Buying a Stelvio

[LangleyMalc]

A separate question. On the top of my rear shock is a 10mm long bolt. It secures the top of the shock and has about 15mm of threaded bolt sticking out on the left side but there is no lock nut on it. There are yellow paint marks on the end of the threaded section, so my question is should there be a lock nut or castellated nut on the end of this bolt?
thanks in advance. 
M. 

[docc]

My vote would be NyLoc self-locking nut.

Good find, there, LangleyMalc!     That would make me keep looking . . .

[LangleyMalc]

A separate question. On the top of my rear shock is a 10mm long bolt. It secures the top of the shock and has about 15mm of threaded bolt sticking out on the left side but there is no lock nut on it. There are yellow paint marks on the end of the threaded section, so my question is should there be a lock nut or castellated nut on the end of this bolt?
Yes,🤔 I think a Nyloc is in order. Can’t do any harm and one less thing to think about while tooling along at speeds close to but not over the posted limit!

[pete roper]

No nut is fitted to the top bolt ex factory.

[LangleyMalc]

Thanks Pete. One less thing to think about. 

[PJPR01]

Those tire pressures are far too low...your mileage is going to suck and quite honestly, unless you're riding offroad and want some absorption from fire roads, you're going to wear out your tires prematurely.  If the bike is vibrating at normal pressures, there's something wrong, lowering the pressure is just masking the issue.

[Tom in Virginia]

On 9/7/2020 at 2:22 PM, PJPR01 said:

Those tire pressures are far too low...your mileage is going to suck and quite honestly, unless you're riding offroad and want some absorption from fire roads, you're going to wear out your tires prematurely.  If the bike is vibrating at normal pressures, there's something wrong, lowering the pressure is just masking the issue.

Good point PJPRO.  For both of my MG LeMans, it was apparent on purchase that the previous owners ran too low tire pressures.  On the front tire it led to (severe) cupping of the tread outside the center running bead of the tire.  On test rides, this condition in turn aggravated handlebar/mirror vibration so much you would see double vision in the mirrors, making them almost useless.  The 02 only had 2450 miles upon purchase but the front tire was noticeably cupped considering the mileage. 

[LangleyMalc]

Well I have now had the Stelvio over in BC since September.  In that time I took it to the top of Vancouver Island (about 1500km with around 300 of gravel fire roads) and also on a round tour of BC for another 2,000km, plus running around locally.  The bike has performed flawlessly, except for the popping on deceleration.  I put the bike away at the end of November with a list of things to do over the winter. I took the bike over to the local suspension specialists in early Jan and got a series of suspension checks and recomendations and will be changing the cartridges and the rear shock in the near future and will report accordingly.  

In late January, I fell off my push bike and fractured the top of my femur - my own fault for riding a push bike.  While  "Hors de Combat" I decided to do something about the popping and crackling, so dug out the Guzzi cables and contacted Mark Bayley, or Beetle, of Stelvio mapping fame and got instructions and a new map for the Bike.  Hooked it up - eventually, as I normally run  a Mac, and subsequently using my Grandson's Windows computer, got the old map off and the new map loaded, plus ran GuzziDiag and used the carb sticks to balance out the throttle bodies. On a technical note, the air bleed screws were all but closed on both sides, but the throttle bodies were out of balance.  I re-balanced them with the carb sticks and the bleed screws closed, by just using the balance screw on the left side linkage.  I then re-set the TPS  and also re-set the CO setting. Checked with teh carb sticks again and al was duly balanced without using the air bleed screws which I left closed.   End result is that the bike now ticks over and revs beautifully.  Can't road test it for popping as I am still on at least one crutch and "Err in Doors" will have a fit if I look like doing anything like that.  I would like to thank Mark for his help on this lot.  The worst bit was trying to make a Mac talk to GuzziDiag.  Once I gave that up and went Windows, it all worked fine and was not difficult.  Marks instructions were explicit.  At some point over the winter, I will be doing the same thing to the California 1400.

Now have to pull the forks and get the cartridges replaced. Andreani Cartridges and Springs are going in.  Also a Matris rear shock.  The old suspension was not bad, but I am told that these will be significantly better.  Once my leg is back in order and the cold and wet weather goes, I should be able to find out!  Meantime am now hobbling off to the Workshop to pull the Forks.

All for now - will report on the final result in due course.