8/33 or 7/33 in 2004 California EVT

[vf84pc]

Kicking around the idea of changing my gearing in my 04 California from 8/33 to 7/33 I heard this made the bike more responsive at low speeds and 5th gear more usable about 60, right now it seems 5th is only usable at 80 Mph. Any thoughts or opinions?

[guzzisteve]

Yes, change the speedo gear to match.I never use 5th unless on the big road.

[Tom H]

I must be the only one that is happy to roll along a freeway at 3500-4000rpm. That puts me at about 70-75mph. The bike seems happy as well at these revs.

Now if I had some hills to climb, that would be different.

Tom

[Gusable]

My 94 1100 pulls 4K at 70mph.  Feels just right.  I guess that’s the 7/33?  Engine is happiest at 3800/65 mph

[bigbikerrick]

I put a 7 :33 in my Cali Aluminum (hydro) and loved it. I really loved it when I added a sidecar to the bike. I think its a necessity for sidecar use. I would like to find a nice 7;33 rear drive for my current 98 EV .  I especially liked the slightly lower gearing when taking off from a stop in first gear. Perfect!
Rick D.

[nighthawk]

After being away from Guzzi for a time I bought an '89 Cali III out of a shed and happily rode it 40k plus miles. I always thought a previous owner must have had
final drive issues with it because it was silver painted instead of the proper black. Later, I acquired a '90 Cali III Touring that had been gone through but had speedo
issues (wildly inaccurate so a bicycle speed indicator was fitted} and it was a dog compared to the '89. When I say dog, I mean if you wanked the throttle, it made
noise with less than exhilarating acceleration. A friend alerted me to an 8:33 on this forum, I bought it, installed it, and viola, all was right with the world. Even the
speedo came around (must have had a speedo drive for an 8:33 all along). Anyhow, I don't get the 7:33 thing unless pulling a trailer or tugging a rig.
   Best, Steve

[vf84pc]

I am planning on pulling a trailer a very light Motorcycle camper. I was told it would improve the "everyday performance" of the bike. Does anybody know why Guzzi switched to the 8/33 they say the Eldorado's had 7/33 from the factory.

[Tom H]

If you plan to haul a trailer mainly, then change out the gear.

Also, it you prefer to run a touring class bike at about 4500-5000rpm at about 70mph, change it out. Yes, it will be a bit quicker on the hit of the throttle because you are already reved up. But, why buy a touring bike when you need a sport bike.

Tom

[Mr Revhead]

I have an 03 EV and a 84 T5.
The gearing from that small change is night and day!
It's something in going to do now that New Zealand is changing all the open road speed limits to 80kmh 
As it is I have to exceed the speed limit by 20kmh to use 5th.
That will become 40kmh with the new limits.
40 is also an automatic suspension of license and a court date

[drdwb]

I switched my 03 Ev to a 7/33 when I started pulling a camper trailer, world of difference. Even with out the trailer I liked the improved gearing so much that I also switched my wife’s 04 Stone Touring. I believe ( by our mileage records ) that mileage has improved on the Stone to consistently 40, the EV with trailer has me looking for gas every 100 miles, but without trailer it creeps up to the 38 mpg range. The difference may be in the map, but I haven’t bothered to experiment with it by changing the map. With or with out trailer on the EV it now doesn’t seem like I’m dogging the engine in any gear. And certainly makes accelerating from a full stop much easier on both bikes.

[Wayne Orwig]

I towed a LARGE Kompact Kamp camper across the US a number of times with my 2004 EV. Towing the camper across the open states out in South Dakota and such, fifth gear is just fine with the 8/33.

I tried a 7/33, and did not care for it that much. 1-2-3-4-5, now you are in fifth, looking for the next gear if you are on the highway.

So, I installed an 8/35 gear set that MG Cycle carried for a while. Sort of the best (or worst  ) of both worlds. The 8/35 gives a little more low end grunt, and it does not make you look for sixth gear out on the open highway.

IMHO, if you NEVER get out on the highway, sure the 7/33 is fine. If you are on the highway a lot, stick with the 8/33.

Starting off in first gear does abuse the clutch a bit more with the 8/33 of course.

BTW, at about 120,000 miles with stock (8/33) gearing, I did need to replace fifth gear. Maybe using fifth more with the 7/33 would wear it sooner. Or maybe the 7/33 would have loaded it less. I'll never know.

I tried to compare fuel economy and I 'think' the 7/33 was worse, but my measurements were poor, and the difference was too small, to be obvious.
 

[guzzista]

My 1995 Cali 1100i got a 7/33 rear drive after about a year or so after buying it new . A little less overall MPG and more fun in the mountains, especially 2 up. My road preference has always been 2 lane blacktop so the higher speeds were never a regular thing.
My next Cali was a 03 Hydro and it worked so well as is that I never gave much thought to go to a lower ratio.
My current Cali, a 1100 carb, I swapped  with a 7/33 as matter of course, and  works nice in traffic and back road duty, but the 8/33 I stashed away  will soon be back on , simply to squeeze more out of the near 6 bucks a gallon fuel here in Nor Cal.

[s1120]

My future thoughts are that my 02 stone will grow a sidecar at some point. At that point my thoughts are that I might regear. Some times I think it would be nice to swap, because I do mostly back road riding in the 45-55mph twistys, but then I think because of other issues with the bike, that its not the gearing, but fueling thats my bigger issue. So here I am.. with the stock gears still. Its real nice when your on the big roads doing 70+ mph.

[PeteS]

This topic has been going on for over twenty years. Maybe if using a sidecar you will prefer a 7/33 but your cruiser will handle an 8/33 if you let those hidden ponies loose. Simple airbox and exhaust mods and a Power Commander will give more than enough power to cruise along at 1500 RPM with no complaints in any gear. I could run in fifth at less than 40 mph without lugging the motor. Gear down only to accelerate. Harleys can do it, so can 1100cc Guzzis and get 45 MPG in the bargain.

Pete

[Chuck in Indiana]

My future thoughts are that my 02 stone will grow a sidecar at some point.

At that point, you will want a 7/33. I ran an 8/33 on the Jack-All rig for several thousand miles, but it was really hard on the clutch.

[fotoguzzi]

This topic has been going on for over twenty years. Maybe if using a sidecar you will prefer a 7/33 but your cruiser will handle an 8/33 if you let those hidden ponies loose. Simple airbox and exhaust mods and a Power Commander will give more than enough power to cruise along at 1500 RPM with no complaints in any gear. I could run in fifth at less than 40 mph without lugging the motor. Gear down only to accelerate. Harleys can do it, so can 1100cc Guzzis and get 45 MPG in the bargain.

Pete

i don’t think Pete Roper would agree with that.

FYI, there’s an  7x33 f/s near me in Wisconsin if anyone interested, he wants $500.

[John A]

This topic has been going on for over twenty years. Maybe if using a sidecar you will prefer a 7/33 but your cruiser will handle an 8/33 if you let those hidden ponies loose. Simple airbox and exhaust mods and a Power Commander will give more than enough power to cruise along at 1500 RPM with no complaints in any gear. I could run in fifth at less than 40 mph without lugging the motor. Gear down only to accelerate. Harleys can do it, so can 1100cc Guzzis and get 45 MPG in the bargain.

Pete

When I was new to Guzzi’s in ‘77 after buying a used 71 Ambassador, Dave Hewitt, an excellent tech rep told me to keep the rpms 4K and above as a general rule. It will run fine below that with no detrimental effects on the engine. The trouble is that the driveshaft and all the drive components get hammered at the lower rpms if consistently operated there. If you choose to run it like that, it’ll make the warranty period but will need a clutch and other drive line components soon after that. It was the same on subsequent models and it’s been true in my experience over a few hundred k miles. With an 8/33, I consider 4th overdrive and 5th as double over. Dave said you can run these transmissions in any gear as long as you want and some other manufacturers make top gear only able to handle that.

[PeteS]

i don’t think Pete Roper would agree with that.

FYI, there’s an 8x33 f/s near me in Wisconsin if anyone interested, he wants $500.

Pete Roper was very knowledgable about Guzzis but he never rode my bike. I sold the bike with 86k miles on the speedo. Never had the head off or had to repair any driveline component. FWIWs I didn’t ride all day at 1500 rpms. Actually just the opposite but just saying the bike was tractable at low RPM and I never felt the need to be above 4K all the time.
My 850 LeMans is another story. That does stay above 4K. Two different bikes.

Pete

[Gappy]

I have a 94 California 1100 and currently running a 8/37 rear transmission out of a 850T. It makes 5th gear a lot smoother in the 70-80 mph range. Because of my engine modifications I am still pulling hard well past 100 mph. Like other people that have posted the 8/33 doesn’t smooth out until you get past 80 mph.

[John A]

Pete Roper was very knowledgable about Guzzis but he never rode my bike. I sold the bike with 86k miles on the speedo. Never had the head off or had to repair any driveline component. FWIWs I didn’t ride all day at 1500 rpms. Actually just the opposite but just saying the bike was tractable at low RPM and I never felt the need to be above 4K all the time.
My 850 LeMans is another story. That does stay above 4K. Two different bikes.

Pete

Well that’s the point, you can run them any way you want and they’ll be fine. The LeMans almost does it by itself, don’t it?

[PeteS]

My point was actually about an alternative to swapping rear drives. The torque is in there, you just have to let it out with a bonus of better MPG.

Pete

[guzzista]

Just got back from my first commute ride with the 8/33 rear drive swapped back in my Cali 1100.
Mostly freeway and city traffic, with the exception of a fairly steep  uphill stretch of 101 from Marin City to the Robin Williams tunnel.
Most noticeable is that 4th gear is now more like 5th used to be and 5th is a mostly an overdrive to keep rpms lower
The other thing is  that pulling away from a stop or traffic light needs rolling on more throttle  for a decisive move forward .
Other than that, it just seems to me that Moto Guzzi had a choice to update the  gearbox  but chose (the cheaper option) to simply use a taller final ratio  (on the bikes in question).