MrKiwi's Backyard

[MrKiwi]

Great posts , really enjoyed seeing your beautiful landscapes and bike photos'  .  I have a 2014 1400 custom model with 30,000 miles on it so far.  Things to watch include;
-  exhaust crossover prone to cracking at the welds to the header pipes. Got 15,000 miles out of mine and then had it welded and reinforced.
-  lack of spline grease on rear bevel drive, prone to corrosion which can make a rear tire change frustrating. Clean up and grease whenever you change the rear tire and also change the rear drive gear lube at every rear tire change as it is the only time you can access the fill and drain plugs.
- swing arm bearings come lightly greased and should be inspected and greased right at some point
-  Keep your eye on the rear brake pads. they will wear much faster than the fronts depending on how you use them and if they get too thin the pistons can cock in the caliper bores and leave you with the rear locked up,  learned this one the hard way
-  A lucky few have had throttle demand sensors go bad , i haven't had any problems with mine but, should you get the urgent service icon and red triangle on the dash it could be the culprit
Really very few issues with the 14's to date and make a great road bike, not so great in the gravel . 
Looking forward to more of your adventures,

Thanks for this advice, very helpful. I have printed this off and added it to my maintenance folder for the bike.

[MrKiwi]

oh dear.

guess what problem should up with the bike today!

might be those damn throttle body sensors 

[lucian]

Not necessarily, only way to know for sure is to hook the bike up to a laptop and read the on board diagnostic codes. There are other reasons it could be throwing the dash lights. First,  make sure you have a fully charged battery. The cable and info is readily available here and  not all that difficult to learn if you haven't already. Which lights did you get displayed?  Did the bike go into limp mode? (noticeably limited power) .The other thing to check is the air filter box drain tube beneath the center of the bike with the rubber plug. It needs to be drained if oil is visible in the clear tube. These bikes have a propensity to expel oil into the breather box if the sump oil level is kept at the full mark on your dip stick. Oil in the air box and drain tube is the result. If enough oil ends up in the air box in can saturate the air filter element and increase the intake vacuum pressure in the plenum connecting the throttle body to the  cylinders. There is an air flow sensor in the plenum that will throw the dash lights if this happens also. All of the causes mentioned will present a n error code stored in the ECU and can be read with a downloadable program . You just need a twenty dollar cable to connect the bike to a laptop. Here is a link to the guzzi diag thread

 https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=96957.0

[MrKiwi]

I got the red triangle and urgent service icon. Took the bike back to where I got it from, and they did a diag test, cleared some error codes.

Rode the bike home and then the orange triangle icon came on. The Bike seemed to be running hotter than usual and lacking power in low revs.

It is going back to my local Guzzi dealer who I bought it from less than a week ago today.

[lucian]

I hope they get it sorted out . If they 're willing to share which codes they found it would be good to know . The orange lights are related to the ABS and Traction control . The red triangle is generic and could be related to a number of different  faults. Please keep us posted on what they come up with.  Hope your back on the road soon.

[MrKiwi]

I hope they get it sorted out . If they 're willing to share which codes they found it would be good to know . The orange lights are related to the ABS and Traction control . The red triangle is generic and could be related to a number of different  faults. Please keep us posted on what they come up with.  Hope your back on the road soon.

Thanks for your advice, this is helpful.

The bike was previously owned personally by the dealer principle which has the Moto Guzzi brand in my locality. He told me this morning he is going to replace the throttle demand sensor at this cost, for his own peace of mind.

He is also thinking of getting the wiring loom extension as a fix for some of the problems others with the 1400 have had, the difficult ones to diagnose, related to the loom being tight in places and quite close to a heat source. The extension allows the loom to be re positioned away from the heat source.

[lucian]

Interesting, I haven't heard of the loom issue. I am glad he is doing the right thing and taking care of it. Thank you for sharing that. I understand that Aprilia issued a recall on a bad batch of demand sensors common to a lot of their models as well as the 1400 guzzi. Why Moto guzzi hasn't done the same is beyond me.  Other than the fact they costs 450.00 US to replace.  Part # BO44414  Interestingly they have also changed the design altogether on the newer bikes replacing the throttle cables with  an electronic twist grip position sensor . The times they are a changin.  Keep us posted .

[MrKiwi]

Interesting, I haven't heard of the loom issue. I am glad he is doing the right thing and taking care of it. Thank you for sharing that. I understand that Aprilia issued a recall on a bad batch of demand sensors common to a lot of their models as well as the 1400 guzzi. Why Moto guzzi hasn't done the same is beyond me.  Other than the fact they costs 450.00 US to replace.  Part # BO44414  Interestingly they have also changed the design altogether on the newer bikes replacing the throttle cables with  an electronic twist grip position sensor . The times they are a changin.  Keep us posted .

They reset the ABS/ESC fault and took the bike for w ride. Went OK. So I went back to pick it up and straight away the red triangle light came on. This time the fault code indicated a throttle body fault.

The throttle body part had not yet arrived from the Moto Guzzi distributor, but will be there Tuesday, so left the bike there and rode away of one of their shop floor bikes for the weekend.

[MrKiwi]

new throttle body sensors installed by the dealer.

The bike is a different beast to ride, much better.

[lucian]

  Nothing fun about being stuck in limp mode. Sounds like you're fortunate to have a stand up dealer nearby.  Thanks for the follow up.

[MrKiwi]

  Nothing fun about being stuck in limp mode. Sounds like you're fortunate to have a stand up dealer nearby.  Thanks for the follow up.

I was only stuck in limp mode when the red light came on.

When I first picked up the bike low revs were quite lumpy and I just put it down to Guzzi quirkiness. Even the dealer principle who previously owned the bike thought that. Turns out the throttle body sensors were most probably already on the way out. It now runs more smoothly at low rev, pulls better from low revs and runs better right through the rev range.

[oldbike54]

 

 Dusty

[Kiwi_Roy]

Thats great news, you should share the name of the dealer that treated you so well.
My Brother in Hunterville bought a V7III in Wellington, they delivered it to his home hours away.

[MrKiwi]

Thats great news, you should share the name of the dealer that treated you so well.
My Brother in Hunterville bought a V7III in Wellington, they delivered it to his home hours away.

Motorad in Lower Hutt.

The dealer principle, Carl, is a good man.

[MrKiwi]

Sorted my Cali 1400 cockpit area. GPS mounted and wired to the ignitions, as is a USB twin port for charging my phone while touring. The phone mount is to the right.

Because the dash on the Cali rotates with the handle bars it is easy to mount the gadgets with their own space without them obscuring the dash.



I will be out and about for the next three days, hopefully I stop to take some pics to show you the big goose in my back yard, stay tuned.

[oldbike54]

 Cool 

 Dusty

[Huzo]

You seemed to go off the trail bike pretty quickly, what put you off ?
Those shots you took look really nice. If someone with the Coastguard model like yours, wanted to swap tank and side covers for my red ones, I’d be sorely tempted.

[MrKiwi]

You seemed to go off the trail bike pretty quickly, what put you off ?
Those shots you took look really nice. If someone with the Coastguard model like yours, wanted to swap tank and side covers for my red ones, I’d be sorely tempted.

I had wanted to buy a Cali once the 1400 model became available. I like their look and ride. However when I bought the V85 a good second Cali was not available locally and I could not afford a new Cali. The V85 was nice as a once up bike, but not enough room and power for two up touring.

When I bought the Cali it was an impulse purchase. The right bike at the right price sitting in front of me.

[MrKiwi]

The big goose now has a name, she's the red head.

We had a three day weekend just been, so I headed out for three days with a mate. Looked for the twisty roads and even a bit of gravel. It is not great gravel, who knew  .  I was expecting it to be worse, it did alright at low speeds, but the loose gravel is not its friend, surprise surprise!

Anyway some pics of the travel.

Heading north towards central North Island, looking out towards Mt Ruapehu, one of our active volcanoes.


We traveled mostly on back roads, the scenery is nice and there are only a few cars.


This photo below is one of my favourite photos of the trip. Heading inland on the Forgotten Highway. The road is very twisty and has excellent panoramic views. This is looked west towards the coast looking at Mr Taranaki, and yes this is an active volcano which is overdue an eruption.


At the end of the day we reached our target campground. Red Head has comfortable lodgings for the night.

[MrKiwi]

The next two days saw us traverse the North Island from the west coast to the east. Some more pics...

Central North Island


Another view


The 12 km gravel section


The place with the world's longest place name. East coast, Wairarapa.


And no, I cannot pronounce the name.

[MrKiwi]

I put about 1700km on the bike over three days and given I had been riding adventure touring bikes for the last 12 years, I was surprised at how quickly I became comfortable with the sled.

The seat is comfortable, easy to do 400 km plus days on it. The riding position is good to, I don't to adjust any of the ergonomics. The bike performed really well, no hiccups, the new throttle body sensors worked a treat. Interestingly I averaged 18.3km/L over the entire trip which is very good for such a large heavy beast.

[oldbike54]

 

 Lovely country for motorbiking 

 Dusty

[MrKiwi]

 

 Lovely country for motorbiking 

 Dusty

Yes it is. Sadly it is easy for us Kiwi's to forget that and take our wonderful scenery for granted. A ride like the one I just did reminds me of the magic of our rural areas here. It was good for the soul.

[lucian]

Spectacular !  Thanks for sharing those and glad you had a good run.  Shure looks like more fun than we're having shoveling snow.