Hello from Bahrain

Hi guys, just found this place.
I'm a Scot living and working in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. Picked up a new 2010 GRiSO 8v last year that had never been ridden. Still have my old V11 Sport in storage in Ireland, though I havent seen her in 5 years now.
The GRiSO, hmmm.
Before I collected it, I received some great advice from Pete Roper on what to check, everything seemed ok, I was delighted to be out on a bike again. However, 2 things conspired against me enjoying the experience after a while- really bad vibrations and a gearchange that sounded and felt like a sledgehammer on a manhole cover.
I have nowhere to work on the machine, so asked the importer / agency to sort it out, but frankly they werent interested.
I adjusted the little plunger on the lever and synchronised the tb's till I was blue in the face, but numb hands and feet after half an hour remained, along with the bang, clang.
Between this, working all hours and spinal surgery, to be honest I just parked it up and walked away, determining to bring it with me whenever I leave this island.
Then I found the Ghetto!
The enthusiasm of everyone here and the tremendous work being done to rectify the fuelling issues have got me fired up again, my mojo is back. Thank you gentlemen, one and all.
Picked up a new battery yesterday, fitted it this morning and went for a spin before it got too hot to ride.
Ahhh, that's better.

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G'Day Neighbour!
Good to see you have some hills out there and hear you've got your GRiSO Mojo back.
I'm sittin in downtown Aktau, Kazakhstan.
My GRiSO lurks in the hallway at home in Oz, awaiting my return, at least you can throw a leg.
Lucky B&%$std!
Watch those sand drifts, nice pic.
Cheers.

Greetings dammit, and welcome to the ghetto!

You ought to be able to get your GRiSO well sorted enough, provided you have access to some basic tools and some workspace, but maybe these two things are hard to come by in Bahrain...  Regardless, the GRiSO is under your skin and we're here to help.

Bunnahabhain!

Welcome to the Ghetto. Most things in life worth having, come hard, as you know!
Stay safe!

A Scot in the Desert?? Madness.
What?
Is that what I am too? (A Celt in a desert? shhhhh)

Congratulations on the GRiSO.

Thanks for the welcome fellas. Lasted about an hour yesterday.
49 degrees C and high humidity, no fun in traffic at all. Had to stop to pour water on the levers to cool them down,lol. Too hot for gloves. 
Been reading through the forum, some fantastic stuff here all right.
Ordered the high level Mistral and Guzzidiag cables.
You lot are a bad influence. 

John

As I've said elsewhere it is imperative that your bike is properly tuned and set-up to get the maximum benefit. Re-mapping alone is not some sort of 'Cure For What Ails You. The bike HAS to be properly tuned for it to work as it should.

Pete

Hi Pete, I fully agree. Tappets double and triple checked, plug caps changed, tb's synchronised, used Centurion to reset tps.
Made no difference to the vibration that I could detect?  
I wondered about maybe a sticky injector causing maybe some lean condition in one cylinder but plugs looked ok as far as I could tell and an IR thermometer showed both pipes reaching pretty much the same temperatures at the same time.
The only thing that was odd to me was that when synchronising, whilst at 3000rpm ( from memory) I could have the levels equal, at higher or lower revs, there was quite a discrepancy between them with one showing greater vacuum than the other which I put down to the assymmetry of the intake and exhaust. I use a Morgan carbtune. I have no idea whether these readings are typical or not, although I speculated that having more air in one cylinder than the other could maybe result in an unbalanced running condition for want of a better phrase, at certain speeds.
I kind of ran out of ideas after that to be honest
John

What are the emission requirements in Bahrain? Is there a vapor recovery canister like US models?
What about the headers, what number is stamped on them?

Re the vibes, are they worse in 6th at around 70-80 mph?


49 degrees.    It can get to 45-46 here, and I recall a 47 once, but I bloody well wouldn't be riding.

Hi Beetle,
Emissions here, no legislation that I know of, even cat-cons not required I'm told
Had to look up the vapour recovery system, if that's the tubes that link to the throttle bodies, then I'm fairly sure that I dont have it.
Headers (?).......jeez it's hot out there......lol            ZGU 1004 e11 e3 on both

***EDIT**** I did a search and see what you were thinking. It would have explained a lot, right enough

Yeah 49 degrees. Between the wind blowing the dust up, the humidity and the heat I got off of the bike textured like 60 grit sandpaper.  

With a soggy helmet   

Bullseye on the vibes although they get harsher the faster I go. But yes, 70 - 80 is particularly nasty

John

Factory mapping includes vibes for free.  If the TB's were bad for a while, the auto-trim will have just made things worse, trying to fix something it couldn't. Now you done the balance, the auto-trim will likely improve things, but it does take time. In the interim before you get the cables for GuzzIDiag or Mistralize your exhaust, pull the main fuses to reset the ECU to defaults. You will need to reset the clock, but I predict and instant better ride. Until the ECU trims the fuel again.  

Cool, will do. Thanks man
It'll be tomorrow morning though, Friday night, BEER TIME!!!!!!!   

John, with the extra clunky gear change there maybe a solution.
There is a bush in the eye, each end of the torque rod. I replaced the bush at the frame end of the rod and it made all the difference.

Original bush is multi-piece sleeves inserts etc. Replacement from later models is one piece.
Mr Roper might have a better suggestion ............................ damnabbit.

There's oil in the gear box isn't there? There has been precedents!   

Thanks Wayne, I didnt know about that. I'll check the play in the bushes. The clutch engages right at the end of the travel, maybe the last inch or so. When I got the bike there was no free play so I adjusted the plunger at the lever and played with the span adjuster but it didnt help much. I read somewhere, probably something Pete wrote, that there are different lengths of pushrod but I cant find it now. But it makes sense to me that if the lever engages late, the pushrod could be too short (?)

Beetle, yep got Redline Heavy Shockproof in both box and CARC.

Just back from a quick spin, cant stay out long due to the heat. Pulled the main fuses, never bothered setting the clock in the first place, lol. Bike seemed a little smoother, but there wouldnt be much in it, there is a lot of traffic, so its hard to tell for sure. I'll try again tonight when it cools down a bit. Thanks fellas

John

Regarding the bush, it is not a question of free play or slop, but rubber goes hard and no longer dampens shock loadings. Result = clunky gear changes.
New bush does its job = smooth snick.

Cool. Do you recall which model the replacement came from? If not, no worries, I'll search about.  

Check this link out;
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Part # 883045. Its called "silent bloc" from Stelvio
There is a photo in the link, new part on the left and old part on the right.

Trouble is with Guzzi Tech, if you post a link on that site referring here to the Ghetto, Todd will delete it. So sssshhhhh! Go have a peak, but don't tell em I sent you.