A new adventure

[Heavyweight]

Well,

Excuse me for muscling into your forum but I'm a bit excited and I just had to tell someone about my new bike. I brought it home today, parked it carefully in the garage, and waited for the wife to come home and marvel at my impeccable taste. She drove in, got out out of the car, duly bumped into the bike and stormed inside, muttering that she wished I wouldn't always park that rotten big black monstrosity in her way. I live with a non-believer...

By way of introduction, I did my "apprenticeship" on small and mid-sized Yamahas (I still have a soft spot for those evil, noisy, smelly anti-social two-strokes) which culminated in a brave little four-cylinder XJ550 that I rode into the ground. But I always envied the old guys with their grey beards, Belstaffs, flying boots and Boxer BMWs who always looked like they were on their way to somewhere very far away...

I got my first job (delivering mail off a Honda CT110) and saved my money furiously until I had enough to go to the BMW shop and buy my first Boxer. As it turned out, there was a brand-new JPS Special K100RS sitting in the showroom, and to me it was just beautiful. I bought it and, over the next eight years, proceeded to ride it around Australia during each of my annual four-week holidays (this was before meeting the above-mentioned wife). Except for some electrical hassles from riding it through a flooded river, it never let me down. But it was a seriously boring motorcycle: reliable to a fault and with all the character of a sewing machine. In many ways I was glad when it was completely worn out at 235,000km, and I traded it on a new R1100RS.

Nice bike; it rumbled and shook a bit and certainly had a bit more presence than the old "brick". It was also ridiculously reliable. I kept it for 17 years, during which time it only broke down once (a broken driveshaft 1200 km from the nearest dealer during one of my by-now annual trips to Phillip Island). I was sad that at 170,000 km it was at the stage where it was getting a bit rattly and I was due for a new bike.

Had BMW still been making an RS, I would have bought one on the spot, but unfortunately they have moved on and left the likes of me behind. I looked at the R1200R and the F800ST but they weren't exactly right, and anyway I didn't feel particularly valued by the dealer. So I looked further afield: Triumph GT, Yamaha FJR, Suzuki Bandit etc.

I finally chose a bike that looks good, sounds good and feels good. The dealer also passed muster, so today I brought home my new Moto Guzzi Norge GT and I hope that she and I will have a long and fulfilling relationship. This will probably be my last new bike, and I'm already looking at ways to improve and personalise her.When i brought her home , I couldn't work out how to get the panniers off (the owners' manual is downright laughable), so I googled "Guzzi remove panniers" and that's how I found this great forum. I hope to be able to add someting to it.

Cheers

H

 

[GTM®]

H, great intro, congrats and welcome to the Famiglia (and to the Italiano "manuals). You'll find you are in like company with your journey.
Happy you found us, and happy to be of help here in getting your Norge just the way you want it, and look forward to your posts... perhaps a picture of you and the new ride?

 

[corsa916]

Good on ya, mate!! You should seriously consider Todd's full Monty Upgrade for your Norge. His Power Commander V with the Auto Tune option and the ECU reflash combined with one of his handmade pipes and CNC Airbox Lid will transform that bike so dramatically you won't believe it's the same bike. The improvement in power and throttle response is remarkable, it sounds like a V8 with a big cam, and the smoothness and reduction in cyl temp is utterly amazing! The stock tune is so bad it is actually causing damage due to the extreme lean fueling and VERY restrictive airbox and exhaust. Todd's setup is completely DIY. All you do is tell him what state of tune you prefer and the unit auto tunes to perfection from 0 rpm to redline. Dead nuts spot on perfection!!!

 

[Heavyweight]

Thanks for that corsa916 - very interesting. I took her out for her maiden voyage today (I'll post separately about that) and some of your comments do ring true. It's probably not fair to make judgements yet on a motor that has done less than 300km, so I'll wait till I put some more up before I go making changes. The bike felt great today, but I was a bit surprised that it seemed a bit cold-blooded. It was a perfect day weather-wise but it was a good five minutes before the bike would idle without stalling. Call me old-fashioned, but i would have liked the comfort of a choke/fast idle lever.

I was also surprised that she very much appreciated a down-change even on mild hills. No drama; the gearbox is a pleasure to use and it feels great to get her spinning up. But it wasn't in keeping with my pre-conceived notion of Guzzis that suggested tractor-like torque and a huge flywheel effect. I'm not complaining, but to this point the motor is less strong than the (slightly modified) Boxer was.

Cheers,

H

 

[corsa916]

You have already found 2 glaring issues Modern Guzzis struggle with, Cold Start and the an intake and exhaust system that simply strangles these motors. The cold start issues are thoroughly covered on this forum and from several different directions. Do a search and you'll find lots of discussion. The gutlessness of these motors is also well known and that is also well covered but will require you to pony up abit of cash to unleash the ponies.
I come from a long history with Ducatis and have a '95 Corsa 955sp, an '06 ST3S and an '87 650 Elefant in my garage along with my '96 1100i California and '07 Norge. I spent alot of blood sweat & money on that Cali improving the fueling, breathing, and exhaling and these tractor motors really do respond to improvements in those areas, I guarantee you will not find many MG crusiers putting 92 hp to the ground with a dyno sheet to prove it and it runs flawlessly from 1100 rpm to 8k!!
When I got the Norge it had 10k miles on it and it was religiously maintained by one of the best Guzzi hands anywhere, Mike Haven from MPH (a regular contrib here). BUT I could feel it just wasn't ........happy. It had all of the usual issues to varying degrees: As you found, stroking the gbox on hills was the norm, cold start stumbling, wandering idle, surging, terrible throttle response, the midrange flat spot, and the worst of all was it just seemed to run outa oomph up top. I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of another 5 yr voyage swapping injectors, throttle bodies, cam timing, valve springs, and completely redesigning the intake system & exhaust so I started reading all the stuff here about Todd's PC-V with the Auto Tune. I won't go into a long winded rant about it having already done some of that earlier but believe me, it is everything it is cracked up to be and then some!
The very 1st place you need to start is to get your throttles sync'd spot on and remove the canister. The throttles are probably way off as the factory has them done by Chimpanzees who can't pass the round peg sq hole tests. It's really pitiful how poorly these things come off the line and most dealers don't even adj the throttle cables! They need to have almost ZERO free play!! The canister might not be on the Auzzie models but if it is it is a well known source of air leaks which cause a myriad of issues. Todd has some great tweeks for the stupid stepper motor to help cure your cold start issues too.
Hit up some of the frequent contributors from down under like Pete Roper and get their input and local expertise on how to wake up and unleash the beast that really is lurking inside that tractor! My Norge has not seen the assend of a Boxer (unless it was being overtaken quite rudely by me) since it's improvements !!!