Following on from my initial introduction I now have a few miles under my belt.
Hadn’t gone much further than Honiton to West bay on the 1100 sport because it was too damn uncomfortable and scary.
Having lived with it for a while I replaced the oil pressure switch (it is always nice to know when you haven’t any pressure, and my light wasn’t working.) nor was fuel warning light. (Thank you Ann for turning up with can.)
I then found I had fallen foul of the “blue paper under the fork dust seal” trick. New fork seals fitted and new fluids. And a lot of head scratching until I deciphered the manual and realised the forks had to be fully compressed to add oil. It wasn’t well described!
I then worked out what the tyre pressures ought to be (much higher than I expected) and no mean feat to find out what they were. I am still not 100%.
Scary handling sorted, I moved on to uncomfortable riding position.
Cheapest, and easiest, solution seemed to be inverting the bars. It’s not quite as easy as I thought as it takes a little fettling to drill holes for the switchgear locating pegs in the right place. An hour later, all done.
I wasn’t expecting miracles, as it didn’t look much different. But WOW, what a transformation!
Simple and effective. No need for new brake hoses.
Yes, hands are a little close to the top of the fairing on full lock, and l/h switchgear clouts the clocks a bit on lock as well but a 180 mile round trip to visit my father in Cornwall, and barely a twinge.
Stuff to still get to grips with…
This is not a five speed box, it is 4 speed with overdrive. If I am in 5th I am definitely speeding.
I don’t use speedo’s, I just sit anything I drive at comfortable revs in top gear.
Nothing I drive is very fast so this system has always worked. Yesterday’s return journey was 5000 revs in 5th and 90 miles in 63 minutes… I am going to have to rethink my strategy.
I am struggling to get my head around the sound of the engine too. 5000 revs in 5th just sounds wrong; it’s just sounds too low. But that is something I will have to get used to I guess.
The Straight cut gearbox I got used to pretty quickly, and earplugs are a useful addition, but the ratios are equally odd having 5th only really useable at illegal speeds, and the need for 1st and 2nd around town. Neither of which it seems particularly happy in.
As this is my first guzzi experience, does the above sound familiar to you? Or do you think I still have some issues to sort?
Other than that I think this thing is fully up together now, I just need to work on myself to accommodate the bike.
Oddly enough, with the new riding position, my normal day-to-day back problems feel much easier this morning after yesterday’s ride. Maybe, now that I have fixed the bike… It is fixing me!