[NY] New owner in the GRiSO family

Hey all,

First time GRiSO owner here, picked up a couple of weeks back, located north of NYC. It's a '15 1200 8V SE that I picked up from the 2nd owner outside of Philadelphia with 10k miles. Bike has had a few minor modifications (Dart fly screen, Arrow can, Stelvio shock, risers, forks dropped in the triples, H&B C-Bow racks with bags) and has a robust service history. Hoping to get the remap done shortly with beetle's Arrow map as the fueling needs a lil help.)

I've got about 500 miles on it thus far, and have only noticed two little mechanical items. First, I'm getting a metallic rattling noise (sounds like a loose license plate) at WOT > 5000rpm occasionally, but haven't been able to find any loose fittings on the bike as of yet. Second, the current map (both with stock exhaust and Arrow) has what feels like a fairly flat spot around 5000-5200rpm where the bike feels like it's petering out, then climbs in power again once past it. I'm hoping that's a map thing alone.

I've read about the heavy clutch feel best being solved by a bleed (which I'll try first) or swap to a Brembo radial clutch lever, given I'm planning on at least sometimes commuting on the bike definitely something I want to resolve. Last off... the black stripes on the tank are lifting (slightly) at the most angular of the tank curves -- is this something people have seen before? It's a slight bubble where the vinyl appears to be pulling off the tank.

It's my second Guzzi (I have a '14 V7 Special as well) and absolutely love the feel/ease of the bike. It's a blast!

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Welcome Sashae
Nice looking bike

Any distortion on the tank is probably caused by high ethanol fuel drawing water into the plastic and making it expand

Join my new action group ETHANOL IS ONLY FOR DRINKING!

The black stripes lifting is just tape coming up, but the tank is unlikely to be bubbling from ethanol.  I had a couple black strips that I just removed on my red/black GRiSO as well, and will replace them with another tape at some point.  The only downside is having to remove the adhesive residue underneath...but that's easy to do.

On the clutch bleeding, very handy to put a speed bleeder on it (like the Norge), will simplify and speed up the bleeding process...you'll enjoy it so much, you'll want to bleed your clutch all the time!

A less obvious source of the rattling at high RPM's may be the 4 screws that are holding on the oil radiator fins...sometimes those work loose.

And sometimes rattling noise can be a split/weld in the contorted exhaust pipe (pretzel) and its center mount under the gearbox area. Hopefully not.

I had a mystery rattle a while back, turned out to be the headlight ring/lens.

My stickers did the same thing. I sat down with a plastic razor blade and peeled off the two rear black stripes. The front ones have spots that are bubbling up.

They are foil stickers UNDER the clear coat. Done carefully they can be peeled up without messing up the clear. The paint under the stripes is gloss. But it is easy to scratch. Mirco-fiber cloth and mineral spirits to clean up the glue scratched the gloss.
Now I'm running around with "ghost" racing stripes. New stickers are sitting on my bench but can't get motivated to mess with them. Since my paint & body buddy moved across the country, I'm gonna have to do them myself.

Welcome to the Ghetto, Sashae!

Pete (Street)

Welcome

Enjoy mate.

lcjohnny wrote:

Welcome Sashae
Nice looking bike

Any distortion on the tank is probably caused by high ethanol fuel drawing water into the plastic and making it expand

Join my new action group ETHANOL IS ONLY FOR DRINKING!

I read somewhere the later tanks are made slightly different and dont suffer with that expansion issue.