Stelvio Duecento Tributo purchase.

[Spartan]

That sounds like a great time! I want to try a V85 as I hear good things about them. But yes thats what I mean. You can ride that bike hard, and play with it and try things. Brake hard into a hairpin and add a load of rear brake to make it go light and snake. Do it over and over and it becomes natural. It'd take a lot of focus to do that on a V4 with good tyres etc. I had a Z750 also. The forks were like toilet roll tubes. I learned to wheelie on that bike. Went out one day and refused to go home until I could wheelie. 5 hours later the chain was jumping and it wouldn't select 2nd gear. I have a video on my old YouTube I no longer have access to.

16 years ago!
Phone resting on a coke can
Wheelie practice

Phone inside my visor jammed between my nose and visor
On board.


Its booked for 10,000km service in 4 weeks and I'm fitting a set TA3 based on recommendations on here. I think the front will be better. But I'm a bit nervous that they have a good but more grip and change the bike too much. With the current suspension settings it works. Because grip is low. More grip will mean I maybe have to change settings again. But also might make it that the suspension just cant handle the extra grip and bike ties itself in knots. We will see in 4 weeks. I'm aure they will be great but I'm mindful I'm installing tyres with more grip when actually i want a little bit more front but a little bit less rear.

The 3 bar rear experimented keeps giving same results on these Anakees. I put 3 bar to take away grip but it actually makes it better. As it takes away the bend and distortion of the tyre so it feels more stable then when it does move a bit its very smooth. At 2.7-2.8 it feels vague. Like its about to move but its not. I think its distorting.

When you look the the Anakee for what they are. Tread etc. They are actually very good tyres! I think they're better and have more feel than the Metzler 01 that were on the R1250RS rental bike. Maybe ifs because they're on the Stelvio though.

 

[Spartan]

Got me looking back at old vidoes now. Totally off topic but doesnt matter. Its all bike chat in here now.

2 Laps of Anglesey on the stock 600 from 2013. Using a track day as a test day to try and find time in used tyres, but at in 2013 that lap was 1.3 seconds off the Wirral 100 Club lap record.

The good old days .......
I'm 50 in a week. Where did it all go!

Test day on board

And a good video of 2013 on the KTM Superduke! Up against Ohlins shod GSXR750's.
KTM 2013 season

 

[DS]

‘Have a look at the A366 through Sierra de las Nieves’

Thats the road I take to Ronda when riding from Chilches. We typically ride up to Alora for lunch as there’s a fantastic venta there.
Was Thundersport with BEMSEE?

 

[Spartan]

Yes for sure. Some great roads there.

The A7053 from Mijas Golf up to the Alhaurín Grande roundabout is also good. Fast and flowing 4th and 5th gear. But its a 60kph limit.
Then turn left on MA3303 and again first part is great. Really fast and can carry big speed and lean there. Then its a bit boring until you get closer to Alozania and turn left to Yunquera and the Sierra road.

When you turn towards Yunquera at the weekends its best avoided. There are photographers a few km up the road and all the sports bike guys do U turns to keep passing by with elbows down hanging off like they're falling off the bike. Attracts alot of police and drones up there.

In summer I leave home at 7pm and get up there for about 8. Roads are hot and its deserted. Lots of great roads here. I work in San Pedro Alcántara so sometimes go up the Benahavis road to Ronda, then home through Sierra de las Nieves and down to Málaga.

Lucky to have such great roads here. Up at El Burgo at the start of the year there are always journos and bike Launches. I passed a load of guys on the new Ducati Monster launch this year. Was cool to see. Weather was terrible though

 

[Spartan]

Anyone reading for Stelvio info.
Every Wednesday is the update day.
Normal service resumes shortly.

 

[Spartan]

‘Have a look at the A366 through Sierra de las Nieves’

Thats the road I take to Ronda when riding from Chilches. We typically ride up to Alora for lunch as there’s a fantastic venta there.
Was Thundersport with BEMSEE?

They were separate clubs. Thundersport at the time was the best. Lots of big names passed through the paddock. Casey Stoner. Cal Crutchlow. TT guys like John Ingram, Phil Crowe, Jenny Tinmouth etc all raced the years I've was competing. Micheal Dunlop did a few rounds also to test bikes. 2012-2017 were great years.

BEMSEE was a bit more club. Good paddock but more lower budgets etc.

Wirral 100 only raced at Oulton and Anglesey but was a good club to jump into for the odd round as the guys were very experienced on those tracks.

When I retired No Limits was just starting up. I think thats the best now. Fast guys.

Thundersport dissolved. Dave Stewart split with Bernadette and moved to spain actually. Steve Day was out commentator and hes progressed well into MotoGP and WSBK etc. His father Syd was a character but I dont know what happened to him. When I stopped racing I deleted all social media so lost track of everyone

 

[DS]

You will love the V7 Sport, in fact I'm so confident in that statement that if you don't, I'd let you shag my sister

ALWAYS puts a grin on my face, and it's alive, you can feel wobbles and explosions going on under you.

Is she a looker? if I don’t sell one of my other bikes soon I may well be in the market! Your confidence is reassuring.

 

[Spartan]

Week 8. 6276km.

No issues. Bike is changing and improving every week. Engine is now the best its been. Drastically different to when new or on the 2000km rental bike. Revs fast and freely and makes nice power everywhere in rev range.

Gearbox. When new I had a few times on backshift it felt like the lever didnt return quick enough. Like it was maybe 1/2 behind my foot. This has happened a few times now. When hot and backshift aggressively from 5th to 2nd. It needs a little time to go through each gear. The cause is internal in gearbox because linkage and lever are free and lubbed. I tend to back shift in stages so maybe it just doesnt suit the bike. Eg brake 4th, 3rd....braaaaaaaaaake 2nd turn. Its the fast 4th to 3rd it doesnt like. But what I love about the bike and this style is you can bang back 2 gears on QS, then use clutch on final shift before turning and by using clutch it then slips on that fantastic slipper clutch and makes turn in super smooth so bike is still slipping on clutch as you turn in.

Heavy rain for 1 day again. Everything in cases was perfectly dry. Seals are brilliant. My BMW ones leaked. Also cases need to break in. Now to remove and install they go on and off smoothly. A little rub with oil/lub also helped them locate. There are red warning stickers that show if they are not locked in correctly so I'm still bamboozled how USA guys are having them fall off and lose them.

Suspension is bedded in well now. Feels compliant and soft but controlled. I'd like to be able to add a little compression damping to the forks but there is only rebound adjustment avaliable. Overall the suspension is budget but it does its job. For me its not bad enough to spend €0000 on changing it. When pushed hard it is a sofa but thats what makes it fun. It talks to you. And on commute it's soft enough to be comfortable.

I'm planning to go to the Spanish Stelvio tomorrow in Almería. That is the road they used for the press launch of the V100 Stelvio. It's around 800km round trip. Will leave at 6am amd ride the coast to see the sun rise, play in the hills all day then ride back.

So week 8 summary. I wouldn't sell this bike. It's fantastic. Love it. And I now actually stopped getting annoyed when people ask my why I bought it and not a GS etc. Because even that question means they don't quite understand or know what it is or what it feels like and is capable of. So its like a hidden treasure of a bike.

Also. Fuel consumption. When filling the range shows 410-415km. Been refilling after around 360km on trip and it takes 18L. So its probably a genuine 400km range. I ride mostly in Tour with power mode 2 for commute.

Rough plan to hills tomorrow. One way. Will do the loop twice when there then ride back.

 

[Spartan]

Also, forgot to post this.
After I sold the Mistral, the standard exhaust is good, but not quite deep enough. The overall sound is great for a standard EU5 bike but I want a deeper V twin boom but without more noise or DB.

Over past few weeks I've been drilling holes in the cap inside the silencer. 6mm. One at a time. Finally got to 5 holes and sound is perfect. Sounds exactly like standard but just with more depth and power to it.

 

[DS]

Another great update Spartan. Been to Baza several times. Great roads around there although be cautious over the next few months as the temps begin to drop. I remember once riding along the coast road in glorious sunshine and heading towards to Granada and then on the way back having to stop and buy a load of newspapers to stuff down the front of my jacket to keep me warm. I’m better prepared these days.
Given your track experience I’m sure you’ve considered it, but would say k-tec internals and different springs make any difference to the suspension? I know it’s money, but I recall chucking a few quid at a Fazer 1000 (budget suspension) I had back in 2003 and it literally transformed the handling beyond recognition to point that I could hustle it around brands Indy quicker than my track k4 750. Then again, I appreciate this is a road not track bike.
Ingenious approach to enhancing the exhaust sound. You couldn’t do that with a GS1300!

 

[Spartan]

Got home an hour ago. Left at 6am. Spent all day in hills from Tabernas, up the pass of Velefique, Tíjola. Amazing roads. The west side had the grippiest asphalt I've ever seen.

800km done.

Will update with photos etc. Also took some video but its unwatchable because I used my mobile on a phone mount and the anti vibration pad allows the phone to wobble so video is wavey.
I said I'd not sell it. After a whole day on it I'm not so sure. It was a hard day for it on the switchbacks. Engine is leaking oil a little at the front. But its been a good 5 of those hours like a dyno session. Full load, full throttle. Maybe just another loose bolt.

Suspension. I'm not sure. I rode on K Tech before and it was great. I just think the bike has to be balanced. Itd be like putting running spikes on a pair of boots. Its already destroying pegs. To give it more grip and better handling will just make the centre stand grind more which is a problem as it lifts the bike and makes it snappy. Today I was frustrated with it and a bit regretful of the purchase for the 1st time.
But stopped. Sat on a rock for a while and looked at it and its me who has the problem not the bike. Its a bike. A tool. Designed for a class and job. I'm asking it to do things way outside what it was designed to do.
I thought today- Say you have proper Hiking boots. Eg an off road bike. Tenere, Africa Twin maybe.
The Stelvio would be Timberlands. Can do a bit of hiking but also walk about pavement all day. Do everything but also not do anything to the extreme. I took it to the hills today and got annoyed. But thats basically like running a 5km in Timberland boots then being frustrated they were severely limited. To put a sports touring tyre and better Suspension on the Stelvio, I think, would just push 2 parameters higher than the rest of the bike. It would just spend its life wearing metal off itself. Its like putting sports insoles in the Timberlands and cutting them down. Then running. They'd still be crap. A bit less crap than factory. But nothing like even a basic trainer.

Today I thought a 1390 Superduke would be good. The new GT if it ever gets released. The fact is one of the big drivers in selling the RS, alongside it losing too much value with 20,000km in 8 months, was i got caught speeding. So wanted something more fun at lower speeds. But actually a miracle happened, even though i paid the fine then did the Recuperación de los Puntos course and the DGT dropped my case because I was passing a car in the photo. So impossible to tell which vehicle was speeding. (Spoiler- it was me. Hence why I paid it).

I dont know. Maybe 800km in a day is enough to put anyone off a bike. But today I was riding it like it was trying to break it. No respect. Just frustrated and annoyed with it.

 

[DS]

Got home an hour ago. Left at 6am. Spent all day in hills from Tabernas, up the pass of Velefique, Tíjola. Amazing roads. The west side had the grippiest asphalt I've ever seen.

800km done.

Will update with photos etc. Also took some video but its unwatchable because I used my mobile on a phone mount and the anti vibration pad allows the phone to wobble so video is wavey.
I said I'd not sell it. After a whole day on it I'm not so sure. It was a hard day for it on the switchbacks. Engine is leaking oil a little at the front. But its been a good 5 of those hours like a dyno session. Full load, full throttle. Maybe just another loose bolt.

Suspension. I'm not sure. I rode on K Tech before and it was great. I just think the bike has to be balanced. Itd be like putting running spikes on a pair of boots. Its already destroying pegs. To give it more grip and better handling will just make the centre stand grind more which is a problem as it lifts the bike and makes it snappy. Today I was frustrated with it and a bit regretful of the purchase for the 1st time.
But stopped. Sat on a rock for a while and looked at it and its me who has the problem not the bike. Its a bike. A tool. Designed for a class and job. I'm asking it to do things way outside what it was designed to do.
I thought today- Say you have proper Hiking boots. Eg an off road bike. Tenere, Africa Twin maybe.
The Stelvio would be Timberlands. Can do a bit of hiking but also walk about pavement all day. Do everything but also not do anything to the extreme. I took it to the hills today and got annoyed. But thats basically like running a 5km in Timberland boots then being frustrated they were severely limited. To put a sports touring tyre and better Suspension on the Stelvio, I think, would just push 2 parameters higher than the rest of the bike. It would just spend its life wearing metal off itself. Its like putting sports insoles in the Timberlands and cutting them down. Then running. They'd still be crap. A bit less crap than factory. But nothing like even a basic trainer.

Today I thought a 1390 Superduke would be good. The new GT if it ever gets released. The fact is one of the big drivers in selling the RS, alongside it losing too much value with 20,000km in 8 months, was i got caught speeding. So wanted something more fun at lower speeds. But actually a miracle happened, even though i paid the fine then did the Recuperación de los Puntos course and the DGT dropped my case because I was passing a car in the photo. So impossible to tell which vehicle was speeding. (Spoiler- it was me. Hence why I paid it).

I dont know. Maybe 800km in a day is enough to put anyone off a bike. But today I was riding it like it was trying to break it. No respect. Just frustrated and annoyed with it.

Steady mate. This sounds awfully familiar to me and my blackbird ownership. That was a peg grinder too. Threw an Ohlins rear and ktech front internals on it along with a full 4-1 titanium Akra system on a power commander. All properly set up. It was so planted but eventually it snapped back at me in the Pyrenees when I asked it do something it was to designed to do. I’ll leave it at that. Good that the DGT dropped the case though. Stay safe.

 

[Spartan]

Aha, yes thats what I'm thinking. Its just pushing the bike to an area all other components/chassis etc arent designed to work at. So it can seem better until things get going ans ghe new suspension is working to half its ability but the chassis and swingarm etc are working at the edge of their design. The Superduke was like that in 2013. I put Dymag carbon wheels on it and ran KR Dunlop slicks 125 front and 200 rear and the bike felt amazing until it didnt. Every crash came from nowhere. Like the swingwarm, headstock, everything was flexing. Finished the season on standard wheels and D212 treaded tyres and bike was much better.

The speeding was usual trick. Where its 100kph, drops to a 50 for literally 200meters because in 1875 there was an entrance to a Vine Yard there or something. They caught me at 105 in a 50. €600 and 6 points. But course recovered 4. Now its all dropped and like it never happened.

This was the result of carbon wheels and over sized slicks on a KTM

 

[Spartan]

Some pics from today.
Will make some of the video clips into a little collage on video editor.

It was a great day. Just need to take the Stelvio for what it is. Its hugely capable for what it is. Lots of fun

So- oil leak after today's 800km.


Current peg situation. Hence being mindful of changing anything.


Photo dump from today.

 

[Spartan]

Link to the world's worst editing and blurry on board video.

 

[Spartan]

Morning after.

Looked at Used GS and V4 Multistrada online. Just takes me full circle to why I bought the Stelvio. I'd like a bike one category up but for me its just not 8-10,000€ more than what i have. The Stelvio is doing everything but the single issue yesterday was it needs more power to be perfect. Even 15bhp would be enough.

It gets 12,000km service in 4 weeks and Continentals fitted. Lets see how it goes after that.

A screenshot from the app data shows what I'm talking about. Time spent at 100% throttle.

 

[850GS-J]

Just read the whole thread - thank you @Spartan

I have less than 1/10th your ability on a bike, never considered a Moto Guzzi due to quality concerns but this detailed, honest feedback thread is brilliant. Thank you again for taking the time to post.

 

[Spartan]

Thanks for the feedback and reading. Again I'm surprised some of you guys are enjoying it. My perception of Internet forums were they are full of hate and people wanting to argue. My posts are very open to attract those types but they've never arrived. So this whole thread is turning out as I planned.

I think its good to show the thought process too. The musings over the things I dislike about the bike as well as the positives.

The small clip in the video I made there shows along with the app data the type ir riding it receives. And before getting too frustrated its good to lay it out and see things for what there are. The bike was never designed to be used this way or possibly even cover these weekly distances. But its taking it.

Thank you for the riding ability words but there are many many guys much faster than me. I never won a championship in Thundersport. One thing I was always fairly reasonable at was setting the bike up and feeling what was happening. As we see in racing though that sometimes doesnt translate well. Look at Pecco this season. 2016 was like that for me on the R6. My teammate got on and rode it. I spent every round asking them to change it as I couldn't ride it how I wanted until it felt good. I sat on his bike at Donington and the forks were twisted in the clamps, told him this and he replied- yeah i thought that. We was leading the championship and I was 3rd. At that point I knew my way would never get me the results. Can describe and translate what the bike is doing all day. Sometimes you just have to ride past it and get the job done. I couldn't do that.

The oil sweat after almost 800km of abuse was just a small nip on the right engine bolts. Got 1/3 turn on all of them. Laying it out. All and any issues have been due to loose bolts. I genuinely believe Moto Guzzi know about this and have rectified this with the new factory. The issue is- we have no idea how much old stock is lying around. The original bike i backed out of was sitting new in showroom but was a 2022 model!! The bikes after 2024 have the Mondello gearbox which is modified slightly to be smoother etc.

Its a great bike. Its pretty. Tech is good. Motor is good. Chassis is great. It ticks all boxes. Shaft drive too which is important for me. It just needs to be an 1100 and up over 130bhp. Then in my eyes there are no negatives to it.

 

[Spartan]

Week 9. 7360km.

Overall km are still climbing but down on the 800-1000km per week usual due to travelling etc. But still a decent amount of km in 9 weeks.

As usual. Bike is changing. After the hard day it had on last week's run it feels better again. Crisp. But weather is cooler here now. Mornings are 17deg so maybe it is the cooler air.

On mornings when its dark. The yellow radar light on the mirror is so bright that when it comes on to show there is something alongside. You cant actually see what is there in the mirror because the led is drying up your eyeballs.

Heavy rain today. Bike got dirty on way home but i found the difference between screen up or down is significant in the rain. When raised it stops all air to the vizor so the water doesnt clear.

Small oil leak. Again- any issues I've had with the bike are due to loose bolts. There is bolts tightening specified at every service. So maybe its the vibrations but I dont think so because the rearsets are mounted directly on the motor and that would vibrate right into your feet. Maybe its not torqued correctly at factory? Or maybe its the heat cycles. Small 8mm M5 bolts. Over time the expansion and contraction cause slight loosening. I took a video.

 

[Spartan]

Longer post here. If you're still reading this thread after 8 pages. There should be some kind of forum award or badge or something.

Ok. Suspension.
After the long ride to the hills and having alot of seat time to understand it completely. The Suspension is very basic. But surprisingly it kinda in the working window. I had a little play with a guy on an S1000R on Sunday. The new one. Blue and yellow. Cool bike! He looked like he wasnt working as hard. Managed to pass him and pull away. But for sure he had a much easier time from his saddle, and Stelvio wasnt happy about what was being asked of it.

The brakes are what they are. They seem sharp and good until they are worked. After 10km the lever came back to the bar. But recovered ok when cooled down so its a pad material issue. Obviously because of the sector/style of bike.

I dont want to spend money on it. Its 9 weeks old and will probably be only worth half its purchase price in a year with 40,000km plus etc. I also enjoy getting results from things that shouldn't get results. I like the videos where guys take GS's to trackdays etc.
So I'd like to get the Stelvio as good as I can get it. With basic kit. As standard. I think its exciting to see when someone is on something strange but getting the most out of it.

Thinking back about what the bike was doing. Overall it feels ok for what it is. I think the Continentals will change the bike alot. But currently the only issue is sometimes you have to be patient. Wait for it mid corner as if you drive it too hard too early it wants to run wide. More in faster stuff. 4th gear 150kph plus. Like i posted a few pages back with the app data.

Looking at the screenshots from the ride by videos. Its hard to tell. From side it looks like it has no swingarm angle and no Anti Squat. But shaft forces are different to a chain and its hard to tell looking at rear. There are some small issues with the front. On entry it feels like the bike collapses on its face. Turns ok. But feels like it just falls on its nose rather than controlled. Mid corner and exit are ok ish. Workable. But overall a times it felt a bit harsh.

Rechecked all settings. To get it feeling ok I dont have enough front preload. I only had 5 turns on. Factory is 6. I found settings online saying their bike was set up by a specialist and he put 9 3/4 turns!!
Forks are 2mm through clamp from factory. (Can someone please measure their bike for reference?) I think mine is set wrong.
What is happening is forks are cheap and poor. But we'll work what we have. They are working too deep in the stroke, hence. Collapsing then feeling hard when loaded.

So dropped yokes down 5mm on forks to 1st line (Forks protruding 5mm rather than 2mm). Then added preload to recover geometry. 7 turns in. The 2 extra turns reduced static sag by 3mm. So chassis geo is same but fork working window is now in a better range.

Reduced damping a little bit. 2 clicks front and 1/4 turn rear. Only ridden in wet so far but at slow speeds it feels more composed and a bit better balanced overall.

For rear. This blows my mind. Any Stelvio YouTube video I watch. If I pause and zoom on the bike you can see there is no rear preload added as you cant see any of the silver hydraulic spacer. So these bikes are coming with quite alot of front support ans rear is on its ass. Even with 11 turns of rear preload added it still has major ground clearance issues so these YouTubers are reviewing a bike and its handling but its set up to run wide, no way it will hold a like driving on the throttle. And the pegs will kiss the ground at slightest lean.....but they all say it handles well. (They also say the motor is good but never rev it above 6000rpm and then miss the party at 8000.)
So plan there is if the bike still wants to run wide on the front or feel vague I'll add 1 turn of rear preload, assess, repeat, assess, repeat, to give rear more support when loaded

Front
Forks showing 5mm through. 1st line
Preload +7 from fully out
Rebound -7 clicks from fully in

Rear
Preload 10 turns/clicks from fully out
Rebound 3/4 turn out from fully in

I always disliked guys on the Internet talking about suspension as its all so subjective. And you then see these guys on track then face palm when theyre doing 1min 50's round Oulton but sounded so convincing. And here I am typing about suspension on the Internet. If anyone is still here I salute you. Maybe it will help someone in the future.

Hopefully I'll stumble across a YouTube video one day of a Stelvio on a trackday- out there doing the hokey cokey but holdings its own on the Fast group. Or advance. Or whatever they call it. (Thats another rant. Guys who say "I'm in fast group". But they pick it themselves. You just tick a box on the booking. Its not like they've been selected specially or been talent spotted and chosen. Nope Bob. You ticked that box. My wife could sign in and tick that box on her Vespa Primavera. She'd still get a fast group band and sticker until she tried to ride out of pit lane)

Thats enough Internet posting for one night.

Some photos. Look at the forks.