Miles Long

Thank you Phil for the feedback..., lovely bike, great photos.

Anoyone have an opinion on these...performance? Sound? They look good, that’s a good starting point. I currently have Remus cans and a Stucchi crossover. Was never really happy with the look of the cans, I reckon the main performance enhancement comes from the crossover. Thanks in advance. ML

As far as I know there are no m/c museums in Sydney. The "National M/C museum" is in Nabiac, about 2 hours north of Sydney, and in my opinon is only worth visiting if you happen to be in the area ...the emphasis of this museum seems to be quantity rather than quality, others may disagree. It's title is a little misleading in that it's a privately owned and run museum. In Sydney Motorino sell Guzzis, they're in 2 locations, one in Darlinghurst (part of the city) and they seem to have plenty of time to talk. Tom Byrne M/C has Bmw's and are literally a 6 iron shot from Motociclio that Pete mentioned. Go and have alook at Deus ex Machina ( latin experts can translate) in Camperdown....they do er...strange things to Jap & Brit singles & twins & have a range of clothing to excite the inner city trendoid would be rocker types...and have an equally buzzy doof doof cafe too....have a look at their website. If you're after old Brit parts Jim Eades in Ashfield is a 1950's time warp shop...but check opening hours and take your credit card. There's a big Italian bike show with all the marques once a year, I think in September, well worth it if that's when you're here. I live in the Southern Highlands, just over an hour south of Sydney on the way to Pete's and have several bikes. A good day trip would be to drive here, we ride the 1.5 hours to Pete's, ogle/test ride his Griso, have lunch, talk shit then return. I'd of course have to stop every half hour or so to tighten the zorst nuts on the commando but I'm confident the Guzzi would make it that far ok. Bearing in mind too it's as cold as a mother in laws kiss here at the moment. If you're at all interested in cricket a visit to the Bradman museum in Bowral is a must....slight thread drift I realise but worth a mention.If you're into aircraft a whole different world opens up. Give me a call if you want (0412 001821) ...there's a good chance I'll be away in Singapore when you're here but you never know. Jeff

Mine is developing amore buzz with increasing mileage. Now has over 20000k's , & it feels good when I stop & get off & feel a calmness come over me. I haven't looked at valve clearance but have meticulously checked throttle balance. I can feel another visit to Bungendore coming on. Cheers Miles

Rode the ill handling Ballabio down to Pete Roper's this morning...1.5 hours from the Southern Highlands on fun roads and very warm weather. It took Pete about 10 seconds to recognise the misalignment & about 15 mins to fix it. Subsequent test ride was amazing....this is how a bike should handle...this was the silver bullet fix I'd been looking for. I feel vindicated now that I wasn't imagining the crap handling that i'd learnt to live with for 20000ks,or that I'd hadn't set the up the suspension correctly...I can also now agree with many of the faithfull on this & other lists who insisted on defending the marque against my criticisms in this area. It would be hard to know when the offending bits were assembled incorrectly, but my guess would be when I took the bike back to the dealer in the first few days of ownership with a leaky seal. It's since had 3 services at Guzzi dealers, with me whinging constantly about said handling, & no-one's spotted it."Nothin wrong with the bike mate...you just gotta set it up right" Enter Mr Roper...15mins & 10secs!!! Plus a coffee, a windage plate & tutorial on how to fit it. The day got better, when I was thrown the keys to test ride the yellow Griso....very nice indeed, thank you Pete. The day got even better again when we adjourned to the "office" in town to shoot the breeze over a coldie, (well it was getting a bit hot),along with thousands of others (many,as Pete so eloquently put it, "with 10 gallon hats on 2 pint heads")in town for a music festival. The ride home in the stifling heat was almost sublime....very relaxed ride on any surface on all the bends, no teeth grinding or sphincter puckering at all. In all fairness I'd have to say this bike's now pretty much as good as my Nortons,might even be a bit quicker seeing as I can ride it round tight bends in confidence. Now how's that for the ultimate complement from moi!! Again, thank you very much Pete for a great day & for your help & advice. Hope the cat 's ok Cheers Miles

Thank you Murray& Ratchethack, I feel much better now. I don't want to digress into a "suspension setup" thread but I've explored every avenue down that road with limited success. I've found the biggest improvement with good tyres....& also tyre pressures. Other bikes I own or have access to are Norton Commando & Dominator, Jota, Hinlkley speed triple & thruxton,Suzuki V strom & BSA Rocket 3...& whilst I love my Guzzi, it's handling with compared to this lot can only be described as ..."unique"....or...."er, um, it's all about the engine mate..!!!" Thanks again for the info Miles

Holy snappin duckshit....checked mine & the white lines are roughly 180* apart....& the bike's just had it's 20000k service. Could it have been like this all it's life? Could it have been done during the last service? Has all my griping about Guzzi handling (it's the only one i've ever ridden) now been vindicated? Moan groan. Miles

Looks great, any change to the "windblast right in the noisy part of the helmet" characteristics? Miles

I too have a Ballabio & the buffetting from the screen is my greatest bugbear...I'm 5'11.999", never quite got to 6 feet. Taking it off is the only real cure, but the bike then loses considerable eye appeal. I've tried a laminar lip, both with & without the rubber edging, it makes absolutely no difference except to add ugliness. I'm not sure bar or fork mounted options are the answer because the headlight assembly is fixed. At the moment I've settled for a cutdown, flatter screen from an MV, which lowers the turbulent air to "upper neck level" in my case, & cuts the noise down a bit from what it was. I've played with a few dummy screens & reckon that the fairing & screen would need to be cut down about 2" (2" down from the pointy bits) to put the buffet right down away from head level. Maybe cutting some slots in it might help, I haven't got the nerve to try this. Nice bike otherwise, your's looks fantastic. cheers, Miles

Since I first bought it I have grumbled long & hard in various forums about the handling of my Ballabio. For 15 months & 12000 km it's been an absolute pig. I've tried everything to little avail. Two days ago I had two new tyres fitted...Pilot powers... the transformation is remarkable. Handling & steering ,on rough road & smooth, at high speed & low, can now only be described as superb,it is now a pleasure to ride instead of a chore. Superlatives from the faithful I've seen in these forums, such as "rock solid" & "sure footed", I've pooh- poohed from the rooftops.But now I have seen the light. I can now say that the Guzzi is as good as my Nortons...&.. yes I know.. it's faster too. The front tyre, a Mettzler Sportec fitted as standard on the new bike is obviously the culprit here....never again to be fitted on any bike of mine. A similar thing happened to me in about 1973, when I went from a ribbed front tyre to a TT100 on my Suzuki 550, but I'm abslutely astounded that tyres would make such a huge difference these days...could I have had a dud??? Cheers n beers, Miles happily gorging on humble pie

Sob The cricketing Gods have shown their bias this series. 3 more runs in the 2nd test & it would have been at least 2-1 the other way !!! How good is Freddy Flintoff??? I just hope Adam Gilchrist comes good again & Ritchie Benaud doesn't retire after all. Miles

NO,NO, Sofia...not a Ballabio. I've owned one for just over a year & done 12000km on it. I love the look, I love the engine, I love the riding position & the comfort. There is, however, one almighty negative to this bike... it's handling...especially on any road that's not billiard table smooth...it's like trying to hang on to a greasy pig on an ice rink. I've tried the full range of suspension settings, tyre pressures, tyres,damper settings & fork height....it's now a lot better than "factory" but still a handful. This bike would be terribly unforgiving of an inexperienced rider who overcooked a corner or got the line wrong on a bend on ripply tarmac. Get something lighter & nimbler before it all ends in tears. Miles Long... fully expecting to be flamed by the faithful, but I type with my hand on my heart on this one...

Thanks all for the info those MPH pedals are beautiful, I emailed Todd off list about them. Another weak aesthetic area on the (no accounting for taste) Ballabio are the brackets mounting the brake & clutch cylinders...they really look like an afterthought...anyone know of aftermarket, better looking setups? Miles

Out riding today, ran over a stick, about 15"x 3/4"....look what it did to the rear brake lever.... Weak as P**s if you ask me. $224 Aud for the lever, 5 for the rubber, $26 for the screw! Don't stand too hard on the brakes folks. Miles