Marco's Rosso Griso 1100

My friend Marco and his girlfriend Jennifer stopped by tonight to drop off Marco's new red Griso. What a beauty she is! Marco took my Breva back home with him tonight...and I think he likes it!

I am lucky enough to get to perform a tune-up on the Griso tomorrow. Marco needed to drop it off early as it takes several hours for the bike to cool down enough (room temp) so that the valve clearances in the motor can be checked accurately. I like to work on bikes. It's relaxing and it takes my mind off other things.

Apparently the bike had already been taken in for its 600 mile initial service, but I have my doubts that the dealer did much of anything. You see these new bikes seemingly have the valve clearances set quite a bit out of spec from the factory. At the 600 mile service these clearances should be set to proper spec, which is .10mm for the intake valve clearance and .15mm for the exhaust valve clearance.

Here you can see the rocker arms (copper colored) for the intake valve and the exhaust valve. It's that very small gap between the rocker arm and the valve stem that we are measuring with a feeler gauge. The piston you are working on needs to be at top dead center (TDC) on its power stroke.

To determine that the piston is at TDC, you can look at the flywheel through a small sight window on the side of the bike(see picture). The flywheel has markings on it indicating TDC for the right (D) cylinder and the left (S) cylinder. The "D"(destra) and "S"(sinistra?) are Italian for right and left. You can turn the motor manually by removing the rubber cap on the front of the bike to access a large nut(see picture). Use a ratchet to turn the nut clockwise to turn the motor.

When measuring the gap, it's not an exact science. I don't have some laser gap measuring device...I have a set of feeler gauges...thin strips of metal of varying thickness. You want to feel for a slight drag on the feeler gauge as you measure the gap. That being said, either the dealership which did the 600 mile service 1)did not set the valve clearances or 2)set them incorrectly.

The valve clearances are adjusted with a simple screw and locknut system. An 11mm wrench is needed to loosen the locknut and the screw can be adjusted with a small pair of pliers or a small visegrip. I measured the right cylinder intake valve clearance to be .21 mm (spec is .10mm). The right cylinder exhaust valve clearance was .24mm(spec is .15mm). Similarly, the left cylinder intake valve clearance was .16 mm (spec is .10mm). The right cylinder exhaust valve clearance was .23mm(spec is .15mm). I reset the clearances to proper spec. These out of spec clearances are not unusual on a new Guzzi from my experience.

Marco came over Tuesday a.m. and we continued on by hooking the Griso up to the Technoresearch software and to the TwinMax(see picture) throttle body balancing device to finish tuning the bike. The bike is connected to the laptop pc by a special cable which interfaces to the electronic control unit (ECU/computer) on the bike. The Technoresearch software then allows you to communicate with the bike(see picture).

The TwinMax is connected with two hoses to the throttle bodies of the bike. It has a simple gauge which measures vacuum. It is used to balance the two throttle bodies on the bike. Using the TwinMax and the Technoresearch software we were able to tune the bike further.

Soon after we were finished my friend Andrew showed up on his Triumph Tiger and we went for a brisk ride. Marco reported that the bike was running in a swell fashion. Most excellent! Now it is time for me to watch football :=)

Planning a Guzzi gathering

A few weeks ago I posted a message on a couple Moto Guzzi discussion forums about the possibility of Guzzi owners in the central Florida area getting together for lunch.

Well, the response has been beyond my expectations to say the least! At this point, it looks like we will have between over 30 Guzzi owners gathering for lunch! One couple is even planning to ride down from Atlanta, GA!

Looks like we are going to meet at a place called Pisces Rising in beautiful Mount Dora, FL. Really looking forward to meeting my fellow Moto Guzzi riders :=)

Out for a spin with friends....

Today I went for a little lunch ride with some motorcycling friends, including 2 new ones. Alan and Andrew were on their S4R Ducati Monsters, Bob was on his Harley Davidson Heritage Softail, Rob was on his Kawasaki Vulcan, Marc was on his red Moto Guzzi Griso and his girlfriend Jen was on her Hyosung GT250. I rode the black Griso today.

We took a nice scenic and at times windy little path to Cross Creek, Florida, stopping for lunch at the Yearling restaurant. Wow was that good! I had the pan seared duck breast served with a fresh cranberry glaze. Andrew had quail, Marc had a sample plate of all sorts of neat stuff (alligator, frog legs, etc.), Jen had a really good looking steakburger, Bob and Rob had different kinds of fish and Alan had venison.

It was a beautiful day, with a high around 82. All told we put a little over 200 miles on the bikes. A whole lot of fun!

A little one on one with the Griso

I spent some time tonight working on the Griso. There was a recall on a piece of fuel hose between the fuel pump and the fuel filter. This stuff is all submersed in the fuel tank.

Soooo, off came the tank and such and out came the fuel pump assembly. Snipped off the old hose and on with the new, clamped it down and put everything back together and hey, it started right up! Yeah!

My "assistant" and oftimes mentor, Jim, showed up late for the event and with nothing left to be done, we cranked up some XM radio tunage, inhaled some ales and admired the bikes in my garage for a few hours. Ahhhh, what a nice Florida night!

Merry Christmas!

I wish for all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas, a happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous 2008!

Konan's pocket rocket

My neighbor Bonnie bought her son Konan a "pocket rocket" motorbike. It has a 110 cc 4 stroke motor. I think it puts out maybe 15 horsepower. Pretty neat little bike! Here are a couple pics of it as well as a few shots of the Breva and Griso after a bath :=)

Grrrrrrrrrrrriso!

I got an offer I could not refuse from my friend to buy his 2006 Moto Guzzi Griso. Back when I bought the Breva, I looked hard at the Griso. It's such a lovely looking bike, but was too expensive and just was not suitable in my mind for the type of longer distance touring i like to do.

So I bought the Breva, a great all-around bike. However I always harbored thoughts of getting a Griso one day. Well, the day arrived sooner than I expected, but I knew I'd never get this kind of deal on the bike, so I jumped at it.

Brrrr, a taste of winter in sunny Florida

'Twas a cold ride in to work today! My Breva's thermometer said 37 degrees Fahrenheit! Not cold by some standards but cold enough at 80-85 mph!

3 cool Guzzis....

Here are some pics of 3 Guzzis I like A LOT! The Centauro, made in the late 1990's, the LeMans, made in the early to mid 2000's and the Griso, currently made by Moto Guzzi.

A nice video of a LeMans in action {clicky}

Modern classics

Lately I have had an eye for modern motorcycles which have classic lines of the past. Unadorned by excess bits and pieces which obscure the simple beauty of a motorcycle. Here are a few which I like.

Visit to the Ducati shop

I rode down the road to Longwood, Florida with my friend Andrew to see the unveiling of a new Ducati motorcycle called the 848. Very racey looking bike, powerful, sleek. Here are some pics.

Burger run! (aka Bob and Chris' excellent adventure)

Today one of my riding "brothers"/coworker Bob and I made a run to Palatka, Florida for a hamburger! We went to Angel's Diner, a converted railcar which has served as a diner since 1932.

I had the 1/2 lb combo platter whilst Bob decided the more cow, the better and got the 3/4 pound burger platter. Really neat place and great grub!

We then rode to the coast (Flagler Beach) and meandered our way down coastal highway A1A, stopping for a few snapshots.

It was a heckuva fun ride. Perfect weather, sunny and 78 degrees. About 160 miles all told.

I also reached a milestone I had been shooting for. I purchased the Breva on 12/12/2006 and wanted to put 15,000 miles on the bike within 1 year. Well, I reached 15,000 miles today! Yahoo!!