Scud

Water-cooled BMW boxer engines have been flying in the wind for several years now. The discontinuance of the airheads was not the last gasp of BMW. I'm surprised Moto Guzzi made it so long with air cooled engines. It's all in the execution... so I am in a "wait and see" mode. But I suspect whatever they are building has contributed to pushing off the 100-year anniversary celebration so they can release it then. It will be the start of "trying to go out of business for the next 100 years." To take the next logical step... an electric Moto Guzzi has to be on the drawing board somewhere. There really is no reason make an electric motor look like a transverse twin.

Congrats on the bike. As for the shock... does the Griso shock have the same length and travel as the Stelvio? That seems unlikely, but I don't know. I do know that I am very happy with my Stelvio's stock suspension.

Looks like a turbo, not just a downdraft carb.

Almost anything can be improved with a huge green chili, especially if it's from Hatch, New Mexico. What were we talking about? Oh yeah, is the V85TT more like a spicy green pepper or a cold-pressed disc of ground cow flesh on bleached white bread?

I've never even seen a 1200 Sport in person. Seen plenty of Grisos, but never even bothered to sit on one. Must have myself a closer look next time. Do enjoy my Stelvio (even though I never look back admiringly at her after a ride). I recently let my neighbor, who has an R1200RT, ride it. He liked it better than his BMW. I know that's faint praise on this forum, but it's a big deal coming from a guy whose had several BMWs.

I feel similarly about my Stelvio in comparison to the V11. But the huge, cattle-horn handle bars make it easy to push around on the street. It's a fabulous motor and the longer-travel suspension inspires confidence even on crappy asphalt. I have only liked the looks of one Griso, the Tenni green with brown seat, but even that, at least to me, is only a decent-looking bike that doesn't truly inspire. Now a Sport 1200... that is potentially a different story (again, IMO) and could be the peak of the CARC sporting bikes. BTW, I don't find my Stelvio to be highly attractive either, although I love the dual headlight and the style of the taillight, and overall it looks better than most ADV bikes.

If you can be patient, I think you will be able to find another one in equal or better condition for less money. All that and close to home could take longer. Fly and ride can be fun if you establish trust with the seller. I once picked up a K75s that was not in as good condition as I expected. But I was already at the end of a one-way flight so went ahead and did the deal with a small discount.

I didn't even know that was a thing. So I looked it up. In stock, $2.19 at Harpers. https://www.harpermoto.com/instrument-panel-screw-cover-01766880.html

Agreed, have done it several times, but with some plywood to give the fins something to sink into instead of breaking off. Also, it is intended to support the weight of the bike; the factory stand comes with a little support that goes under the sump.

I read up a bit on that race. Seems only about 1/2 the entrants even finished. Sometimes, racing to finish is as important to a brand as racing to win. I think that's especially true in the Adventure bike category, where buyers want a bike that will get them home more than one that will be faster than everyone else.

Some pretty fancy glitter though... oooohh... shiny.... Seriously, I haven't ridden a V85, but it seems to make a lot of people happy. From what I gather, the Stelvio is still more capable off-road despite it's weight. Mine does pretty well in the places I've taken it, which do not include any difficult technical terrain because I really don't want to drop it and be forced to lift the fat toad. My Husky 701 will leave that for dead... but that's a whole different animal.

Impressive. I wonder if they modified the engine at all. The rally tower is cool, and it looks they have a roll-chart holder on it. I also like that massive skid plate that even protect the lower header pipe from deep, narrow, rocky gaps.

My fault - I was describing the removal of the oil filter housing, which also has the pressure relief valve in it. What I wrote earlier has nothing to do with removing the pump itself. I'll go back and edit those posts - cuz that was a dumb thing I wrote.

Long rides up steep mountains... that's all mine wants to do. As for the current issue. If I were in your position, I would go ahead and remove at least the filter housing assembly to inspect the O-rings. IIRC, you can do that without removing the upper sump ring, and it maybe only four bolts. I know it's a bit more work, but since you are there, I would also remove the sump ring and check that gasket. I am biased by my prior experience, as I have seen that upper gasket fail. I think this requires removing the side stand, which is a weird little contraption. As a Reminder, I still have that oil pressure gauge, which you can screw into the block where you will remove the sensor. IMO, that is a "cleaner" test than hoping oil will spray out of an open hole. And even if oil does spray out, you will not know your oil pressure. Your local O'Reilly store might even loan you a pressure gauge for free. Also, I am 99% certain that I have a spare upper gasket. Are you still in Southern California? Someone at my house today is heading to Los Angeles Monday. Let me know if you want to send the gauge and gasket with him. Good to have a spare in case it gets damaged during removal.

Where I live, electric bicycles seem to be everywhere, and the dealers are having a hard time keeping supply. I'm seeing more of the cargo and other utility bikes too - going to the grocery store, out for dinner, doing errands. Street legal electric carts too - 3 or 4 wheelers. We just got an electric bicycle for my wife. All set up with basket on the back. I'm thinking about getting one myself. One of my neighbors has 6 e-bikes, one for everyone in the family. They go a lot of places together that they would previously have driven a car. They are having more fun, getting a bit of exercise, and burning less fossil fuels. One of the bike just rolled over 5,000 miles. This is in line with the video @Lucky Phil posted on the previous page. While I am not ready to give up my gas powered motorcycles, or my F250 that tows my trailer, I should be willing to ride an electric bike whenever practical. And if I had solar panels on my house, that would make it even "greener" - but I don't.

haha... no. I had a nice little oil pressure gauge and voltmeter made to match the Speedhut tach and speedo. But I was not sure about accuracy of the oil pressure gauge, so I temporarily strapped on the huge one and connected it to the block. Just rode a few miles like that for data collection.

Here's a link to the pressure vs flow topic: I just read it again... there are a lot of smart and helpful people on this forum.

On my ex 2003 LeMans, the oil light was often on at idle and would go out at higher revs. Then I installed an aftermarket oil pressure gauge in the dash. It read low... which started my investigation. When I hooked up my external oil pressure gauge, the readings were far below expectations at all rev levels. That's when I decided to drop the pan and found that the part marked "Gasket Area" above was missing. It had been like that since I bought the bike and I don't know how long before that. Even without that section of gasket, there was enough oil flow to supply the engine. However, when I put the new gasket in, the pressure jumped up to expectations. I don't recall all the details, but I had a whole topic on it. I think it was called "oil pressure vs oil flow." There are also O-rings where the oil filter housing connects through the sump ring. You should see if those are damage or missing.

I think I will be like the outlaw in Red Barchetta: But seriously, I would get an e-bike after technology and range improves. I think an electric dual sport would be cool - riding through the forest in near silence would be a joy. However, I am not likely to TRADE one of my current bikes for an e-bike (except maybe the TW200 for an electric dual sport).

Docc - I seem to recall you being a bass player. Isn't musical notation in base 8? An octave is 8 steps, right?

Yeah, tire and inner tube sizes are weird. Somehow most of the world got stuck with inches for wheel diameters - then went ahead with metric for width. Some truck tires in the US are all inches, a 35x12.50R15 is a 35 inch (0.9 meter) tall tire that is 12 1/2 inches wide and fits a 15 inch rim. These don't specify the sidewall as a proportion, they give the total height of the tire. @PJPR01 You're gonna need more than 400 Kelvin to melt the sugar on your Creme Brûlée and get that nice crusty top.

No, but they might say "move it about 5mm" Using decimals with SAE to divide inches works fine, and you can get calipers that do so, but I am not aware of any tools that use decimals - I don't have a .75 inch wrench, only a 3/4 inch. SAE is very difficult with decimals in larger measurements. But we are not consistent in the way we measure. We run a 1/4 mile, sometimes called a 440 in yards. Then we run a 100 yard dash, but never a 300 foot dash. With SAE, you are constantly switching bases: 12:1 for inches to feet, 3:1 for feet to yards, 5,280:1 for feet to miles. It's just silly. Metric is logical and everything is base-10, 10 of one unit always equal 1 of the next unit up, 10mm = 1cm. But some units are less frequently used, so they go 1,000:1 as in meters to kilometers.

Tioga Pass... 9,943' elevation at the West entrance to Yosemite on Hwy 120, on street-oriented tires. Then swapped wheels for some fun single-track, which was nice and damp from the recent rain. Having two complete wheel-sets, one with aggressive knobbies, the other with TKC80s, makes this by far the most versatile motorcycle I've ever had.

Metric is a clearly superior system. In the US, we had a chance to switch back in the late 70s or early 80s if I recall. But we blew it. I've got plenty of 10mm wrenches and sockets. They're in caddies by ascending size. The caddies never go back in the drawer with an empty space. And as aside... My 1997 F250 was such a PITA to work on. It was half Metric and half SAE. So I'd need to grab two sets of wrenches and two sets of sockets for every little task. And another cool thing about metric... you can go 200 km/h on a V11, but you cannot go 200 mph. Obviously, metric is faster.

I was thinking that the gauges on the original LeMans would be a good inspiration for a custom design with Speedhut. The RPM x 100 gives an interesting symmetry with the speedo - especially if tach is 0-80 in increments of 10, and the speedo is 0-160 MPH in increments of 20. (example in the photo is km/h). I also like the key-lines that divide the faces in quadrants. Some changes would have to be made for the digital display on the Speedhut speedo, but other than that, what do y'all think of these?