p6x

The Quota is surprisingly nimble, while being obviously top-heavy. The grand plan is to be able to take some of the unpaved roads with a little bit more agility than with the Le Mans. The Stelvio, is much more a mastodon than the Quota. When I went to MPH last week, there was one Stelvio waiting on maintenance; I set the Quota close to it, and the difference in size is flagrant. I still think the Stelvio is a better choice as a do it all.

As one may have expected, the riding feel between a V11 and a Quota is completely different, with pros and cons for each. The I-10 and its incredibly gusty winds made it a Quota ride hardship. The V11 is a lot more stable, and I can tuck myself behind the fairing. Obviously, the legs are more relaxed, and the large handlebars makes it a lot easier on the wrists than the clip-on. The Quota is unrefined compared to the V11, less smooth, crude I would say. The gear change is clunky, even if I did not experience any false neutral so far. The turn indicator switch is not placed like that of the V11, which made me fumble initially. Anyway, not anything to write home about. I am looking forward to putting some more miles on it, once I get the Tachometer fixed.

After 1200 miles of I-10, for the major part, the trail mission did the job. That being said, they are not the 90/10 that I wanted. These seem to be more 70/30. The Quota gear box staging privileged terrain use; the 5th gear is purposely only dedicated to highway cruises. I am eager to check it on non paved roads, once I have resolved the dancing tachometer issue....

PJPR01 and I went to Bandera for the early remittance of this year's tour flags. The frisky morning did not stop the riders to congregate for this event. 39 degF does not seem to be that cold, but when you factor the wind and the humidity.... Lots of first timers, many couples, many Harley Davidson motorcycles... This lady travels everywhere with her dog! for this chilly morning, he was in an isothermal bag right behind her. The dog wore a coat... Another Lonestar lady on her tricycle... I had seen many with two wheels on the back; this one has two wheels in the front...

When I was in school, it was the lower case omega symbol; nick named the bum...

The journalists are currently in Spain to test the official presentation of the Moto Guzzi Stelvio;

I got the Le Mans back after full maintenance, including TPS setup, remapping of the ECU. The engine is pinging when I do a hard throttle opening, even above 4000 rpm on 5th. The only time I got the engine to ping, was when I was comparing octane contents. I thought the pinging was only happening with regular gas. If I drive like I usually do, there is never any pinging, because I never do any kind of hard acceleration. I am almost certain the pinging existed before the TPS adjustment and remapping, with premium gas. The Quota does not ping at all. Anyone else has their V11 engine pinging under hard solicitation?

@PJPR01 I've got it! I went to USPS this morning, and one lady took up upon herself to find the package. I think I would have eventually received it, but like this I can take the socks to you tomorrow. I am staying at one of the historic villas. There are two sides serving a common living room. One has one bedroom, the other two bedrooms.

Yes! I will be staying at the Flying L on the 16th. I most likely will be with the 911 though, as I am only picking up my flag. Some of the rides such as the Frio Canyon I want to do with the Quota, because I would like to be able to carry my photo equipment which does not fit on the Le Mans.

@Tom in Virginia Thanks for sharing! I am going to go with Casa di Moto which seems to have a good reputation. Hopefully, USPS is not going to lose the package. The UPS and FedEx prices are not making any sense...

I have gotten my V11 back yesterday; the Road SIX are terrific! On a more serious note, the SIXS gear was supposedly going to be delivered yesterday. Then the tracking changed to "undeliverable, package to be returned to sender". I went to USPS, and they told me the zip code was incorrect, 77040 instead of 77055. They gave me the address of the Post-Office servicing 77040, I went they told me they have corrected the zip code to 77055, and the parcel should arrive; but it did not today, and there is no active tracking from USPS.

@audiomick Good information! many thanks! Guys, we already have one confirmation from Germany: As usual, the worse part of any overseas transaction is now the shipping. Both instruments look perfect visually. I am guessing that he will open the tachometer from the top, make the repair, and maybe clean it so it is going to look different from the speedometer. Unless someone tells me the Speedometer fails too, I think I would pass on sending both instruments. I am still going to check if a repair in the USA is possible.

Thanks! I will get in touch with them to check if they actually know what issue affects the Moto Guzzi Veglia. It is like Stein-Dinse GmbH; they speak Italian, French, English, Spanish, Dutch... A German company that named itself "Casa di Moto" may have some rudiment of English. Although, I am not taking anything for granted. I worked for Texaco in Germany in 1982. The company representatives I did the job for only spoke German... This was a stint job from my days based in The Netherlands, where everybody spoke your mother tongue better than you!

@docc I wrote to Bicilindrica, "La Rivista dei Guzzisti". They have access to people with the insider's knowledge. I checked with a number of companies that repair Veglia Borletti instruments, but it is always related to cars, and as expected, they don't really have experience with this particular Moto Guzzi Tachometer, other than telling me to send it, pay the significant bench fee, and accept the outcome, whatever it would be. I shall see if I can get a clear indication of what the problem is.

@docc Unfortunately, the erratic behavior of the white face Veglia tachometer persisted. It seemed more steady at low speed, but that was just a lure. At speed, the rpm shown decrease as you go faster. I have been reading a lot of threads related to this issue, and no confirmed root cause. "This old Tractor" has a method to open the instrument, which is a major venture and often results in breaking the lens. I do not want to risk it, and I will rather accept the tachometer as is. I have some clues that I am going to follow. If and when I go to Italy, I may be able to find someone who can really tell me what is the root cause of the problem.

The Sepang tests have ended. The track lap record was beaten by several pilots. The real surprise was Pedro Acosta. There's a saying in French that goes: -"Aux âmes bien nées, la valeur n'attend point le nombre des années", from Pierre Corneille (link to Wiki). The two 2023 protagonists were pitted again on each other. Bagnaia versus Martin for a repeat of 2023 with a different outcome? They are saying the 2024 Ducati is very much different from the 2023 model, than the 2023 from the 2022. Especially the engine. I did not get a good idea of where the Japanese are now. Improved seems to be the consensus. All teams were testing their new aero packages since they have to freeze one before the season starts. No feel for how well or how bad Mark Marquez is doing. He admitted that after 11 years of riding a Honda, he needed to return to school. See you next month!

I did not find any recommendation to your post; I am one of those who experienced the pawl spring let down. It happened around my home base; I was really lucky. I ordered a three coils pawl spring but did not install it. I instead installed a Guzzi part one, with only two coils. The original one that broke did not at the coils. You can go back into this thread, I have posted pictures. I am running a fatigue test, and monitoring the mileage before the spring breaks again. I have set the limit to 15,000 miles. Maybe I will push it to 20,000 miles.

The Stelvio is at the AIM Expo 2024 (the Xcape too) The price of the motorcycles is insane! we are close to 20k now!

I think every country in the world has a motorcyclist exhibition group of some sort. I remember that from my younger days. Those groups were characterized as only men. I think India got the concept and created the surprise...

Noted! If I go, I will be on four wheels and not on two. I am still sans motorcycle. The Quota is available, however I want to do a full inspection before I do anything more with it. My V11 is still at MPH. I am going to check if that Road 6 tire finally materialized. There really seem to be an issue with supply chain and tires lately. Go Az also told me they could not get the 10/90 tires I wanted, for lack of availability from their supplier. I checked some of the usual sites, and found out a lot of those tires are sold out, too. The Dunlop Trailmax Mission were the only one available in the sizes I needed; Continental, Metzeler, Pirelli, Bridgestones, Michelin... nada!

The drawings I looked at do not match what I am looking at on my Quota; The number of relays is the same as that of the V11: 5. I have replaced the four ones situated on the right from the flasher. I did a static check, and yes, it seems the tachometer is less shaky and indicates what I think should be the correct rpm. I now need to run a dynamic test to confirm. This is going to come in a few moments. This Quota does not have a dual lights front beam. It looks more like the smaller single lens front of the European sold Daytona.

@80CX100 Thank you for the kind words! If that Quota had not been the one, I would have most likely purchased one of the two California listed on eBay... I completely concur with the line's altering after market accessories. I would never put side cases on it, but that camel hump in the back is going to be handy. You see, since I have the Le Mans, I only had a small tail bag which could only cater for the bare necessities. I have suffered to not be able to carry my photographic equipment, a special interest of mine. I actually do a lot of food photography, and use Tilt and Shift lenses; those require a tripod. I purchased the smallest tripod that I could find, but unfortunately, even if it fits in the bag, I do not have enough space left to carry more equipment. That top case on the Quota is going to change that. It would be tempting to install a better windscreen that the ersatz one that comes with the Quota. I will just roll with the too small one. At present, my biggest issue is the Tachometer that refuses to tell me the truth. Obviously, I don't want anything else but what came stock with the bike. In the same way, I love that exhaust, and I am not going to replace it with a Mistral or else. I need to get that Tach. to work. I will first try the relay swap, and if that does not work, I will continue my quest for a fix. The Tachometer seems to be accurate at low revs, even if not completely steady. However, I soon as I rev it up, it becomes unreliable and erratic. Of course, before I use the Quota seriously, I am going to do a complete overhaul. Tune-up, brakes, suspension, everything.

@PJPR01According to the tracking, it is supposed to be delivered tomorrow, Friday 9th February. I will confirm if it does. Incidentally, I think you said you were going to go to the L Ranch bash on February 17th?

I know some of the same people too.... the main difference between them and us? they don't own a Moto Guzzi!!!