Skeeve

Yeah, about that: why did the guy following w/ the camera speed up and aim for his buddy when he saw the guy in front starting to lose it?

Excellent info, altho' I'm reminded of the "What dogs hear" Far Side comic from years ago... Please keep us informed if you can find a p/n for this!

Look up threads here about: Lubing the front driveshaft bearing. Cush drive maintenance Lubing the shift or brake pivots Installing a sloppage sheet Relays Suspension upgrades/setting sag Don't be alarmed: this is just the "remedial reading" list so you can be familiar w/ the hot topics; you may/may not want to perform all these tasks, but you should at least know what tends to intrude on the off-topic banter around here!

pack it with dielectric grease to keep the water out? Great closeup of the throttle body, btw. What camera did you use? Seems like my 1st digital camera [an Olympus 510? or somesuch w/ a whopping 2mp! ] still has the best macro capabilities of any of the P&S digicams I've seen lately, despite almost 10 years of advancements in other areas... What are the little bodgers you used to fix the speedo mounts called, & where did you find'em? They look like they should do the trick...

Which means that if the stock fuel map is lean in that range, the HD tps will counteract this. OTOH, if the map is too rich in that range, it'll be even richer, leading to bogging. Somehow, I suspect that the former case is more likely, but that's just my natural pessimism wrt EPA mandates...

Where does one find such a critter, & what's it called? Somehow, I doubt that going to Radio Shack and asking for "one of those big ugly Molex thingummies" is going to bear any positive results...

Agreed, but that's the price of the low-maintenance, more efficient belt drive. Rubber teeth are weaker than metal ones, so you need more of them in contact to xfer the power...

You remember how Alexander solved the knot & thereby took the city, right?

Sounds like kind of a tough method of getting a new bike, but it looks and sounds great! Congrats!

What do you think keeps military boarding schools in business? One of my favorite Zen stories tells about a master who came upon one of his students who had been set to ring the gong [using the old "count the # of inversions of the hourglass" method] who'd fallen asleep at his post. His used his cane to strike the student, and hit him so hard that he died. The parents were of course understandably upset at the news, and traveled a long way to come to the monastery and speak w/ the master. They apologized to him for sending him a student who was unprepared for the rigors of his teaching, and went home after collecting their son's effects. The master went on to train an unparalleled number of new masters [ie, his disciples achieved "satori" in record numbers.]

That is something very much to be hoped for! I think Guzzi hit a home run w/ the styling of the V7C, but I worry about the "let's test it in the small block and then follow up" mentality that brought us the Brevona might lead to canceling plans for a big block version if the 750 doesn't meet sales objectives that would have been exceeded if it had just been brought out in a big block from the beginning. To be sure, I hope my lackluster forecasts for the V7C are all wrong, 'cause I truly think it is a very well-styled bike [there's a lot of us middling-old phartz out there who long for the simple UJM style of bikes of our youth, but with the more soulful character of the Guzzi v-2; why do you think the 1000S is such a cult bike? Rarity, shmarity: people want them to ride!] but won't consider it a replacement for anything I'm currently riding, whereas w/ a big block it would be a real contender. Slap that styling on the Bellagio running gear and bring it over, I say! Guzzi will have a bigger seller than the Cali Vintage, and one that I doubt will be cutting into the sales of any of their other current models... and that's not a bad thing at all!

Why? Are the big blocks that much more complicated than the small blocks? No. Because it would undercut their profit margin? This is just exec decisions; do you really think the 600cc hyperbikes cost that much less to build than their 1000cc, otherwise identical technologically, big brothers do? Enough to justify the usual $2000 price differential? Horsefeathers! It's just what's done to increase profitability [not that that's a bad thing.] Guzzi is already making a "small" big block for the 850 Griso & Bellagio models sold in Europe; economies of scale dictate that it would be in Piaggio's interest to eliminate the small blocks entirely and standardize on the big block motor across all models, if only because it would make type certification for EPA simpler (less expensive) and unit cost for all big block derivations fall substantially. But, with the graduated licensing schemes common elsewhere, there may be a better market for the small blocks than I am aware of. I'm just saying that your argument doesn't hold up, and that a product targeting the nostalgia market [which has historically been an American exclusive; our friends across the Pond are more sensible than we are! ] should be more focused. Ipso facto, it's not so much a nostalgia bike as an introductory model. You might not, but the introductory shoppers this model is aimed at sure do! Who's going to buy the V7 Classic? Recividist Guzzisti looking for another bike? Not hardly; they're shopping the big blocks! People looking for a "vintage" look? Maybe, but they'd likely have rather bought the same version in a big block too. The market for this model are the readers of the SBL (short bikers list), who'll be shopping based on value and seat height; yes, it will help draw some attention to Guzzi because of that, but seriously, the V7 Classic will sell mostly to the short of inseam provided it can deliver better perceived value than it's competition. But the new small block sales have rarely been to the Guzzi faithful, historically, they have been to new purchasers of the marque. The person shopping for something standard, lightweight & affordable w/ a low seat height. European comes last. Sorry, that's just the reality for most buyers. You & I admire the Guzzi ethic, but we're already sold, aren't we? Only bringing in 100 of a new model? Mebbe. Recipe for disaster if you ask me. Better to go the "preorders only" route if that's the case. Eh, I guess I'm starting to grow accustomed to the U.S. being treated as a 3rd world country motorcycle-wise. Like I said, I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see the V7C having the effect that Guzzi would like, at least here in the USA. Maybe if someone can figure out how to order the 4v heads from the Predator motors out of the milspec supply line and sort out how to retrofit them to the V7C it will develop a cult following? No doubt it's a great little bike, but I just suspect that the traditionally too-heavily-influenced-by-spec-sheet American buyers are going to stay away in droves.

Thanks for the kind words! No, not a physicist, just a product of the CA public school systems before they outlawed corporal punishment...

Middleweight twins. We've already heard that it's likely to be around $8k [admittedly, rumour, but surprisingly low given the plummeting $ on forex markets.] Suzuki and Kawasaki both have 650cc twins that come with (gasp!) two front discs, standard size rubber [admittedly, the spoke wheels on the V7C affect the rubber options] and significantly lower entry costs while delivering better performance. [The SV with ABS MSRP is under $7k!] The same bike based upon the Bellagio big-twin with the V7C's styling job would be able to sell at $9k easily, but I foresee Guzzi having a hard time moving the V7C at the "doorbuster" (for Piaggio) $8k price when it can't deliver the value [always critical in an "entry level" machine] that the SV650 or even the 883 Sportster [at $7k] does. I'd love to be proven wrong. Time will tell...

There is, it's just been filled by the Suzuki SV650! Hard to match water-cooled OHC 4v perf. with an A/C 2v pushrod motor. Why do you think so many of us have been chiding Guzzi for never releasing the Ipprogrifo they teased us with a dozen years ago...

You're not alone! The V7 Classic is the right bike at the wrong time: w/ the $ in the bucket vs. foreign currencies, the V7C is too ex$pen$ive in comparison w/ its competition, esp. for what's delivered in terms of performance. If Moto Guzzi (Piaggio) had delivered this 10 years ago, they would have had a runaway hit on their hands; if they'd chosen the big block motor as a base, they could still have had a hit in today's market. Pity, 'cause it's a nice bike, but I predict they're going to sit on dealer floors until the dollar rebounds and they're EOL discounted & then BAM! they'll all be out the door on the road...

Sweet! Please do! Let us now how the whole "color match" process goes; I'm wondering if getting that semi-matte finish is going to require special application tricks?

I'm hoping the bright kids in recombinant DNA research can get the custom virus w/ the extra "EOF" markers to add to your DNA packaged & in production before I get too much older... Just think, a bad cold for a weekend & wa-BAM! another 50 iterations tacked onto the end of your cellular replication! It's not immortality, but hey, it'll get us to the "I'm too demented to care anymore if I die" stage... Another 50 years of riding your Guzzi might be almost enough to start wearing it out!

SOOOooooo jealous!

I wear a Nolan N100E in Large, and ordered the Caberg in Large due to other posts saying this. Seems a touch smaller overall than the Nolan, but esp. noticeable in the tightness of the cheek pads; I may have to make some slight mods to it, if it persists past break-in! Those of you w/o high cheekbones may not notice any diff... Overall? UNBELIEVABLE value for the money! I'm sorely tempted to order another for stockpiling, despite my cash-strapped status, the deal is that good!

Sorry, wasn't thinking about that... sorry! What can I say? I'm an anachronistic throwback to the last century: just color me "electromechanical..."

Have you tried spritzing the guts of the switch w/ contact cleaner? I know, I know: it's just that I'm prone to overlooking the obvious solutions myself, so I figured it needed to be asked...

Garmin is expensive because their mapping software seems to beat everyone else's hollow. This may be related to why it took so long for them to get decent coverage for Greece; conversion of someone else's maps to their own format probably took some time.

Excellent find! Where do I get one for my own?

Did they call this fix "...a heavy dab of grease?" Just curious...