Ok, my 2015 Stelvio ended up arriving at the Nevada Campout Rally in the back of a pickup truck. Here is the story - it's a big long winded.
Riding from Bend Oregon to the Nevada Guzzi rally in Dayton with Gary & Levy Steele my Stelvio suddenly had a problem. We were on a long lonely stretch of OR 31/395 and I was hearing what sounded like a wheel bearing. We stopped briefly in Paisley, OR but I couldn’t find anything wrong. We continued and the howling sound got louder and I swear the front tire would wiggle ever so often like it was tracking in rain groove. The Heidenau K60 Scout Tires were 500 miles new and I hoped it was just new road noise as I studied the asphalt @ 70mph. I wanted to make it into the next town so I slowed and limped along. Karma said NO you can’t go any further. Suddenly the rear tire began wallowing and I was forced to pull over; middle of the desert with nothing for miles except right here was a decrepit RV camp with 1 ole scruffy caretaker. Sure enough, had a flat rear tire. We quickly plugged the tire and thinking everything was okay, we headed off to lunch in the next town. Nope – the bike still wiggled around on the road. We could see the tire wiggle, it must be a wheel bearing, but there is no wheel bearing, so it must be a bearing in the CARC. The bike would never make it to the next town, nice that karma helped stop us here instead of in open desert. We hid the bike at the RV camp and doubled up 25mi into the next town for lunch to figure what to do next. 1. Get a tow – no, we were way too far in the middle of nowhere to find a tow, wait for a tow, no motorcycle services for 500 mi and we’d all miss the rally. 2. Drive 300 mi back to Bend for Gary’s trailer and miss the rally for everyone. 3. U-haul ! But, they had nothing to rent – nearest U-haul for rent was 200 mi away, yadda, yadda. We were finished with lunch and really depressed; couldn’t figure a way out of this mess. I let out a big sigh & turned in my seat to gaze out the side window – and there was karma again. I turned back to the guys and said “okay, lets load up, go get my bike and get to the rally”. They were dumbfounded, then I pointed to what I’d seen out the window. We walked out to the parking lot to inspect a used truck for sale. My bank happened to be on the other side of the street. It took about 30 minutes to buy the 2001 F150 4X4 pickup truck for $3k. The owner was desperate for cash and really needed to sell that truck. He even drove out to help us load the Stelvio with his loading ramp. I tried to give the scruffy caretaker at the RV camp $20 for keeping my bike safe, but he wouldn’t have it. He did accept the 3 warm beers I had in the saddlebag So, after losing about 3 hours from breakdown, were back on the road to the rally with the Stelvio safely in the back of my new pickup truck. At the rally Rafael & Willie from CA pull in with Rafael’s Stelvio in the back of a pickup truck! Only 2 trailer queens were Stelvio’s.
At the rally about 12 Guzziests conferred and fiddled with the rear end and we all thought the problem had to be a bearing in the Carc. Under warrantee any Guzzi shop would have to inspect then order parts yadda, yadda. Friday & Saturday I called all the closest Guzzi shops, but nobody could do anything for me until Tuesday. My quickest fix was to drive the Stelvio to Portland Moto Guzzi on the way home. Portland Guzzi started working on my Stelvio at 7AM Tuesday – they were awesome. The mechanic TJ went right to work dis-assembling the Carc to find the bad bearing. He found nothing wrong. TJ put it all back together – ran it again to see the tire wiggling. He swapped in another wheel/tire and it all ran perfectly again. TJ inspected the wheel then the tire where he finally found the culprit. The tire had a delaminated section at the top tread area – on the inside the tire. They mounted the tire to a balance machine so it could be spun and took a video so you could see it. Just looking or feeling around the tire you couldn’t tell a thing. The tire had to be aired up and spinning to see the bulge occur under centrifugal forces, and running conditions. After 6 hours in the shop, they mounted a new tire and the Stelvio was ready for the road. Portland Guzzi is my new HERO. Back home I sent the video & story to Heidenau and they have already sent me a replacement tire under warrantee. Anybody need a cheap pickup truck?
'Cya Roy Harvey
