New GRiSO owner

Dear All,

As winter approached and bikers here in Central Ohio were culling their herds, great deals were available ! Not 1/2 mile from my house a 2013 1200 8V SE with 13,000 miles was going for sale.

Promising many things to the Boss, I brought this GRiSO home, getting in a 30 mile test ride before the snow arrived and storing her in the garage.

In my middle years I had returned to Motorbikes in 2012, buying a 2004 V11 Sport Naked. One of what I saw as the successors to the MG Le Mans bikes of the 70's & 80's, which is when I had been riding.

I grewing up in Newark, Notts and can relate to the Sleaford & Nottingham owners here. Moved to London for a few years in the early 1980's when Bike messengers ruled the roads & there lusted after the gloriously sounding Guzzi's.

Over the past years I have found I enjoy the working on my bike almost as much as riding. Enjoying learning from the Forums & meeting people at some of the Rallies.

Having read more than once of the passion many GRiSO owners have for their bikes, particularly how some favor the GRiSO over the V11 Sport, I thought having both bikes would let me make that comparison directly. The promise being to the Boss I would keep only one. We shall see.

Anyway, looking forward to reading & wrenching over the winter.

Merry Christmas All !

Tim

Welcome Tim! How about a pic of BOTH the V11 and the GRiSO?
Best to you, and good luck waiting until Spring to ride!!

Tim, you just spelled favour, favor.

Welcome Tim from the member near Sleaford! :-)

Papa Lazarou wrote:

Tim, you just spelled favour, favor.

No problem ... as long as one of those Grisos is in the proper colour.

Bill

Welcome Tim!

Papa Lazarou wrote:

Tim, you just spelled favour, favor.

I left England when I turned 26. For 27 years I have been trying to speak so the natives can understand me.
Spelling mistakes will be made

Welcome, Tim.

Here is my 2004 V11 Sport[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is the 2013 GRiSO[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Nice on both counts! Come to the VA rally this year as we need some more GRiSO representation!

Nobleswood wrote:

Here is my 2004 V11 Sport[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Gorgeous!

Bill

Thanks Bill,

That picture was taken at Tellico Plains this year. Maybe in 2017 you'll bring your red GRiSO ?

Bill used to have a Ballabio so that micture probably made him go all teary and moist! ;D

Pete

Nobleswood wrote:

Papa Lazarou wrote:

Tim, you just spelled favour, favor.

I left England when I turned 26. For 27 years I have been trying to speak so the natives can understand me.
Spelling mistakes will be made

Aarrgghh. He's gone Mericun.

Welcome.

Pete Roper wrote:

Bill used to have a Ballabio so that micture probably made him go all teary and moist! ;D

Pete

Just found this quote;

But, I really did miss the Ballabio. The Norge and EV scratched itches, but not the one that cries out for a solo rides in the hills.

So, when I was having the Norge reshod at Rose Farm Classics, the Guzzi dealer in the Chicago burbs (and more of the latter than the former), I saw a red GRiSO. The rest is history ... and, I trust, lots of future.

So Bill, how would you compare the two ?

Nobleswood wrote:

Thanks Bill,

That picture was taken at Tellico Plains this year. Maybe in 2017 you'll bring your red  GRiSO ?

Just might.  It tried to get there in 2013, but I fell off of it.  

So, I did bring ride it down in 2014.


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


For those who might not know you in your previous V11 incarnation, here you are at the 2016 South’n Spine Raid at Tellico Plains this past September.


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


That and the rest of the story are here (for those terminally bored in the Northern Hemisphere during The Long Cold Dark:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Nobleswood wrote:

Pete Roper wrote:

Bill used to have a Ballabio so that micture probably made him go all teary and moist! ;D

Pete

Just found this quote;

But, I really did miss the Ballabio. The Norge and EV scratched itches, but not the one that cries out for a solo rides in the hills.

So, when I was having the Norge reshod at Rose Farm Classics, the Guzzi dealer in the Chicago burbs (and more of the latter than the former), I saw a red GRiSO. The rest is history ... and, I trust, lots of future.

So Bill, how would you compare the two ?

Hang on.  This is LONG.

Pete is right.  I do nearly go misty-eyed when I think about my departed Ballabio.  I should not have sold it.

WRT comparing the two, what I do find wonderfully interesting is that others talk about how “refined” the GRiSO is and the V11 in its several variants more visceral.

IMO, the very opposite is true.  I do agree that the GRiSO is more technically advanced — though all Guzzis still have (thankfully) at least one wheel in the 20th century — but, as much as I loved the Ballabio, I find the GRiSO much more “bruto” than the V11.  

I did have mine a bit overstock, with Mistral cans, a Scura ECU, and an Ohlins rear shock.  It was a joy to ride.  I miss it.


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My GRiSO is pretty much out-of-the-box stock, tho Jim Barron has a magic touch and, in addition to original set-up, did the rollerizing, etc.  Fueling is linear and exceptional.  

There is, however, as I said above, an undeniable guttural gruffness to the GRiSO that I find both intoxicating and endearing.  The Ballabio had a sound I cannot reproduce on the GRiSO, though I am quite happy with that on the latter.  I am not sure that the Ballabio wasn’t quicker.  I have the Ballabio’s dyno results somewhere, and can’t find without googling the HP and other stat comparisons for both.  I don’t care.  

I have said here and elsewhere that I have not liked the GRiSO’s handling, especially in comparison with the Norge, but also WRT the Ballabio.  

But, as I have also written here more recently, I was wrong.  I now realize the GRiSO is just different, and — while one can do some triple-tree adjustments and other tweaks — it just takes more counter steering pushing than I have been used to doing.

So, side-by-side, if I had to choose one over the other, I couldn’t.  Nah, yes, I could.  

GRiSO.

But I’ll still miss the Ballabio.  After all, a harem is a grand thing … and you still have that redhead.

Bill

Thanks Bill

Welcome Tim and Merry Christmas right bake at you, good looking bikes I might add