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There and Back Again - a Griso Owner's Tale

NorthBayGriso

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
31
Location
SF Bay Area
With all props due to Prof Tolkien... :cool:

Bear with me - I'm horrible at this kind of thing, so I'll boil it down to the essentials:

1. Found "the" bike here, in the Classifieds, listed by forum bubba Suruppak: red 2010 G8V with most of the add-ons I wanted. Was looking / lurking for a bit, so I decided to make my move. Scrounged for some $$, borrowed the rest.

2. I had 2 Guzzi enthusiasts agree to have a look at the bike: Bill Hagan on this site, Chicago Mark @ WildGuzzi. Both were willing to go out of their way to help me out and make sure the seller and bike were legit. Bill made it down there first, gave everything a clear thumbs-up. Really, Bill and Mark were terrific to volunteer - we've never met in person, and I'm still a n00b on the forums. My thanks go out to Mark for agreeing to help me out, and a huge thanks to Bill for actually locating and traveling to Mattoon for me!

3. Set things up for a long-distance trip to south-central Illinois. Round-trip air from CA to IL, train from Chicago to Mattoon, ride to Woodstock, train back to Chicago. Make arrangements to visit family out there when not daydreaming about the bike. [OK, I was daydreaming during the visits too. It was worse than being 10 years old again at Christmas time.]

4. At Chicago Mark's suggestion and introduction, I contacted Jim Barron up at RoseFarm Classics in Woodstock, IL. He enthusiastically and graciously agreed to wrench on my bike before I shipped it home to CA. Understanding the complexity of my itinerary, Jim even agreed to stay open late in case I didn't make up from Mattoon in time [I didn't].

5. Caught the relevant trains, made it to Mattoon, met up with Suruppak and his very nice daughter. The bike was everything everyone said it was, traded pieces of paper, and she was mine!

6. I found that Illinois State Troopers rarely patrol the Interstates between Mattoon and Woodstock. Which was very fortunate, as they would have made their quota as I flew up to get to Jim's before he closed. :shock: This was when I found out how much I needed to learn about my new ride: I got rained on, pelted by more insects than I thought lived on the planet, and learned that despite my speed I didn't really need the Parabreeza windscreen. Man, that 8V can accelerate...

7. Made it to Jim's, drank several of his refrigerated bottles of water [is that level of humidity even possible within the parameters of scientific explanation?!? Good Lord, how did people live out there before AC? Californians are spoiled...] Jim even gave me a tour of Woodstock [they filmed one of my favorite movies, Groundhog Day, there] before dropping me off at the Metra station.

8. Made it to my Uncle's...and promptly wished it was several days later, when I could ride the bike after Jim's tender ministrations.

9. Made it to Thursday, with only minimal strains on my family ties. Apparently I was somewhat obnoxious in expressing my impatience to get on my bike. Fortunately, my family is fairly forgiving... :lol:

10. Impression of a stock Griso after the mapping update [68], 6k mile maintenance, new tires and Jim's magic: wow! Seriously. Some years ago, I was amazed at the performance jump going from a WeeStrom [DL650] to a Honda ST1300. The difference between the ST and the post-Jim G8V - or the difference between the pre- and post-Jim 8V, for that matter - was almost literally, jaw-droppingly incredible. Taking the extra few miles and days to have Jim work on the bike was probably one of my better decisions.

11. Rode my new bike around southern WI, getting to know some of it's capabilities [I really need to work on low-speed, light-throttle riding] and liabilities [all that torque throwing me "right" while I'm making a hard-acceleration, hard-left turn will also require some work on my part :eek: ] was simply sublime. Jim and his daughter Kacey took very good care of me!

The only things holding me back from playing hookey and hitting the road are: 1) the bike won't be delivered until next week; and 2) needing to pass the CA out-of-state registration process. As the bike is bone-stock and is 50-state smoggable, this should be a formality. However, it ain't over 'til the plates are mounted.

So, I suppose this makes me a new G8V owner, though it'll probably be 10+ days before I can actually throw my leg over it.
 
You're going to love that bike. Congratulations on a great choice.
 
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