Vibrations - T3

Went out for a nice ride yesterday on my 850 T3 Cali. I noticed that on acceleration in perhaps too high a gear I could feel the bike vibrating. Hard to describe but it cleared once the revs had risen to about 4000. Could it be the shaft drive playing up?
All the best,
David.

they tend to smooth out @ 4000rpm. if it worries you either

  1. Get a ride on a similar bike
  2. take off the rear wheel pull the shaft and check it

To try and get a definitive answer online is asking for 1000 "probabilities, The shaft vibe usually shows as a noticable vibration on the right hand footrest/footboard. I have only had to get the UJ done after over 100k miles BUT it does depend how the bike has been used or abused.

I did not feel it coming specifically from the right footplate. Perhaps best to ride it for longer so it gets worse enough to be obvious. I have had so many issues that perhaps I am hypersensitive to the bike’s every nuance.

Generally vibration from a failing UJ or carrier bearing is felt upon deceleration and at low rpm and as GB says, through the right foot only. Let the bike overrun down past the point where you would normally change down. If you feel a “rumble” through your right foot it’s time to pull the swing arm.

Vibration on acceleration is more likely to be carb balance or timing, assuming it’s not paranoia which it usually is in my case

Hi David, a common misconception with the big Guzzis is that they are like HDs and love to pull from low revs, true they will do this but you will get some shakes, try going to 5K+ in every gear and see how she flies, it will amaze you.Cheers, Gerry.

Mines awful below 2500 with lots of shunting and vibration , she starts to pull smoothly from about 3000 but is not smooth and happy till around 4000

Usually I find the carb balance is out when it gets really lumpy below 4000.

Thanks everyone. It is just that she feels a bit different to before so I think I may be over-sensitive. If the weekend is nice I will test Gerry’s thesis!

I had mine dynamically balanced but it still shakes at low revs.

It smooths out beautifully above 4000 rpm though.

It’s a short stroke v twin , the opposite of a Harley so your guzzi will love to rev

Had a youthful moment on my t5 during the summer and chased after a modern bike winding mine all the way to the red line through the gears and it loved it !

[quote=“guzzi-t5”] It’s a short stroke v twin , the opposite of a Harley so your guzzi will love to rev

Had a youthful moment on my t5 during the summer and chased after a modern bike winding mine all the way to the red line through the gears and it loved it ![

same as my t5 rev it ,all the guzzis ive ridden love revs

My current 97 Cali 1100i and the previous EV both did this.

I honestly don’t think it is a problem just the nature of the beast.

They respond well to a few more revs.

Darryl

I have perhaps been a bit too conscious that she is a 30+ year old bike. Concerned that she may blow up or something!

It is not the years but the sum of:-

years-miles-use-service intervals ESPECIALLY oil changes

Good clean fresh oil and a warm engine won’t normally go pop. Been hammering guzzi’s for years and not blown one yet

Even my old round the clock v50 kept on reving hard…

As above, don’t work too well below 3k, the vibration is the individual power pulses from each piston. Can be aggravated by carbs out of balance (bigger pulse on one side than the other so vibration effect is worse). I tend to operate between 3 - 5k and regard 5th gear as though it were an over-drive ratio, i.e. don’t try to force it to pull 5th all the time. HTH

That could be it. In my diesel car which is an automatic the revs rarely rise above about 2500 so I may have lost the feel for a revvy engine. I have been changing up quite early too. Will give her some revs next time out. The oil is fresh and clean so once warm she should be good to go. I have found it very difficult to be certain I have the timing dead right on both left and right cylinders. The carb balancing is reasonably easy using a gadget I bought on eBay.

Don’t forget that your diesel car engine has four cylinders, so 2500 rpm is the same number of firing strokes per second as 5000rpm on the Guzzi.

Might be an idea to push hard past the 2500 a few times a month to stop problems later on with your diesel!

With Guzzis they love to be revved.Once warmed up take it to 5000 + as early as possible.This will smooth out the vibs when you throttle back.It will be smoother and accelerate harder.Thrash’em, they love it.

Bought some very expensive Iridium plugs today. Will see how she goes with them.
All the best,