Trade Ninja 1000 for Moto Guzzi Griso 8V ? Am I insane?

[dietDrThunder]

Oh, calm down. Senses of humor on this site are in the toilet lately.  

You're right...people on forum's (UCWIDT?) correcting grammar are a regular laugh riot. My mistake.

[atadaskew]

Also...it is illegal in 21 states to ride a Guzzi with stock pipes. The sound of that motor with aftermarket exhausts is wonderful. Work a deal to get the dealer to install the good stuff before you pick up the bike.  As you haven't ever seen one in person, there is real value in having the first time you hear it be the pure sex that is a Guzzi on Termi's.

I disagree.
The stock pipe on the 8V Griso sounds really good.  Once over 5K rpms it sounds fantastic.  Guzzi did their work on this one, it flows great and makes excellent powah.

Put some miles on the bike before you start swapping things out.  The only thing I recommend immediately doing is using a hairdryer to remove all those warning stickers, and to set the preload on the suspension.

[X1Glider]

Trade Ninja 1000 for Moto Guzzi Griso 8V ? Am I insane?

Not at all, I just bought a Stelvio NTX yesterday and I own a Ninja 1000, which will be going up for sale after I get a leaky head gasket and cracked swingarm replaced under warranty.


The HD and Beemer are also going. I'm simplifying my life. I've been feeling like a slave to EVERYTHING the last few years and I'm exhausted! The dynos, mill and lathes are gone now too.

Shame as I've only had the N1k for 11 months. But the truth is, I find the bike absolutely boring to ride. The suspension is flabby feeling and the shock options in the aftermarket are simply different colored versions of stock with no option for fork kits at all. Even with the mods I did to bring it to 137 RWHP, I find the power delivery to be lame. I hate power deliveries that build in such a linear, predictable, wind-up-toy fashion.  There's no "stump pulling grunt" that will launch you like only a long stroke twin can.

The Moto Guzzi will likely dyno at 80 RWHP but it delivers power like a 1 ton gasoline powered work truck. I say gas powered bucause it will rev more than a diesel.

Besides, I'll have a 350 tank range which I'll need on my Trans-Lab trip this fall and I also want to get back into more adventurous riding trips on a regular basis.

Oh well, just the nature of a I-4.  It isn't for everyone. The only other 4 cylinder I've had was VF500F Interceptor that actually fired like a twin. Being only a 500cc and 80 crank HP, the firing pattern is what got that bike to launch out of corners. That and I was 150 lbs back in '88. 225 now.

There's a reason I've owned 12 different twins over the years (4 HDs, 5 Buells, 2 BMWs and 1 Duc). While a very cool bike, quick, light and small (why I bought it) it took the N1k to remind me why twins rock!

[X1Glider]

I disagree.
The stock pipe on the 8V Griso sounds really good.  Once over 5K rpms it sounds fantastic.  Guzzi did their work on this one, it flows great and makes excellent powah.

I agree with your statement.  My CRF450X is bone stock (except the RG3 suspension workover), because I suck , and the stock Stelvio exhaust sounds exactly like the 450X, just a bit louder.  Maybe it has something to do with the intake snorkle being under the seat like a dirt bike.  Anyway, love the sound.

Put some miles on the bike before you start swapping things out.  The only thing I recommend immediately doing is using a hairdryer to remove all those warning stickers, and to set the preload on the suspension.

The only sticker that took a lot of work was on the rear subframe tube below the seat.  I think the exhaust heat made it diificult.  It stretches and came apart in micrometer size particles.

The Goose is far from perfect but I'll live with it a bit before coming up with solutions to the things that annoy me, like the extreme noise and buffeting from the windscreen.  It's absolutely deafening.  Don't care for the bend of the bar either.  Even the bar on the Exelcior Henderson Super X wasn't that wide!

[Croak]

There's a reason I've owned 12 different twins over the years (4 HDs, 5 Buells, 2 BMWs and 1 Duc). While a very cool bike, quick, light and small (why I bought it) it took the N1k to remind me why twins rock!

Then what you really needed was a Tuono, not a N1K.  

[X1Glider]

Then what you really needed was a Tuono, not a N1K.  

So I have read in all the mags.

[Dan K]

Then what you really needed was a Tuono, not a N1K.  

Yup.  I miss mine. Found a box of parts for it (OEM sliders, reflectors, etc.)  Need to track down the guy that bought the bike...

- Dan

[Spanky]

No pictures yet?  

[Kneescrubber]

Oh, calm down. Senses of humor on this site are in the toilet lately.  

Pot, meet kettle.

[atadaskew]

The Moto Guzzi will likely dyno at 80 RWHP

Akshully the latest 8Vs dyno at about 95rwhp.

[blakebird]

 there is real value in having the first time you hear it be the pure sex that is a Guzzi on Mistrals

fixed

[Bama67]

Thanks for all the support guys  

I am beyond excited to pick this thing up. But until July 27th or so, that will be pretty hard as I am currently on board a drilling rig somewhere in the southwest Indian ocean, en-route to the Gulf of Mexico but I am getting off this prison on the island of Mauritius. I will overnight there, and then it is home to the good ol' USA. And boy, I will be dying to make that 800 mile ride to Texas to get the thing, as being cooped up on a 400' square steel platform for 6 weeks straight really makes one want to ride.

I have been doing this job for almost 6 years, so that is why the financial aspect is not a real huge deal. Also, my wife is an Registered Nurse, although she hasn't worked much at all in the last 3 years, due to our 3 year old and 1.5 year old  

I am have been a very lucky man, and now with the addition of my dream bike, it would hard for my life to get any sweeter  

As much as I would like to keep the Ninja, but I don't get to ride it enough as is, let alone after I pick up the new Griso.

[Kootenanny]

Can we PLEASE stop pluralizing with the damned apostrophes? Please?  

No.

[Orson]

I'm surprised to learn that someone is still making inline fours  

I had mentally slotted them into my memory banks alongside those 1980s Flock-of-Seagulls hairstyles

[Kootenanny]

I'm surprised to learn that someone is still making inline fours  

I had mentally slotted them into my memory banks alongside those 1980s Flock-of-Seagulls hairstyles

Well, there is this one little company...what was it called?--oh yeah, MV Agusta...

[X1Glider]

Akshully the latest 8Vs dyno at about 95rwhp.

Finding it hard to believe a Guzzi only has a 10% loss.  BMWs run about 15-20%.  95 WHP is likely a very optomistic dyno.  Last Beemer I had was 80 RWHP from 99 on the spec sheet on a Superflo eddy current dyno.  Judging by many Stelvio owners' lower MPG figures compared to GS Adv owners, I get the feeling the Guzzi is closer to 20%.

But I'll reserve judgement until I see an actual dyno sheet and what dyno it was run on.

In the end who cares?  No one buys a Guzzi to race a BMW do they?  If so, I want video!!!   That's like the "arguing on the internet is like winning a race in the special olympics" picture, IMO.

I like the Goose anyway.

[atadaskew]

Finding it hard to believe a Guzzi only has a 10% loss.  

It most probably has the typical 15% loss but it may well be that Guzzi is understating the output of their big blocks.
Just so BMW doesn't feel so bad about their saggy  I mean flat boxer twins.

Ride an R12 BMW, then ride your Griso 8V.  One accelerates nicely when you give it the berries.  The other absolutely takes off, matching the sweet sweet sweetness emanating from the stock exhaust...

[Bama67]

I was wondering that myself. In my last couple days of mass googling of Griso 8V info, I don't think I have seen a single dyno sheet under 95hp, some in the low 100's.

Unless they are really, really efficient drivetrains, they must be sand bagging on the hp #s at the crank, which may actually close to 120ish  

I normally take dyno sheets with a grain of salt, but they all read that way it seems.

Another thing that caught my eye is that a couple people have confirmed that this naked bike will run up to 145mph.   That takes some good hp to do that in this very un-aerodynamic bike and is quite impressive. IMO

[Kneescrubber]

Thanks for all the support guys  

I am beyond excited to pick this thing up. But until July 27th or so, that will be pretty hard as I am currently on board a drilling rig somewhere in the southwest Indian ocean, en-route to the Gulf of Mexico but I am getting off this prison on the island of Mauritius. I will overnight there, and then it is home to the good ol' USA. And boy, I will be dying to make that 800 mile ride to Texas to get the thing, as being cooped up on a 400' square steel platform for 6 weeks straight really makes one want to ride.

I have been doing this job for almost 6 years, so that is why the financial aspect is not a real huge deal. Also, my wife is an Registered Nurse, although she hasn't worked much at all in the last 3 years, due to our 3 year old and 1.5 year old  

I am have been a very lucky man, and now with the addition of my dream bike, it would hard for my life to get any sweeter  

As much as I would like to keep the Ninja, but I don't get to ride it enough as is, let alone after I pick up the new Griso.

Who in Texas are you getting it from? It wouldn't be MPH Cycles in Houston would it?

[staedtler]

I bet is AF1