Author Topic: My Griso Scares Me  (Read 8839 times)

bpreynolds

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My Griso Scares Me
« on: June 10, 2018, 05:48:32 PM »
You ever have a bike you don�t even trust yourself to ride safely?  If not, then I praise your level of restraint and wisdom.  Of the many motorcycles I�ve owned, there have only now been 2 that would fall into this category.  First, about 2 years ago I had a modified 2nd Gen FZ1 that produced around 140HP and nearly all of it on top.  I found myself going out for rides just to find places where I could go fast.  One day on a 2 mile straight stretch in Indiana with no cars, and no inlet roads, I found myself doing 149 in 5th gear with another gear to go.  I backed off, said what a fool am I, and sold the bike the following week.

Now I find myself doing similar things with my recently acquired 8V Griso.  Not at those kinds of speeds, obviously, but I mean the same kind of silly stupid, ride the powerband kind of buffoonery.  Here�s the thing, the Griso is not what I would generally think of as a �fast� bike.  In fact, my KTM 950 Supermoto that I tend to drive more responsibly, is a much quicker bike at sane speeds, but the Griso has such a mad dash rush from 5k-8.5k that it is almost addictive.  In fact, in that specific rpm range, I dunno if I�ve owned or driven a faster motorcycle.  I find myself going there often on the bike just to get that rush.  Trouble is, that rush is often accompanied by  :copcar: speeds.  Need to back it off and demonstrate some restraint for the sake of my health and/or license. 
« Last Edit: June 10, 2018, 05:52:45 PM by bpreynolds »

Lcarlson

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2018, 05:56:02 PM »
I had a similar experience with my 162 hp Ducati Diavel. Crack the throttle at 80 mph in 4th gear: outrageous. It wasn’t a good daily rider though, so it’s gone.

oldbike54

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2018, 05:56:43 PM »
 <sigh> OK Bip , I'll be there in a couple of days to remove this problematic motorbike from your garage . No charge , just being a good guy  :shocked:

 Dusty

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2018, 05:58:58 PM »
They call that Being a Speed Freak!!  There's a guy on the Ghetto complaining about his doing wheelies.
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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2018, 05:58:58 PM »

bpreynolds

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2018, 06:00:46 PM »
<sigh> OK Bip , I'll be there in a couple of days to remove this problematic motorbike from your garage . No charge , just being a good guy  :shocked:

 Dusty

Dusty, you are a generous soul though this is not a generous offer  :boozing: :thumb:

I guess some guys might read this and say, so what, we all do this to some degree or another.  But for me, I know when I’m doing it to levels that are getting alarming, where the ride starts becoming more about going fast and getting a rush to the near exlusion of the other things about the ride I tend to enjoy.  I just need to dial it back.

« Last Edit: June 10, 2018, 06:06:04 PM by bpreynolds »

oldbike54

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2018, 06:05:06 PM »
Dusty, you are a generous soul though this is not a generous offer  :boozing: :thumb:

 Dunno man , I'm worried about your DL and insurance rates  :grin:

 Dusty

pete roper

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2018, 06:11:19 PM »
If it�s still got that stupid �Kick� at 5.3k it must still have the GRS8V-01 map in it. An easy way to overcome that deficiency is to remap it. That will give you smooth, linear power delivery from the get-go which means you�ll probably stop winding it out so much.

Having said that there are people who seem to enjoy their bike running like crap in the closed loop portion of the map and then think it�s fantastic when it goes rich in the open loop portion. I have no explanation for that.

Stick one of Mark�s maps in. It�ll make it a much more enjoyable bike to ride and you won�t feel the need to spend all your time above 5k. It�ll still pull as hard, if not harder, above that point, it just won�t feel weak and blubbery below it.

Offline NC Steve

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #7 on: June 10, 2018, 07:07:36 PM »
I know what you mean, the closest I've ever been to being scared of a bike, although in a much quieter, turbine-like manner, was with a ST1300 I bought several years ago. That big 1300cc V4 was so smooth, with a soothing whoosh of an exhaust note, that I regularly found myself riding at insanely fast speeds without realizing it. I'll never forget riding to Atlanta to meet a friend, and then on to Barber, the year Guzzi was the featured marque. I'd stopped at a rest area on the NC/SC state line, and after doing my thing, hopped back on the ST and headed back on the road. As I was looking over my left shoulder, accelerating to merge into traffic, I glanced down and saw I was going 90 mph in 2nd gear, with no sensation of excess speed, noise, strain on the engine, nothing. I had to back off the throttle and upshift to 4th to safely get back into the traffic flow, and still had 5th gear in reserve, "in case".

I'd initially bought the ST in the hopes of doing some long distance travels, but realized later that I really wanted to take some back roads, and stop to smell the roses, not bomb down the interstates at 100mph, on a 700 lb bike. It was great fun, super smooth, handled well, always delivered 50+ mpg at a steady 80 mph, but just wasn't the bike I need at the time to perform the job I wanted.
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Offline wymple

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #8 on: June 10, 2018, 07:10:21 PM »
One of the reasons I liked my Guzzi so much was a wide and usable powerband without insane rpm's to get it done. I like torque, and consider HP as secondary by far. Much more pleasant ride.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2018, 08:26:10 PM by wymple »
No trees were harmed by the conveyance of this message, but a lot of electrons were seriously disturbed.

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #9 on: June 10, 2018, 07:35:30 PM »
If your going to ride that way on the street make sure you fill out your organ donation card. Eventually it will bite you in the ass. Get a cheap 600 crotch rocket and take it to the track to get your adrenaline rush.  Also , just curious. has that 09 been rollerized yet?

bpreynolds

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #10 on: June 10, 2018, 08:38:29 PM »
If your going to ride that way on the street make sure you fill out your organ donation card. Eventually it will bite you in the ass. Get a cheap 600 crotch rocket and take it to the track to get your adrenaline rush.  Also , just curious. has that 09 been rollerized yet?

Has not, but only has about 3800 miles on it. 

If it�s still got that stupid �Kick� at 5.3k it must still have the GRS8V-01 map in it. An easy way to overcome that deficiency is to remap it. That will give you smooth, linear power delivery from the get-go which means you�ll probably stop winding it out so much.

Stick one of Mark�s maps in. It�ll make it a much more enjoyable bike to ride and you won�t feel the need to spend all your time above 5k. It�ll still pull as hard, if not harder, above that point, it just won�t feel weak and blubbery below it.

I had not thought about this, Pete.  Good point.  It is true, I would not wind the bike out as much with a map as you describe.  I will check into this for sure.  I think Woody has one of Beetle’s maps.  I’ll ask him.

And Steve, thanks for the input on the 1300.  I’ve often thought of getting a barge rocket, never have really owned one, but I always think I’d be like you describe, get to the twisties or curvy roads and wish I was on a smaller, lighter machine. 

Offline Huzo

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #11 on: June 10, 2018, 08:44:05 PM »
, I glanced down and saw I was going 90 mph in 2nd gear,


Gee whiz...! That's incredible.
What would the revs have been at 90 mph in second ?

beetle

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #12 on: June 10, 2018, 09:17:32 PM »
I've only been scared once on my Griso. I was riding as fast as I could through some hairpin bends going up a mountain. When the red mist descends I generally aim for twice the posted corner speed. That's my safety limit. On one 25 km/h (15mph) turn, the sidestand hit the road and I was bounced into the other lane. I think a little bit of poo came out. I've scraped the sidestand plenty in the past, but that was on faster corners with a much wider radius.

Some buffoon on Facebook argued with me that you can't ride a Griso fast. After that, I thought maybe you shouldn't. It's a handful in the tight stuff.

bp, if you get it remapped and get the torque curve more linear, you will find you you can get the thrill of big torque in the mid range, and and find you don't have to go into lose-your-licence speed to enjoy it.

Offline NC Steve

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #13 on: June 10, 2018, 09:47:59 PM »
Gee whiz...! That's incredible.
What would the revs have been at 90 mph in second ?

I never looked at the tach, just the speedo, and backed off. The only real sensation of speed with the ST was a solid push on your back, otherwise, turbinelike, smooth as silk. And quite a few of the larger Japanese bikes will hit 100 mph in first, given some space and the right road.
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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #14 on: June 10, 2018, 10:28:19 PM »
BP...I get what you are saying...the Griso can be a handful and feel like it could get away from you if you don't restrain yourself especially with that after burner kick in.

I did also immediately install a stock exhaust Beetle map on my 2015 and it smoothed out the unplesant flat spot between 2-3K rpms, such that it pulls very smoothly and like a freight train on steroids, but still feels wonderfully controllable even when riding "briskly" and honestly it doesn't need to be wrung out.  The Griso just lopes along like a cheetah comfortably cruising at 60-80 with minimum effort. 

I was also pleasantly surprised to see that I am regularly getting 40 mpg over these 160 mile rides, which include lots of twisties and back roads and plenty of opportunity to test the RPM's upper ranges. 

Hopefully you've got good new and sticky tires, just in case you get into a turn a bit hot, just lean it over and you'll make it thru.

Post some pics up when you get a chance!
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Offline PasoDuc88

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #15 on: June 11, 2018, 12:38:36 AM »
I can relate.  I sold a completely perfect Aprilia Tuono a few years back because I got to the point that pushing the bike to its performance level (or mine, really) became too tempting.  Was a remarkable bike that did everything well, but wringing the performance out of it started to overshadow everything else I enjoy about riding...  So now I have a Roamer!!! :laugh: ...  (And a much slower Ducati Paso 750.)

pete roper

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #16 on: June 11, 2018, 01:13:19 AM »
Has not, but only has about 3800 miles on it. 


Typical damage at around that mileage.



And yes, that is a tub of dead camshafts in the background.

Slightly higher mileage.



A bit less mileage.



About 6,000 miles.



It’s got to be done. The earlier the better.


Offline Huzo

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #17 on: June 11, 2018, 01:52:14 AM »
Have you got the smoking remains of one that's let go catastrophically...?

pete roper

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #18 on: June 11, 2018, 05:28:17 AM »
Have you got the smoking remains of one that's let go catastrophically...?

No smoke involved to speak of. Just carnage.

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #19 on: June 11, 2018, 06:32:09 AM »
I suggest that you contact  Mark (beetle) directly to try one of his maps. They are tuned specifically for  variants with bike set ups like exhaust ect. What's right for your friends bike may not be for yours. Also ,do the roller kit first.  An 8v with disintegrating cam followers will be impossible to tune correctly with ever changing valve gaps, or worse. I caught mine early at 3,000 miles( an 09) and it already had DLC wear .  Either way , if you do acquire one of Marks maps, do the right thing and throw him a bone for his efforts. He's a good guy and we hate to see him end up in a van down by the river.

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #20 on: June 11, 2018, 07:02:25 AM »
Similar results when I had the Centauro. It was hotttt. It had the Creedon C-5 chip and was tuned to the gills by a local genius. It was stupid fast. Had to sell it to pay bills. Here's a photo of the Centauro I used to have. 

What a fun bike it was. I'd love another some day.
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Offline flip

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #21 on: June 11, 2018, 07:31:32 AM »
Similar results when I had the Centauro. It was hotttt. It had the Creedon C-5 chip and was tuned to the gills by a local genius. It was stupid fast. Had to sell it to pay bills. Here's a photo of the Centauro I used to have. 

What a fun bike it was. I'd love another some day.

Good looking bike! Is that a Pichler fairing?
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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #22 on: June 11, 2018, 07:35:46 AM »
Good looking bike! Is that a Pichler fairing?

Yep. The Uni-4. It worked quite well.
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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #23 on: June 11, 2018, 08:29:04 AM »
I will just say that over the years I've had (or have ridden) a number of bikes that tempted me to behave badly.

I decided it was smarter to own bikes that didn't do that to me all the time.

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #24 on: June 11, 2018, 09:28:54 AM »
 The only bike that really  scared me was a friend's 47 Indian Chief with a left hand throttle and foot clutch...Modern two stroke 250 dirt bikes with high seats and instant insane wheelie power scare me a bit...Huge heavy touring machines intimidate me with their bulk.. But high power sport bikes not at all because I can quickly disengage the power...
   My 96 900 Monster that's carefully tuned goes plenty fast for me..

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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #25 on: June 11, 2018, 10:57:52 AM »
I've learned to treat my GRiSO as a gentleman's express (mostly).
Savoring the wonderful feeling of rolling up through the gears, maintaining moderately sane speeds through rock steady sweepers, and just practicing on becoming the smoothest rider I can on the "Mighty One".
I've only been, shall we say "alarmed", a time or two scrubbing off speed into a very tight low speed turn
and feeling that back tire get greasy (no ABS) for lack of my skills..
I guess like most things, if you yank at it's collar enough times, it's gonna get fed up
 and it may bite back. :boozing:
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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #26 on: June 11, 2018, 11:03:22 AM »
There's no such thing as too much power..  :evil: :boxing: :smiley:
Well, yes there is. Anything over about 100 horsepower is wasted on me. Doesn't matter. Unlike a high performance airplane, you don't *have* to nail the throttle and do your best to keep up with it..
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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #27 on: June 11, 2018, 11:56:08 AM »
Id hate to ground loop a Griso!
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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #28 on: June 11, 2018, 02:34:23 PM »
I know exactly where you are coming from, BP. I feel the same way every time I ride my son,s KTM RC 8. I know that for my own good, I need to dial it back a bit, and that bike is nothing about "dialing it back".
Are we getting old , or what?   :grin:
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Re: My Griso Scares Me
« Reply #29 on: June 11, 2018, 02:52:40 PM »
Red line every time I ride this thing!

 If you don't you will get run over!
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