1200 Sport. Wisdom gratefully received!

Technical All CARC models
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After spending a few months looking about, finally bought myself a 1200 Sport (2v). Had been looking at V11s (good ones seem really expensive now!) and 1100 Griso too, but the price/condition/seller of the 1200 Sport was the best overall. And it has both original keys so I can set the PIN for the dash.

Thanks for the input on the various threads I started whilst dithering over the choice.

Seems like and excellent bike so far, not really a sports bike (no surprise there) but really comfortable, and surprisingly good on bumpy country lanes. Massive torque. And 50mpg (though the dash says about 42!), should be 200 mile usable range. Big comfy seat, and useful storage underneath it. Very neat hard panniers, though I probably won’t use them. Proper clocks with dials & needles!

Niggles include the handlebars. I like the low(ish) height, but had to add 20mm risers to get them to clear the tank enough to be able to rotate them into a reasonably comfortable position.

The remaining problem is that they are wide (760mm) and the grips are not angled back much. They would be great on a roadster, but don’t go well with the slightly sporty riding position. You have to stretch forward, which naturally puts your hands at an angle; but then you have to twist your wrist to grip the bars.

So the hunt is on for some narrower bars, preferably which puts the grips at a steeper backward & slightly downward angle. Complicated by the fact they are 28mm (at centre) tapered bars,which reduces choice. Recommendations gratefully received!

Also the clutch lever seems to be a inch further from the grip than necessary. Only useful over the first 1/4 of its travel. But hydraulic so not much adjustment. Maybe an aftermarket lever could fix this…?

Only other niggle is the footrest bracket. This is a big alloy “pork chop” affair that mounts rider & pillion pegs. Nothing unusual about that, but this one is shaped such that if you try to rest the ball of your foot on the peg, you can’t because your heel hits the bracket (it is angled outward). Don’t think this is fixable :-/

These are just niggles though. Still a lovely bike :slight_smile:

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I think the dash may be calibrated in US gallons, hence low MPG figures.
Ian

3

Ah, that would explain it!

I’ll have a dive into the menu system and see if there’s a way to change it. If not back in an hour, send out a search party.

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The speedo reading (ECU value) may be out which will affect the fuel consumption on the dash and the actual miles on the trip.

I believe some of the Aprilia handlebars have more sweep back - check Griso Ghetto for more info

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Hmmm, I think the mileage is (near enough) right - but in any case I was using that to calculate actual fuel consumption, so if it was under recording mileage them my calculated mpg would have been wrong, like the dash. Plus the speedo itself is pretty accurate.

Thanks for the tip about Aprilia handlebars, I will check it out (when they let me in to the forum…)

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my speedo was 13% out

re Griso Ghetto you can normally view posts without logging in and I think the bars were mana (poss p/no 890446)

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Found the Griso Ghetto threads, thanks. Lots of good stuff to sift through there.

A 13% speedo error is quite extreme! How you get that fixed?

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Can’t comment on the Speedo error, but I only get low 40s mpg from my Griso 1200 8V, irrespective of how I ride it. I wouldn’t think the 8V motor is much less economical compared to the 4V motor. I don’t get much more than 45 mpg from a V11 either

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The 50mpg was measured by brimming the tank, riding about 190 miles, and brimming again. Not perfect by any means, but the consumption on the dash was saying about 42mpg.

That mileage was done in just 4 trips, mostly cruising at 70ish. Short runs on country roads show more like 35 on the dash, so about 42mpg I guess?

I exclusively use Esso premium unleaded, which he they claim gives better fuel consumption - I never really believed that about premium fuel, but I suppose there could be something to it??

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I only use E5 premium fuels in an air cooled Guzzi. Never E10. Esso premium, Shell V Power etc are about as good as it gets in todays mass market fuels. Low 40s mpg for a mix of riding on country roads sounds right

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Agreed. Except emergencies, I always use Esso E5 as (despite the designation) it is ethanol free.

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You can adjust the speedo value in the Ecu by using tunerpro and guzzidiag.

Mileage wise in my 4v or is it 8 I currently get around 45mpg commuting, mix of country and motorway. On runs such as red kite that goes up to more than 50mpg

1 Like
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There is a string on the Ghetto about which table to change to reset the multiplier for the speedo.
Also you can reset the multiplier for the mpg meter… but like on most cars those mpg readouts are fictitious compared to measuring the fuel you put in Vs the miles you did :smiley:

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I think you`ll find that Esso is not guaranteed to be Ethanol free in certain parts of the country, it depends on where the supplying refinery is

CHRIS

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I a thinking about alternative bars for my 1200 Sport too. I heard about the Mana bars but I think thye are priced out of my league or sensibility. I found Renthal do a comparison tool:
https://www.renthal.com/worksfit/
Once you get used to how it works you can make comparisons of height width and sweep etc.but I will be checking the standard measurements on the bike too just in case someone has already changed something.

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I have actually got used to the stock bars now, with the 25mm risers (SW Motech). The small amount of extra height allowed me to rotate the bars backwards a bit, giving them a bit more sweep. They are still a bit wider than I would like, but I can live with that, at least for now.

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The fueling is also far better following a visit to Carl Harrison (Harleston), with a proper TPS set up and fuel map update (official MG map; not sure when it dates from, but somehow my bike has missed it, despite the official MG dealer service history :roll_eyes:)