Paul just posted these up on GT.

[Pete Roper]

New 2012 model year Norges coming off the production line at Mandello. This is the one with the sillybig tank. Also note the Alloy wheels on the non-polar-bear-smuggling version.





pete

[Daniel Kalal]

They did manage to make the Stelvio look less insect-like, and more fuel makes the bike useable where in many locations it wasn't.  All in all, they did the right things to boost sales (which hasn't always been the case with these folks).  I wonder if these will have a real fuel gauge and not the limited two-position light-bar thing of the previous model?  I rather enjoyed having an accurate needle-gauge on the Sport.

I would have expected a more aggresive looking tire on the NTX version (not that it would likely ever be needed).

[Orson]

That building looks a little too modern to be in Mandello  

Anyone know the latest status on the Mandello factory?

[falconati]

waaaaaaaaaaaaant

[Rincewind]

Did the black finish on the NTX become a matte finish?  It's looking good.  The orange finish on the road-Stelvio is a bit funky.

Thanks for the pics, Pete!

[2DFlyer]

I would have expected a more aggresive looking tire on the NTX version (not that it would likely ever be needed).

Curious.  Are these things one par with the GS in terms of ADV potential?  Not that I'd ever make use of it.

[Guzzi-Guy]

i'm liking the looks of these Stelvios.

[atadaskew]

Curious.  Are these things one par with the GS in terms of ADV potential?  Not that I'd ever make use of it.

Well, you wouldn't have to worry about the FD failing.

[Pete Roper]

I was up in Sydney on Tuesday for some training on the RSV-4 and Doso 1200 and one of the things they were doing was showing novices how to tune a Stelvio NTX. The bike in question had been a press demonstrator for three months and then been flogged up to the top of Cape York, (Thats the pointy bit at the top right of Australia.) The last 600 or more Km are all rogh as guts dirt and they were tackling it at the end of the dry season/befginning of the wet. It was dropped twice and crashed once with a bit more vigour but when the service boffin at the importer was trying to show the newbies how to tune it he actually had to un-tune it first to give himself something to show them as it was still pretty much spot on in terms of TB ballance and TPS.

I personally think that anyone who would even THINK of trying to ride a great big pig like a GS or a Stelvio as an 'Adventure' bike has got to be barking mad. A DR 400 or similar is infinitely more sensible for getting to odd, out-of-the-way places than a great big 1/4 of a tonne behemoth like either of these lumps!

Pete

[Orson]

I personally think that anyone who would even THINK of trying to ride a great big pig like a GS or a Stelvio as an 'Adventure' bike has got to be barking mad. A DR 400 or similar is infinitely more sensible for getting to odd, out-of-the-way places than a great big 1/4 of a tonne behemoth like either of these lumps!

Hear, hear

if you wanna ride in the dirt, get a dirt bike.

that Wally & Ewan-ism has gotten a bit out of hand  

[Biking Sailor]

Hear, hear

if you wanna ride in the dirt, get a dirt bike.

that Wally & Ewan-ism has gotten a bit out of hand  

+1    If you can't pop the front end up or move the back end over, while still straddling the bike, it wouldn't qualify for what I consider to be "off-road".

[Dean]

I's a frigging touring bike with a lot of suspension travel. You could use it to go down some of those unpaved country roads but that's about it. The GS might be BMW's best selling bike but I'll bet that 90+% of them never get off the paved highways. Wake up people!

Dean

[County Tar]

Agreed.  My Vstrom 650 weighs 416lb. dry and I put thousands of gravel road miles on it every year, but its a handful in real dirt and a pig in mud.  Tires are the other key, of course.  If you put on TKC's or Karoo-T's it is a significant improvement.

[Biking Sailor]

I's a frigging touring bike with a lot of suspension travel. You could use it to go down some of those unpaved country roads but that's about it. The GS might be BMW's best selling bike but I'll bet that 90+% of them never get off the paved highways. Wake up people!

Dean

Kinda like Range Rovers you see being driven by soccer mom's?

[WitchCityBallabio]

I bought mine specifically for dirt road duty and some mild off road excursions. It's true value however (especially here in Massachusetts) is the ability to soak up the brutal pot hole filled roads. The same stuff that would bottom out the Ambassador and pound the crap out of the Ballabio, the Stelvio just floats over.