What did you do with your GRiSO today?

That Mivv can looks the business.

Made a tail tidy for the GRiSO including a LED lamp to illuminate the plate, much cleaner look I think.
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Nice work!

Yeah, but why would you want to make it easier for the authorities to read your license plate?

Despite my hands killing me I finally got Mark S's bike up and running today. It's been a long slog to actually sort this huge, green, turd but it's now making noise!

This is one of those real unfortunate purchases where a bike is bought and an avalanche of problems cascades down on it. I reckon the owner flick passed it knowing the cams were on the way out. I rollerised it, (But with no service history it was a full dollar job.) and then it still made a horrid noise. Sounded like top end but turned out to be bottom end, probably the result of tappet frag .

Anyway it needed the 'Full Monty'! Crank linish, re-size rods, new oil pump. Shit, this is the most expensive Tenni GRiSO in the fucking universe. I haven't even begun the bill yet.

Pete

Had a great evening ride after work. Warm and sunny, but with a cool breeze. Did a beautiful 60 mile loop. Just one of those rides where everything was in the groove.

Pete Roper wrote:

Word of advice. Don't start it up in cold weather and let it idle for a bit. Idling won't put significant heat into the lump in ten minutes. All you'll be doing is puting more water into the engine which is, IMHO, a major contributor to the tappet issues some 8V's suffer.

If you don't ride in winter? Put it to bed and don't wake it up again until you are going to ride. Then thrash the clacker out of it!

Pete

Question on this Pete.

Is there any chance that bikes like mine which have had oil exiting / weeping from gallery plug points could also be building internal condensation at that point as a result of the leak / improper fit or whatever you would like to call it?

As mentioned, the tappets failed just under 10,000 clicks FWIW.

Thoughts?

Nope.

1151 wrote:

Pete Roper wrote:

Word of advice. Don't start it up in cold weather and let it idle for a bit. Idling won't put significant heat into the lump in ten minutes. All you'll be doing is puting more water into the engine which is, IMHO, a major contributor to the tappet issues some 8V's suffer.

If you don't ride in winter? Put it to bed and don't wake it up again until you are going to ride. Then thrash the clacker out of it!

Pete

Question on this Pete.

Is there any chance that bikes like mine which have had oil exiting / weeping from gallery plug points could also be building internal condensation at that point as a result of the leak / improper fit or whatever you would like to call it?

As mentioned, the tappets failed just under 10,000 clicks FWIW.

Thoughts?

Have to say that after reading about the gallery plugs, I did have a good look at mine with a torch. All was good.

I had a great 10 mile blat with a GS1200 on the A43 on the way home from the Peak District. It's a mix of curved dual carriageways and roundabouts. The GRiSO gets the power down so well off the roundabouts. We both had a big nod and wave as we split directions near the M40.

Nut holding the sidestand has fallen off. I don't have one that will fit in the vast array of nuts in the sidrat garage, will have to buy one. It has made me think that it is one of the worst features of the bike, so many times i have put it into gear and not put the sidestand down, i have now learnt to look just in case, but it could also do with being tucked out of the way for ground clearance too, i guess its a longer term project to look at.

I installed the custom brake lines I ordered from HEL. I was able to reinstall my bar risers and fix the RCS in a more suitable position.

I thought my bike had been behaving less brilliantly than usual so I rollerised it today and Lo and behold the flat tappets had shat themselves. Caught 'em nice and early but the oil was beginning to get smelly.

Glad I had bought myself a C Kit a couple of years ago

Pete

Pete Roper wrote:

I thought my bike had been behaving less brilliantly than usual so I rollerised it today and Lo and behold the flat tappets had shat themselves. Caught 'em nice and early but the oil was beginning to get smelly.

Glad I had bought myself a C Kit a couple of years ago

Pete

Pete, does it mean that, given time and mileage, flat tappets will eventually fail?

I think it really depends on the issues I've listed before. Last winter here was very cool and moist, (Our winters near Canberra are usually bitterly cold but dry!) and this one has also been wetter than usual. When I pulled the rocker covers today they were full of Mayo.

Actually I blame it on Salkeld! He borrowed my bike to go to the Ruptured Budgie rally in Queensland so it's all his fault!

Pete

Base on that theory, mine is the least possible to chew it's tappets.

I use fully syn 10W60 from day one, ambient temperature is always 30 degree Celsius and above, I don't ride in the rain, when the engine is fired up each time, I will only turn it off after 100km or more.

Which ticks all the boxes! But working on the principle of 'Better Safe Than Sorry' I would swap to rollers if a.) You are planning on keeping the machine forever and b.) If they do fail and you don't catch it early the results can be catastrophic.

As it stands I'll be flinging in a warranty claim on mine but I'd already decided I would buy a kit and have it on hand in case this eventuality occurred. It will be interesting to see if the factory honours the warranty on a seven year old 90,000km motor!

At the end of the day the top end issues seem to have been cured by the adoption of the roller top end. I haven't heard of any roller failures. My advice to prospective owners is if you are buying try to find a roller bike or tread very carefully and make sure you have all the info and a full service history on a flat tappet bike.

One of the problems with a bike running the stock closed loop map is that it will trim around the changes in breathing as the tappets and cam wear more effectively so the damage won't be as noticeable in its very early stages as it is with an open loop map. I could tell something wasn't right with mine which is why I hadn't been riding it in the last couple of weeks. That had whiskers on it so I said "Sod work" today and hooked in. Glad I did but the warning signs were an alteration in the way it was running, hard to describe but I could feel it, and the oil was discolouring too fast and was beginning to smell of 'Dead Engine'. If in doubt? Sniff your dipstick! If you'll pardon the expression.

Pete

That's a very interesting observation about the closed loop map trimming on the tappet wear.

After 5 years owning the GRiSO from new, I am quite sure it will stay with me as long as I can still ride.

Now I just need some motivation to part with the dough

So Pete, the sound of two cheese graters fornicating in a dustbin has gone now ?

Yes, but that was down to the early un-shimmed cams in my A5 motor, not the tappets going west. Really, Mark S will back me up on this. A5's sound awful, his was the same but there was nothing wrong with it!

Mine now sounds like her standard roller bike which means it makes a different noise which I find very hard to describe? A sort of 'Hollow Rattling' noise??? (Shrug?) It's just *Different*.

Pete

Quote :

Lo and behold the flat tappets had shat themselves. Caught 'em nice and early

Nice catch!

If you miss the "unique" sound maybe you could put some gravel in one of the tires to bring back weird noises? Or a card in the spokes? (Oh wait, you probably have non-spoke wheels - how about a curb-feeler rigged so it drags the ground?)

Wonderbra.

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cons:
- looks a bit cheapo
pros:
- a formidable rest for knees/shins when heavy braking before hard cornering (if you're a long legs fitted tallboy like me)
- bit more heat isolation when driving with biker jeans on hot days

GRiSO on high heel(s).

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Used Stelvio shock does fit in the GRiSO.

pros:
- if you're tall and heavy (190 cm/≥ 110 Kg with gear), than the longer Stelvio shock (+ 1 cm) gives you more overall headroom
- spring has obviously a different rate and fits better higher weights. Required preload is much less than on the GRiSO one
- you are able to adjust spring preload without torturing crown nut or even dismantling back wheel
(- bike is handier if you lower the forks, too)

cons:
- rebound damping adjust screw is only accessible if bike is on a center stand and swingerarm is totally relieved …
- no more compression damping adjustment, cause the Stelvio shock doesn't have it (but till now i didn't missed it…)
- changing the shock is laborious

well i'm currently ordering a new exaust for it, Agostini HF nero GRiSO tadaaam !
and cleaning it with a nice product Vulcanet, dont know if you have it in your country, no water needed
very nice stuff.

love this bike

Pete Roper wrote:

I thought my bike had been behaving less brilliantly than usual so I rollerised it today and Lo and behold the flat tappets had shat themselves. Caught 'em nice and early but the oil was beginning to get smelly.

Glad I had bought myself a C Kit a couple of years ago

Pete

Good catch Pete, Did you overhaul the Heads as well, valves, seats, guides etc. or did you just change the cam box set-up this time ?

At the moment the intention is that my 2011 Tenni with the A8 engine will be a long term keeper. With just over 23 K kilometres on the clock she sounds and runs perfectly.

I suppose it might be prudent to keep an eye out for a replacement Roller Kit to switch her out at some point, just a bit of a pain in the bollox to do it on an engine that is running fine!!

Has Paul or anyone in Europe any idea how much the Roller Kit costs in Euros? I would do the fitting myself.

Thanks for the info.