What did you do with your GRiSO today?

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Just got back my jug covers from the powder coating guy

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They turned out pretty good

Yes they did!

Fresh nylock nut (plus loctite) on my rod.

..and now, a gratuitous pic..because..yeah..


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Sweet ride there Beetle.

GHTE wrote:

Sweet ride there Beetle.

Yes, indeed!

And those valve covers came out super.

Bill

Blew out the mothballs, season started with a short commute in reasonable temperature. GRiSO not demanding anything but a push of the button after sitting in the garage for four months.

First ride of the Season for the GRiSO, MAAAAN I forgot how much I love this beast. Gave her a good cleanup, topped off tires, checked all fluids & functions & off I went. I change my oil at the end of the riding season so it doesn't sit all winter with old oil & contaminates. I rotate a trickle charger between the bikes, so battery was good. I also went over my suspension settings, had made some changes last riding season and it was feeling sloppy, so I reset them to a mix with a bit more rebound damping and less spring load. Front end still feels a bit sluggish, but then again, the Norge & Stornello are very light by comparison. After 20 minutes or so, I had adjusted and all is well. Plan to head out on a longer ride tomorrow, maybe 2-300 miles up to Harpers Ferry.

New settings:
FRONT
TOP (rebound) 1.5 turns out
BOTTOM (compression) - 1 turns out
Preload - 4 lines showing tube is on 5th line

REAR
TOP (compression) – 1 turn out
BOTTOM (rebound) - 30 clicks out
Preload - in stock position

Was a little anxious about first start but she kicked right over, let warm up a bit and hit the road. I am at 12K miles so time for valve adjust, plug change, but the bike sounds and is running so perfectly even on 5 month old gas (stabilized with seafoam) that I am wont to do anything. Man I fogot how much I like this bike, from its thuggish feel, to rock solid stability to the sound, especially when revs drop between shifts........ How I wish the 8V on the Norge sounded and felt so good. Of course the GRiSO lacks the raw top end pull of the Norge, but the 4V1100 is perfect to my ears and senses..... Rode about 1.5 hours, only one stop for pics.... This is on the Potomac River, just North of Mount Vernon.

This really is the perfect all around bike. I like it just the way it is. All I have done is added the guzzi small rear rack (came with), Knight drop pegs (necessity), the fly screen, and Augostini Hydro formed pipe. No extra lights or blaa blaa. Just pure GRiSO..........

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Good stuff. Its always a thrill to have a great first up/no issue ride after a break.

thanks BD9, its awesome to read these reports...(gotta love the Ditch Pump Mills)
the 5 months of 'no riding' weather is always a bit foreign to those of us down here on top of the world...

nice pics too, although did something amazing happen just after the last shot???

a) the innocent by-sitter is looking up into the sky, then at the GRiSO and is open mouthed, gobsmacked at the next sequence of events....

b) she could yawning does she not know at what she looks???



I have had a lot of coffee this morning...

HA! No just a nice old lady. I actually helped her back to her car, she was afraid to walk back across the uneven ground, and may have been calling to me as I took that. I remember going over to her after the last shot.

I do ride year round, though mostly on the Norge due to heated grips, seat, and wind protection. I dont ride if it is below freezing due to black ice, etc. I've also been riding the Stornello a lot too.

bahamazoo wrote:

thanks BD9, its awesome to read these reports...(gotta love the Ditch Pump Mills)
the 5 months of 'no riding' weather is always a bit foreign to those of us down here on top of the world...

nice pics too, although did something amazing happen just after the last shot???

a) the innocent by-sitter is looking up into the sky, then at the GRiSO and is open mouthed, gobsmacked at the next sequence of events....

b) she could yawning   does she not know at what she looks???



I have had a lot of coffee this morning...  

Went for a ride. I'm not riding enough. My sanity is suffering.

Then, I made my first hose for my overcooled 8V project.

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I went for an evening ride around the Bellarine Peninsula and the Geelong waterfront. I actually took a couple of pics this time.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Ian p wrote:

Pete, it’s a t3 from 76, funny old thing but it has had a rebuild and the bores and pistons are like brand new as in no scuffing on the thrust faces so it’s not piston slap, and the small end is in spec albeit right at the top end of the clearance tolerance for the workshop manual (0:0008-0.0018”) it actually measures at 0.001775” clearance.
But"......... I have noticed whoever installed the pistons put them in back to front!
The big cutout in the piston crown is aligned with the exhaust valve, and the arrow points toward the inlet side. So unless the exhaust cam has significantly higher lift than the inlet which I doubt, then they are back to front.
There are no witness marks for a clash condition but it can’t have helped matters.
The search continues.

Please consider the "Piston Pin bore offset" as the source of the fantom rattle in your Guzzi engine.
Because the engine pistons in question (as found) have been installed backwards, as such, the original direction reversal of the Piston Pin offset will cause significant detriments (noise).
Do a Google search for "Piston Pin bore offset" to further explain this effect.

Move Dirt

Went for the first ride of the season.  About 140 mile loop to Canon City for coffee, then up through Teller County on country roads before returning home.  Lots of sand on the roads in Teller County but no snow or ice.  It was a great day, from the bike starting on the first crank after not being ridden since November, to pulling it back into the garage at the end of the ride.

Track today

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Nice Ron. How'd you go?

stop it Ron...... turns out i likely would have made it up to spectate.... I've been marooned for three days now.... with no end in sight

nice cheese grater on th side walls

Not today but last weekend...first ride this year (with rollers!)

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Don´t ask why but I had expected that the valve train is less noisy with rollers.
It maybe sounds a bit different but it is still that typical (loud) 8V sound.

Congrats 

I started the season in February already, but it was only the last weekend when I was riding longer. Lake of Como of course, how boooring... Not at all. Only 240 kms away and the south side of the Alps already had 22 degrees. The only chilling thing was the San Bernardino Pass at 1600 m sea level but despite of the 9 degrees it was amazing. Sunny, dry roads and masses of snow all around. When leaving the tunnel the odo already showed 13 degrees which rapidly increased to 19 while descending on the hairpins way to Lugano. Next day I popped in at Agostini in Mandello and they had the new V85TT in front of the shop. It took 5 minutes to arrange a 30 minutes slot for testing it and it was worth it. The rest of the weekend was sheer fun. Perfect summer-like weather, icecream in Verona, roaming around the lake and Bergamo, Italy at its best.
I did 1000 kms, the GRiSO behaved perfectly, can’t await the summer and a longer test ride with my dealer’s V85TT. Once it arrives. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I have put new adjustable foot pegs on GRiSO plus given it a fresh belly full of oil. I’ll pump up the tyres and point for Adelaide on Monday.

Sweet. Our regards to H. Hopefully no more dust storms - one was enough.

Did first valve check today, at 905 miles total.  

Good news - valve covers were spotless inside!  No mayo.  

A bit concerning ... all 8 valves needed adjusting.

All intakes were at 0.13mm, reset to 0.10 mm
All exhausts were at 0.18mm, reset to 0.15mm

With this identical "off-ness", could they just have been set a bit loose from the factory?