What did you do with your GRiSO today?

Very nice Mark Watch those tyres, I still have them on mine, I think they are trying to kill me, feel greasy even on dry roads.

Awesome Mark!

Too right, most of us are not 20 anymore, tell me bout'it .....
Keep smilin

MalG wrote:

Something is seriously wrong with that bike. I've never had anything even close to that on either of the V7's, & I've never heard of others who have. Neither has a mate who rides his '11 Racer (std racer suspension) a lot harder than I do, even doubling the advisory speed up the Imlay road sweepers last month. Check it out carefully - tyres?, balance? Wheel bearings? Frame integrity? Suspension fastening? What else?

It seems that it can't handle changes in the Tarmac in the sweepers. On the straight, it's OK if you spend less than $1.40. The rough stuff (frequent in these parts) cause a little tank slapper. Same amount in the sweepers, and she wallows unless its smooth. Any variation in the surface makes it squirm. Spend less, say $1.20, and mostly good. Tank slappers turn into a nudge and the wallow is less pronounced. Keep in mind I'm used to a on-rails handling GRiSO with updated high-end suspension. On the same road, the GRiSO doesn't even move at $1.60. I'm also only two cheeseburgers short of 100kg, which isn't helping.


Today I found out not to crack the throttle open wide from low speed in 1st. You get an air gap between tyre and road. That was unexpected. I now also know why people replace the stock mufflers with aftermarket jobbies. It's virtually impossible to lower the side stand with the stockers. You also risk abrasion.

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Interesting Bottle, they are Metzler Roadtec Z8's which are light years better than M3's they used to put on and I have used them before with great mileage and good rain performance. They even worked really well on my trip to WA where they turned in to triangles from leaning left into the side winds on the way across the Nullabor and leaning right on the way back. Not as good as MP4's which may go on at the first change.
Yes Pete point taken, I have used a few of my cat lives already and don't want to run out of them and a greater force has already given me due warning, no not God the one at home. It appears God is on my side whoever she is and I don't want to test the goodwill I have already been shown.

@ Mark, Hmmmm, maybe my tyres were made after a pub lunch and they forgot to put the gription in the mixing bowl. I did initially like them for the first few thousand klicks but it was like someone threw a switch and they didn't want to play anymore

With the V7 I'm wondering if it's steering head bearings are giving up. I checked them at service by elevating the forks and pushing them around and they felt fine with no weight on them but smallblocks do have history when it comes to un-greased, rusty bearings and problems can start suddenly.

Pete

Very nice Mark great to see you got the new one I am rather envious! Can't wait to check it out.

Pete Roper wrote:

With the V7 I'm wondering if it's steering head bearings are giving up. I checked them at service by elevating the forks and pushing them around and they felt fine with no weight on them but smallblocks do have history when it comes to un-greased, rusty bearings and problems can start suddenly.

I think I might be just too heavy for it at speed. Might be too much weight over the front wheel. The shocks don't appear to have height adjustment. I might fiddle with the pre-load and double check the puff in the tyres.

rudolf35 wrote:

Warning triangle came on, scared the $#%$% out of me. After a closer look I noted that it was telling me that I lost a left blinker bulb. OK, opened up the rear left blinker and the bulb test tested fine. Crud! Multi-meter did not show any juice coming to the bulb. Oh well, wanted to take the seat of anyway, not. So, a blinker connection to the harness can let to - interesting!

After all was made right took the old girl out for a 150 mile test spin; had to make sure!

Mine does this until I engage the left blinker, then goes away. Pulled and tested bulbs, cleaned connections all checks out OK, my guess is the filament is almost dead. But yeah the skull and crossbones is a pants crapper if youre not ready for it....

Mark, I'm not much lighter than you (92kg), and when I had my Breva, the thing would wallow like a pig when going around sweepers. The problem went away after Pete put Ikon shocks and fork springs on it. The front end used to shake at nearly any speed if I let go of the bars, and Pete had to work on the bearings for me. Unfortunately it dfidn't go away, but I heard from a tyre service that the Pirelli Sport Demons need to be fitted with a dot on the tyre carcass lining up with a mark on the rim. I don't know if that is true or not, but it might be worth checking.

finally made up a startus interuptus kit from bits around the garage and installed it. Last year around the Alps, it was the only downer, as everyone started their bikes and sometimes it would take 5 or 6 stabs of the starter button before it started, it always did start, but i am hoping that little problem will go away.

I wondered what the extra drain on the battery will be now it is connected to the starter solenoid all the time? nothing? someone with more electrical knowledge than me (that's everyone!) will know.....

If you wired the battery + direct to the relay, there will be no drain on the battery.
The relay is like a tap, and your start button is the signal from the control room for the tap to open fully. The flood gates open and a great wall of electrons flow directly from the dam (battery) to the hydro turbine (starter motor) ................... via the solenoid.

Ghez
For us electrical ignorant your explanation is great, this is a job I have to get onto but I always procrastinate due to my electrical phobia
Have a great day

ghezzi wrote:

If you wired the battery + direct to the relay, there will be no drain on the battery.
The relay is like a tap, and your start button is the signal from the control room for the tap to open fully. The flood gates open and a great wall of electrons flow directly from the dam (battery) to the hydro turbine (starter motor) ................... via the solenoid.

haha ghezzi, i like the hydroelectric comparison :-)

My new Grimeca discs arrived today. I'll be getting Pete to put them on for me when does the suspension and other bits. Soon I'll have a great bike, not just a good one. Woohoo.

wyno wrote:

My new Grimeca discs arrived today. I'll be getting Pete to put them on for me when does the suspension and other bits. Soon I'll have a great bike, not just a good one. Woohoo.

Feels good eh... nothing like some good quality aftermarket and great wrenching, it will be a different bike and alot better for it..

FINALLY, got my new Dart Marlin installed today.

As always, more of a titanic struggle with unexpected (and, of course, self-inflicted) drama than I had imagined.

Less so — but not entirely — because of getting the w/s on, but in realizing along the way that I knew so little about automotive electrics that I was going have an an unfortunate event involving sparks and worse if I persisted in trying to install some Chinesium auxiliary lights.  

[Thank you, ghezzi, for that hydroelectric analogy.  I remain nonetheless ignorant of it all, and admire, in a pathetic sort of way, all of you for whom it is simple.   ]

Anyway, Wayne Orwig had put some Amazon-sold cheap but astonishingly effective auxiliary conspicuity lights on my EV.  I have been really disappointed in those little guys I had muzhik put on the GRiSO last year — truly worthless is more credit than they deserve — and I thought if Wayne could do it, why couldn’t I.  The reasons are, unfortunately, endless.  

Anyway, I realized late this afternoon that the lighting project would have to wait on Wayne’s benevolence, so I buttoned up the headlight and started the install.

Not so fast, of course, as I managed to drop the headlight assembly and watch all $700 of it roll on the floor headed to drain my checkbook.  I stifled a manly scream and was rewarded by nothing broken.  Cool beans.

Then I could not get the #$%^& POS new shell to bond with the bezel.  The retaining screw would not bite the shell.  Ah, no body panel retaining clip.  The little effer is not on the parts fiche, either.
Half a buck here, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] but I needed one rightdarnnow.

I finally had the presence of mind to look in the old broken shell.  Ecco.  Sheesh.

I have related here what a POS the OEM w/s was.  It’s in a box now and headed tomorrow to Bungendore where, no doubt, Pete will install it with laughter at me and curses only for me for widening some holes in the brackets to allow the fasteners to meet the holes in the shell.  Long story.

Today, when I encountered a similar but less severe problem with the Dart, I began to wonder if somehow my headlight mounting frame is somehow a bit “off.”  Might be.

No matter, the new screen is on; I like the looks of it; it seems solid.

As for the lights … well, a man’s gotta know his limitations.  


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Bill

Good job, Bill. I did giggle reading your post, though.

I've got one of those coming my way too Bill, and a new headlight shell. I hope I don't have the problems you had.

beetle wrote:

Good job, Bill. I did giggle reading your post, though.

wyno wrote:

I've got one of those coming my way too Bill, and a new headlight shell. I hope I don't have the problems you had.

Thanks, but I suspect few others here would have had those "problems."

And, on the bright side, even "bad" hours in the Moto Grappa are not available for HRH's Perpetual Task List.  

So ... in my continuing tradition of "too many pix" ... consider yourselves lucky, as these pixels could be words at the standard ratio   ... thought I show how the Dart arrived.  VERY high end packaging and instructions.  

I did, naturally, still manage to misread the latter and removed the turn signals ("indicators," apparently, in the Queen's English) at the outer fitting rather than their actual mount.  That actually came in handy later with my tool set as I also found it difficult to remount the replacement fasteners for the "inner" ones and tighten those and the headlight fasteners at the same time.  If one set was tight, could not reach the other.  Nothing that a few well-placed curses could not conquer, of course.  

My hardest challenge was what would seem (and probably is for most) easy, i.e., reattaching the headlight bucket to the retaining rim.  It's my lot as a ham-fisted wannabe wrench.  Sigh.    

Here are pix of the packaging, etc.  Pete, yours heads to Bungendore today, but, while serviceable, is less elegantly packed.


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Oh, and here are the lights that defeated me.  Second pic is as mounted on my EV.  BRIGHT!

Soon, though, victory.

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Best from the top of Virginia.

Bill

"Rollerised" (that needs to be added to spell check) and remapped the GRiSO last year but just recently read about the snorkel. Took it off on the weekend and the throttle seems to be a bit smoother down low. It wouldn't make that much difference would it? If so I'm happy. My imagination?

But then I'm always amazed at how much better bikes run after you clean them or after two beers. When I was much younger we knew that 4 beers improved your riding skills and tyre adhesion. Knowing that I used to wonder why grand prix riders didn't have a piss up before the race to improve their times.

BradleyM wrote:

It wouldn't make that much difference would it?

Yes.

Signed,
Mr Succinct.


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beetle wrote:

Yes.

Signed,
Mr Succinct.

Pretty good. Almost as succinct as I am.  

Oh, you forgot the pix.    

Bill

Bill, Once you meet Mark, you have no further need for pictures. Mr Succinct personified, no less...