Do I keep my Café Sport?

[Dave K]

Hi guys,

 

new to the forum but a long time guzzi rider.

 

I dont know how many, if any of you are located in ireland. Well we've just had a serious bout of crap weather which has made our roads very bumpy (they were'nt great to begin with). I own an 06 v11 Café Sport and I think i'm starting to hate it.

 

I have had 6 months of problems with the thing. Firstly I hit a pothole at spead and had to replace the front tyre, fair enough, could have happened to anyone on any bike. Then i had to replace the fork seals, then the pawl spring snapped (my gear change has been crap ever since).

 

I'm extremely undecided about the bike, I love guzzi's but i do 100 miles a day and lately i've found myself taking the car. The bike is far too bumpy on roads the car (and i have to admit my brothers r1150gs) just irons out. I have set the forks and shock to factory spec, dropped the pressure of the tyres and still its quite uncomfortable.

 

Has anyone had any issues with ride quality on ohlin guzzi's?

 

I'm giving serious consideration to the griso 8v. Is the griso any smoother

Have they ironed out the gearbox problem?

Any input or experience would be welcomed.

Thanks,

Dave

[grossohc]

Hi guys,

 

new to the forum but a long time guzzi rider.

 

I dont know how many, if any of you are located in ireland. Well we've just had a serious bout of crap weather which has made our roads very bumpy (they were'nt great to begin with). I own an 06 v11 Café Sport and I think i'm starting to hate it.

 

I have had 6 months of problems with the thing. Firstly I hit a pothole at spead and had to replace the front tyre, fair enough, could have happened to anyone on any bike. Then i had to replace the fork seals, then the pawl spring snapped (my gear change has been crap ever since).

 

I'm extremely undecided about the bike, I love guzzi's but i do 100 miles a day and lately i've found myself taking the car. The bike is far too bumpy on roads the car (and i have to admit my brothers r1150gs) just irons out. I have set the forks and shock to factory spec, dropped the pressure of the tyres and still its quite uncomfortable.

 

Has anyone had any issues with ride quality on ohlin guzzi's?

 

I'm giving serious consideration to the griso 8v. Is the griso any smoother

Have they ironed out the gearbox problem?

Any input or experience would be welcomed.

Thanks,

Dave

 

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I have a V11 cafe sport and love it, mind i think the last one was made in 2003. I live in scotland so i can only agree about the crap weather lately. anyway i have no issues with the ride quality on my bike, its done 23000 miles and never popped a seal I got the forks set up from a ohlins dealer at 12000 miles and he said the seals were still up to the job (but he changed them anyway), although there are issues with seals going regularly from other guys on the forum. I would get the suspension set up for your weight for better ride quality as compared to the stock bike its like a magic carpet imho.

As for the pawl spring, well they are a known fault. I changed mine out last month ( i just wanted to see how to do it, and was starting to get paranoid that it had never went )The spring was perfect . But i use shockproof heavy in my gearbox and i am sure it helps. Any way where are you in Ireland as there is a meeting been organised in Ireland for the end of may by Belfatguzzi, do a search on here for the info. Get yourself along and all will issues will be dealt with

Gary

[Dave K]

 

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I have a V11 cafe sport and love it, mind i think the last one was made in 2003. I live in scotland so i can only agree about the crap weather lately. anyway i have no issues with the ride quality on my bike, its done 23000 miles and never popped a seal I got the forks set up from a ohlins dealer at 12000 miles and he said the seals were still up to the job (but he changed them anyway), although there are issues with seals going regularly from other guys on the forum. I would get the suspension set up for your weight for better ride quality as compared to the stock bike its like a magic carpet imho.

As for the pawl spring, well they are a known fault. I changed mine out last month ( i just wanted to see how to do it, and was starting to get paranoid that it had never went )The spring was perfect . But i use shockproof heavy in my gearbox and i am sure it helps. Any way where are you in Ireland as there is a meeting been organised in Ireland for the end of may by Belfatguzzi, do a search on here for the info. Get yourself along and all will issues will be dealt with

Gary

 

Thanks for the prompt reply Gary,

I'm in Wexford.

I've been playing with the bike over the last few days and i'm gonna explore all avenues to try to get that magic carpet experience . Yeah I spoke to Dave and I plan on going to the meet. Went and rode a Griso 8v on tuesday with the thoughts of changing, think it might be a more practical machine for the shoddy irish roads, with the enclosed carc system. But i'll try to get my Café Sport right before i make any decisions. Do you mind me asking what you have you're compression and rebound settings at?

 

Thanks for your input,

Dave

[Murray]

It would be worth finding a suspension specialist for one of the road race teams and get them to help you out. There will be a few $$$ involved but it is always worth it IMO.

[grossohc]

Do you mind me asking what you have you're compression and rebound settings at?

 

Thanks for your input,

Dave

As Murray said, I got my forks serviced by Bob Grant (a ohlins agent and racer) at knockhill race course. he set the sag for my weight, just gave it some minor tweaks and all was well.