New Moto Guzzi Door Mats Available Now
'His Mate', (There is always somebody's f*#$ing 'Mate'!) had told him that all Guzzis had linked brakes and he should try to only use the pedal.Arrrrgh!
Heard a Goldwing rider tell a kid buying a motorbike to never use the front brake..... Dusty
A few years ago I had the rare experience of meeting another Guzzi rider at a fast food stop. He was even older than I am and had an old looper about as old. I had just started riding and I told him about a couple of recent slow speed drops due to my applying the front brake in a panic while turning at parking-lot speed (I don't do that anymore). He advised me to NEVER use the front brake and said he hasn't used his in years! I of course know better, but, on the other hand, both he and his ancient bike were still alive after decades of riding reportedly without using his front brake.
Audace man came to pick up his bike today and as we were chatting he said he thought it was good that the footbrake operated both the front left and rear brakes but he thought they were a bit ineffectual and he always found himself having to use the *Other* front disc as the ABS was always cutting in!I think I must of made some sort of gurgling noise as he looked at me oddly and asked what was wrong? 'His Mate', (There is always somebody's f*#$ing 'Mate'!) had told him that all Guzzis had linked brakes and he should try to only use the pedal! Anyway I was able to set him straight on that. The same 'Mate' also told him to blow the tyres up to "What it sez on the side"...........Anyway without ABS he would of been on his arse months ago and now would be bagging out Guzzis for their unsafe linked brakes!Arrrrgh!
Hey PeteI’m on the road so no bike in front of me to look at. 2016 Eldorado. I’m fairly certain I’ve read that it’s fitted with linked brakes- rear plus one front caliper. The Op manual for California appears to refer to independent systems. Know which it is?
My linked brakes on my 98 EV prevented a crash. For some reason I glanced to the right to look at something. Seconds later I looked forward. A Van had come to a stop and It seemed I was going to rear end him. Instantly hammered the front brake and the linked brakes as in a panic stop. I was amazed, no skid just a perfectly controlled efficient stop. Had I skidded the rear tire I would have hit the van. I'M A BELIEVER! Real ABS is even better. Yamaha FJR with ABS has the best brakes I'm ever encountered.I developed my braking techniques on old Triumph's. By todays standards their brakes were terrible. In order to be able to stop quickly both front and rear brakes were required. So for all stops I developed a habit to use both except very low speed while in a turn or slow in a turn with sand or other hazards. Seems this works well regardless of the brake system installed.Bill
I totally agree Bill. All us older guys who have ridden for decades take a lot of pride in acquired motorcycling skills such as being able to control quick stops utilizing both breaks. Yes muscle memory usually takes over in a panic situation however that being said, Conditions such as age, health, frame of mind etc can effect our muscles memory and instinctive actions. Truth is, no one knows how they will react in a sudden panic situation, like a vehicle pulling out in front of a biker or a sudden stopped vehicle in front of the bike rider. I use to be skeptical of the need for this feature as well as Abs systems, not any more. It would take a fool to deny the fact that modern technology is far more superior than human capabilities.
It would equally take a fool to deny that some people value simplicity from which they will certainly benefit over costly, life limited complexity from which they quite likely will not benefit... and that they have every right to exercise their judgement. Humans have BTW proven to actually have judgement, modern technology is happily silent on that matter.
I don't know where you think you read that but Google seems to disagree. I can't find anything where a 1400 and brakes are talked about that mentions them being linked. The only times linked brakes are mentioned the articles specifically say that they are not linked on the 1400s.That and as you say the owners manual for the first 1400's says they are independent. Oh and the Guzzi website doesn't mention anything about linked brakes under specs.More importantly Pete's got a ton of experience even with this late model stuff and I can't believe he'd have missed that.
I don't use the brakes much. Sometimes I drag my feet.Wore out three horns already.
ABS should be mandatory fitment on any vehicle commonly used on public roads. In fact, I think in Australia it already is....
The problems with Guzzi style linked brakes are:1) Virtually any bike with powerful brakes can lift the rear wheel under hard braking, making it better not to be applying the rear brake under very hard braking. On my sport bikes the rear brake is therefore so weak by design that you can hardly feel its effect. The rear brake comes into play mostly on gravel roads etc where nothing close to hard braking is possible due to limited traction.2) With Guzzi style linked brakes you are forced to use two controls instead of one to access useful braking power. Even under moderate braking, a large percentage of the braking force on a 1980s-on motorcycle is from the front brakes. There is no reason to split the majority of the bike’s braking power into two separate controls. The main advantage of Guzzi style linked brakes, in period, was to adapt the system to riders who had never ridden bikes with good brakes, who relied by habit on the foot brake and tended as a result to hit things. Making the foot brake more powerful was from that point of view a good thing, because these riders weren’t going to use the hand brake. The system helped them stop a little better in spite of poorly adapted skills.My ideal braking system is powerful cast iron double disks on the front wheel and a well engineered cable operated drum on the back. The rear drum on my R100GS works as well as a disk for the application, and has required no maintenance for 100K miles. I would obviously not want integrated brakes (I have removed the system from a couple of Guzzis) and ABS is not something I would choose to buy based on my assessment of its cost/maintenance issues versus its potential benefits to me.
