is rare enough, so if anyone sees a low-mileage, year old, red Dorsoduro or parts, on eBay etc, give me a shout. Arrow cans fitted. If only it had been the Griso: it would have been one problem solved, instead of another created!

I imagine that average speeds/overall speeds are higher and that riding speeds & conditions are more consistent. My big generalisation is that the roads here (locally) are much smaller: very short straight bits, lots of acceleration and deceleration, loads of corners... whereas photos of USA roads show, naturally, much bigger, longer roads, bigger corners etc. The tyre pressure comment is interesting as I'd never have the tyres that high, so maybe it's a factor too. The Griso came with Metzelers (M3) and they were completely done at 3,500 miles. My (shed-bound) V11 has Metzeler Roadtecs (Z6) which I and others here liked. They are obsolete now too, though the replacement Roadtec Interact may still be on the go. It gets a good review here: review picked at random, see March 25, 2009 entry > http://byckers.blogspot.com/ That review talks about 32 lb front and rear. tmcafe's pressure is a full 10lbs more!

Urls fixed. I've noticed this issue a few times: Flickr addresses can change shortly after photos are uploaded. If the links are copied too soon, then they no longer work.

I thought that Strada is obsolete? Replaced with the Angel ST a couple of years ago? I have the Angels and they're good tyres. I had two rear punctures when the tyre was fairly new, but that's just bad luck. They'll never do anything close to 9,000 miles: though I doubt if the Stradas would have approached that here either. There's often a big disparity between the mileage reported in USA and the mileage that we get in Europe/UK/Ireland. I can only attribute it to very different types of roads and riding conditions. There wouldn't be harder tyres made for USA, would there? 3,000 miles is about the top here for sports/touring tyres. At the moment I've swopped the Angels for stickier BT-003s, but will go back to the Angels for the winter (if the Bridgestones last that long).