pete roper

And that's what I reckon you'll see in a couple of years to compete with the RS bimmer twins. I reckon the motor will probably be launched in the Griso as this is Guzzis current flagship, then it will make it's way into the Norge and maybe the big new chook-chasery thing, (Whatever that's called?? The Stelvio or something innit?) then it'll be 'Hotted up' and dropped into a new chassis that will look like a modern sports bike, probably with big, shiny, aluminium frame bits of some sort. Because it will still not be competitive with a GSXR 1200 all the mags will pan it and it will sell like deep fried rat sandwiches. Even if it is a fantastic machine and meets everyones expectations Guzzi owners will still moan and complain because that's what we do Pete

Guys, the MGS01 motor is a RACE motor. Go look at the service schedule and expected parts life. You won't like it! Pete

Errm? it's a 2003 model? So its only 4 years old? Yes? How many miles on it and do you know its service history? Look, if the paint peeling really offends you then by all means strip it completely and get it blasted and rebuild but that's a LOT of time, money and effort for something that really, at the end of the day, doesn't affect the way the machine behaves. By all means get any oil leaks fixed, that's a different matter entirely but I doubt if it will be anything either incredbly expensive or serious. Look, I don't plan on rebuilding ANY modern Guzzi motor before it's done a MINIMUM of 50,000 miles. If it's had clean oil and regular servicing it will probably go W-A-Y further than that before you have to think about doing anything much to it. Maybe a camchain but apart from that??? Where is this leak coming from on the gearbox? it may be something really simple and easy! Pete

I'd also like to offer super-light-weight wheels hand tooled from Balsa-Wood. These would be incredibly light reducing unsprung mass significantly, especially if filled with helium! Sharpen up the steering too! Pete

I was talking to the Oz importers sales rep yesterday and he was still denying the existence of the Nuovo Hi-Cam . I think I'll email him the pic looking good innit Pete

Nah, youre still W-A-Y off Dan. If you *really* want to save weight you take the crank out and throw it away! I mean? Look at it! It's a sodding great lump of drop forged steel! It weighs ten Kg or more! Fancy having to lug that around everywhere! If you take this to it's logical conclusion you can in fact just get rid of the bike! This will free up lots of time that could be spent riding and it can be wasted by flogging horses that are so far beyond dead it's not funny on internet chat boards! Pete

Blibble, blibble, nark, nark, whiffle, whiffle, bark, bark, LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_LA_ALA.............AAAAARRRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Pete

Oh good grief! How many? Eleven! Eleven bloody pages!!!! Sodomise a thousand guinea-pigs! Is there no end to it????? Pete

Look, I've just bought one of these horrible bits of shit. Why? because although the factory or it's assorted bean-counting minions seems to have stuffed up big time with a couple of components they still bristle with the sort of bling most motorbikes would die for! Yes, I know, in this day and age, blah-blah, expect quality, blah blah, inexcusable in an 'X' $ motorbike, blah-blah. OK so do some research and you'll soon find out enough to scare the pants off anyone who wants a boring conveyance or even a pose-mobile for Sunday mornings. No sympathy there. If, on the other hand you actually want a Moto Guzzi spine frame I can think of few more desirable models. Given the fact I'm probably going to have a problem getting my Scura in to Oz I think transporting the whole sorry box and dice into a 'Short Spine' bought locally will give me just about my ideal Spiney. Mind you I'm a know-nothing idiot. If I were you I'd sell it on quick and buy an 'onda! (This is a suggestion at humour. No offence is intended. ) Pete

Bad shoes, nasty shirt and we won't mention the shorts....... Pete

Certainly doesn't look like the Nuovo Hi-Cam. Still, it's what a lt of people in places like oz have been waiting for. Pete

Sh!t you're a fat bastard! . Being honest you're probably better *built* than me. I'm 14 and 1/2 stone but I'm only five foot ten. I also have the stunning privelege of having 'Duck's Disease' I have a very long back and tiny, freakily-weird little legs. probably explains why I could ride 1970's Italian bikes without having a private chiropractor! Whilst I'm not surprised it really does sound as if Guzzi got Ohlins to spring and valve the forks and shock for the Scura when Zippy the Pin-Head was in charge of the shop. (Alternatively they only paid enough for the Swedish security guard to be given the job on a long weekend in January! That's more likely!) A 110 spring for the back is sounding like the go and whatever You or Greg recommend for the front taking into account my rather , err, *peculiar* physique!!!! Pete

Many thanks for that Greg. Given our seeming similarity in size, (You seem to have 'put a bit on' since we met you old rogue! ) that seems like a good starting point for the back and your front figures will be what I'll aim for too. As for the actual valving? Well, I'll fart about with that when I get the poxy thing back to Oz if it needs it, as I've oft said though as I ride like the grandfather of the oldest man in the world it will probably make bugger all difference to anything other than my enjoyment, I'll still find myself being overtaken in the corners by vicars with bicycle clips on pushbikes with a big basket on the front singing "What a friend we have in Jesus!" Pete PS. Wholeheartedly agree with your tyre appraisal. Guzzis are far heavier than most bikes with *sporting* pretensions nowadays and soft sidewalls, even if helped by high pressures, just don't seem to work as well as tyres with sidewalls made of granite!

Oh for f*cks sakes! 9 bloody pages? God give us strength!!!! Pete

Actually it's the thrunge grommet modulator. The reason it doesn't have a hose on it is because Guzzi couldn't work out whether to use a rubber or plastic hose. Pete

Single plate clutches tend to use anti-rattle springs, (this, oddly enough, is why Scuras, Rosso Mandellos etc with the single plate clutch rattle when the clutch is disengaged!) these are one of the components in the clutch plate. The twin plate clutch has no anti-rattle devices. The only springs in there are the actual clutch pressure springs which sit between the flywheel and the pressure plate, you couldn't replace them with rubber or anything else. One place where spline wear does very often occur is withing the clutch/flywheel assembley. With a twin plate unit when you engage the clutch, (Pull in the lever.) it de-compresses the friction and intermediate plates. The friction plates are splined to the input hub of the gearbox, the intermediate plate is splined into the flywheel. As the flywheel accelerates and decellerates between power strokes the plates will thrash bavk and forth on their splines and this will eventually cause *stepping* and wear on the splines leading to poor engagement and disengagement of the clutch and in extreme cases 'Creep' when the clutch is engaged at a standstill. This thrashing is only really a problem at low engine speeds and is due to the 270/430 degree firing order of the V twin motor. For this reason it is unwise to set your idle speed low, (Guzzi recommend 1200RPM for a reason.) and likewise it is not good for the clutch componentry to sit at idle with the clutch pulled in. Another completely unrelated reason to keep the idle speed up is of course that the lower the crank speed the lower the oil pump speed. Set the idle really low and you may, in extreme circumstances, not have an adequate oil supply at idle to prevent boundary lubrication. pete

I'm still perplexed????? Why would you bother going to elaborate and expensive lengths to cure a problem that can and has been addressed for thirty years cheaply and effectively in the way Greg, Ratchet and many others have done? It's not like it's not tried and true. I'm sure that Greg isn't it's a miracle cure that he's invented, he's simply been decent enough to do a photo essay and explanation of the process for us and post it up. I simply can't understand why it's causing such rancour??? Pete

As others have said some of the *official* prices are barking mad. In the past I think this was a deliberate plan to encourage an active aftermarket as that way Guzzi didn't have to carry too much stock in their small and primitive factory in Mandello. With the newer models I dunno but stuff like oil pressure switches which are universal to all models such pricing s clearly abberent and any specialist/enthusiast dealer is going to source them from a supplier other than the factory/importer. Rick and Gordon are just one of a number of good suppliers in the USA and you can order stuff in from places in Europe too with little effort now the internet is so all pervasive. pete

Why? Just use more custard and curry paste. Sago and a wetsuit help! pete

I use a two jaw puller under the splines on the cush plate and press on a coin or washer placed over the centre of the bearing. Note that if it is very tight this will probably damage the bearing so it might be a good idea to replace 'em both at this time. If it's rusted up go at it with penetrating oil and a lot of heat from a butane torch like Greg did. pete

None on my V11 yet but I've well over a million miles on Guzzis in the last 30 years and apart from when I've fallen off and broken something needed to ride the bike I've never had one fail to get me home which is more than I can say for ANY of the Japanese bikes I've owned which used to shed parts like confetti and/or roast their charging systems on an almost weekly basis! We won't even start on BMW's, (Snigger!). Remember for every person with a horror story there will be half a dozen or more riding around without a care in the world! Pete

When I first read about the suggestion of either removing half of the rubbers or drilling 'em several years ago I was skeptical as to either it's wisdom or effect. Basically being a cynical bastard I wondered if it was just another 'wonder Cure' thought up by someone with too much time on their hands. Anyway, to cut a long story short, being one such person I decided that I'd simply try it. I was lucky, my cush drive plate came out very easily this isn't usually the case. Now if ever there was a bike that needs a decent cush drive it's my SP. This has a full house LeMans top end with a cam developed for midrange torque but it also runs an Ambasador flywheel and an 8/33 final drive off a late model Cali. If anything was going to punish it's driveline then this is the bike! Anyway, I removed half the rubbers but didn't drill the remaining ones. I have to say I was astonished by the difference it made. It really was VERY noticeable how much smoother it made the whole power delivery and specially gear-changing seem. On V11's and the like with their lighter flywheels the need for a cush drive is significantly reduced but there again the *new* face cam shock absorber *spring*, (It's a tower of belvile washers!) in the gearbox is about as forgiving as a block of concrete making a decent cush at the rear wheel even more vital. It's interesting to note that the *new* models with the single sided swingarm now have a rubber cush drive incorporated in the shaft. One of the things most often noted by people who hop on a new Griso, Breva, Norge is the 'Clunkiness' of the final dive system and gearbox. this is purely a result of the very stiff nature of the rubber in the shaft cush drive, after 20,000 Kms mine is now no noisier than any other Guzzi and certainly less so than f'rinstance a Carb Sport. Rubber is a perfectly acceptable medium for such a part. Why in the name of all that's holy would you want to swap something that's simple, is cheap and works for something that is complicated, failure prone and expensive???? The type of rubber used for the original 'Pie Slices' could certainly be better chosen or, simply drilled as Greg has at the factory! But that would involve cost and labour so it ain't gunna happen so we're stuck with what we got! I personally think it's a damn fine idea and I will be doing it to my Scura in time. Needless to say my 'Vert doesn't need such an unsophisticated and primitive device Pete

Any idea where the frames of the write-offs went? Much easier all round for me to get a documented written off frame and just swap everything over and re-birth it. pete

Actually I think Ryland has me nailed on this one I spent a few hours thinking about it last night, he's right, I'm wrong. The explanation I gave was how it was explained to me at tech all those many years ago and I never gave it that much serious though, it seems logical. The problem is of course that while the inner race does a full revolution to return to it's original position the balls or rollers won't remain in the same orientation to either the inner or outer races so the same element won't of returned to the same place in relation to either race. The fact remains though that rolling elements DO scuff, there is also the rubbing motion betwixt the element and it's cage, or, in the case of crowded rollers, the contra-rotation against the adjacent rolling elements. Good to be forced to put the old grey matter to some use occasionally. Thank you ryland, I stand corrected! pete

Hubert. the lower your engine speed the lower the oil pump speed and the lower it's delivery. Do the maths if you wish but remember that light conmes on at 2PSI. You're not going to get much protection against boundary lubtrication with sub-2PSI. Apart from the aspect of spline protection by having a higher idle speed you'll also ensure better oil supply and better valve cooling at low engine speeds with a higer idle, ie, low load, situation. I know that people like a really low idle for *cool* factor but from a mechanical standpoint it ain't a good thing. While it's anybody's own choice how they run their engines low idle speeds and ignoring oil warning lights doesn't really register on my radar as particularly wise practice. Sure, if the oil light flickers at idle? swap the sender before you panic. But if that doesn't fix it I would definitely go in further and find the source of the problem. Using a 10/40 oil won't help here in hot weather. IMHO in a solid lifter motor using such a lightweight oil is un-neccessary if not downright wrong. YOMV. Pete