Leaderboard

Well the truth is I work for soup and a sandwich as far as motorcycles are concerned, I did do it and still do it for the pure pleasure and because I like to help people and learn stuff. I hate the profiteering and "charge what the market will stand" I see these days, its just not me. Needless to say I'd never make it in my own business. Ciao

You're a true Guzzi Hero Phil. Sometimes that's worth more than gold.

My previous post should have read "silly enough to pay $2000 to service the 916". That's just overcharging, shop around. I've been working on 4 valve Desmo systems since the mid 1980's since they were first released first the 851,888,916,996 and 1098 which are all the same basic engine design,although the 1098 is easier valve clearance wise, so I guess thats only 34 years.As well as the bevel drive and 2 valve belt desmos before that. Part of my 996 experience is at WSB level and 2 valve belt Desmo's at world championship level,so I thought it might be valuable to get the perspective from someone thats actually done the work on them for the pleasure of it as apposed to the view of someone thats doing it for the profit. Plenty of people including competent home mechanics have been turned away from Ducati's because of overcharging by shops for servicing and I'm here to point out its not really valid The 916 series was a major leap forward in ease of servicing and access and is quite an easy bike to work on. Pulling the engine on a 916 to do the heads is totally unnecessary. Personally nothing I own mechanically ever crosses the dealer doorstep after purchase. After having worked side by side with mechanics from several dealerships, car and bike over the last 35 years (or so) I'd rather just do it myself and worry about the warranty issues if there are any when they arise or just absorb the cost myself. It often works out cheaper that way in the long term. Ciao

Truly! Same for me for the 916 . . . might have missed my window as they cheaped-out . . .

Escaped West El Lay after high school in 1967, went to the San Diego area when it was nice. But then coastal North SD County was trashed by the developers in a metastatic southern migration from Orange County in 1976-80 while I was out of state in the Navy, so I then relocated to SLO Town (San Luis Obispo), at that time relatively unknown to me, but found clean air and low population density charm that had been eradicated in So. Cal. Been a great 40 years, but the cancerous real estate development feeding frenzy has finally hit here. Big developments used to be 50 to100 units or so, now the numbers are ten times that large. Sorry for the unrequested rant, but I'm really pissed off by the current So. Californication of this once beautiful community. Then again, by the time it's thoroughly effed over, I'll likely be past worrying.

FWIW, the Lario uses a front brake light switch that is.. uh.. unreliable at best. Finally put it in the lathe and cut it apart. Fixed the problem, and soft soldered it back together with my antique (naturally) big hunker soldering iron. It's been soldiering on for several years, now.