sn0winSaskatoon
Tuned and Synch'ed
Hi all, new to this guzzi thing. I just bought a left-over 2007 demo B11 with 478 km. I had rented a B11 in italy and liked it as a heavy touring bike (but I am not going to get rid of my KTM any time soon...) - but at least I knew exactly what to expect after a couple thousand km, which is nice. I took the bike through the tightest twisties in the world (in corsica and sardegne) and also on the autostrade at 170 with a major crosswind in the rain, surrounded by italian truck drivers and it was absolutely planted... (it just won't wheelie in 3rd or 4th like my KTM does).
My local guzzi dealer here in Saskatchewan (Canada) is not really a guzzi afficionado, they sell sports cars and RV's and vespa scooters and also have a few aprillias and guzzis, as an afterthought, it seems. But no worries, I can do a bit myself, and there's a good shop 250 km west of where I live. And I got a really good deal on the bike. But here's the thing. I've spent a few moments online trying to get myself up to speed on guzzis, and the Breva 1100 in particular. Mine has a kind of annoying clock face on it with miles as well as km - it looks really cluttered and I don't like it. But the point is that obviously they send US-spec bikes to Canada (that's so annoying, because it means I have that stupid charcoal cannister to remove as well). An evidently knowledgeable poster on one of the web forums (can't remember if it was this one) had written about the colours of breva that had been sent to the USA (and thus presumably to Canada as well?) and the different years. 2006, red bike w. black seat or black bike w. red seat. And 2007, red & black both had red seats.
So is that correct? and if so, how did my Breva get a red seat? It looked so awful on the red Breva that I gave the dealer an extra $100 for the black seat that was on the red Norge that was sitting beside my Breva (also unsold) on the showroom floor. I figure that'll make the Norge harder to sell, but not my problem...
so can anyone provide any insight? I hope I don't have a 2006 that the dealer is trying to pass off as an '07, because I gather that the '06's had some issues, and CARC recalls etc. The VIN of my Breva is ZGULPC0047M114139 How can I tell when the bike left Lago di Como?
I'm probably just being a Nervous Nellie - I was going to buy a Sprint ST, which was my first choice and would have been my 4th triumph, but my girlfriend really liked the Breva better... And the sprint was $4k more... I really hope I don't end up with 10 thousand dollars worth of regrets...
One last question - is there a quick and cheap fix to get change the faceplate of the speedo clock? I really think it looks cluttered with big mph and small km/h. As well as not being particularly useful in 99% of the planet. Why on earth would anyone, in 2009, want to use those quaint old-fashioned "miles". I guess they are kind of nice and quaint and charming and when travelling in the US it's like all old-fashioned and you expect to see some horses and buggies and all that... {insert angry responses from patriotic americans - lighten up guys, that's just canuck humour!!}. But more importantly, if I'm travelling south of the line it really helps me get out of tickets if I can smile sweetly and say the the sheriff "I'm sorry constable, my speedo reads only kilometres and your signs are in miles and I was converting in my head just when you flashed your lights at me..." The truly disheartening thing is that last year, in 20,000km around the US on my triumph, in 15 out of 16 american states I got out of a ticket that way. Do american cops really think we're that dumb? The exception was in Montana (our immediate neighbour) where the cop said "BS - you can't pull that on me...". But does anyone know how fast you have to go to get pulled over in Montana? (210 or 215 and I have no idea what that is in miles or knots or light years). Well of course, because he knows a bit about Canada since he likely drives across the border every week to buy _real_ beer... But the bottom line is, is there a way of getting the simpler and cleaner looking all-kilometre faceplate for the speedo?
Thanks a lot for any info any of you might provide...
PS
I hope I haven't offended any americans - I have lots of american cousins and look forward to a tour on the guzzi hopefully to the oregon coast this sumer. But lbs and miles? c'mon guys, join the world. I'm an engineer and I know how difficult it would be to avoid errors if you had to design anything complicated using that system... Maybe that's why my old Norton used to leak oil so bad...
Ian
My local guzzi dealer here in Saskatchewan (Canada) is not really a guzzi afficionado, they sell sports cars and RV's and vespa scooters and also have a few aprillias and guzzis, as an afterthought, it seems. But no worries, I can do a bit myself, and there's a good shop 250 km west of where I live. And I got a really good deal on the bike. But here's the thing. I've spent a few moments online trying to get myself up to speed on guzzis, and the Breva 1100 in particular. Mine has a kind of annoying clock face on it with miles as well as km - it looks really cluttered and I don't like it. But the point is that obviously they send US-spec bikes to Canada (that's so annoying, because it means I have that stupid charcoal cannister to remove as well). An evidently knowledgeable poster on one of the web forums (can't remember if it was this one) had written about the colours of breva that had been sent to the USA (and thus presumably to Canada as well?) and the different years. 2006, red bike w. black seat or black bike w. red seat. And 2007, red & black both had red seats.
So is that correct? and if so, how did my Breva get a red seat? It looked so awful on the red Breva that I gave the dealer an extra $100 for the black seat that was on the red Norge that was sitting beside my Breva (also unsold) on the showroom floor. I figure that'll make the Norge harder to sell, but not my problem...
so can anyone provide any insight? I hope I don't have a 2006 that the dealer is trying to pass off as an '07, because I gather that the '06's had some issues, and CARC recalls etc. The VIN of my Breva is ZGULPC0047M114139 How can I tell when the bike left Lago di Como?
I'm probably just being a Nervous Nellie - I was going to buy a Sprint ST, which was my first choice and would have been my 4th triumph, but my girlfriend really liked the Breva better... And the sprint was $4k more... I really hope I don't end up with 10 thousand dollars worth of regrets...
One last question - is there a quick and cheap fix to get change the faceplate of the speedo clock? I really think it looks cluttered with big mph and small km/h. As well as not being particularly useful in 99% of the planet. Why on earth would anyone, in 2009, want to use those quaint old-fashioned "miles". I guess they are kind of nice and quaint and charming and when travelling in the US it's like all old-fashioned and you expect to see some horses and buggies and all that... {insert angry responses from patriotic americans - lighten up guys, that's just canuck humour!!}. But more importantly, if I'm travelling south of the line it really helps me get out of tickets if I can smile sweetly and say the the sheriff "I'm sorry constable, my speedo reads only kilometres and your signs are in miles and I was converting in my head just when you flashed your lights at me..." The truly disheartening thing is that last year, in 20,000km around the US on my triumph, in 15 out of 16 american states I got out of a ticket that way. Do american cops really think we're that dumb? The exception was in Montana (our immediate neighbour) where the cop said "BS - you can't pull that on me...". But does anyone know how fast you have to go to get pulled over in Montana? (210 or 215 and I have no idea what that is in miles or knots or light years). Well of course, because he knows a bit about Canada since he likely drives across the border every week to buy _real_ beer... But the bottom line is, is there a way of getting the simpler and cleaner looking all-kilometre faceplate for the speedo?
Thanks a lot for any info any of you might provide...
PS
I hope I haven't offended any americans - I have lots of american cousins and look forward to a tour on the guzzi hopefully to the oregon coast this sumer. But lbs and miles? c'mon guys, join the world. I'm an engineer and I know how difficult it would be to avoid errors if you had to design anything complicated using that system... Maybe that's why my old Norton used to leak oil so bad...
Ian
