Its a small Guzzi World


I fell out of the guzzi embrace some years ago now with the misguided decision to sell my Guzzi MkIII to finance relocating my GF to Cairns in 1996. The falcon panel Van and converted fast food trailer was a poor substitute I must say. My only bike of note since was a 95 Triumph Daytona 900  sold in 2003 to finance house reno's. A hiatus of 8 years or so ended recently with the purchase of a 2006 MG Griso 1100. The sort of bike that in the short term turns an average rider into one that can reasonably be expected to at least keep up... In the longer term....we shall see....but I have to say the chicken strips on my back tyres are decidedly smaller than they were....
Sadly my trusty leather jacket failed the test of time and sloughed off a million or so flakes of skin after 8 years of hanging immobile around in the humidity of Cairns. Oh well,  I bought a dri-rider jacket with a removable weatherproof liner...(pretty impressed with it overall and essential up here, protection without the sweat). (Ed: it's been 3 months at the time of writing and both zips on the sleeves have broken...No worries says the bloke from DriRider "there's a 2 week turnaround and you'll have ya jacket back" and what do I do in the meantime....?)
My Frats patch had been sitting patiently in a place of prominence in my shed and was sewn on to aforementioned jacket poste haste. It was about this point that I started to get misty eyed about the Adelaide hills and me old Frats friends.... All this on the Friday evening (15/04/2011) after the purchase before I'd even been for a decent ride. I picked the Griso up after work on the Friday, brought the thing home for a thorough oggling and application of fingers to every inch, nook and orifice.  (as you do...) A read of the book, a check of everything, an extra caressing of the Termignoni muffler and an anticipation of the day to come... an account of which follows:

On Saturday morning awoke to a perfect dry season day...slight morning chill in the air, a few fluffy white clouds in the sky, a full tank and so I got geared up and headed for the hills. My Maiden Voyage....I dunno if you know the Gillies Highway, the main route just south of Cairns that takes you up onto the Atherton tablelands. Anyway that's where I went and as I was on my way through Gordonvale before the Gillies starts I was thinking about a bloke I met 16 yrs ago when I first came up to FNQ on the MkIII Le Mans I had then. I had met this bloke Kevin, a Guzzi nut, who lives in Gordonvale, up on the Gillies HWY (a wickedly nice bit of twisty road leading up to The Tablelands) and he subsequently helped me out with replacing the clutch, which I was having a hard time managing without the tools and expertise. A Very helpful and friendly bloke but I lost touch with him after the Le Mans and I parted some 12 months later after winning the "longest distance travelled" (from Cairns) award at the Worlds End Rally in the Flinders Ranges 1995. Anyway I resolved to ride to the top of the range and back and look him up again.
So anyway there I was making my way up the range getting a much better feel for the beast and as I was getting up towards the lookout I was thinking: "It doesn't get any better than this", when the bike just died......FACK !!!  No missing or carrying on..... just stopped !!. So there I am, bike in my possession for about 18 hrs and stranded on the first proper ride and more embarrassing, still with creases in my new jacket (with Frat patch proudly displayed) . I'm standing there, having just taken off my helmet and jacket, scratching my head and fruitlessly pushing the starter when I heard a bike coming down the range, the first vehicle to come along....the unmistakable sound of a Guzzi.... A MK III Le Mans as it turns out. He stops and asks if I'm OK. I was thinking he looked familiar. Introductions made and I asked him if he lived in Gordonvale and owned more than one Guzzi.... Yep and Yep. Bloody Hell it's Kevin!! I reminded him of help he gave me 15 years before and he says, "Bugger me your that bloke from SA" He then remembered all my details down to the specific problem that had occurred to the Le Mans....
Kev himself would be impressed at his memory but hows that for a happy coincidence? 

So there we were on the side of the road and no mobile phone coverage. Kev tells me that its possible to roll the 8 or so km all the way down to the Mountain View hotel, a pleasant little drinking hole at the foot of the Gillies where riders often stop. He tells me he will call the Honda shop that sold me the bike and tell them to come and get me.   Took his advice, rolled down and and so was able to have a couple of beers while I waited. As pissed off as I was I was still smiling at how well the thing HAD gone and while coasting down the hill had actually passed one car full of rubberneckers. (It must've looked pretty funny to have this big whisper quiet machine slowly overtake them on one of the passing lanes....)
Kev was as good as his word and rang the pub to tell me the shop had organised a pick-up and that a mate with the same year Cali had just come round and told him that there was some issue with a hose coming off under the tank somewhere and he followed this up with a call to Tom Newell in Brisbane on the Monday and phoned their advice through to the shop here in Cairns. Now this, I reckon, was going above and beyond, but that's the sort of bloke Kev is....
It turned out to be the fuel hose to the filter coming off the fuel pump. All this is inside the tank of course (not easy to do on the side of the road) but diagnosis is simply a matter of opening the fuel cap and switching ignition on. If fuel swirls in the tank that's the issue... This apparently was the subject of a recall and the dealer up here was evasive about if it was ever fixed on mine. Anyway its fixed now so all good, but an ignominious start to the relationship....
The bugger about it being unrideable that weekend was that i was unable to take it to a classic bike show at Ellis Beach north of Cairns on the Sunday. Instead I rocked up on a 100cc Sym Mio scooter...looked and felt more than a bit bloody stupid pulling up and parking next to a plethora of big road bikes and Harleys... Hmmmm.... A friend of mine from England surmised that I "must've looked like a "Komplete Kunt"".... It's certainly how it felt to me....

Was in touch with Dave from Adelaide that weekend and he told me about some reprobate Frat named Steve Schulz with a MkIII living somewhere in Cairns and threatened to send me his number along with the latest Fraterniser (newsletter)... (Which he DID!!)

Next weekend I did sneak a decent ride in and did a couple of hundred K's up to Lake Tinaroo and around the tablelands a bit. first impressions: Bloody beautiful to ride for such a big bike. It feels a lot more nimble than you would think. The drive shaft was a bit distracting with a clunking sound when powering on and deceleration at first as i'ts been a while, but this bike loves to have the revs a bit higher. (Once you have a handle on this, gear changes and everything is a lot smoother). Its got a pretty good riding position. The bars are wide but not too far forward and I don't think long distance would be too onerous. The Triumph Daytona, whilst a thrill to ride, put too much pressure on my wrists and after a couple of hours I was wanting to go home. I think the Griso is a good all rounder and some of the pundits have been 50/50 on how to categorise it but I reckon its a sports tourer. It does what you want with twisty bits and it's relaxed on the open road... Boo, my wife, had been a bit reluctant to climb aboard at first and indeed I discouraged her a little while I road single "only until I get used to it".... Now I have trouble getting her to stay home.... 

After the aforementioned ride around the tablelands. I arrived home with a silly grin on my face and burbled around the back to park the beast, switched off and this disembodied voice floats over the back fence...."That sounds like a guzzi" ...  A conversation reveals that he has a MkIII le Mans and he's originally from Adelaide....I'm thinkin...."Nah..."... Introductions made: "Steve" he says "Schulz", I'm thinking, and yep, so it is... I pinch my jacket up to show him the FRATS patch; "you'd recognise this then?"....."Bloody hell".... Small Guzzi world. He tells me he likes the Griso and he's been eyeing off a low mileage one at the Honda shop in Cairns for a while and he is going to the bank next week.  "He he he" ... "Too late" says I with a casual thumb over my shoulder.....

Turns out fellow Frat Steve knows me ol' mate Kevin quite well and has passed out on his couch pretty often. Kevin has a shed full of Guzzis, a 74 850T with sidecar, an 85 Mk III, a very tasty recently refurbed MKI lookalike with a Norton Fastback ducktail, (made up from a  81 MkII), a 93 "sessantacinque" 650 GT (the missus' unfortunately rarely ridden bike) an early 80's V35, and an ST 2 project Ducati lurking under tarps. He also has a full proper Bar set up in a room off the shed with Guzzi memorabilia and a fair few pictures of scantily clad women (placed there by his loving wife Sharon) and there are always cold beers in the fridge. Sharons a pearler and Kev is a popular man amongst Guzzista up here. Kev is a Frat although he doesn't fully realise it...YET...

Now as I sit here editing what was an email to Hendrik about the happy coincidences that happen when you're a Frat I am reflecting on my first experiences with the Griso. Apart from that first painful Glitch there has been no skerrick of unwillingness of the Griso to do what I have requested and more. 
Everything has been good... I thought the tappets were a touch noisy, sorted that... what do I do now... A little tight and jarring on the road so a bit of research.... I have too much "sag"....(My wife would agree but that's the least of my problems). Have spent the last couple of weeks fiddling with suspension to tweak out that compression and rebound damping stiffness that on these quite ordinary FNQ (Far Noth Queensland) roads can lead one to yearn for a kidney belt. Remember them..?... A leftover from the old days when all you had was a choice of different weight fork oils and 3 settings on your twin rear shocks. I digress... Setting the right sag has been a revelation. It changed the ride height and my 5ml chicken strips have almost disappeared (give me another 200km and they will be gone) A few blasts up the Rex and Gillies Highway have helped to hone the compression and rebound settings.... Its already made a huge difference to the characteristics of the machine but still a work in progress and a story for another time....Its Friday Night, the weekend awaits and tomorrows a day to:

ABITE IN COLLES

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