Pexi's Moto Guzzi Weblog

Cafe at Frejus

It's still almost like high season. All beaches along the road between Cannes and Frejus seemed to be quite crowded this afternoon. It's hard to believe it's already end of October.

Perfect riding weather.

Warm October

Norge's thermometer displayed 18 °C tonight when I rode home from the office at 9 PM and they've promised even more palmy weather for tomorrow, 24 °C (77 °F). Riding season forever!

We have a reservation for outdoor karting race for Friday afternoon, hope the weather stays like this until then...

Headlight adjustment - easy way

The picture shows what manual says about beam adjustment. My advise is: forget it, it's much easier if you do not try to "move aside the dash panel" (a task which requires two bottles of beer). Those adjustment screws shown in the picture are actually quite easily accessible with a suitable length screwdriver, through a gap between the front fairing and the fork. You can just sit on the saddle, move the fork a bit and feel your way with a screwdriver and start adjusting. Easy job.

Another catch here is that if you want to adjust the beam in up/down direction, you do not touch the vertical adjustment screws (number 1 in picture), but instead turn the screws number 2. Trust me, I've been there twice.

Guzzi manuals - download link (updated)

Use and maintenance manuals for several recent Guzzi models, including Norge and 1200 Sport may be downloaded here... then follow the link "Download area".

(Sorry for the previous version of the link which didn't work).

Back orders

Carl, you are probably right about the std Brembo wheel. In fact, the availability problem of the wheel is caused by the color. Wheels with the same shade are also used in 850 Breva (at least they share the same spare parts number), but at the moment this color is not yet available - not here in France and neither in Italy.

- ah, yes I've got the manual already. It's a thick multilingual version for European markets, printed in very small font. Luckily the pdf-version is also downloadable in the net.

Mirror crack

While my friend was examining the Norge, he spotted a small crack at the base of the left hand rear view mirror. The mirror is still solidly fixed, but nevertheless new mirror was ordered while the bike was in for the first service (covered by warranty of course).

I'm actually waiting quite a lot of stuff now:

• top box,
• alarm,
• front wheel (which I demolished in the mountains),
• rear splash guards (those plastic plates, which are original equipment of GT and GTL models - yet I might never actually install them, as they hide the rear preload adjustment knob),
• and now this mirror.

Final registration is also missing still. Luckily these things don't stop me riding - the weather has been perfect for that, I just wish I had more time for it!

Darth Wader

This eagle has a mean stare - in black it would certainly look like Darth Wader.

Unfortunately it's also quite a mean job to adjust those headlights. Owners manual simply says "lift the dash panel away", but THAT is not actually doable without unattaching the main dashboard computer connector from the instrument panel. I didn't want to do that (because electrical connectors in motor vehicles should not be touched without a good reason), making the whole job a bit awkward. Anyway it's done once now and (as usual), I need to redo it again as the lights are still a bit "high". Other photos are attached just because I took them today and like them so much, hah!

 

Moto Guzzi Norge pictures

Norge, norge and norge, piu bella, non?

Two up with the Norge

Our Sunday ride to St Jean Cap Ferrat was our first two up riding with Norge. It took some give-and-take, trial-and-error to find a decent balance for suspension settings and windscreen height. Suspension wise, I oddly feel that the Norge is more sensitive to load than Breva 1100.

It seems that the lower positions of the windscreen causes a lot of turbulence at the passanger helmet, making it less comfortable than the naked Breva (for a passanger), higher windscreen settings are better (again, for a passanger). For the rider the difference is less obvious, the wind protection is simply marvellous at any position.

Running-in

It seems that Guzzi is doing pretty well - at least in this part of the world. I saw two 1100 Brevas on Saturday: one orange (I really, really like that color!) and one black (ahhhh, it looked so good, cool and radiated feel-good atmosphere, that long hair of the lady on the back seat flying in the air!).

What really amazes me is why most of the bikers I meet and see are hard faced, angry looking, "cool image people", and as an opposite, most Guzzi riders seem to be happy and smiling - enjoying the life as it is. I certainly did enjoy my trip to Digne-les-Bains and back.

It looks like that...

I did check the oil level before the first service. I do not consider myself as a total disaster in technical things - hell, I have a B.Sc. in engineering and I have tinkered several years with old Alfas, I've rebuilt two Alfa TC engines, and I've welded one back to life) - but honestly I'm frustrated: about ten million small screws and small bits needs to be removed before you can access the engine oil dipstck. The stuff that needs to go off from the left side are shown in pictures below. It would be far simpler on Norge T-model.

Riding wise... this is a marvellous machine!

Norge by night

Silver shines nicely under the moonlight and under the street lights:

Help needed - how to check the oil level?

Question of the week: how am I supposed to check the oil level of the Norge?! I have no owners manual (will be delivered later), and it looks like I need to strip most of the fairing away to be able to access that oil filler plug... it just can't be that complicated, it's a Guzzi anyway! I know this is stupid, but - anyone out there with owners manual, help me out!!

Thanks for comments, guys

- ah, I certainly think that we did not meet in Mandello. As far as I remember, it's more than a year since my last visit there. You didn't have too much wine in Mandello, did you?

- Randy, we rode the 750 up to Finland on May, I've not seen it since. My brother in law has been riding it all the summer, odometer showing more than 25000 km now.

- Jim, thanks for caring and thanks for congrats, I expect lots of enjoyable road trips with Norge.

Yes, all is well

After a far too busy summer, I've now found some time for biking too. Not without accidents, though: last week I rode over a cat (killing it) and today I hit a piece of rock on a mountain road, ruining the front wheel of my brand new Norge. Bad luck.

Yes right, I've exchanged the 1100 Breva for a brand new Norge 1200 GT. It's a magnificent bike. It's heavier than Breva, but oddly it's easier to ride - also on a twisty road ... on any kind of road, that is. The engine is a bit smoother, with faster throttle response and the extra weight at the front makes the whole bike feel more stable on twisty bits. Some pics below.