Karl Von

There will be a bunch of Guzzi riders staying at the Lake Monroe camp ground in Sanford. I am going over for the first weekend March 2-6. The guzzi dinner is monday night at the Parathion on White Street in Daytona. It starts after the races. Directions are go past the speedway on the main drag, about 2 miles towards the beach, you will see a stone tower on the right. That is White Street. Take a left and go down about 3 miles, the Parathion is on the Right, just look for the parking lot full of Guzzis. Skip & Jane Kologiski Bird at The Wheel Vintage Motorcycle Stuff http://home.earthlink.net/~kkologiski/bird.html Central Florida Reps for the MGNOC (Moto Guzzi National Owners Club). Fla Guzzi Site http://www.thisoldtractor.com/fl_mgnoc/ Coma Vintage Motorcycle Group http://www.thisoldtractor.com/coma/index.html

I live over in St Pete and it was raining on and off along the coast with some heavy stuff around Brooksville, so I decided not to go. I dont mind the cold but hate riding in the rain.

I bought a jacket from this guy on ebay, who says is in Canada but drop ships the jackets from Packey. The jacket was nice but the fit for me was awful. To send it back to Packy from the US was 120 dollars from UPS and Fed Ex. Unless you are a off the rack fit, I would beware of buying one of these jackets.

We should have a few sport bikes there. I will either ride the 1100 Sport or the Centauro, there are a few other V11 Sport guys I have told, dont know if they are going to show though.

For all of you in Fla, there is a guzzi lunch at the SE corner of I-75 and FL50 at the Cracker Barrel around 12 noon. The weather should be in the mid 70's are partley cloudy, so a nice day for a ride.

Mine went bad awhile back. It was the typical problem with the field magnets becoming un-glued. Seems this happens allot in humid environments. Anyway I took it to a good local automotive alternator-starter shop and they cleaned the starter, walnut blasted the armature and re-glued the magnets, all for around 90 bucks. They use a marine epoxy for the magnets, so I doubt I will have trouble with them again. I was weary about buying a new Valeo as it seems they still can not use a good adhesive for the magnets.

Does anyone know anything about this exhaust system ? http://skykingproducts.com/store/Moto_Guzzi.htm

You could say that it is a Italian thing, but look at Ducati. They opened a new dealer in Tampa, and there are Ducks everywhere. I have already seen a few vintage Paul Smarts on the road. They have a big dealer network that seems to work, have a big presence at the major bike events, and have a big club following. I don’t know if being owned by a American parent company makes a difference. Why can't Piaggio take a page from Ducati's business plan? I guess the Aprilia dealer in St Pete got feed up with them. They used to have a bunch of Aprilia bikes, scooters, and even carried the electric bicycles. Now almost nothing. They did have about 200 Hondas and Yams on the floor.

Thanks for the info Guys !!

Well We Guzzi riders are not the only ones with dealer problems. I stoped by the local bike dealer mini-mall who is a dealer for Aprilia. I need a dash idiot light for my 1100 Sport and thought maybe the Aprilia dealer might have one. I was told by the parts dept that they do not carry parts for them as they had 5 new Aprilia's sitting on the sales floor. At least we can get parts for guzzis from diffrent sources. I would hate to have a Aprilia and need parts.

I do most of all my own work, If I get stuck on something, there are a few guys in my local riding group that together we can figure it out most of the time. One of our guys is building a 1200 cc inline 3cy loop frame guzzi. http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=8272.0 We have done quite a bit since these photos were taken. Can not wait to get it on the road. Stan is still working on guzzi's and selling parts, I just dont think he is dealing with MGNA or what ever they are calling themselfs these days.

I saw that guzzi has come out with a line of helmets. Does anyone know if these are avaliable in the States and who makes them gor guzzi http://www.prodigium.it/index.php?main_pag...amp;language=en

I don’t even know if there is a real dealer left in FLA. Stan's in Gainesville has been a dealer since the 70's and he has dropped them from what I have been told. He is still working on them and racing them. He won his AHRMA class again for 06. We had a local dealer in Tampa (Euro Cycles), but they finally dropped them, which was a good thing. You would go in to look at a guzzi and they would tell you what a pile of crap they were and would try to sell you a ugly BMW. It is better not to have a so-called dealer than one that slams the bikes. On the other hand, it is hard to blame them. In the past few years MGNA has really stuck it to the dealers with all the warranty claims (cams, clutches, engine paint, trans recalls, bad tanks, bad wheels, etc..). It looks like the new guard is following in the same direction. At least with the older models there is a good aftermarket parts supply. Some of the new models are nice but I would be scared to buy one due to no support.

My dad had the engine paint issue on his Cali Sport Special. It took him 2 years to get the bags he got instead of the engine case swap. The reason was that guzzi owed the bag manufacture tons of money and never paid them. Once Piaggio took over and paid the past due bills the bags showed up. Does anyone know if the Rosso's had a rod issue ? My brother jus picked one up with around 26,000 miles

With the 4V head griso coming out soon I bet they will have to really drop the price on the 2v's to move them. I wonder if they are going to keep making the 2v 1100 Griso ?

The orginal Griso prototype had the 4v motor in it (maybe from the centauro), I herd that they had trouble with The new strict EU emissions, was the main reason for them using the duel plug Breva motor. The 850 models have been available in Europe for a few months now. Leo Tamers had one on their site, which they sold. I would be surprised if they bring the 850's into the states. I think big benefit for the 850's overseas is the tax brake for some bikes under 1000cc. Looking at the spec sheets, it looks like the major difference between the 1100 and the 850 models in smaller pistons and the loss of the oil cooler. I dont think there would be that much of a price difference here between a 2v 850 Griso/Breva and a 1100 2v Griso/Breva. I just wish they would get their dealer isses solved here. I have had a few guys calling me, saying they love the new models and want to see them, they want to know where the central Fla dealer is. The one dealer left, who is on MGNA site, refuses to stock guzzis or parts. There is one other dealer in Atlantic Beach I wish they would come out with a base model 850 Sport at around 8,000 and offer lots of extras. The Monster concept did a world of good for Ducati. They could use the same sales formula they used with the Jackals.

Thanks for the info

Teo Lamers stocks them as well as moto mecca, They run about 80 dollars each. I have herd that they are not the best quality and are hard to keep tight. Have you had any problems with the stock ones ?

Hi All I just picked up a 1100 Sport with a Daytona 1000 front fairing and need some replacement mirrors. For those of you that have the old sports & daytonas, what are you using for mirrios. I would like to find something that I would not have to redrill the fairing. I herd somewhere that there was a Nice Honda fairing mirror that bolted on direct with out having to redrill the fairing. Anyone know what it might be ? Thanks

Has anyone found a replacement source for the front brake micro switches ?