Wildguzzi.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Roebling3 on November 30, 2020, 09:30:39 PM
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We all have friends we have never met. Greg and I have likely passed each other multiple times in the territory we share. He lives near DC, travels for work as I did. He's been riding & writing about new to market motorcycles for years. Greg put nearly 500 miles on a spanking new V85TT.
The bike was freighted by Piaggio to an MG dealer ~150 miles from Greg's home. He was stunned by the look of the entire bike. He easily made glowing comparisons, explaining how clever &, thoughtful the total design worked. But, on the last day, the TT suddenly dropped dead; on a very scary section of highway nearing the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. He lived to write about it and publish.
Greg had found MG's V85TT 'character' right away. He was a happy test rider through and through. I could feel the punch line coming. It was different from any other, in my experience. Diagnosis revealed a bolt, fastening the valve rocker arm assy. had backed out. It was 1 of 4, Three had thread locker. The dealer has frozen my friend out of communication. Could the K1100, w/100K miles, waiting @ a foreign dealership ????
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Got a link to the published report?
I don't get what your saying at the end about a foreign dealership tho.
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"Diagnosis revealed a bolt, fastening the valve rocker arm assy. had backed out."
This would stop the bike?
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Greg lives "just over the mountain" from me (near Jefferson, MD) and I bumped into him once while out test riding a customer's bike. A mutual friend recently told me about the V85TT leaving him sit, but I never heard what the problem was.
I too am baffled by what the last line "Could the K1100, w/100K miles, waiting @ a foreign dealership ????" means.
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Not sure how the title relates to the story. Someone attend the MSM school of headline writing?
The "Kawasaki Automatic Compression Release System" on my Vulcan Voyager 1700 broke free at 50,000 miles and bounced around the top end getting chewed up with pieces falling into the bottom end of the cam chain and fortunately got caught by the oil screens before getting into the pump.
Does this mean that Kawasaki kicked themselves? Or does it mean that when you put that many moving parts together things happen from time to time.
My bike is the only reported case of this happening on all the forums I belonged to up until 2017.
How many V85TTs have had this particular issue? Sounds like human error to me.
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Here's Greg's article about the V85TT: https://rollingphysicsproblem.wordpress.com/2020/11/30/my-crazy-italian-ex-girlfriend/
I guess "Could the K1100, w/100K miles, waiting @ a foreign dealership ????" means that Greg had left his well-worn K1100 at Motoplex when he picked up the V85TT and it was waiting for him there for the trip home.
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I read most of his blog. I found it a bit arduous, reads like he is trying much too hard to be clever.
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It appears the guy who applies bearing grease now applies thread locker.
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The guy has a way of writing that makes you scroll more than read. Did you see the episode of MASH when Radar took a mail in writing course?
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I read most of his blog. I found it a bit arduous, reads like he is trying much too hard to be clever.
he's no Hunter S T.
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"My Crazy Italian Ex Girlfriend". I think the title explains the problem. :shocked: :grin:
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Yea, I have 7,300 uneventful miles on my V85. First I’ve heard of something like this.
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He (Greg), referred to himself in the first person.
He has therefore shat his nest...
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Sounds like a build issue and hopefully it was a one off. I generally look for multiple complaints before I start getting concerned. This is the first I have heard of this issue. I have ~ 2000 miles on mine with no problems. I would hope a build problem would show up in the first 2000 miles.
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The way the guy wrote the story I couldn't finish it................. ..........
Figured you guys will fill in the gaps. Now, where's that attention span.
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The way the guy wrote the story I couldn't finish it................. ..........
Figured you guys will fill in the gaps. Now, where's that attention span.
Read it...but had to make a coffee along the way. Geez. In any case, the article wouldn't cause me to shy away from buying one if I really liked it. This sort of thing happens to Honda too...
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he's no Hunter S T.
"Song of the Sausage Creature!" (Timeless classic...) :thumb: :cool: :wink:
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It appears the guy who applies bearing grease now applies thread locker.
The Peter Principal in action
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7000 miles here, trouble free.
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No excuses. This ain't good. Just poor quality. Imagine being stranded somewhere. Spend $12k for a bike, yeah, I'd expect more.
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Sure, but I believe it happens to them all, still sucks, but I don’t think Guzzi has a lock on such.
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I'm not familiar with the screws on that assembly. Does someone sit there and put thread locker on every screw or does Guzzi buy screws with the thread locker already applied? Anyone know?
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Richard Thibideau has 28,400 miles on his Ronald McDonald and no such problems. A replacement after bouncing his Cal 1400 Touring down the road. :shocked:
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No excuses. This ain't good. Just poor quality. Imagine being stranded somewhere. Spend $12k for a bike, yeah, I'd expect more.
So now you are saying Italians are quality workers?
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So now you are saying Italians are quality workers?
I think the expectation of quality, in this case basic reliability to go from point A to point B, is universal regardless of brand or in your context, country of origin. No one expects to put up with this from a new motorcycle. This isn't 1964.
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Yet it happens with all brands, or so I think as there is essentially no empirical evidence to show otherwise.
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From my automotive days we would say
It needs a “ Poka-Yoke”
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I hope he goes back on riding BMW....
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I got the Subject...the guy is a reviewer and received a defective bike, expressed willingness to re-test a fixed or known-good bike, and a month later felt like he'd been ghosted. That surely qualifies as kicking yourself - you could have turned a negative around, but didn't.
The writing improves in the later part of the article. The first part is much too flowery for my taste.
The K1100 bit has me scratching my head too.
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There are 3 other bikes in this thread not even run in, if I had bought a new V85 you wouldn't see me for dust until I had done at least 10,000 miles lol.
I certainly wouldn't be worried about what some reviewer who obviously prefers a BMW thinks.
Thanks for reading it so I don't have to. :azn:
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I think the expectation of quality, in this case basic reliability to go from point A to point B, is universal regardless of brand or in your context, country of origin. No one expects to put up with this from a new motorcycle. This isn't 1964.
Stop by any automotive or motorcycle dealership and ask them about warranty work. Truthfully, I am amazed that these companies can put together all the different systems that go into these vehicles and not have more issues than they do. Think about how many different employees are involved in the making of a bike, car, or truck.
Isn't that the point of warranties? To give the buyer piece of mind that if something goes wrong during the initial owner period it will be fixed without additional cost?
I have not had any "left on the side of the road" warranty claims, but have had my share of warranty claims on bikes and cars/trucks over the years.
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If MG stopped communicating with him, it was bad form as the Brits say and a missed opportunity as a previous poster has said. that behavior is right up there with KTM refusing to lend bikes to Ian and Charlie to go round the world, idiots. However, the BMW company cornered the market on bad form decades ago. Try to raise any well known problem with them, for example: rear drives that blow up instantly stranding the rider or oilhead twins that surge and you are told that it is the rider's fault because our machines are perfect.
I have not had a perfect bike yet, even a very expensive one, has anyone here had a perfect bike, not one you made perfect with aftermarket parts but from the factory?
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Yet it happens with all brands, or so I think as there is essentially no empirical evidence to show otherwise.
And in the auto world also.. Even the best built car, from the best plant, with the best workers will still have a chance that something will fail and leave you walking. Be it a part, control unit, miss machined part, bad hardwere, whatever.. It happands.. Now when its a issue with all of them, AND they dont fix it... thats a problem... And when the dealer will not repair it, or the company will not pay that is the huge issue.
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I bought my V85 from West Chester and could see the blow off at the end happening. Especially if the initial request for a test loaner was to them and not MG. MG north America might not even know about it. At that point the whole deal has become a big annoyance to them that totally back fired on them.. Lets be honest this is just some blogger,not Revzilla.
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He's doesn't just write a blog, Greg also writes for several small motorcycle publications. For all you critics - what have you written for the world to read? If it's on the level of what I see posted here every day, then you've got no right to criticize. The first post in the topic is a prime example. :evil:
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Kev, my post wasn't aimed at you - I know you write for a living.
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Kev, my post wasn't aimed at you - I know you write for a living.
I know buddy, I'm just supporting some of the criticisms. Despite their experience or not (I have no idea), I'm saying they were right by my eye.
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Just out of curiosity, shouldn't there have been a warning thrown up on the screen when this happened?
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He's doesn't just write a blog, Greg also writes for several small motorcycle publications. For all you critics - what have you written for the world to read? If it's on the level of what I see posted here every day, then you've got no right to criticize. The first post in the topic is a prime example. :evil:
One doesn't need to be a movie director to know Water World was trash, nor be an accomplished author to know, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a good read. Count me in as one who doesn't appreciate this guys style.
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Yet it happens with all brands, or so I think as there is essentially no empirical evidence to show otherwise.
It just happens to often here. Particularly when only a few hundred new bikes are sold here. No one wants this crap purchasing a brand new bike. This isn't 1964 or 1977.
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It just happens to often here. Particularly when only a few hundred new bikes are sold here. No one wants this crap purchasing a brand new bike. This isn't 1964 or 1977.
And yet people still buy BMW motorcycles and Chrysler products even though they have the lowest reliability in the industry. Chit happens, and if it happens during the warranty period it is how the dealer and OEM handle it that matters.
Join motorcycle forums for every brand of motorcycle out there and you will see the warranty issues people are facing. The ones that are factory design defects vs human error are the worst. What's really bad is when the defect includes wear items that aren't typically covered under warranties. Now the owner has to fight to say that they know how to ride a bike and a chain or belt doesn't wear out in 10,000 miles to find out the engine was misaligned, not the rear wheel.
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TL;DR- guy rides motorcycle built by humans.
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It took a bit to get used to the writers style, however I felt it was a pretty good article. If you take the time to read the whole article there is more than the rocker mounting plate defect with the bike. The oil level sight glass was leaking and both pannier locks self disintegrated, all on a bike with less than 1000 miles. NOT GOOD any which way you look at it. It's stories like this that keep me from buying a new Guzzi as much as I love my old Breva 750. If Piaggio wants the brand to be taken seriously, they had better start looking inward and fix some of the build quality issues. Just sayin!!!!
Cheers, Tim
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It took a bit to get used to the writers style, however I felt it was a pretty good article. If you take the time to read the whole article there is more than the rocker mounting plate defect with the bike. The oil level sight glass was leaking and both pannier locks self disintegrated, all on a bike with less than 1000 miles. NOT GOOD any which way you look at it. It's stories like this that keep me from buying a new Guzzi as much as I love my old Breva 750. If Piaggio wants the brand to be taken seriously, they had better start looking inward and fix some of the build quality issues. Just sayin!!!!
Cheers, Tim
:thumb: :bow:
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If that bike is an example of production values and quality control at this time, then it sounds like there is a rush to get the bikes to customers y at the expense of quality control. I have a very early production model, serial number 53. It has been literally perfect from the first moment. My hope was that for the first 100 or so, the techs would still have the books out (or laptops open) and checking their work before they "learned it all" and put the books away. From this example, it sounds like I might have been correct in the assumption, but time will sell. Just came back from a 50 mile jaunt, first ride in a few weeks and love it all over again.