GuzziMoto

They never sold or leased those cars to the public. Shame. The first concept seemed the best. Stop trying to make the internal combustion motor directly propel the vehicule. They work best at one speed, so hook them to a generator. Use electric motors to drive the vehicule.

Oh, a .gov site. That would explain it. I usually get close to the EPA highway mileage. But hybrids are notorious for getting less then rated, which is why I told my mother she would not get the 34 mpg Ford claimed for the Escape. Last I heard she gets around 28. But I thought it interesting that atleast some people say the Malibu hybrid gets HIGHER then EPA rated. As I said niether the Malibu or the Escape impresses me. Their technology is almost the same. The Malibu has a slight edge, mostly due to GM having better combustion effiecency. What I am most interested is a real hybrid along the lines of a diesel/electric locomotive. That is what the Volt may be.

Not sure where you got your numbers for the Escape hybrid, but they are wrong. The EPA combined number you listed for it is actually the EPA highway number I believe (I have not checked to confirm this, but I do not have time at the moment so if I'm wrong I'm sorry). My mother has one and it struggles to get 28 mpg in mostly highway driving with little real "city driving, she lives and works in the burbs. There is little difference between the Escape hybrid technology and the Malibu hybrid technology. And the differences there are lean mostly in the favor of the Malibu. Edit: After some quick checking, I see why you think the way you do. The Escape hybrid is somehow rated at 34 city/31 highway(2WD). But my mothers experience with hers is it cannot get out of the 20's, with 28 being typical. The Malibu hybrid, on the other hand, is rated at 24 city/ 34 highway. Yet the first test I pulled up on it said that it easily got 36.5 highway and 28.4 city average with 40 mpg on the highway being hit on occassion. So, EPA numbers are in Fords favor, real world numbers may be in Chevys favor. For clarification, I hate GM and have never bought one. I have drove other peoples on a number of occassions and that was enough. I will consider buying a GM when the Chevy Volt hits the market. That is a real Hybrid, the only one so far that is worth the name (and money).

Oh yeah, comparing a Prius to a Malibu hybrid is not fair. The Malibu is bigger. Bigger hurts mileage.

GM lost money on every one of those EV1's that it was leasing. How long should a company continue to lose money on a car before it ends the program. It cost more to build the EV1 then they could lease or sell them for. They knew going in that it was just a test. The technology was not yet cheap enough to be viable. But, atleast they tried. Nobody else has stepped up to the plate. The Ford Escape hybrid is no better then any of GM's hybrid. My mother has one. It gets about 4 mpg better mileage then a reg Escape. Yes, the Toyota and Honda hybrids are leading the way at the moment. But if they don't watch it, GM will leapfrog over them with the Volt. A true hybrid.

There's all kinds of aspects to the current situation. For one, GM is the most progressive of the big three US car makers. It is laughable that they get slammed as the one that killed the electric car when they are the only ones that have even tried to make an electric car profitable. They have yet to succed, but the Chevy Volt holds lots of promise. It overcomes the main problems (and reason why EV's have failed so far) of electric cars and puts Toyota and Honda to shame. As for should we "bail out" the big 3? as I understand it they want the Gov. to lend them money. Didn't they just shove a huge bail out of the financial industry down our throats under the guise of maintaining the flow of credit being crucial to the well being of the economy? More people would lose their jobs if the big 3 go bust then if the poorly run financial institutions were to go under. I don't support the gov. bailing out poorly run companies, but if your gonna do it for some,..... As far as the price of oil, I'm sure there are many factors involved in why the price was so high and why it is now much lower. One is surely supply and demand, but there are others like people speculating on the price of oil. This, coupled with the instability in the mid-east (we did that, our bad) can artificially inflate the price of oil. Hopefully the people doing that lost enough money when the market fell that they will stay away for a while at least. We in the US have also been helped by the global crunch, which brought the rest of the world closer to our level. Our economy has been in a decline for a few years now and this latest crash, while hurting us, has also helped us because we did not fall as far as much of the rest (we did not have as far to fall?). The thing that cracks me up is when someone says "we need to reduce our dependance on foreign oil so we will not have this problem (the problem being the instability of the oil market). They don't seem to understand that oil is a global commodity and it doesn't matter where it came from. Oil does not know where it comes from and does not care. If the price of oil on the world market goes up, the price of all oil goes up. It does not matter where it came from. The only way to reduce our oil dependancy is to reduce our oil usage. It's such a no brainer, but it is amazing how many people do not understand that basic concept. Rant over now, please resume your normally scheduled broadcast.

Ram mounts seem popular, but I find them hokey. These people sell both RAM mounts and their own brand which are sweet. http://www.touratech-usa.com/ They don't cater to Guzzi but are big with BMW and other adventure touring types.

Yes, the US uses an average of RON and MON, whereas much of the world uses just one of the two. Atleast a few bikes have reported issues with pinging to varying degrees. Most are closer to the 3-5k rpm range, but anything is possible. Before adding a PowerCommander I would either find a qualified Guzzi mechanic to go over your bike and set things like TPS and throttle body sync or read up on the info here at the site and do those things yourself. You may find you don't need the PC after all. But typically after freeing up the exhaust these bikes end up being a bit lean and a PC is the easiest way to richen it back up.

Don't know anything about the Centauro's except that I think they're way cool. On V11's they use micro relays to turn on and off all the major components like F.I., lights, etc. When a relay sticks(as they are prone to do) that circuit does not work. It is common to upgrade to a higher quality relay. Having said that, someting tells me older bikes like the Centauro do not use the same set up. But I could be wrong.

NAPA Gold filters are made by WIX and are the same high quality. I had a local private parts store around me that sold them but they went bust. Shame. So lately I've been buying the NAPA version. WIX has a web site with a store locator, though.

That's okay, in just over 11 months it will be Halloween again. My favorite time of the year.

I use Wix/Napa filters anyway.

Haven't had to get parts under warrenty or otherwise in a while, but in my experience that sounds like a dealer issue. Some dealers are better at working the system then others. I have not had any parts supply issues with either my Griso or my wifes V11, which just got some clutch work this summer.

I'm a Mesa Boogie man myself.

I thought it was "Hold my beer, watch this".

It's the classic "New and improved, now with shiney bits" syndrome. I do like the new Guzzi's. I wish my Griso could have come with wire wheels, though.

Checking and adjusting the valves on a Guzzi is about as easy as it gets. If you can change your own oil I think you can handle it. I have a dealer two blocks away, but I do everything I can do myself (sometimes time is more of a limit then difficulty) and if i need a dealer I drive an hour and a half to a dealer I trust. Having a dealer who knows what they're doing is more important then having one who is close.

No, that's Mike Myers. Michael Myers is the killer in the Halloween movies.

A modern F.I. Harley Sportster gets over 50 mpg. While 40 mpg out of a Guzzi is doing pretty good for a Guzzi, it is not good for its size. I do agree that riding style, air pressure in the tires, and state of tune/condition of the bike make a difference. But I doubt you're likely to get over 50 mpg out of a Guzzi. They are just to primative for that. But that primative nature is part of their charm.

I believe an Imperial gallon is bigger then a US gallon.

While I would agree that 38 mpg is pathetic for a 1100cc twin, it is normal for a Guzzi. It may be due to the lack of proper squish in the head or just bad head design period, but they are not efficent at burning fuel and thus have mediocre power outputs and mileage stock.

I prefer fixing bikes myself, but I had a very good experience with Europa Macchina in Harrisburg. They seem very detail oriented and genuinely care about doing things right. Tell them Michael Myers sent you.

Sorry for the slow response. Fell off my SuperMoto and broke four ribs (among other things). Yes we have gangs of dirt bikes in our fair city. It's an old problem. Atleast a couple years now. The cops can't catch them, and are even afraid to chase them most times for fear of someone getting hurt. I avoid those parts of town as a rule, so it doesn't affect me. But they have proposed solutions as extreme and far ranging as banning dirt bikes in the city (not sure how that would help) to building a dirt bike riding area (nice idea, but I don't see how that would help either). I think it's pretty funny as well.

Another possible issue is the spring for the fast idle lever may be too stiff. This does not allow it to fully open and may be an issue. Many people swap the spring from the seat release with the fast idle spring, saying it fixes two issues at one time.

I'm curious what the full story is. I don't see how a center stand that drags the ground if you lean the bike over too far is a factory defect. They all tend to do that. Maybe there's more to the story, but any bike will crash if you lean it over too far. Edit: Guzzi didn't do something stupid like put the pivot for the center stand at the back so that it swung down from the front?