I took it to work with me
Nice now that I work in the UK (river Thames) I can ride to work and someone pays me private mileage to enjoy the bike. Something I couldn’t do in the 8 years I spent working in Mexico. Small oil leak has appeared from the rocker box cover but nothing an Allen Key can’t sort out…I hope
Tris - Chewing over the straight bars idea so may yet PM you
I am thinking of going if my aches and pains subside
ps I am roughly halfway in near Junction 13 if you need a break
might see you on the way down
I’ll keep an eye out for you.
I’ll be scuttling along at a sedate pace!
Have fun
Steve
Well I made it in time to take the piss out off the Ducati posing society
we had a nice ride but Bob made me hide in a side street as I am naughty
we had plenty of bikes turning up throughout the morning, pity so many riders left early though
but it was a good turnout in brizzle
did any body see the young lady with musical breasts ??
I saw her. Couldn’t work out the tune though.
Once again a lovely day out. Have been looking at second hand Alfa Romeos on ebay as a result. They seem to be cheaper than Guzzis, wonder why that is?
having owned one, the cheap ones are or have been owned by the rather loud and mouthy sections of society, and used mainly to race around housing estates, commute 2 miles to work and Maccy Ds
of course maintenance, long runs, and genuine spare parts do not enter into that equation
so you are buying a money pit
the more expensive ones tend to be sold through clubs or the grapevine and will have been driven carefully on long runs, allowed to warm up before being revved and have been serviced with the correct oils and genuine parts
Guess which one I ended up buying from a so called specialist in the Bristol area ?
he now specialises in high end German junk
in spite of his verbal promise that he only purchased stock from blue chip dealers, and companies, after the thing went bang I found out it was a repo sold through auction and owned by a chav, the fully stamped service book was exactly that
fully stamped
he had stamps made to fill the gaps
I did try to buy one from a local main dealer, but the salesman was rude to me and ignored me preferring to bullshit on the phone about how he had made 4 grand on a cancelled sale !
Having spent a good time in France with the 750s , Morini Sport (thanks once again Guy&Kate), La Femme and son number 1+Femme over Easter .
I now find myself suffering from a throat & chest infection (I don’t do ill and can be a right miserable bugger if I’m not left alone to get on with it). So looking for some tv entertainment I found a Danish programme on BBC4 which I quite enjoyed but it struck me afterwards how the rest of council tv seems to be so dumbed down . These days the great British public seems to be very accepting of poor quality sub standard early evening numpty fodder and now we have another round of election broadcasts oh deep joy rant over you can all relax 
.
Now back to my Easter trip I could not get my son off the 750s and this is someone in their early 30s who runs a Suzuki GSX750SRAD and a 916 Ducati who says there is no hope for motorcycles oh and by the way he has told me in no uncertain terms that when I’m to old for the 750s it will be his , we will see 
.
Back to cleaning and checking over the bikes .
Grand ride out today with the Taverners Section on their Tulip run. First ride out of the year and the sun was shining. 4 Guzzi’s in and amongst a good miscellaneous assortment of old iron rumbling their way around the Leicestershire back lanes.
Glad little Mo behavin Mike…and yer son has obviously inherited your good taste !..
Your Tulip run sounds lovely Don…a sunny day and old bikes…perfick…
We did our second day at Stafford…didnt get the Guzzi in the sale…but a 900ss which wasnt as original as mine went for £19,500 plus 15% buyers premium…
Mine spent the weekend on the VMCC stand…was ridden in…and ridden home …on a beautiful sunny and verdant sunday evening…bliss…
Great time meeting up with the “Essex Branch” at Harwich. Looking forward to Italian Day at the Ace next Sunday now.
A ride up into Devon, to Moretonhampstesd and the home of Nic Collins, a fine potter. A great day. A chilly ride out, but a better ride home across Dartmoor.
Went a HUGE run of 9 miles to Muckhart for a classic bike meet, kicked some tyres, drank tea, talked nonsense, went home. Great day!
Other than ride it down to Gravesend docks to join a tug, I cleaned up more oil as the leak has progressively worsened.
I am thinking of doing away with the ‘stainless insert crash protectors’ between the top of the cylinder and the rocker box cover when home next week. I’m leaning towards the thought that a second set of gaskets doesn’t help and secondly the two different metals with different expansion rates possibly doesn’t neither.
Is my thinking shite? Or are oil leaks from the rocker cover just a Guzzi thing?
Oh and does fully synthetic 10/50 sound about right as a possible top-up requirement?
Second big breva I know that has leaky rocker covers…mite be an idea to do what yer thinkin…we put our gaskets on with grease on the old uns…
Thanks and nice to know. All I’m thinking is the less gaskets, the less a problem.
Thanks and nice to know. All I’m thinking is the less gaskets, the less a problem.
SF, I have rocker protectors that fit on the upper surface of the rocker box covers and are held by the same screws. These do not need the additional gaskets. I probably won’t fit them though as I have now a decent set of T3 etc front crash bars without rust or dings for the 950. I would agree that different metals will perform differently, but probably not that differently, better though to have an ali to ali joint.
I also have some rocker covers that have been welded up because I didn’t use protector bars and a twerp tried unsuccessfully to move my bike in a pub car park and dropped it. Everything went quiet for a couple of weeks, it turned out it was the landlord.
Kate’s advice is good, I always use grease on gaskets makes them easier to remove.
On a previous note we took the Stelvio over to Brittany over Easter, I was worried because it had an intermittent spark fault on one pot that started after a service. I took it back to the ex-dealer and they “fixed” it by putting new plugs in. Why they didn’t do that anyway is beyond me, it wouldn’t have made much difference to the cost of the service. Anyway, the fault returned, we were going over cobbles in Rennes fully loaded two up with luggage, heavy traffic and the bike started firing on one side only. It cleared and nearly ran into a car in front with the sudden extra power.
I have decided not to return the bike, but to find someone else to solve the problem or do it myself. I had this before when the bike was still under warranty and it turned out to be the (or one) plug lead. They appear to be of exact length and are not clamped into the coils or plug caps so movement (during a service?) can make them not quite fit. Most of the time the bike runs fine, but it nearly let me down just when I needed it to be reliable and consistent. Watch this space…
FWIW
I have a set of Ray’s heavy duty rocker protector plates.
two gaskets (with a bit of spray grease) and not had a leak. This is on a Quota 1100i motor.
Can you check the covers and protectors for true on a piece of glass etc? May be a bit warped.
Good luck
Steve
Probably nowt again…as I have to take a newly tyred Kwacker wheel back to work…yesterday Guy fitted my new 65 quid rear tyre to the back of the Beetle…ready for Scotland on friday…
Bon voyage!
Enjoy the well earned break
Steve