Sticky:Members Gallery

[jay dub]

When I am seriously considering riding a bike 450 miles instead of just having the lens shipped to me you know it must be a fun and relaxing bike to ride! This is not how I am...to quote Pink Floyd.

Nice Micah. That made me smile.

Your bike is exceptional a beauty. Hope mine lasts for ever I love it .

That's a beauty of a bike Aaron. The seat seals the deal.

[aaron field]

So how is your new ride did you buy new or second hand do like the performance and the ride? I'm so much more comfortable on the Griso and love the torque. Have to catch up for a ride and coffee sometime.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

Here is a black Griso from the last week or two at the shop. It came in for a tire and header wrap, here is the story from the "What's in the AF1 Shop" thread:

Time for an update...had to clear a lot of pics of the memory card in my camera after all!

I guess we can start this edition with some Guzzi's.

The first bike belongs to our local Parts Unlimited Rep, Craig. He brought it in for a new tire and header wrap, well of course I just kept going once I saw the horror show inside the stock headers in the first (high velocity) inch or so of header tube. At this point the inner and outer sections of the double walled (you did not really think the pipes were that big around did you>) pipe are welded to the spigot which attaches to the head. Roughly 30% of the area of the inside diameter of the pipes were obstructed by weld!

I know it is a little hard to extract power from 2 valve Guzzi motors but man, a 30% obstruction of the ID of the pipe...out comes the die grinder and a selection of tips, the result was a perfect blend from the port into the header with nothing to diminish exhaust velocity near the port itself. This sounds pretty minor I guess but looking at the before and after dyno graphs shows a pretty staggering difference!

The header wrap is just to cover up the pitting of the stock chrome and general corrosion of the pipes in their hottest section. The end can on this bike is a simple slip-on Staintune silencer.

I had no way of knowing what was inside the stock headers so the dyno graph shown only compares my Griso (same motor, miles and year basically) to his with same mods, only mine does not have the header welds removed and smoothed.

God, I really like the Griso, what a machine, it has more or less changed the way I think about "fun" riding.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

Another yank from my blog-ish thread, this one is an 1100cc Sport, but the special Coppa Italia model of which there were supposedly very few. The text below describes how the bike came to me:

Next up is a Moto-Guzzi Coppa Italia, these are supposed to be exceedingly rare. The current owner of this one bought it with all these mods done and only wants it now to run correctly at all rpms and throttle positions. The total list of mods is unknown to me or him.

Problem with the bike is that after the motor heat soaks while riding it becomes very difficult to ride at lower rpms with misfires and detonation becoming prevalent. On the dyno I figured I would find poor temperature compensation from the stock efi, nope, it definitely all worked right. Compression on both cylinders is 147lbs giving a compression ratio very close to the Guzzi claimed 9.8:1.

Mixture is all over the place, as one might expect with a ton of mods and no fuel tuning. So incoming shortly is a PCIIIusb to fix half of that problem. The other half of the problem was so obvious I missed it for the first two weeks the bike was in my care. 6 heat range spark plugs...fucking seriously? While that may be what the OEM recommends it is definitely not right for a bike with good flowing/trapping heads, air cooling and one smoking hot exhaust valve per cylinder. I am thinking 8 heat range is much closer to correct.

Probably more to come on this one, next time I take pics of it I will make sure that the three weeks worth of warehouse dust are cleaned off first. I figured you folks would like this one either way!

[orangeokie]

Here is a black Griso from the last week or two at the shop. It came in for a tire and header wrap, here is the story from the "What's in the AF1 Shop" thread:

Does AF1 stock those red anodized hand grips on the Griso?

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

No, those are Rizoma and Craig got them from Roland at Motovation Accesory in Austin. Little bling-eee for my taste but pretty comfortable even in my super
Moto gloves I usually use on the street.

[jrflanne]

"Mine"? Micah, are you taking possession of the Griso? The black one is a nice looking bike!

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

Mentally yes, the Griso is mine. Emotionally too but alas, not financially. I am on the edge of buying a crashed vespa to play with though!

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

Well, I went to the Austin Store on Friday and did not see "my" Griso...oh well, maybe in another life, or maybe it was out on loan?

So...not sure if this guy is a "member" here or not...BUT, I think these are really cool bikes! Now I know I am officially getting old, really old...


The Quota 1100 ES

[pete roper]

Quota! (Shudder!!!!!)

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

It's my "cheap side" talking. These bikes have to be like, real cheap to buy right? Whichever one is lighter in kilos and $$$ would be my speed considering my dirt riding skillset.

[pete roper]

Watch out for cracked rims and rear discs, they aren't 'Common' but it did happen on some of them, mainly the Q-1000's I believe. Treasure your TPS and burn incence at a shrine for it. They have long been unobtainable and I know of no replacements. I hasten to add that doesn't mean there aren't replacements. Simply I've never found one! Best thing you can do if your TPS goes tits is to take the motor out and fling in one from a V11 Sport along with its ECU and stuff. Lighten up the flywheel and you can turn 'em into a real "I think I'll Shit My Pants Now' piece of fun!!!

I rode up to the uzzi National Rally from LA with my mate Chuck on one last year. That thing was a hoot, it had a buckled front wheel that was like a huge potato crisp! It was one of the oddest handling POS I've ever ridden and believe me, I've ridden some real munters in my time!!!

Pete

[shekel]

..........I rode up to the uzzi National Rally from LA with my mate Chuck ........

Now that does sound like a fun rally - only in the USA.

[OZSLR]

Watch out for cracked rims and rear discs, they aren't 'Common' but it did happen on some of them, mainly the Q-1000's I believe. Treasure your TPS and burn incence at a shrine for it.

Sometimes Pete, I think people just like the look or concept of a bike without necessarily thinking too hard about the potential challenges of ownership

[duke63]

Another yank from my blog-ish thread, this one is an 1100cc Sport, but the special Coppa Italia model of which there were supposedly very few. The text below describes how the bike came to me:

That is stunningly beautiful. Hope you can get it running right.