Dead Norge

Last Saturday, when I was already heading back to home it happened, without any prior symptoms - it just died. I was riding on the motorway on the fastest lane, keeping steady 150 km/h, and going with the other traffic on that lane, when the engine stopped without any prior symptoms - brrrrrrrrrr-rrrrrrrrr. Guzzi's engine has quite a strong braking effect when it's swithed off on the move, and when it happens like that the speed goes down quite a lot before you understand what happened and finally grab the clutch and desperately start to look an escape route away from the road. I was lucky that the traffic was not too tense and obviously the drivers were awake and I got safely to the bank of the road.

The starter motor turned the engine normally, no odd mechanical noise or anything, it just didn't even try to start - no ECU warnings, nothing. Like there wasn't any fuel or no spark at all. So I called to Moto Guzzi Assistance... they said that they can't organize a towing service on the motorway, I have to call 112 and then they'll pay the towing. No probs, it really worked like that. After an hour or two I found myself in the town centre of Les Arcs in Var, Norge stranded in the garage - nothing to do but wait my missus to come and pick me up. Time to see the local cafes, have a bier and take some photos. In the end - unplanned, but not that bad at all.

So, today  (Tuesday) Norge was transported from Les Arcs to Aigle Motos in Nice and I just got a call from them: it's running again! The alarm/immobilizer, which was installed just 10 days ago, was broken and is now disconnected and a new one ordered. It's a Guzzi accessory for Norge, so obviously all is covered by quarantee. Anyway, if my insurance wouldn't require an electronic alarm, I wouldn't have even bough that thingy. Immobilizer.