Too mainstream

[WayneOrwig]

About the only motorcycle magazine I get is Motorcycle Consumer News. I never understood the other magazines and hate to pay someone to make stupid comments. :lol:

Anyway........

I just got my Motorcycle Consumer News this month and what is this? A Moto Guzzi Stelvio on the front cover. And the article is generally favorable.

Before long people may actually know what I ride.

BTW, they said on the rear tire size of the NTX, "Moto Guzzi USA personnel requested that the factory stay the course with the Stelvio's original tire and wheel width". So you may not be seeing the narrow tires here in the USA.

 

[bigtex]

BTW, they said on the rear tire size of the NTX, "Moto Guzzi USA personnel requested that the factory stay the course with the Stelvio's original tire and wheel width".

Good call. Wouldn't want to give the customers what they want or the dealers something they could sell. You could stay in business if you did that, and we certainly want no part of that.

:evil:

 

[kwn306]

BTW, they said on the rear tire size of the NTX, "Moto Guzzi USA personnel requested that the factory stay the course with the Stelvio's original tire and wheel width".

Good call. Wouldn't want to give the customers what they want or the dealers something they could sell. You could stay in business if you did that, and we certainly want no part of that.

:evil:

Well stated BigTex, Piaggio's CEO / Think Tank Morons have the head so far up ther a$$ they would need a pariscope to see. Their sales tools claim this is a bike to ride the world...........only 5% of the world is paved the the rear wheel and tire selection sucks on anything but pavement. I would give my left n*t for a 4.25" or 4.5" rear wheel. inch:

 

[Bluntly]

I would give my left n*t for a 4.25" or 4.5" rear wheel. inch:

Would anybody want it?

:idea: You could just buy one!

Seriously, I have never understood why motorcycle manufacturers insist on offering the USA different products to Europe; We can't be that different in our needs and wants?

I'm convinced that in the current financial crisis more than ever it would make sense to make "World Products" and thus keep costs down.

Somebody at Piaggio's (and all the manufacturers) Marketing Department must surely scan the forums from time to time... Or is that just a bit too easy for them? :roll:

 

[bobw]

:lol: All good points. The handling would be interesting with the smaller rim/tire, but I would be happy with a few more matched options for the current size on both front and rear.

 

[kwn306]

I would give my left n*t for a 4.25" or 4.5" rear wheel. inch:

Would anybody want it?

:idea: You could just buy one!

Seriously, I have never understood why motorcycle manufacturers insist on offering the USA different products to Europe; We can't be that different in our needs and wants?

I'm convinced that in the current financial crisis more than ever it would make sense to make "World Products" and thus keep costs down.

Somebody at Piaggio's (and all the manufacturers) Marketing Department must surely scan the forums from time to time... Or is that just a bit too easy for them? :roll:

Bluntly,

I just can't buy one, I have the part number, MG Corp won't let my dealer order the damn thing, something about the wheel does not meeting USA DOT requirements. It is the same hub, spokes and rim manufacture, just a differnet width and I am no expert by any means but the rules and regulations in Europe are a lot more stringent than they are in the US.

If you would be so kind as to see if your dealer would sell you one and you ship the complete assembly to me, I will make it worth your time. Just let me know the cost. The European dealers aren't allowed to ship the wheels over to the US either, so that means us poor fools in the US need to find a fellow rider in Europe to help us out. You up for the job? :?:

 

[Bluntly]

Sorry Kurt, I had no idea rear NTX wheels were "contraband" in the US! :shock:

I'll look into the cost of getting an NTX rear wheel and let you know ASAP.

Perhaps you can look into arranging shipping by DHL/UPS/? from there? It can be a bit pricey from here.

 

[pauldaytona]

Well the 5.5 wheel is 1025 euro in Germany, I suppose the 4.5 would be arround that, count extra the shipping(200 euro?), taxes

Why not take a 4.5 rim to the wheel shop and let them spoke it on your hub. Only you can't go back easy, but you have no reason to do that.

 

[sn0winSaskatoon]

Seriously, I have never understood why motorcycle manufacturers insist on offering the USA different products to Europe; We can't be that different in our needs and wants?

Huh?? I toured several thousand km through italy and france in 2007 - and have been all over Canada and quite a bit in the US. And from my observations, the motorbikes in Europe tend to be sportbikes and sport-tourers, with BMW, Ducati, triumph and the Japanese seemingly very popular (plus the odd KTM and MG, my own rides). And I saw exactly 2 (two) harleys in about 3000km. In Canada, the cruiser market is a bit bigger, but the Japanese bikes really dominate, although there are some euro bikes - mostly BMW, duc & triumph with the odd KTM, MG, Aprilia etc. In the USA, on the other hand, as far as I have been able to see, it's at least 50% harleys with quite a few other (japanese) cruisers and most of the rest seem to be either Japanese sportbikes or BMW's. In almost 6000km last year in the US, the only non-BMW euro bikes we saw were other touring canadians. Bottom line is that to make a gross generalization, a lot of folks in europe seem to want to ride sportbikes and sport-tourers whereas a lot of americans want to dress like pirates and polish harleys. We in Canada are halfway in the middle like in so many things... So why does north america get different bikes than europe? Because that's what they want in the USA.

And Canucks get carried along for the ride as our market is too small - motorbikes are a much smaller proportion of vehicle registrations here than in most other countries (I look out the window at a raging blizzard and know why!). Piaggio and Canadian Scooter Corp (their distributor for the past many years) just parted company and Piaggio says it's going to serve the Canadian market from their USA distributor. I love my Breva, but the dealers are dropping MG/Aprilia and I don't blame them.

 

[DC950]

contact Woody's Wheel Works. If anyone can make you a 4.25-4.5 inch rear, they can.

 

[Billd]

I've talked to Woodys Wheels, they say they can spoke up a 4.25" black rim, Exel I think, for about $400.00. I'm thinking of doing this as well

 

[kwn306]

I've talked to Woodys Wheels, they say they can spoke up a 4.25" black rim, Exel I think, for about $400.00. I'm thinking of doing this as well

I called Buchanons two weeks ago and they told me they needed to see the wheel or at least pictures to compare to see if a Exel / BMW rim would work. Something about the angle of the spoke holes in the hub in relation to where the spokes enter the wheel at present versus the new outside location on the BMW style rim. Also there is a difference in the hub width on the Stelvio versus the BMW (I measured it last Thursday evening) which might create an issue. Lastly I forgot to count the total spokes in the BMW rim to compare to the Stelvio.

That being said........I order a NTX rim from Corsa Italiana in England this past Saturday morning @ 5 AM EST. They said I should have it within a month...........just in time to order a set of Dual Sport tires and get them installed while the east coast is socked in the ice age one week and then flood waters from terrible rains the next week.