Rollerisation ????

Good evening guys,

You will have to forgive me if I seem to be a little behind the times. I have had my SE from new, since 2011. But due to other commitments, I have not had the bike on the road for the last few years.
Now as I am about to start riding the bike again I start reading articles quoting what seems to be a major upgrade to the top end of the engine.

My question is guys, could anyone tell me if my bike will require the work , and should there not have been  recall by Moto Guzzi ???

Thanks in advance,

Evening Mike,

It will likely need work (not clear if you bought new or used or how many miles); there was never a recall - it was based on presenting wearing down bits through dealerships.

First thing will be just take off the cam covers (carefully not breaking plug leads !) and see what tappets are there - post lots pics here and loads can help - just take shots that show the tappet ends/buckets on the inside of the cylinder head (see recent post where Pete can predict the wear from the drop in the bucket edges )

Assuming they are flats then it'll be whether you can get local dealer to check them & make a claim (they will be failing) to rollerise ?

If dealer angle doesn't work, it's likely DIY (buy the bits and fix yourself) or DIFY (buy the bits & pay someone to do it For you) job.

Where are you in UK ?

Soz - it was clear you bought new so hopefully have clear line to dealer.

Thanks Paul , I bought the bike from Moto Strada. I live in North Lincolnshire, and the bike has about 5k on it.

Definitely do this conversion before you start riding it regularly, my GRiSO which was originally from the UK was on the brink of catastrophic damage at only 8.000 miles.

MikePP wrote:

Good evening guys,

You will have to forgive me if I seem to be a little behind the times. I have had my SE from new, since 2011. But due to other commitments, I have not had the bike on the road for the last few years.
Now as I am about to start riding the bike again I start reading articles quoting what seems to be a major upgrade to the top end of the engine.

My question is guys, could anyone tell me if my bike will require the work , and should there not have been  recall by Moto Guzzi ???

Thanks in advance,

Yes your bike will need the work. Being a 2011 it will either need a B kit if it’s early in the year or an A kit if it was built towards the end of the year, it all depends on whether you have the old or new cambox/rocker cover set up. Puts up a pic of the inside of your rocker cover and I’ll tell you.

Please, no outrage about the lack of a recall, that fight has already been had a dozen times. Yes, in my opinion there should of been but there wasn’t so we just live with what we’ve got. As it is if you have a full service history and damage is found the factory will, at their discretion, provide a kit, you pay for install. Your bike is seven years old so it should have seven entries in its log book. Does it? If not it may be difficult.

Also at only 5K miles the damage may not yet be apparent. Make no mistake, they will fail, but under no circumstances will the factory replace pre-emtively. They have to fail and to discover that you either need to yank a cambox and look or wait until they get noisy by which time other damage may of occurred.

Nowadays most of my customers just opt to have it done on their own dime. Apart from anything else most other shops won’t do anything until they get noisy and as I said, by then ts too late.

Pete

Ring Twiggers in Loughborough to talk about getting the bike rollerised. They are no longer a official Guzzi dealer but are the one dealer I trust to provide expert work on Guzzis.

Don't assume that Moto Strada will know what a worn tappet is like. Take pictures in with you when you take the bike in, and when they strip it down ask to see the tappets before re-assembly! I took mine back to the dealer where I bought it from in 2012 and the factory trained Chief Mechanic, Steve McDermot, told me they were fine so he couldn't prepared to put a claim using the tappets installed on the bike from when it rolled off the line.

Later I discovered that my tappets were showing signs of wear and should have been replaced. Too late! the dealership had closed.

Karman wrote:

Don't assume that Moto Strada will know what a worn tappet is like. Take pictures in with you when you take the bike in, and when they strip it down ask to see the tappets before re-assembly! I took mine back to the dealer where I bought it from in 2012 and the factory trained Chief Mechanic, Steve McDermot, told me they were fine so he couldn't prepared to put a claim using the tappets installed on the bike from when it rolled off the line.  

Later I discovered that my tappets were showing signs of wear and should have been replaced. Too late! the dealership had closed.  

That's the reason i recommended Twiggers, the owner/mechanic knows what he is doing and usually gets the factory to stump up for the parts (fiddling the system comes to mind).

davem wrote:

Karman wrote:

Don't assume that Moto Strada will know what a worn tappet is like. Take pictures in with you when you take the bike in, and when they strip it down ask to see the tappets before re-assembly! I took mine back to the dealer where I bought it from in 2012 and the factory trained Chief Mechanic, Steve McDermot, told me they were fine so he couldn't prepared to put a claim using the tappets installed on the bike from when it rolled off the line.  

Later I discovered that my tappets were showing signs of wear and should have been replaced. Too late! the dealership had closed.  

That's the reason i recommended Twiggers, the owner/mechanic knows what he is doing and usually gets the factory to stump up for the parts (fiddling the system comes to mind).

Mine was done at Twiggers, with a new crank and crankcases as the main bearings had wear on them.

Thanks guys, the information and advice is much appreciated.
I will take a cam cover off and post a photo at the weekend.

Then its off to Twiggers I suspect.....

Take plenty of pics before you put cam cover back on Mike !. Needs wide pictures of inside cam cover & rocker decks plus close up of tappet area like below.....can never have too many pictures

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Hi Guys,

please find pics below. Let me know if I need to take anymore.

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Flat tappet, early type rocker cover, as a 2011 it’ll need a B kit. You can confirm this by checking the side of the head that faces into the valley for a drill mark in the paint adjacent to the manufacturing date stamp. (See yesterday’s thread about trying to get a warranty roller kit for pics.)

Edit. Head marking/drill mark in paint.

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Pete

Thank you for the help and information Pete.