After a long absence from the GRiSO Ghetto Forum, I'm back now. I retired at the age of 65 and now have a lot of free time - including riding my motorcycle, of course. In the meantime, a few bikes have also accumulated:
BMW x 650 XChallange (of coarse with Rotax engine) MG GRiSO 1200 8V MG V11 Sport Yamaha XJR 1300 Aprilia Tuono V1000R (of coarse with Rotax engine) MZ 175 ES (2-stroke MY 1958) MG Magnum 50 cc
I have currently dismantled the entire rear of the GRiSO and inspected the cardan shaft. I have to drive 100 m from my garage across a meadow and I heard a clacking noise from load change. But the cardan joints are completely fine and I'm back to reassembling it.
And here I need your help:
When installing the airbox, I noticed that there was a loose piece of hose lying around under the tank. It is a black neoprene tube with the dimensions inside/outside diameter: 4/8 mm, length 48 cm. It's not a pressure hose, so it's not a fuel hose. While searching I noticed that there is no hose attached to the transmission case breather. So I suspect the hose is the breather hose.
My question is: where is the other end of the hose attached. I strongly suspect it's the airbox.
There is a hose nipple in the center of the floor of the airbox in the front area. I think that's where the condensate collects since it's sealed at the bottom.
Below the air filter there is a nipple on the side that opens into a small cylinder inside the airbox. I suspect that this is the nipple for the hose from the transmission breather.
Unfortunately, the MG workshop manual gives no indication of this.
Can someone in the forum please give me some advice on this.
Best regards from Tyrol, from the other side of the globe, Ralf
The transmission case breather pipe goes from top of transmission, up rear of TBs engine and then just 'dangles down' (technical term) roughly above the throttle swivel on LHS TB. Here is pic with open end pointing down......it doesn't connect to anywhere
It actually lays up there loose if I remember correctly. I'm sure there was one that lays loose. Wait for one of the pros to respond to be sure though.
The gearbox breather hose just vents to atmosphere as shown in the picture above. There are two drain hoses from the airbox that affix to nipples, one is central at the front/bottom of the airbox and the other exits to the left at the rear. Both should have clear plastic hoses on them and they then are routed down to a small wire clip bolted to the right hand footrest hanger plate just inboard of the RH footpeg. It is very important that both hoses be attached, unbroken and plugged to prevent the ingress of dirt into the airbox which will damage the throttlebodies.
The clanking noise may be down to wear in the pivot points of the reactive torque arm. The front one is a silentbloc bush, the rear one is a spherical bearing. Hopefully while you had the back end apart you inspected and greased the swingarm bearings and shock linkages?
What year is the bike? If pre-‘13 has it been rollerised?
PDandy Carlotto
Posts : 32 Join date : 2024-05-18
Subject: Re: GRiSO 1200 8V Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:17 am
At the risk of talking bmw in a guzzi forum - wasn't the x challenge an awesome bike!
When you consider ktm had effectively stopped refining the rotax / lc4 when they built the last (2007) 640 adv, for bmw to then come out with a smoother / more fuel efficient / reliable bike that just needed the rear shock and tank upgrading - awesome effort. Pitty they went soft with the rest of their singles. AND a pitty that bmw didn't persevere with the husky 630 when they temporarily bought out husky. ( although keeping that bike produced in italy by swm was good news for guzzi riders)
Sorry to thread jack, but I figure Pete was temporarily interested in bikes like the swm once so why not waffle for a bit....
Pete Roper GRiSO Capo
Posts : 10704 Join date : 2013-05-29 Age : 67
Subject: Re: GRiSO 1200 8V Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:35 am
I’d rather stab myself in the face with a whaling harpoon with an explosive head than touch anything from BMW.
Colossal chunks of overpriced shit. Always were. Always will be.
And they’re designed by Germans so every time you saddle up you have to think about naked old people at an unsuitable beach. No thanks….
GuzziSteve Fra Cristoforo
Posts : 827 Join date : 2016-04-14
Subject: Re: GRiSO 1200 8V Wed Aug 14, 2024 7:20 am
Tell us how you really think Pete! Glad I'm not the only one that feels like that about BMV's. AND I had to work on them.
I’d rather stab myself in the face with a whaling harpoon with an explosive head than touch anything from BMW.
Colossal chunks of overpriced shit. Always were. Always will be.
And they’re designed by Germans so every time you saddle up you have to think about naked old people at an unsuitable beach. No thanks….
Sorry if I wasn't clear in my tangential thought waffle, Pete! I was referring to your interest in the swm 650 that BMW was silly enough to have NOT build . So no need to self mutilate!
Just to be 100 % confusing for anyone wondering WTF I'm waffling about - around 2009, BMW bought husky but decided they didn't need the ( italian) husky factory . At the time, husky built ktm style bikes, eg te 250/300/500/630's . The ex husky workers / engineers who lost their jobs were smart enough to negotiate the purchase of the factory and rights to those bikes, plus they dragged up the old swm brand , and the swm rs 300/500/650 was born. By about 2017 the rs 650 morphed into a softer " super duel" 650 - which was short enough and cheap enough to attract Petes attention. Then shit happened , italy shut down, and the swm brand in Australia has almost faded away ( again) . Which is a real shame, because the swm rs 650 / old husky te 630 was arguably the best truly dirt capable touring bike platform to grace our shores. Even better than the mighty ktm 640 adv, the bmw x challenge, and dare I suggest the suzuki dr650 [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
But back to bmw bashing....sorry, Pete, but there are 2 bmw's almost worth ridig if you ever get drunk or disinhibited enough.
Re The 650 x challenge, think of it as a drunken one night stand in Thailand...... it's not really a bmw, so nobody will blame or judge you if you don't tell anyone.....After all, the motor came from rotax, which isn't a bmw design. And the rest of the bike was really from that husky terra 650 confusing thing. You can't blame a guy for liking something that dresses up like a husky , how were you to know it was really a bmw? In fact, it's arguably not a bmw if you are drunk enough
Interesting I will further research the company. I never knew of motorcycles with over a 100000 miles. That being said, my current 1200 motor is still ticking away at over 75thou currently and hope to be riding it over 100thou. I have heard of Guzzi twins well over 200000 miles out there and wearing out there owners. I am just so amazed at quality well engineered machinery and the history behind it. This post kinda went in a lot of directions I thought I'd add to topic as well.
Yes, that single was originally built for aircraft, then got used in the lc4 ktm from the 1990's to 2007 , as well as bmw builing a variant ( in china) for their 650 cc bikes like the x challenged / dakar range etc. Aprilla made a nice little single with the bmw rotax motor, it's like the scabies of singles - crawls around and gets under your skin, and some time later you get this uncomfortable itch....
Oh, and yes - rotax built that magnificent v twin for aprilla and buel
850-Nero Tanabuso
Posts : 53 Join date : 2024-01-06
Subject: Re: GRiSO 1200 8V Thu Aug 15, 2024 2:31 am
Yes I almost bought a BMW 650 xcountry.. they are pretty nice
The gearbox breather hose just vents to atmosphere as shown in the picture above. There are two drain hoses from the airbox that affix to nipples, one is central at the front/bottom of the airbox and the other exits to the left at the rear. Both should have clear plastic hoses on them and they then are routed down to a small wire clip bolted to the right hand footrest hanger plate just inboard of the RH footpeg. It is very important that both hoses be attached, unbroken and plugged to prevent the ingress of dirt into the airbox which will damage the throttlebodies.
The clanking noise may be down to wear in the pivot points of the reactive torque arm. The front one is a silentbloc bush, the rear one is a spherical bearing. Hopefully while you had the back end apart you inspected and greased the swingarm bearings and shock linkages?
What year is the bike? If pre-‘13 has it been rollerised?
Hi Pete, thanks for your help. I have already reassembled the GRiSO. I routed the hoses at the lower and lower side positions of the airbox and closed them around the lower end. The nipple on the upper right position of the airbox is now connected to the pipe, coming from the blow-by box. The one on the upper left position on the airbox is connected to the pipe, going to the idle throttle by pass valve.
My GRiSO is a MY2015 bike and rollerized. During the work I noticed two glaring defects.
1. The swingarm bolt and the concentric sleeve for adjusting the axial bearing play were completely loose!! I have now fastened the swingarm bolt with 60 Nm and secured it in the thread in the swingarm with Loctite 243. Feedback 2. The front screw of the torque support arm was also completely loose (despite the self-locking nut!!)
I finished the work this evening and am currently drinking some healthy Tyrolean beer. If the weather is right tomorrow, I will test the GRiSO on the pass road in front of my front door and see if it drives even better. But currently the temperature in Tyrol is around 35 degrees Celsius and there will be severe thunderstorms with hail at 3 p.m. at the latest.
I will share the result with you tomorrow.
Many greetings from the other side of the world, Ralf
Aren't Rotax engines used in lightweight aircraft?
Rotax is part of BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products) since the 1970. Thus Rotax is producing all engines for Sea-Doo, Ski-Doo, Can-Am ATV and SSV, Can-Am Spyder, Kart engines and engines for light aircrafts (2-str. and 4-str.).
Rotax also built the 650cc 1-cylinder for BMW and Aprilia, as well as the 2-cylinder range for BMW. The engine of the Husqvarna Nuda and the 1125 for Eric Buell also come from Rotax.
Subject: GRiSO 1200 8V 
Tue Aug 13, 2024 12:14 pm
