GuzziMoto

The Conti Sports are supposed to be higher mileage then the Attacks. Mine appear to be lasting pretty well so far, but time will tell.

I had the previous gen Z6 on my Griso. Worked very well and got good mileage out of it but it was a very noisy tire. Have not tried the new Z6. Currently I have Conti Sports on. Decent tire but nothing special (except the price, great deal).

I found it. It is not in perfect shape, however. It has two holes in the leading edge of it for bungee hooks and a fair bit of scuffing to it as a whole. I will see about pics if you're interested. Shame you're on the other side of the country.

I have only done a few track days, but that's because I was too busy racing to do them. You are right that you can learn more about how to ride on a race track then you could on the street. But even setting up a course in a parking lot can teach you alot. Anywhere where you are in a controlled enviroment. If you want me to take issue with what you said, okay. A Honda CBR 600 is a boring bike to ride and should not even be mentioned in the same breath as Guzzi. Faster, maybe on the track but not on the street with me riding it. It is easier to go faster on a big twin then a modern 600 for an old fart like myself. Those 600's are for kids. And while track days are great (or actually racing), I have much respect for people who make their bikes go faster then they did stock. And Guzzi's are perfect for this kind of thing. There is more room for improvement in a Guzzi then in something that has been engineered to be as fast as it can be already.

What part of the USA are you in? I think I have the stock fender and tailight laying around. I will check.

Unfortunately, still doing it in 4th does not mean it can't be a gearbox issue. It would depend on which shaft the vibration is coming from. But if it stops doing it in 4th it is likely a gearbox thing. It might just be a harmonic imbalance (which while not good, may never actually cause a real problem). But then, you should not listen to me as I am not there and have not seen/felt the vibration.

I agree. Changing the ECU is not for everybody. I did not do it. I was only trying to say that changing the ECU gives you greater capability to perfect the way the motor runs, not a promise of success. As I understand it, Cliffs ECU lets you adjust timing as well as fueling. that is nice. And yes, any way to adjust fueling is better then no way to adjust fueling. As people have proved, you can even adjust fueling by fudging the engine temp sensor. One thing that seperates the better ways from the not so better ways is resolution, how precise and adjustable is it? Can it adjust one area without effecting another. The Power Commander does that pretty well. The original Power Commander was okay, but it did not have the resolution the newer ones have. The 2nd gen PC and later versions are nice and I can not wait to be able to put one on my Griso.

Elaborate on which part? The part about replacing the ECU?, for a V11 that would be Cliff's MYECU. The part about the first gen PC's not being that great? I was told they fudged sensor inputs to achieve the desired fuel output. Whether this is true or not I cannot prove. But they did not work that well. You had much less tuning ability then you do now. The saving grace for them was nobody else really made much. And by the time other companies came out with crappy sensor fudging boxes they had already figured out how to do it better. Now they make some very refined and integrated devices.

I'm sorry that what you read into my "food for thought" statement was so upsetting. But all I did was point out that my new Guzzi cost less to buy then what a friend paid for a new Guzzi in '93. I did not suggest that a new Guzzi should cost MORE then one did in '93, nor did I attempt to factor in what $17,000 was worth in '93 versus what $14,000 is worth today. Yes, they do buildmore Grisos today then they built Daytonas in '93. But as far as I know they likely actually made a profit selling Daytonas in'93 and they are not, apparently, making a profit selling Grisos today. My point was, since you did not seem to be able to grasp it the first time, is that in '93 they priced Guzzis based on how many they could sell much better then in todays Piaggio age where they based there margins on how many they wanted to sell. They set too low a price on the current bikes to make sufficient profit on them selling in the volume they sold. Period. They expected to increase sales by nearly 50% and based prices on that and instead sales were actually down from what I understand. Edit deleted

Nooo..., It was designed to correct for bad fueling demanded by EPA standards. European bikes may not have had as bad a problem with this in the past but I suspect that nowadays European bikes would benefit as much as US bikes as far as correcting poor fueling to meet emission standards. Whether Power Commanders work over there or not has little to do I suspect with whether they are common or not. More to do with market attitudes. The original Power Commander was not a great product. It relied on input trickery I believe to get a modified output. The subsequent versions are better then most like products and in my opinion about the only way to get better results is with a product that replaces the ECU altogether.

A proper two into one collector is a nice bit of kit, but if the dip in torque does not bother you then it is of no more value to you then any of the other mods.. If you like the feel of the bike as it is, then ride, ride ride.

Nooo....., the WANT to sell more Guzzi's to more people. They NEED to make a profit. The problem they have right now is that when deciding how much they can sell the new Guzzi's for they based their calculations on not how many they sold last year but how many they wanted to sell this year. That is a classic bean counter mistake. What they should have done is based the price of a new Guzzi on how many they sold last year (that would mean a higher price per bike) and if they sold more this year then they did last year they could adjust the price for next year to reflect that. Just food for thought, back in '93 my friend bought a new Daytona for $17,000 (he just sold it to me for a bit less). I bought my Griso for $14,000 in '06. No one wants to pay more for something, but selling a low volume hand built motorcycle for less today then it would have cost in '93 (not even taking into account what $17k was worth back then) is an odd business plan.

You may have a bad Power Commander, but that aside, if your bike runs better without a Power Commander then it does with one (assuming the PC is not defective) then it means the map in the PC is not correct. Even a box stock Guzzi can run better with a Power Commander then it does without. The stock map in the ECU is not even close to perfect and leaves plenty of room for improvement from a PC. You may have a bad PC and if I were you I would investigate that further, possibly by trying the same PC on another Guzzi and seeing if the same symptoms occur.

I would first check the fuse and the relay. Swap the relays around. All but one of the stock relays are the same and thus interchangable. Most seem to go with all the same when they replace them (as most end up doing). The relays are a common issue and if you check your manual you will see that one relay not working can take out several systems. I believe the systems you described are all on one relay. The head light has two different bulbs in it as I recall. The main bulb is on the same relay as the tail light I think, but the running light is on another relay and can give the impression that the headlight is lit. But all this is from memory and I could be wrong. Check the wiring diagram and it will tell you for sure.

Relays have caused the exact same symptoms on my wifes V11. I now carry spare relays whenever we go far from home. And the first time it happened my local dealer already new what was wrong before I finished describing what happened. It is a known fault. The stock relays fail. It is also true that some have had issues with the connectors that the relays plug into, so that is the next place I would look. But if you can be more specific about what happens when it doesn't start (does the fuel pump run, does the starter run, anything clicks?) we could be more specific about what to do.

I doubt that seafoam will fix a broken injector, but it is possible that yours is only dirty. But it sounds like it is broken. The spring that closes it could be broken or the shaft could be binding. But obviously it is hard to tell from here. If cleaning is actually going to work I would think it would require removing the injector from the bike and backflushing it with cleaner to force whatever could be causing it to stick open back out the larger hole at the inlet to the injector. This would be possible to rig up with a little creative thinking on your part. Personally I would try to identify who made the injector and what its part number is and buy a new, preferably matched set from a company like this. http://www.rceng.com/index.aspx Reconditioned injectors could be fine, but they do not save you that much money and personally I go on long rides on my bikes and do not want to be stranded in EBF.

Some days I'm not sure if Guzzis engineers are 50 years behind or 100 years ahead.

Well said. I would add that you can't run Guzzi the same way you would run Aprilia or Piaggio and expect it to work as well. In fact, out of all the other makes Piaggio owns, Guzzi has probably the most in common with Vespa. People do not buy Guzzis because they are the fastest or best in any given way. I bought mine (3 so far) because of the way they make me feel, the emotional connection to them. Their history and the fact that they are hand built in Mandello is part of that (to me).

Well, all this talk has motivated me to put both bikes (07 Griso 11 and 00 V11) to another back to back comparison. I have done it a few times already, but look forward to doing it again. I will agree that the Griso chassis is more complient and forgiving. But a less rigid chassis is often that way, take for example MX chassis's. The move to a more rigid chassis was followed by a steep learning curve on how to set up the suspension and even a couple steps backwards to add flex back into the chassis to "improve" handling.

I doubt that Guzzis use special injectors. You may find the same injector from a different source to be cheaper.

It looks like there are a couple changes made to accomplish the rake change. It does not appear to be merely a change in rake alone. There is a step down to lower the steering stem, and the distance from the front engine mount bolt holes (atleast that is what I think they are) to the steering stem is noticeably increased by what looks to be an inch or so. Thnks for the pics, they are worth 1,000 words each.

To each their own, you gotta go with your experiences in this matter and I have to go with mine. And mine is that I have NEVER seen a bike wobble so bad it "broke" the steering dampener, but I have seen a few broken steering dampeners cause bikes to wobble. I did have a Harley racebike wobble so bad it broke the steering stop, but it did not break the dampener. But we don't really know what happened, so it is just speculation. All I'm saying is that my V11 handles sharper then my Griso, bumpy roads or smooth it does not matter. Yes the IOM is like few other places and I would not race ANY bike around their. I do respect those who do but I do not wish to be amoung them.

If he had a broken steering dampener, that would explain why his bike was wobbling. A faulty steering dampener can without a doubt make a V11(or likely any other bike) wobble. While I have never run the IOM (and never will, those guys are wack. I was watching it in HD last night and the bikes keep getting faster but the track keeps getting bumpier it seems) I am not a someone who hasn't done things but sits on the sidelines telling people who do actually do things how they should be done. I have ridden my share of bikes around race tracks and done well enough. I make no claims to being the best, but I am far from the worst. If you disagree with me, fine. I don't really care. Personal preference is a big part of bike handling, I just happen to prefer the sharper edge of the V11 to the softer edge of the Griso.

Moving the front wheel closer to the motor and the rear wheel further back seems like going in the right direction to me. Too bad people like that don't work at Guzzi any longer.

I have both a Griso and a red frame V11, and once properly setup (the V11 needed dampning in the front forks and a quality shock) the V11 outhandles the Griso hands down. The Griso is easier to ride fast, but can not go as fast. The Grisos frame feels less stiff, not stiffer, to me and does not provide the level of feedback the V11 does. When you see a V11 wobbling or weaving, it is likely due to something not being setup right. You can make a V11 handle poorly but if you set it up right it is still the best handling bike Guzzi has built in my opinion. Style is a whole nother matter, and while I too love the looks of the V11 I also find the Griso to be beautiful. I prefer it with the pipe exiting on the right (as mine does now) and also prefer the sound of the 2 into 1 system. It has a meaner, less Ducati like tone.