Moto Guzzi V100 Stelvio

[pete roper]

At not 4K miles it is unlikely it will of had chance to shit itself in a major way.  It will require the heads to come off though which on a small tank Stelvio is a PITA because most of the front plastics need removing to get the tank off and the tank needs to come off to allow access to the brackets that bolt the heads to the frame. Then there will be the need to grease the swingarm and shock linkage bearings and it is wise to replace the sump spacer gasket between spacer and block.

The advantage of acquiring such a low mileage example though can't be overstated. Basically it is unlikely that it has had the opportunity to be monstered by 'Harry Hometune' so as long as the airbox drain hoses are undamaged and have been kept plugged chances are the throttlebodies will still be both undamaged and unmolested.

The Small Tank bikes do have the beefier 50mm forks and it is very important to check that the pinch bolts for the front wheel spindle haven't been overtightened as the castings on the bottom of the legs are crack prone if they are torqued too zealously by a shaved ape.

I've owned both a 'Big Tank' 2012 model, that's the one I built the big port, single spark 1400 motor for, and I am currently refurbishing a 2009 'Small Tank' model for sale. Both have their good and bad points but both are excellent motorbikes if mapped correctly and have had the 'Remedial' work done. I'm a Griso Guy so I won't be hanging on to the Stelvio, although it's tempting, but put simply you can't really go wrong with any of the 8V CARC bikes as long as the now well known problems are dealt with, first among them being the flat tappet fiasco!

I remain puzzled as to why they never sold in much greater numbers? I think the answer lies in the fact that as well as the dealer network being a joke there were, and still are, few mechanics willing to learn and understand how the W5AM controller worked and as a result there were and remain large numbers of examples running around that have either never had a proper tune up or, alternatively, have been 'Tuned' by someone who doesn't know what they're doing and actively damages them by playing with things they don't understand and shouldn't be touching! The tragedy is there has never been a bike easier to tune than a W5AM Guzzi! But what can you do? Even after they've been out of production for seven years we're still getting them into our workshop 'Freshly Buggered' by 'Tuners'. If the 'Tuner' has a Dyno the results are usually much, much worse!

[Admin Jaap]

Some more pics from MCN

[audiomick]

Nice of the rider to lift his foot so the photographer could get a complete shot of the side.