GuzziMoto

I tried, at the suggestion of my local dealer, a BikeMaster brand battery. It looked like a Yuasa, but was a lot less expensive. Not only did it not last long enough, but it failed suddenly and as we were leaving for our bike trip out to Indy for MotoGP. I had to get a replacement battery to fit at the last minute. I'll never try that again.

Dang, that's funny. I nearly pissed my pants when I read that. Thanks, RH. I needed a good laugh.

With humor. But seriously, if we don't survive but we spent the money/made the effort, does it matter? I personally would rather die trying then die fat. Remember, it's not whether you win or lose, well, yeah it is. I think the arguement that we may not survive even if we spend the money/make the effort is nuts.

If it is ABS plastic(or something like it), you want a glue that contains MEK(Methyl Ethyl Ketone) to repair it. It comes in different forms ranging from thinner then water to thick and gooey. It will melt the plastics and allow them to fuse, then evaporate so the plastic can re-harden. Like these... http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/ABS-Glue

You do have a point. "Honorable" is a subjective term. To you, trying to prevent deaths of children from toxic substances is "Fascism". To me it is not. But then, your superior intellect is there to save me from Fascism and brakes that are too powerful for my own good. Thanks.

This is not "Fascism" but rather inept"ism". No one involed in this cockup is trying to take away motorcycles, they just did not word a well meaning but overzealous bill well at all and things that were not meant to be included are. It is an example of goverment ineptitude and that crosses party lines.

That is up there with them adding motorcycles to HOV lanes. Every now and then even a blind squirrel finds a nut.

Motomonster, any chance you will post your map in the map section?

Sorry, if I had any sense I would just walk away, but I'm not seeing the difference between these two concepts. Please enlighten me. RH-"the more optimal solution would be to make a direct thermal contact between the holder and sensor and THEN make a new map based on a more accurate temp sensor read...... I don't recall reading an account on this Forum of anyone who's done this. " Me-"If your asking if anyones improved the response of the sensor (with thermal paste, brass holder, whatever), I'm sure a few have. I know I have, ..........Improving the response of your head temp sensor as Pete suggested and then tuning the bike to get maximum benefit out of it is the best solution in my opinion." What is the difference between your "direct thermal contact" with "a new map based on a more accurate temp sensor read" and the rest of us improving sensor accuracy with thermal paste, a brass holder, whatever, and then tuning the injection to get maximum benefit out of it?

If your asking if anyones improved the response of the sensor (with thermal paste, brass holder, whatever), I'm sure a few have. I know I have, but I've been trying to stay out of this as much as possible. I know I haven't been entirely sucessful. Improving the response of your head temp sensor as Pete suggested and then tuning the bike to get maximum benefit out of it is the best solution in my opinion. Anyone who wants to do otherwise is welcome to, and I will even enjoy reading about it. But it makes no sense to me unless you are just doing it for the sake of learning.

If we spend the money and don't survive, I can live with that.

If that's the case, the TempR lines you refer to do nothing but give the actual temp as interpreted by the ECU for the given resistence in Ohms. It does not show what the ECU does with it.

Precision is an aftermarket shop geared towards Harleys, but they say they do all bikes. Don't know how much they know about Guzzis, but I'm sure they could figure them out.

No shop in Beltsville. They meant Speeds. Speeds is not a BAD shop, they are all right. I personally may not take my bike there anymore for service, but that is just me. Battleys does not do Guzzis. If you have good experiences at Speeds (many do) then by all means keep shopping there. They are a good bunch of guys. I don't care for the boutique thing they are leaning towards, but they are not the only ones going that route. Please keep comments on dealers positive and/or objective in public.

There seems to be a few who think that everything Guzzi does is purposeful and for the best. I do not believe that to be the case. Many things they (and other manufacturers) do is because it is cheaper/easier or because they don't put the time into it to figure out what the best way to do it would be (it costs money to R&D it). The fact that the temp sensor came a certain way does not mean that is the ideal way, and the fact that the injection was set up with the temp sensor that way does not mean it was optimized for it. The injection is set up to pass emissions first and foremost. Making it run acceptably is somewhere down the list. While you may be able to make your bike run better by fudging the temp sensor or the TPS, neither is the right way to do it and will not work as well as adjusting the injection to match what is really going on. And the more accurate your sensors are reading, the better you can set up the injection to run.

I assume you mean the shop on the south side of Baltimore, not Beltsville. I don't want to beat on them for issues I have with them. They just have not serviced my bikes in a manner that keeps me happy. I am not suggesting that anyone else should stop going there. If you are a happy customer of theirs, great. If you want to PM me to talk about it in private, that's fine. I don't want to air dirty laundry in public.

Well played my good man, well played. No, I did not have you confused, I was just poking the bear. Bad habit of mine.

Motomonster, I would buy that, but the biggest flaw in that is that a high quality radial master cylinder is not going to really make the brakes more prone to locking up. What it does do is increase the feel at the lever (allowing you to hold it closer to the point of maximum braking) and decrease slightly (very slightly) the amount of effort required to achieve a given amount of braking. If you reflexively grab a big handful of brakes at a moment of panic your front wheel is likely to lock either way. That is not a proper reflection of the brakes but of rider error. It can happen to anybody. The more time you spend riding at the limits in a controlled enviroment the less likely that is to happen, though.

What does a pad compound that has too much initial bite (a bad thing on the track or on the street) have to do with improving your brakes? It does have something to do with the fact that looking ones brakes is not a direct reflection of how good they are. Being able to lock tour front tire is not the point of brakes, stopping the bike is. And if you change a part on your bike so that it can stop in a shorter distance, how is that a bad thing. But then, arguing that point with someone who has resorted to the "If god meant for man to fly he would have given him wings" approach is pissing in the wind.

According to Dictionary.com it is the same as Technique, "technical skill; ability to apply procedures or methods so as to effect a desired result." But I just did not feel it was needed to type an extra two letters. My apologies.

I'm probably going to regret pointing this out, but "locking the front wheel" is more a measure of poor braking technic then it is braking power. The fact that you can lock the front wheel if you grab a big hand full of brakes all at once is a measure of brake performance about as much as doing a burnout is a measure of horsepower.

I agree with Pete about the Griso being one of the most stylish bikes from Guzzi in a long time (I would rank it second to the MGS01), but I like the Zero as well. I think it looks great, but I would not trade my Griso for it. It trades style for usefulness. The Little Italy bike is much less modified and much more useful. But I do prefer my RacerX pipe to theirs. I think the Griso is only really in need of a bar swap and a paint job to be right for me. How long it will take me to do that remains to be seen.

Clearly if you ride any Guzzi, you care not only about performance that can be measured but more importantly you care about performance that CAN NOT be measured. Otherwise, you would likely ride a Honda. There is not much, if anything, that a Guzzi can do measureably that a Honda cannot do better. But there are many things in life that cannot be measured that are worth having. I, for one, prefer the way a Guzzi feels to the feel of a Honda. There is also the issue of better performance through higher quality parts and/or better feel. You can measure the shorter stopping distances that better brakes provide. I have not done so because I have better things to do. If anyone else is bored and feels the need, go right ahead. Do you or I NEED those better brakes and the feel and shorter stoppng distances they provide? That is a personal question much like whether or no to own a Guzzi is. Not everybody wants or needs better brakes, some people may want them but not need them and some may not want them at all. But if someone does want them the fact that someone else does not want or need them has little relevance. If my pointing out that better brakes will do a poor rider little or no good makes you feel like you are being attacked, oh well. If you think pushing your limits on the street is a good way to polish your skills, then I hope to never be riding around you. That is just wrong. The street is a bad place to push the limits. Where I'm from we would call those people "squids". My guess is you did not really mean that you push the limits on the street. I hope you meant that you are content to ride on the streets and consider riding itself an act of "polishing your skills". That is not polishing your skills in my book, but it's a free country.

Part of what makes a "radial" master cylinder better is that it offers a more direct path for the force from your hand squeezing the lever. The other part of the equation is that it is a higher quality piece than the mass produced stock part. To answer your questions, 1. I have not found that the stock brakes are not powerful enough, but I have found that they require more effort per unit of braking force than a higher quality setup provides. 2. Yes, they lack feel. This is something that people will likely not have an issue with unless they have ridden bikes with better brake feel. Once you get used to better brake feel, what seemed acceptable before is no longer. If yo can not feel the difference, that does not mean it is not there, only that you are not able to feel something that others can. I can not measure your ego, does that mean it does not exist? 3. No, I have not found them to be prone to fading on the street, but a radial master cylinder has little to do with that anyway. 4. Occasionally I have found that the stopping distance of the stock equipped bike is a little long for my tastes. This has not been a major issue as I tend to leave extra room for stopping on the street. But on the street unexpected things happen, and it is better to have a larger margin of safety rather than a smaller one. 5. A high quality radial master cylinder will give you more stopping power for less effort due to the better path for the energy of your hand. It also will give you better feel of that energy to allow you to modulate the brakes better. This would allow you to maintain a higher level of braking with a larger margin of safety, with the obvious result of shorter stopping distances should the need arise. Note, all this is dependant on the riders ability to take advantage of the improvements. If you suck as a rider, a higher quality master cylinder, radial or not, will not make you a better rider. I can't help you there. Edit; Normally I ride my Guzzi on the street, but both my wife and I have been known to take part in sanctioned parking lot racing and an occasional track day every couple of years to blow out the cob webs. If you don't polish your skills every now and then they rust.

It's better then the black or red color choices we got.