pete roper

How can you tell when a Piaggio mouthpiece is talking bullshit? His lips move.

"Oh, the 1400 motor is the answer to a maiden's prayer!" I think not. Look at the porting compared to the 1200. The shitty one one is the 1400. It's not a motor that will make power. Stuffing the 7SM controlled 1400 into a 'Sporty' chassis will be a pathetic disappointment, vis the POS out of So-Cal and the lies that need to be told about how wonderful it is. Mind you that doesn't even have a 'Sporty' Chassis. Pete

Not any time soon and not using that motor.

Why? Who apart from a handful of nostalgia buffs are going to buy an underpowered recreation of an iconic 1970's motorbike when for not a lot more they can buy an immaculately restored, (At least cosmetically.) original version? Sure the old one will be an evil handling pig compared to anything contemporary but in all honesty if they are using a system like the V85 won't be a lot better and it won't produce a lot less power. Pete

My worry isn't about its power output. It's the fact that the Piaggio spivs are spruiking it as having an output that it won't achieve. As soon as abunch of 'Journalists' get hold of it and damn it with faint praise and publish even a remotely true rear wheel figure the majority of potential purchasers will simply switch off and cross it off their list. If, as I suspect, it makes about 60 at the wheel, maximum, it's going to be compared to any number of far more powerful machines and found wanting. Not by me. The reason I won't buy one is because I have no need of one and am waiting for something a bit more inspiring and interesting in the engine department but outright HP is of no concern to me at all. Pete

80 hp from an air cooled, ohv, 2 VPC motor is the sort of power that serious race bikes that are rebuilt every few meetings get. I was talking to the owner of a racing Trident only a couple of weeks ago, his bike is competitive and approaches the 100HP/l mark but it is still fragile and has to be revved to 10k to make it. It has similar capacity but an extra cylinder but still snaps cranks and rods! Even with lightened valvegear! Sorry, it's not going to happen. When they hi-cam it and 4V it? Maybe. In this iteration? Nah.

It uses the same 7SM controller as the Cali 1400, (And it would seem the same 50mm throttle body.). One can assume it will therefore have the full gamut of fearures and rider *aids* including tri-map, abs, tc etc. it may even have launch control and wheelie control although on this bike that would be somewhat redundant but the potential is there. While the last generation W5AM wes no abacus the 7SM is light years ahead in both its complexity and abilities,(The 7SM is also used on machines like the RSV-4, Tuono and I believe the Craponord.) While I hope that it is a great success I'm afraid that all the BS being spruiked about it leaves me cold. The fact that it won't make anywhere near 80HP doesn't worry me BUT it will worry people who obsess about spec sheets, journalists will pan it for not being 'Powerful' enough and it will sell like rat sandwiches. What leaves me cold is the persevering with the wheezy old 2-valve top end and miserable OHV configuration, it's a terrible retrograde step that will poison future versions which will have to get some sort of more modern design as a 2V hemi head just doesn't cut it in 2019. If you look at the head and rocker carrier castings you can see they already have the provision for a central spark plug! It's obvious a multi valve design is in the pipeline. Did they not learn anything from their experience with the CARC bike series? Pete

Michael isn't that young, he's in his forties with grown kids and has been qualified for twenty years. He's a damn fine mechanic too which makes his loss so much more devastating. If anyone is looking for a Griso his 8V is on the block. It's had everything done to it and is owned by a 'Neat Freak'. You won't find a better one anywhere.

The flat tappet failures on the Nuovo 8V are I believe spring related, at least that is what I believe to be the root cause and over the last five or six years I've put a lot of time and research into it. Having stopped counting the number of rollerisations we've done once we went past a hundred I can assure you I've had a lot of failed componentry to examine and the pattern of failure is always near identical but the time it takes to occur can vary drastically. At the end of the day though I have not seen one motor go over 25,000 Km without damage, the problem is that unless you know where to look you won't know it's eating itself until it's way, way too late. If anyone wants the full explanation I can write it up again and post it up, I've done it piecemeal before but if you'd like the whole thing from the early history to when I drew my conclusions I can do that. For the last twelve years the CARC bikes and particularly the 8V's have been my muse. I really think they are superb motorcycles and the 8V engine, while not perfect, is certainly a tremendously enjoyable power plant and once the 'Elephant in the corner' of the flat tappet fiasco has been addressed are stone axe reliable. Mapped and tuned correctly they will produce an HONEST 100RWHP and over 70 ft/lbs of torque. Our 1400 motor makes little more in the way of HP but brings mid eighties ft/lbs of torque to the table basically from 3,000 right through to the rev limiter which was lowered from the 9,000 that was being used with the 1200 to 8,250 in respect for the heavier pistons. Note that our figures are almost universally lower than other 'Tuners' claim. This is because we aren't fantasists who put their 'Thumb on the scales'. I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologise to the people who have recently, (And not so recently!) PM'd me about sloppage sheets. I haven't been dropping in to V11.com much and have missed stuff but I've been tied up with what has become our 'Core business' which is 8V's and CARC bikes. Things have recently taken a huge turn for the worse though as my younger employee who was 'Learning the ropes' of Guzzi from me and was what was my 'Succession Plan' for the business recently had a serious crash on his RS125 'Prila and is currently in hospital after being airlifted to Sydney with a broken back. Unfortunately the prognosis is far from rosy. I have my own health issues too, most noticeably fairly serious and rapid onset rheumatoid arthritis which means it's getting really difficult for me to actually work on the tools for any length of time. As such I feel that the days of my business may be numbered but if there are still people after sloppage sheets I'm going to put in an order tomorrow morning for another ten which I'll keep 'On the shelf'. Best way to contact me though is probably via email motomodadotroperatgmaildotcom (you should be able to work that out! Anyway. Take care out there in V11 land! Pete

Smaller ports and throttle bodies on the Cali motor. Smaller valves and combustion chamber, milder cam and maybe different connecting rods.

Part # 92249224 for the bearings.

If I were you I’d buy a pair of swingarm bearings pre-emptively along with the seals that sit in the frame as it’s almost certain you’ll need them. Buy the Guzzi bearings as the seal design on the wide end of the cone is a bit odd and I haven’t been able to find similar from an aftermarket source. If your shock linkage turns out to be buggered with all the needles rusted out it’s actually cheaper to buy a new linkage than buying all the individual bearings, seals and pins and rebuilding. Just make sure you pack the new one thoroughly with marine grade grease and repeat regularly, (Every couple of years should be sufficient unless you live in a swamp!). Pete

I know there are people who seem to prefer the old engine to the 8V. I just don’t get it, I really don’t. All I can imagine is they haven’t ridden one that is properly mapped and tuned but each to their own.... Pete

Have you done the swingarm andshock linkage bearings on the Sport yet? That’s your next job if not. None of the CARC bikes, (Or Cali 14’s that use the same system and bearings.) seem to get any grease ex factory so they rust to bits in no time. Pete

Well, pulling the top off the Cali 14 motor has been enlightening. Tiny little inlet ports! Compared to the 1200 Pete

I’ve never thought that those sort of washers were much chop but never had any evidence to prove it. I use Schnoores in most applications I feel need it, backed up often with Loctite 243. Pete

You need to turn off the lambda input using Tunerpro. Not just screw about with it. Once it is off then you can alter the trim value.

We know from the Griso 14 what we’ll get. A little bit more HP but a big increase in torque from 2,000 to rev limiter.

Big tank Stelvio has a (Nominally) 32 litre tank. For my round Oz trip next year I’ve just bought two Rotopax (knock off?) 5L plastic thingies. I reckon one for petrol and one for water should give me sufficient range to not have to put myself in the *high risk* demographic of urine drinking, ill prepared, shitgibbons!

You got it!

Just as a little postscript to the Griso 1400 story I’ve just picked up a wrecked Cali 14 and it’s motor is going to get slipped into my Stelvio which should be good for a laugh!

Just a thought. What’s the outrigger bearing in the box on the RH side like? The one that allows the reactive movement of the box on the axle. While in theory this shouldn’t make any difference if it’s all rusted out to buggery and the box is able to chatter about it might over-tax the inner seal maybe?

My 1100 was yellow not black and if I found some anorexic slapper with National Geographic tits hanging about around it wearing sunnies to cover up her dilated, drug fuqued, pupils you can bet your arse I'd be shooing her away! I wouldn't be wanting to tread on the needles and knotted condoms as I got on for a ride!

Oh GOD! Make it stop! Yak Fat! It's all you'll ever need!

Oh, they're a very easy bike to get all moist over! One of the things I've always thought would make sense with bikes like the TV-4 would be to club together with a few other blokes/blokesses and buy one as a collective. That way not only does the purchase cost become a lot more affordable but the cost of consumables, like tyres, (And believe me, you'll be buying a metric fuquetonne of tyres!) and servicing can be bought back into the realm of reality. While they are huge, bigly-vast, stupid fun they really aren't a sensible bike you can ride every day and to try and do so is a spectacular waste. Share the ownership with others and just run a log book of who wants to use it when and then work out costs proportionally. Most of the TV-4 owners I had as customers were either whiney and needy or borderline mentally retarded. They were all, to a man, completely barking mad and most of them were on their second TV-4 because they'd tossed the first one into the scrub! It's easy to do as they are as unforgiving as they are brutal and take no prisoners! Pete