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Griso was made in three sizes. 850, 1100 and 1200. The first two used versions of the venerable two valve per cylinder design, the 1200 used a four valve per cylinder design and a Hi-cam in each head driven by chains from an idler shaft running in place of the camshaft on earlier motors. It is possible, although not easy, to enbiggen the 1200 to 1400 using 1400 pistons from the Cali 1400. It's far from a simple 'Drop in' conversion though. I've built two now. Approaching it from different ways both times. This time I'm going about it yet another way. The biggest issue being differences in the galleries and drains for the cooling oil supply as the 1200 and 1400 motors are completely different in this regard. From 2008 the old 2V motor was phased out and the CARC series bikes all went to the 1200-8V which besides the Griso was used in the Norge, Stelvio and 1200 Sport platforms. Sadly the Piaggio bean counters insisted that the original 8V should use flat tappets. This was a huge mistake as the system failed miserably, ruining the reputation of what is in fact a fine engine. It wasn't until 2013 after three botched attempts to get flat tappets to work that the change was made to the bulletproof roller tappet system then used until the series and engine was discontinued. It's my belief that the motor was originally designed with roller tappets and this penny pinching measure of attempting to use flats seriously undermined the credibility of what could of been a game changer for the Guzzi marque. Sadly, because of this the series never got the sales they deserved and Piaggio decided that Guzzi was not to try and produce interesting and novel bikes and should in future produce toys for hipsters and underpowered and unthreatening mid-weight ADV bikes with uninspiring 2 valve pushrod engines that have the charisma of a dry cow-pat and the performance envelope of a housebrick. Pity.

Whilst of limited interest to most here I thought I'd gauge whether anybody would be interested in a documentary of a single spark 1400 Nuovo Hi-Cam build? I've just acquired a 'Repairable write off' Griso that I'm going to use as a test platform for final development, (I've already built two 1400 single sparkers.). I'm not willing to have my old warhorse off the road while playing silly-buggers with the motor so the idea is I do the build, iron out any problems, then fling the final product in the 'Green Horror'. This will be my swansong. I hope to be retired within a year.

The 1400 motor is, dimensionally, nearly identical to the 1200. The reason it looks so much larger is that the cylinder heads have rocker cover 'Covers' that are purely cosmetic. Block, cylinders, timing system etc. are all pretty much identical but the 1400's cooling system is very different and it uses a different phase sensor and phonic wheel among other things. Biggest difference though is the 1400 uses twin plugs. 1200 only a single, central, plug. Hence the 'Single Sparker' description. And yes. The 1400 I'm building is destined for the Green Horror. As I said I've already built two. The first in in 'Beetle's Griso, the second went into my Stelvio that I have since sold. Filling it into the bike isn't an issue. All the difficulties are 'Internal' as it were.

My longtime buddy, Scott, is returning on his ST1300 from NY. He would like to split a room if anyone will take him in? As a token of commitment, he said he would send his half of the money now, and apply Guzzi stickers over all the ST's Honda badges . . .

I thought the 50 referenced an anniversario. V7 1967-2017 (?)

Got around to doing this. Not totally enamoured by the look but a clocks a useful thing on a bike so that tips the scales. I was struggling with finding somewhere to fit it that didn't look too odd and I finally went with a bolt on fit which involved a bit of work. If anyone is interested in the process I'll add to this thread. Ciao

great shot Docc

Well, it's funny, every time I think, "Ooh, there's a nice V7 Loop Frame! But I'd like another gear. Maybe a bump in the displacement. Disc brakes. More horsepower. A better gearbox. A more rigid frame. Bigger brakes. Fuel injection. Modern wheel sizes. Better suspension. Clip-ons. Rear-sets. Better lighting " . . . I always start with an early loop and end up right back where I am!

What you refer to as the 'Tear drop' is more commonly known as the 'Flaccid Whale Penis'. I've never really understood this particularly American obsession with Loopframes? To me they have always been ugly, overweight, under braked nightmares. I just don't get it.......

Gosh, I love the old loop fame tanks - so sensuous. I complained relentlessly about the "teardrop" tank that Guzzi then used for the "EV" series (or whatever they're called) hoping for an exciting replacement. Then the 1400 cut-out job appeared. Sheesh, not at all what I had in mind! At least the tear-drop job finally looked good to me on the CaliVintage . . .

Yup. A whole load of stuff on Calis is purely cosmetic. The sides of the tank that the cutouts are in are themselves cosmetic add-ons. Almost everything about the Cali 14 is retrograde and weighty. It's almost as if the design brief was to produce an overweight pig!

I bought a tube of horse ivermectin (good for 1200lb) on Amazon for $6.00. Apple flavored. The arithmetic isn't hard, but Ivermectin has no side effects or overdose concerns, so you don't have to get to the third decimal on dosage. Since it's off-label usage, there is no quantification for what is effective to my knowledge. I started taking 5mg melatonin by gummies, but have pills also; it doesn't seem to matter what form, although the gummies seem to work faster for sleep if you let them melt in your mouth. I worked my way up to 20mg for about 3 months, but I did discover that I woke more during the night so I backed up to 10mg, where I'm happy now and probably saturated.

Thank you so much Doc, LOL i guess I'm odyssey challenged, have a hard enough time spelling odyssey!

Thanks Doc, I will do that. I plugged in my digital battery tender volt meter into the pigtail (before your suggestions) with nothing on it read 12.7 volts after riding for 15 minutes it read 12.8...Any charger recommendations?

Hey, now! The actual answer! It was quite fun posting the bull$#|! replies, though . . .

Oh, wait! "That 50" . . . http://v2guzzi.blogspot.com/2021/03/

I hope you are indulgent of the ignorant knuckle-draggers and shaved-apes (me ) about these later (than V11) motors. I thought all the Griso were 3 different 1200s and know zero about the "1400". Two totally different animals? And what of this "hi-cam" talk? I thought that was all V10 stuff . . .

Perhaps their prop bike came from "someone" who thought the "50" badging from the earlier V50 series lends provenance (and designates the actual 750 displacement of the current V7.) Shoot, maybe that "50" emblem is lifted from some other model that ended in "fifty" . . . "Long ~ Legged and Easy to Live With!"

Er, you gots to "know a guy" . . . But not these guys!

I think I've now about reached the end of this but wanted to post some more prelim data for now and some more test results tomorrow. Who'd have thought I could spin out a 4 page thread on a bloody spring. So here's what I've found as a rough guide regarding shimming the OEM valve with the Griso spring. Below are 2 results, the first colum is static test data. In other words putting the valve in an oil tester or pumping up the valve on oil, if you use air the results will be different, probably lower from what I saw. I gave up on using air as a medium the leakage was so bad I couldn't obtain repeatable results. The oil I was using was a 15-50 full synth room temp 18-20C, cold oil for both the static test and the crank test. When static testing the valve just starts to crack then around 5psi later is well off the seat so it's difficult to pin down an exact lift value, but easy to get a ballpark within 5psi for when the valve lifts All results psi, shim numbers in mm. On all of these there was no crush washer or shim on the spring retaining nut on the PRV top, some have these installed others not. IMHO they serve no purpose, however, if they are in place they will subtract from the shim value as the nut will not penetrate as deeply into the valve body and compress the spring Shim Static Oil Pressure None 80-85 68 1.5 105-110 82 3 125-130 95 I think the results were pretty well linear in behaviour, so as a "Rule of thumb" for every 1mm of shim compressing the spring you'll see 14psi increase in static lift pressure and approximately 9psi on the oil pressure. Can only base this on my own anectodal evidence, but knowing that no shim gave me 68 and 3mm shim gave me 95, a 27psi difference, 1mm equated to 9psi. 1.5mm should give me pressure in the bike of somewhere around 80-83psi. When I crank tested it was somewhere between 80-82psi. If you have a facilities to static test by all means do it, you may get different numbers to me, but be aware that the static lift values are higher than what you'll see inside the engine. The figures here are just what I saw and posted up as a rough guide and starter for anybody mad enough to try it

There really is amazing riding at the South'n Spine Raid, but there is something special about the Parc Fermé . . .