"Living with it - Griso in London and the North Downs" thread in "Motorbike Chat"
A weeks commuting has introduced me to the realities of the thundering Cackmobile in continuous heavy London traffic. And as I had anticipated, it's not ...

A weeks commuting has introduced me to the realities of the thundering Cackmobile in continuous heavy London traffic. And as I had anticipated, it's not as light and nimble on its toes as the Striple was. But it does have a surprisingly tight turning circle, and as I got used to the balance discovered that it is possible to thread through slow moving traffic on the Southern Death Race. But I am hampered by the fact that the bars are very wide, which leaves me stumped with some reasonably capacious gaps. And very slow speed manoeuvres are hampered by the lumpy low revs power delivery and heavy clutch coupled to a weak hand. I'm also struggling a bit with the switchgear: the indicators are at the bottom of the pile, with the horn above the turn switch. This means I keep hitting the horn. This is exacerbated by the fact that I can't reach the indicator switch when holding the clutch in. I'll get used to this stuff, but it's what's bugging me right now.

But what has bugged me most about a week's commuting is the fuel light coming on after about 80 miles. . This is pretty poor, but seemingly not anomalous, as it's now done it twice. I haven't measured properly, but I estimate that round town I am getting not much more than 20 mpg . It does, however, serve to reveal a nice gadget - when the fuel light comes on, one of the trips starts recording how far you have travelled on reserve.

So on Sunday afternoon, the weather was so good I got on and turned South and headed directly up onto the North Downs by a mixture of sweeping A-roads, but much more tight rural hilly and twisty B-roads.

The bad stuff first. The bike feels heavy and a bit unwieldy in very tight slow speed turns, requiring very precise clutch control to keep the power smooth - and you need that smooth power to keep on track, and to combat the feeling that it's going to flop alarmingly into the turn. It also gets upset on very poor bumpy surfaces under braking, with the forks feeling rather harsh and too firm when compressed under braking, while the rear, in complete contrast felt rather too soft.

In my previous report I mentioned the "snick" of the box. There's been less of that, and on occasions it has clanged into first, and the whole bike has shuddered violently. And some up and downshifts have been less than smooth, and have given the gearbox a slightly agricultural feel. I suspect the clutch my be dragging a little. We'll see hoe it is after the first service.

But out here the bike is generally glorious. The engine delivers the trademark lower and mid-range grunt in abundance, pulling hard fro low revs in any gear, and resulting in a very satisfying feeling of being catapulted out of bends on a wave of torque. And on more open sweeping bends it is relaxed but potent, cruising with comfortable poise and panache.

But when the road opens up a bit, something very different indeed happens. I am keeping to under 6.5k rpm to run in, so haven't had the joy of the full effect here, as I did on the demonstrator. Because somewhere around 5.5k or 6k rpm, there is a sudden and distinct rush of power that really kicks you up the arse. It really is utterly gorgeous, adding a further layer of performance to the traditional low and mid range torque. The rear seems to dig in for some traction and hurls the bike forward on a white knuckle surge. There's more of that to come too, but at 6.5k I reluctantly change up.

At speeds above a crawl, and on everything but the poorest surfaces under braking, the handling is neutral and confidence inspiring. And on the sweeping sections of road, hugging the landscape, the Griso is in its element, changing direction with ease, giving plenty of feedback, and feeling extremely planted and unphased by holding its line at speed.

And then I found myself at Box Hill. The Griso drew something of a crowd. This surprised me: it is a beautiful bike, but there's plenty of exotica on show at Box. A discussion developed on the merits of the standard exhaust. I said that I'd been told by the chaps at Corsa Italiana that people tend to love it or hate it. I hate it, and am having a Termignoni can fitted at the first service. Amazingly though, the overwhelming consensus of the throng at Box Hill is that they love the originals.This surprised me, as these were clearly people of taste - some of them were wearing finged leathers.

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so cack in town, brilliant out of it

whats all this about the rear tyre digging in does is spin all over the place up until 6k revs then

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hosting

I'm presuming it's a hydraulic clutch similar to that fitted on most Ducatis?
If so, then you might want to consider a larger clutch slave cylinder, this help a lot with a much lighter clutch lever and stop the tendons on your left getting strained and tired.
It worked a charm on my bike.

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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

Yep, it's hydraulic. I like th sound of that, although it's either loosened up a bit, or my wrist and hand are getting stronger.

A further thing I forgot to mention - brakes. The front Brembo radial gripping wavy discs looks really impressive, but is actually merely quite good, and doesn't hammer the weight onto the front and pin it to the tarmac like the Triumph front brake did. It's still a good brake, though, and may improve as it beds in.

The rear brake is excellent - one of the best rear brakes I have used. Using only the rear the bike squats and stops nicely, and using the two brakes together impedes progress significantly, delivering good feel. But as I mentioned before, there is rahter too much feedback about potholes from the front - there's a bloody beefy set of springs in them there upside downers.

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Oh yeah, there's an irritating false neutral on the upshift from second to third if you don't boot it. This leaves the pedal feeling like you're in top, and I've had to go back into second in order to find third once or twice. Again, I'll get used to it.

And torque reaction - there is some, but nothing like as much as there was on my Le Mans, or on my old R80 ST. No sure if there is some clever balancing stuff spinning in there, or whether it's just a lighter flywheel. Either way, it's much less obtrusive than on previous bikes with longitudinally mounted cranks.

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Saw quite a few when I was on holiday in Italy this year and think they are a lovely bike. I too like the standard exhaust.
Would love to have a pootle on one. How much did you pay if it isn't a rude question?

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O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all

Finding a retirement home for your father is very much like making love to a beautiful women. It's all about getting your old man lodged - Swiss Toni

you get used to the upside down switchgear, and now i actually prefer it, the indicators come more easily to hand than when they're in the middle

My 2001 R6 did that but my 05 Gixxer didn't... Went I asked the muppets at Suck-zuki they told me only the litre does that... nice!... I was quite impressed with Yamaha after that.

The Hypermotard surprisingly also has the fuel trip and the same fuel consumption!

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Life's too short to dance with fat chicks.

The slow speed stuff sounds like most Italian twins, i.e. their standard sprockets are sh*t for town work.

Most people on Aprilias swap the front for a 15t down from a 16t (I think) for exactly the same reason.

My Sportclassic does that too, isnt it a common instrument unit on all these?, I'm sure its the same on the Guzzis and Ducatis.

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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

There we go Trog, swap the front sprocket

And the aftermarket slave cylinder company are called MPL - dunno if they do them for Guzzis though ?

Should be a piece of piss.

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In the Bible, God made it rain for 40 days and 40 nights. That's a pretty good summer for us in Wales. That's a hosepipe ban waiting to happen. I was eight before I realised you could take a kagoule off.(Rhod Gilbert)

..or go 2 teeth up on the rear

Sounds very similar to my V11 sport. The handling was very neutral, power seemed to give you a nice kick up the arse at 6k and the exhaust note sounded fantastic.

Things that took getting used to were definately the horn being where the indicators should've been and false neutrals popping up randomly during hard riding.

Sounds quite similar to my V11 too. It's always been a bit of a pig on poor surfaces and around town but on the right stuff all the blood rushes to my cock.

That's a good thing by the way.