Well, it’s been a tough winter for both me and the V7 Stone. I won’t bore you with my own tribulations, but the poor Stone has got to the point where it clearly needs more TLC than it’s been getting.
The bike is now 3 years old, with 21,000 miles. Up to now, the bike has been mechanically fine, as it should be: I’ve kept getting it serviced at what was my local Guzzi dealer about every 4,500 miles because I usually ride all year round and with ‘spirit’, so the early service intervals seemed prudent. Until now, the only problems had been electrical and were sorted under warranty.
So, I’ve been a bit casual about the running gear, confident that regular dealer service had me covered. Boy, was I wrong!
I took up the offer of my dealer’s discount winter service in mid-December. I turned up to find that my usual mechanic no longer worked there, his colleague had been sent home for the day and a 16 year old apprentice would be doing it. I did question this, but was told he was qualified to work on the bike.
He took almost 4 hours to do the service, which I was told was a sign he had been thorough (in hindsight, I’m not sure whether to laugh or frown at this point). The bike was also scheduled for its first MOT, but this was off-site, and the apprentice wasn’t licensed to ride the V7, and of course, they’d sent the adult mechanic home.
So I had to ride it to the MOT testing station myself, which wasn’t a problem, but what was a problem was that the bike failed! The front wheel bearing needed replacing (I had asked the dealer to check). Luckily, the MOT centre was a garage and was able to put in a new bearing.
Since then, I have discovered that the engine oil was overfilled, with at least 50ml sitting in the airbox, and that they had forgotten to change both the gearbox and final drive oil. They also missed that the rear brake bolt had come loose! This, despite them having changed the rear brake pads at my request. How on earth could they have missed this?
This is such a shame, as I felt I could rely on my dealer up until now. But following this experience, I’ve come to realise that I need to restart being more careful with my pre-ride checks and general maintenance.
So, I’ve now changed the gearbox and final drive oils myself. I had to take apart the right footrest assembly because the rear brake pivot was so loose that it completely came undone on the ride home. The result of applying the rear brake with the pivot loose is that the rear brake switch got bent and no longer works. I’ll get it replaced, but will be doing that myself. I’ll check the valve clearances as soon as we get nice weather. Anyway, lesson learnt and it could easily have been a much harder lesson, so for that, I’m grateful.
Can anyone recommend a good Guzzi-knowledgeable independent mechanic in the South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire area?
With four wheeled vehicles I have not once hit this overfill issue but with various two wheeled machines in younger years have found a few times extreme caution required despite trying to under fill then top up?? I think a common issue is believing that the ‘optimum’ is right on or close to max level? If you keep an eye on your engine reasonably often that should never be a concern to happily live with just on or barely over half. Assuming a properly functioning oil pump that should be perfectly safe.
) and who did not have the best reputation when it came to servicing. One day a new Cali III pulled up outside my front door with a very apologetic rider who said I’d been recommended as someone who knew a bit about Guzzis (back then, ‘a bit’ was about right - I had my G5 and a couple of V50IIs). Would I mind checking his bike over as it had just had its 500 mile service and he wasn’t too happy with it. Conversation followed mentioning the dealer, 3X (Three Cross) Motorcycles… right. Effectively I did another 500 mile service and ended up rebalancing the carbs (yep), setting the tappet gaps, etc., etc.. The oil levels were the only things about right. I also did a repeat 1000 and 5000 miles services and not once was everything done as it should have been. Going to 3X kept his warranty up but the servicing was… see above.