V9 Roamer Flyscreen and random chatter

[Sharkbait]

Please see my post below; https://www.guzzitech.com/forums/th...ak-was-re-fork-mess-repair.21521/#post-173004 -- as this was NOT a fork leak after all... however, you can see my endeavor below...

Below is the mess that I had riding with the wife last week. The fork did not leak - it poured. Stupid me, I kept on riding home for about 40 miles with a serious covering of oil all over us, both tires, the entire bike etc. The solution is a bit puzzling but quite simple.

Sourced the seals from MG Cycle, thanks to a tip on this forum. After reading the manual it looked like a big production so after these came in I opted to allow friends try to do the fix at a little Harley Shop. First thing to note is the seals are for 41 mm forks, just like Harley ones except the MG seals are a little bit smaller in OUTSIDE diameter. Doubt the readily-available Harley seals could be made to fit. You should seek out the proper MG seals.

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Neither real looked damaged so why did one completely blow apart. Both were properly seated with a retainer and the one that blew apart was actually dry inside with no visible oil above the seal between the outer dust seal and retainer. Back to that at the end.

First step is to nearly forget what the "book" says. It tells you there is a bushing that prevents the lowers from coming off the fork tubes in place in the triple trees. BULL#@$%. Remove the fender, remove the wheel - carefully unplugging the ABS sensor. No issues. Take a long 8MM allen and loosed the bolt holding the lower to the tube. Let the oil drain into a pan and pull down.
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Here's proof they slide right off. Just "pop" the dust cap off and slide it up the tube. SEE!

Retainer clip and seal come right out as normally expected. Lots and lots of looking and no marks on the tubes and no marks on the seals. I thought a lip of the "blown" one was turned in but not sure as I touched things and oil deposited on it confused me. Why the pouring?

Replaced the old seals with new, installed the retaining clips but filling it the right amount might be an issue. People here said do 400 cc's of 15 wt. oil. The book says to have it filled 120 mm. below the top of the tubes. Bit of a glitch here so OFF and OUT came the fork tubes. Not hard to do at all. Follow dimensions and torque in the book or just use common sense.

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In a vice a couple of discoveries were made. First one is the PROPER amount of fluid is 380CC's. Take off the cap - LEAVE THE SPRING IN TO TAKE UP OIL SPACE ( something not mentioned in the book ) and pour in the oil. push the tube up and down. You could fill without the spring for the plunging of the fork that distributes the oil. Measure the oil level below the tube top to get a 5 1/4" air gap to the oil WITH SPRING IN.

If you did the measurement with spring out, you just overfilled the oil. Could it be that was the case and when we hit some nasty bumps and railroad tracks the overfilled lowers and tubes pushed up the lips in one seal allowing huge amounts of oil to get above the seal?

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To measure you really have to have things vertical. Leaving the forks in the triple tree will not allow you to measure the air gap at the top BUT .... If you have faith in two things I tell you, save the trouble of removal. First is to not take the tubes out. Second is to remove the caps under spring tension and be able to replace them on the bike. Do NOT try that on a Harley or probably most other bikes. On my V9 Roamer you can easily push down on the cap, compress the spring and screw the cap back on after filling with just one hand. It is so easy.

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Sure is nice to know the fill capacity and do without the measurement and fork tube removal. Mine was 380cc's. NO MORE or the dangerous mess I got into could be in your future.

Assembly is simple and the test ride after that was fun. Still some oil from dripping trapped between the exhaust and muffler cover to smoke off even after a major solvent washing and cleaning.

Hope it helps you deal with any fork seal issues you might have with your V9.

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Hi Larry, It looks like you have the mid sized Guzzi screen on your bike . I am just wondering how good you find it . I am thinking about getting one for my Roamer . Cheers

 

[Larry Malinoski]

Hi Larry, It looks like you have the mid sized Guzzi screen on your bike . I am just wondering how good you find it . I am thinking about getting one for my Roamer . Cheers

I called it a “fly screen”. It kept wind off my chest and did not introduce any buffeting. You needed a full-face helmet at speed as it did nothing for your face.

As an aside, I sold ( more like gave away ) the V9 Roamer. Months of advertising got me no responses. Reducing the price to under $4k got it gone with all the bags and accessories plus parts.

It was a fun bike to ride solo. Wife likes to ride always. All my mods did not make it comfortable for her. Even the touring seat mod and suspension did not work for her. I wasted thousands trying.

Worst resale of any bike I ever owned. Here in South Florida there are no dealers and near no interest in the bikes. No more new model Moto Guzzi for me. Just keeping my old V50.

 

[DeadEye]

I have a couple friends in the south, the Carolina’s & Georgia, and the sold their bikes because they found it too hot !
so maybe Florida isn’t the Hottest Market For motorcycling ( Other than during Bike week)

 

[Sharkbait]

I called it a “fly screen”. It kept wind off my chest and did not introduce any buffeting. You needed a full-face helmet at speed as it did nothing for your face.

As an aside, I sold ( more like gave away ) the V9 Roamer. Months of advertising got me no responses. Reducing the price to under $4k got it gone with all the bags and accessories plus parts.

It was a fun bike to ride solo. Wife likes to ride always. All my mods did not make it comfortable for her. Even the touring seat mod and suspension did not work for her. I wasted thousands trying.

Worst resale of any bike I ever owned. Here in South Florida there are no dealers and near no interest in the bikes. No more new model Moto Guzzi for me. Just keeping my old V50.

Thanks for that Larry. Too bad about the Roamer. Being the first Italian bike, I've owned I was quite unsure at the beginning, but it has grown on me. You are right about it being a fun bike solo. I actually prefer solo riding. My wife had her own bike, that was great then she got pregnant now she stays home and I go riding. Cheers

 

[Larry Malinoski]

My wife flunked her test multiple times decades ago. I tried her on a Honda 90. She earned the nickname “crash”. Loves to ride and at age 75 there is no option for her to learn.

heat was never an option for any of my Moto Guzzi’s. Harley’s are HOT but the best fun. On two wheels. Sometimes just the exhaust music makes the ride fun. Rode her 60 miles on my Fat Boy today. Fun.

The V50 is a solo bike but she still forces me to ride her on it. I do but what a cramp of pain.

 

[Vagrant]

What about the Ryker?

 

[DeadEye]

I have a couple friends in the south, the Carolina’s & Georgia, and the sold their bikes because they found it too hot !
so maybe Florida isn’t the Hottest Market For motorcycling ( Other than during Bike week)

Or Not - if you believe statistics - the states with the most registered motorcycles are CA, NY, FL

 

[Larry Malinoski]

What about the Ryker?

After I got crippled with RA it took maybe 8 months before i could walk and do things kind of normally. Rode NO motorcycles in that time as I had no reasonable control of my hands and weak legs. That is when I bought the automatic Ryker. Throttle, cruise control and a foot brake are all the controls. We now have over 4K miles on it.

Yesterday I rode us for about 60 miles on the old Harley Fat Boy. Felt up to the ride for the first time in a year-and-a-half. Did good except for one time near forgetting to put my feet down at a stop. Wife liked the ride and so did I. The Ryker is NOT a motorcycle. It is a way to get in the wind and you can also be aggressive on it. We like it for what it does. It lets us feel like we are motorcycle people again.

If I continue to feel decent, other motorcycles I have will get their chance to run again. Go Steelers!