The "Grand Quirk"

[docc]

Reading April 2006 "Cycle World", an article by Phil Schilling on the Moto Parilla, he states, "No Italian motorcycle would be authentic and complete without its Grand Quirk. For Ducati it's the desmodromic valve system. In the case of Parilla, it's the high-cam engine . . . "

 

And in the case of the V11 Moto Guzzi?

[slug]

I like to think of my Guzzi as one giant quirk

[mdude]

it must be the disastrous ECU with its fuel maps of hell, together with suspension settings originally intended for 12year old jockeys.

[Guest redguzziv10]

...Or the tendancy to start only after several lock-to-lock turns of the handlebars.

What the chuff is that all about?

[luhbo]

After many years of addictiv Guzzi abuse I'd say it's its subtle inconspicuousness. On a Guzzi you'll never stand in the center of the crowd's attention, but probably most of them will ask themself later on: "And what was this bike in the background, the little one with the giant engine? Ah, this was a Guzzi, wow, it realy doesn't look like what it is, does it?"

 

You enter this sports bike in the morning, and in the evening after 600km you go down of it, as if doing such things was your second nature. Probably not very much people who do so then will whine about any funny starting procedure. The more as this is so easily to repair...

 

Hubert

[grossohc]

...Or the tendancy to start only after several lock-to-lock turns of the handlebars.

What the chuff is that all about?

You probably have loose wires under the tank. I did, tightened the connections on the left side (I think from the clutch and/or sidestand) and no more problems Do a search on here and you will find the remedy. End of Quirck

Gary

[orangeokie]

Easy Peasy . . . It's the stock battery and relays.

Speedo cable comes in a close second.

[OldButNotDead]

Reading April 2006 "Cycle World", an article by Phil Schilling on the Moto Parilla, he states, "No Italian motorcycle would be authentic and complete without its Grand Quirk. For Ducati it's the desmodromic valve system. In the case of Parilla, it's the high-cam engine . . . "

 

And in the case of the V11 Moto Guzzi?

 

 

The Grand Quirk is the old guy sitting on it - he can't quit the silly machine, but struggles to explain why. Likewise, "flaws" make my Italian spouse compelling. Chemistry, love, hormones? Definitely NOT boring.

[Guest Nogbad]

Surely to qualify as a "Quirk" a feature has to be deliberate and a weird way of doing stuff. Desmo qualifies. All these gripes like poor ECU maps etc mentioned here are merely issues of quality, either of design or of manufacture. These are not quirks.

 

I am struggling to identify a quirk in my Guzzi as a matter of fact. It is the epitome of convention (for a shaft driven bike)

 

The Buell is quirky though, oil in the swingarm, petrol in the frame, weird geometry and brakes, barking mad concentration on getting the mass in the middle even if it makes other things nigh on impossible.

[ferguzzi]

surely the biggest quirk is that the riders are a bunch of weirdos!

[Baldini]

.....I am struggling to identify a quirk in my Guzzi as a matter of fact. It is the epitome of convention (for a shaft driven bike)

 

The Buell is quirky though, oil in the swingarm, petrol in the frame, weird geometry and brakes, barking mad concentration on getting the mass in the middle even if it makes other things nigh on impossible.

 

Buell? Pah! Across the frame crank v twins are ten a penny, the other stuff is peripherals - the very heart of a Guzzi is it's biggest quirk - take a look: a big v twin with it's crank running along the frame - not many of them about these days...

 

KB

[pShenk]

Reading April 2006 "Cycle World", an article by Phil Schilling on the Moto Parilla, he states, "No Italian motorcycle would be authentic and complete without its Grand Quirk. For Ducati it's the desmodromic valve system. In the case of Parilla, it's the high-cam engine . . . "

 

And in the case of the V11 Moto Guzzi?

 

Did he mean "quirk" like it's a bad thing? Desmodronic, I thought was kind of a breakthrough for Ducati. Sure, it's hard to maintain, but it set that engine on the map.

 

I'd think the transverse-mounted (is that saying it right?) twin is the main quirk of the Guzzi. Or, just the engine itself. I met a guy up at Alice's once that had built a small old sports car powerd by a Guzzi engine. (Maybe it was one of you people?). That was before I was riding Guzzis, and I didn't really appreciate it at the time. But it DID make an impression on me.

 

It's certainly the most visually distinguishing trait.

[Guest ratchethack]

Did he mean "quirk" like it's a bad thing? Desmodronic, I thought was kind of a breakthrough for Ducati. Sure, it's hard to maintain, but it set that engine on the map.

IIRC, while it certainly has been a differentiator for Ducati, desmodromic valve actuation had been adopted on a limited basis by many mfgr's, raced, and for the most part rejected as impractical for most kinds of applications, including commercial use in car engines starting some 40 years before Ducati first used it (possibly longer than this, up until the time decent coil valve springs first became readily available after the '20's, I think would make sense?) Ducati and Mercedes F1 racing both resurrected the design in the mid-'50's as I recall. At that time, advances in metallurgy and more modern manufacturing capabilities helped Ducati partially reclaim some of the benefits (achieving higher RPM without valve float, more aggressive valve opening and closing rates, timing, etc.) as well as some of the prior trade-off considerations that still make it a fiddly & quirky thing today.

. . . . . transverse-mounted . . . . .

Think crankshaft orientation. The Guzzi V-twin is a longitudinal layout.

[docc]

Longitudinal crank, yes . . . and transverse cylinders. But is that really quirky?

 

It worries me that Nog thinks his Buell is quirky (it is) but the Guzzi maybe isn't. Is it?

 

Modern Triumphs have dodgier air-fueliignition mapping, but they're more Japanese than Italian.

 

Sure they're undersprung and all, more for the nimble minx . . .

[Greg Field]

The grand Quirk is the cylinders sticking up and out and in the way of properly positioning the rider for good weight distribution.