Not sure how much people are joking in other posts so I thought I’d stick my head over the parapet and ask:
Knowing that most motorbikes sold in the UK do fewer than about 2,000 miles a year, I wonder is it really true that a Guzzi takes the equivalent of several years of “average” use to be properly run in and smooth?
(I’m averaging somewhere around 10,000 miles a year at the moment, but not yet on a Guzzi.)
True story: I was in the BMW dealer the other day and they had some enormous and ugly Starship Enterprise style 1600 super grand intercontinental ballistic tourer available on a special deal: you pay them about £350 a month and you can use the bike, but if you do more than 4,000 miles a year you pay them a surcharge of about 12p a mile. So if they think 4,000 is a lot for a super tourer…
We had one guy on here boasting he only did about 100 miles a year, just rode the bike to the local posing spot on Sunday afternoons. But no, no-one is joking about the running in time, Guzzis do get better after about 10k. They are meant to be used, not looked at.
yes I do vaguely recall the guy/girl, think we were not sure if it was a wind up or not,ok there are those who for whom 2,000 miles per year would be a high mileage but I do a decent amount of rallies per year and there are those who I meet on rallies for whom 2,000 miles would be what they do per month, , there really are some serious mileage ‘bikers’ out there and long may they continue. in the late 1970’s early '80’s no Guzzi was really run in until it had hit the15,000 miles mark, what the running in mileage is now I don’t know but I presume it is way under that 15,000 mile mark.
northwest2013-11-17 01:30:40
I dont use mine for commuting, for that I use a cycle
i use it for long trips only the last one being 2k round trip 2 up
its clocked up 16k now in ten years but only for pleasure and it certainly did not loosen up until around 6 to 8k
the bike felt smoother and more supple
now it fits me like a glove
trouble is work and fmaily means its usualy left plugged into the charger in the garage until I can find time to ride it
Ian Dunmores identical bike has done far more miles than mine and is even smoother
I can believe that re the 100 mile pose… tis thursday evenings in the summer out our way…
Am usually on my way home from work and they are coming the other way. Crashes everywhere…
We tend to use our bikes as we did 35 years ago, ie work and pleasure…
Are you sure you have the identical bike to Mr D…it has to be cleaner…
I have been trying to trade in my 09 Guzzi and a Honda dealer told me he would trade it out because of the high mileage. 18k! I said to him what about that 30,000 mile BMW GS you have in stock. They’re different he said
I struggled to get a decent trade in on my bellagio with 30,000 miles on the clock and a full service history so ended up selling privately. Even the guzzi dealers were wary of taking in such a well used bike even though it was immaculate!
Run in after 500-1000 miles.But fully smoothed out after 10-15k miles.The reason, the origonal 750 was built to police specs and had to be able to do 100,000 kilometres before any major work was required.My Lemon has done 150,000 miles and the engine has been re ringed. Thats it.If they were water cooled I suspect much tighter tolerances would be possible and they would run in quicker.I guess that’s next.
There is a whole piece on this in Guzziology, basically thhe engineering is by today’s standards “Old School” so everything is tighter then the newer stuff. therfore will take longer to “bed in” true the engine is “run in” by 1000 mls BUT due to how Guzzi do things to fully smooth out takes alot more miles.
I found out that the actual rings in ALL the nikasil and cast bore engines are the same except the top ring well worth checking
It’s the difference between a one night stand and meeting someone you realise you want to know for a long time.One does the job, the other takes life to a higher plane.