pete roper

Nah, he seems to be a stoic and accepts the paint as an unfortunate side effect of Guzzi ownership , His is pretty bad too Pete

Thanks Martin. I was pretty sure that this one was well past the date of cock-up-dom but it pays to make sure. Bike is 2002, only done 7,000Km, it's probably rusty inside! Pete

Is that like an 'Orgone Accumulator'? Pete

Lost my records of numbers for the gearbox recall. Just got in an '02 LeMans with poxy engine paint. ID ZGUKS000001M211604. Does this fall into the gearbox recall numbers? I ask 'cos he sez it shifts like a buffalo with two legs tied together. I haven't riden it yet so I can't comment but the gearbox recall data seems like a good place to start. TIA Pete

Yup, #30205, all Guzzi big blocks since the dawn of time have used the same boring as batshit bearing, they'll cost you about $8 at the local bearing factor. Pete

Only problem with that theory is that it's crap. Sorry, the inductive coil type pick-up work by having an emf created in them by moving any metalic object through them. It doesn't have to be iron, any metal will do. They may well not detect some vehicles due to their moving too slowly or the field of the coil simply not having enough strength to be significantly altered by the smaller mass, but what that mass is, as long as it's electromagnetically conductive or inductive doesn't matter. Will such a device work? Well it depends what it's made of. If it is something that creates its own disruptive magnetic field, yes. If it's just a plastic box with *Magic Stuff* in it? No. I rarely have trouble triggering lights but there aren't any in Bungendore and the roads in Canberra always have scads of toadies in cars to trigger 'em for me so I dunno for sure. Pete

It's a dope box for carrying your eckies in you dill! Good Lord! Martin calls himself a copper, no wonder Herts is awash with designer drugs, speedfreaks and Chavs if the wallopers are fooled by such a simple device Pete

Just read a brief review of the Breva 11 in Australian Motorcycle News and they seem to of managed to do the usual 'Damning with faint praise' job on it. Yes, it's a huge step forward for Guzzi, (Who are still owned by Aprilia according to this herald for the 4th estate. ) but it's a 'Gentleman's Tourer', ie, it's slow and would only be owned by people who wanted a 'cruiser'. At least thats what the message seemed to be to me but I read the article in the newsagent as I refuse to buy this sort of rubbish. Look, the Breva isn't for me. I sat on one and it just wasn't a *me* sort of bike, it felt too much like one of those horrible oilhead bimmers that I hate with a vengeance and I don't like the styling. The thing is it will apeal to lots of folks and that is a good thing. For me though the Griso is the one. Not so much because I'm wild about the styling but because it is pretty much a blank canvas onto which can be projcted the owners personality. It's a machine that BEGS to be modified and customised which is precisely what will be happening to mine. Not immediately, but over a period of years. Like all Guzzis since the dawn of time it appears comparatively simple which means that it'll be easy enough, and cheap enough, to swap, modify and fart about with. Talking with Cliff he reckons the Breva's computer is a right sod to get at. As he also pointed out it would be easy enough to just build a suitable loom to plug into the sensors so you can use an alternative re-located to a more sensible and accessible place. There's the tuning options sorted so you can then get on with the hardware, mechanics and styling! Most of the engine is still essentialy the same as before so a lot of the aftermarket bits produced for earlier models will probably be easily adaptable to the Griso/Breva motor and there is bound to be a hard-core of serious Guzzi tuning nutters who will produce stuff that will be model specific too. Personally, apart from piping mine up and sorting out a more flexible ECU so I can compensate easily for any further changes I doubt I'll do that much to it mechanically. 80 BHP is plenty for me and it's so much more fun, (IMHO.) to drag *extra* out of the older engines which are also a whole lot easier to work on as well. Each to their own though, it's not compulsory to like the Breva any more than it is to like anything else in the motorbike field, (Or virtually any other field of human endeavor either!). I personally have never wanted to own a V11 particularly, even though I think they are a nice looking and fun motorbike. While this is probably seen as heresy that will have me banned and chased by howling hordes of V11 owners brandishing flaming torches and calling for my head I don't see it as really an issue, they are a happy thing, just not *my* sort of happy thing Pete

This is, unfortunately, very true. It's more than a little bit the fault of the magazines which will print some 'technical' article written by a journalist who ISN'T a mechanic or an engineer but who knows just enough to be dangerous. This is lapped up by the great unwashed who then consider themselves to be *expert*. I come across it the whole time and freely tell people that I'm no great expert when it comes to bike set-up and tend to push 'em in the direction of Frank Pons if they want it to work the best it can. Usually though just explaining to 'em that a motorbike is really a glorified shopping trolley that has been cut in half and is being pushed backwards is sufficient to ensure they think I'm barmy and gets 'em out of my hair. The vast majority of these nongs can quote rake and trail figures at you till they're blue in the tits but haven't a clue what they mean or how a single track vehicle steers. Pete

Registered on that forum just so I could upset somebody by stating that the *problem* with early V11's was down to the 'Short Head' frame having been specifically designed to make them quicker steering, then all the poofters in the mags started wingeing that they didn't handle like a T3 I'll try to compound the offence by pointing out that with virtually ANY V11 the trick is to go THINNER on the tyres if you can, sorry, but even a heavy 80BHP motorbike doesn't need absurdly fat rubber. It just costs more money and makes the bike handle like an overweight opera diva with a vibrator up her chuff. OK, I've got the flame-proof suit on, go for it. Bill Hagan took my advice and went down a size on the tyres on his Billy-bob and found that I'm not talking *complete* bullshit! Pete

Solid lifters, basically same valvetrain as V11 Sport. The Hydro motor is, unfortunately, dead in the water. Pete

A few months ago there was a long and fairly accrimonious thread on the relative merits of various tuning options for FI machines and i hope this doesn't open up that can of worms again. Just a couple of observations from my point of view as a hardened Luddite though; I've only ever ridden one bike with a PC III fitted and it was obviously mapped wrong. This ISN'T, I don't think, indicative of any inherent fault of the product though and obviously there are a heap of satisfied clients so lets not turn this into a 'My product is better than your product' type argument, OK. I've never been particularly impressed with injected Guzzis, most specifically the *Sporting* variants. Why they should be so dreadful as delivered ex-factory I haven't a clue. I'm sure that proper set-up will improve them but I always felt that one of the best improvements one could make would be throwing away the injectors and substituting a bloody great pair of carburetors . Then Cliff contacted me and explained what he was doing. I was fairly skeptical as I'd always seen the development of something like an ECU as being a pretty big-budget type affair, (I'm an electrical neophyte, I can deal with charging systems and that's about it ). Then he bought his Sport Corsa up to me and let me take it for a spin. Cliff being Cliff still wasn't happy with it but to me it was a revelation! Even with the light flywheel and a somewhat clunky gearbox the machine was barely recognisable as an FI Guzzi. It pulled from, quite litterally, nothing all the way to 'Brown-underpants-ville' in any gear with no surging, missing, hunting or any of the other usual traits I'd come to expect from a *Sporting* FI Guzzi. Bloody Marvelous!!!!!!! One of the major factors in my deciding to buy a Greasy-Pig is the fact that Cliff's computer and knowledge is available. I no longer feel that I have to do the hard yards learning about FI by groping in the dark as it were and also with a system such as Cliff's I'm not limited in any way as to the changes and modifications I can make to the machine and I'm afraid I'm one of those people who is never, ever happy unless he's fiddling with something, (Quite often myself!). As I've said before I'm not connected comercially with Cliff in any way at all but I do have an enormous amount of respect for the man and his product, the fact he's also a top bloke is just an added bonus. Incidentally he's also developed a programmable ignition for the older, points equipped, models. In fact he's coming up here today and we're going to play with a few more ignition maps on one I'm fitting to the SP. The race bike ran one of his ignitions at Oran Park yesterday where Rob won the Startline Grand Prix to the first corner against a host of big jap 4's and a couple of Ducati's. Since he's never been able to do that before I'd suggest the new ignition may of played a significant part. Pity he set fire to the bike in the pits before the second race which rather stopped the effort dead in it's tracks No matter, we've won the Post Classic Period 4 Unlimited title this year anyway in NSW and it's time for the racebike engine to come apart again anyway. Pete

I know what you mean about the accessory package thing. I've alays though buying everything from a catalog from the manufacturer, any manufacturer, was a bit daggy, it's also very limiting. One of the great advantages of living where I do is that although the climate is quite harsh in terms of extremes of heat and cold and UV damage to paintwork and the like, the actual nitty-gritty of vehicles, be they bikes or cars, trucks or whatever, is extraordinarily well preserved. None of my Guzzis have suffered undue mechanical wear or the sort of salt damage that occurs with any vehicle on English or US roads where they use salt as an anti-icing agent. The downside to all this is of course that I have to put up with 300 sunny days a year, crystal clear seas and unspoilt deserted beaches only a couple of hours away and scads of nubile young ladies wearing very few clothes parading around eight months of the year. Also I have astonishing riding roads within two hours of my door up in the mountains. It's a tough life, but someone's gotta do it Pete

To answer your first question there is no reason that a modern Guzzi can't be thrifty, it's a matter of setting it up right and not wringing it's neck the whole time. The problem is that item 2 is not easy As for the lifestyle accessory? Yup, maybe, once again it depends. I live about 45-60 Km from Canberra depending on what route I take in, (I have a choice of two! In Oz that means I'm blessed!!!) Both my crappy little Toyota and my 'Vert use about the same amount of fuel with the 'Vert winning by a hair. If I ride the SP it costs me appreciably less but as it's higher geared but also in a higher state of tune there are trade offs. If I was interested purely in ecconomy though I'd buy a CT110 Honda or a small scooter, but I'm not. I don't own a big house with five built in bathrooms and three garages, I don't want a massive plasma screen TV, in fact I don't want much of the shite that modern society trys to tell us we need. I do like my motorbikes though, and I'm afraid that the fact that I may choose to travel on a slightly larger than necessary one doesn't mean that I'm leaving a huge footprint on the planet compared to your average city driver sitting in a queue in a stationary car all by him/herself. I'm buying a Griso a.) because I want one and I think it will be fun, but b.) because it will be interesting to experiment to see if it's overall performance can be readily improved, and that includes fuel ecconomy. Seeing as they still seem to be using the same ETS that shouldn't be hard . I'm no rabid "make everyone walk or ride a f@cking horse" type nutter but I do realise that I'm very, very priveleged to have what I do and also if I can do a bit to push things along in the right direction I should do so. As I said, if I lived in a city and it didn't have decent public transport I'd have a scooter or a CT110, and belive me those are a hoot to tune up and you can take 'em anywhere! There's a bunch of madmen down the South Coast who've done both the Canning Stock Route and the Strezleki Track on CT110's, brilliantly insane!!!!!! Lifestyle accessory? Maybe. But there again I'm very lucky Pete

(Gwerble!!!!) Wot he said, with bells on!!!! Pete

Look, I've visited LA a few times and it's a zoo. There is no public transport and the roads are full of people driving HUGE cars with one person in them. I know that everybody likes the freedom of personal transport but I lived in London BEFORE Thatcher gutted the public transport system and it was GREAT!!!! Virtually anytime, day or night, you could hop on a bus or the tube and get anywhere in the city in about an hour max. That meant I could save my motorbike for having fun!!!!!! LA is, (like Sydney!) f@cked!!!!! In a city like LA there really IS a smog problem and despite what people may think there really IS a problem with climate change, (Believe me, I now live in an area where it is VERY apparent!!!) But having said that having universal rules for smog emissions means that smaller, more efficient, (For moving one body!) type vehicles are penalised for their thriftyness! It's barmy!!!!! I have NO issue with my shitty Toyota Corolla, (Pleb-mobile par-excellance!) having to meet these standards, it's a mass produced, built down to a price, piece of shit with a life span of 10 years, (I don't want to get into an argument about disposability of 'Consumer Durables', OK) but these things are turned out by the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands which mean ecconomies of scale and their numbers mean that the restrictions are sensible but for idiots like us, who choose to travel on what are infinitely rebuildable bits of junk and/or only use them for pleasure so our carbon emissions are stupidly low the whole thing is a huge wank designed to prove to a gullible ellectorate that the Gubmint is 'Doing Something'. It makes me want to . If the Gubmint, (any of them, whatever their colour!) really wanted to do something they'd ensure that there was a decent public transport sytem, (in metropolitan areas.) and that it was FREE. User pays? Be Bolloxed! The cost would be paid for in a decade by lower costs on road maintenance, less injuries and chronic care for accident victims and the decrease in stress and pulmonary and cardiovascular problems by us having to breathe shit the whole time! I'm lucky I live in an area with some of the cleanest air in the world, just going to somewhere like sydney or LA makes me feel sick!!!!! Help the environment! Kill a politician!!!!! Pete

Look, the Breva info I've got is 36.9 meg! It's a powerpoint presentaion and needless to say it's so bloody unweildy it can't be posted. I can post it on a disc to somebody if they've got a website they can put it on but it's huge. For most people it probably isn't necessary to have the info, (what there is is a bit 'Manglish-y' anyway but if you're thinking of getting one it's interesting. Pete

Is this all still the result of the vapor entrapment equipment not being good enough for California or is there some other reason? I mean we've had Brevas for months now and I have no reason to doubt that the Griso will be here by the end of the year so why the delay in the USA? Is somebody being particularly mongoloid or is there a *real* reason? Given the good press both the Breva and Griso are getting you'd expect they'd be shipping 'em by the container load Pete

Great! A maret niche that hasn't been covered yet Incidentally the Griso/Breva training stuff has been sent to me on a disc as my email has been a bit haywire due to a change to broadband, (See, another *modern* thing that's even more useless than the thing it replaces ) I'll try to copy it onto my hard drive so I can email it to people but I'll probably need Jude to help me do that 'cos I'm a bit fick like Pete

My brother is a librarian and a leading light in the 'Communist Party or Great Britain, (Marxist-Leninist.)'. Need I say anything more????? Pete

T flywheel? Pffft! I've got an Eldo one I've drilled and filled with Mallory and depleted uranium! I have to use a fork lift to move it around the workshop Pete

'Complete Tosser' won't fit unfortunately, 'FAT SOD' would though. While I haven't ridden one I have had an oportunity to crawl all over a Breva and I have to admit I liked the platform but loathed the looks. The Griso I actually like the look of. The fiorst pics I saw when it was fitted with the Hi-Cam motor I thought it looked like a right pig's breakfast, the newer pics I really like the style, as others have said, like a Centauro with the corners knocked off. As I said elsewhere that muffler's gotta go, in fact I reckon a Dr.John type 2 into 1 would be good, pity there isn't room under the rear mudguard or you could have an underseat, centre exit pipe which would look pretty neat. Look, I know it's a risk, they may turn out to be a complete dog. I hope not though. My current machines are keepers. Whether the Griso fits that mould too only time will tell, but there is enough genuinely new and inovative about it for me to be genuinely interested, so? Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it's off to the Credit Union I Go!!!! While 25 years ago there was no way in the world I could ever think about purchasing a new motorbike one of the very few benefits of age and, (supposed !) maturity is that I have a sufficiently good credit rating to mean I can ask and the bank will give, if I'm really smart I'll be able to write the wretched thing off as a business expense . Well, it's a tool innit? And I'll be using it for my business? OK so the treasurer will have my arse in a sling if I try it, but only if he finds out about it Pete

The problem is that the leak is under the shower tray apparently and will involve, (according to Mum.) taking half the house to bits as the shower is above the kitchen, etc, etc, It also doesn't help that my mum is not only the worlds biggest snob but she's also as mad as a cut snake and many times less friendly! I too think that it's probably not too big an issue but I think that it's going to be made into one, it's a bit like taking the gearbox out of your V11 to change the oil ! Pete

Unfortunately I've been tied up, not only with work but also trying to deal with some fairly serious family issues as well so the rant on heads has had to go on hold. It looks like I'm going to have to drop everything here and go over to the UK again to try and sort out my mother who seems determined to make herself ill. Any of you lot in the UK know a tame builder in the Cambridge area who can fix a leaking shower base at short notice? The woman is 90 years old and hasn't had a working shower for two months! My brother seems to be spectacularly useless and can't organise anything so I'm going to have to close the workshop and fly half way round the world just to sort out a leak through a ceiling! This really helps when you're trying to run a business! Pissed off? Why would I be pissed off? Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!! Pete

Griso arrives Oz late November early December, mine is being delivered to my workshop from the importer so I don't have to deal with the local cloth-eared idiot who masquerades as a dealer Pete