New member, UK (Wales) but sadly with a problem already...

Evening!
I've been a biker for 30 odd years, had a fair few twins ( couple of Aprilias, couple of Triumphs, a Harley , a Buell ) , a few Triples ( Triumphs and a Benelli ), and some 4's ( Hondas & BMWs), but never owned a Guzzi , and took the plunge last week, with a 2010 GRiSO 8V in Pearl White.

It's in gorgeous condition, only 1800 miles in 2.5 years, with the Termignoni can , looks and sounds lovely   

However this morning the Speedo decided to not move off zero, and the red warning triangle came on, as did the service message.
I've done some searching on the net , and this seems to be a Speedo sensor failure, water ingress apparently   

The dealer will almost certainly fix it for me under warranty, he'll either collect, or I've a 200 mile round trip.
Hope this is the only issue.

Did have a nice run around some of the Welsh twisties this morning, it does handle well for a big girl !

Neil.
MG GRiSO 8V
BWM K1200S

Hi Neil,

Welcome from just north of London.  

Can't comment on the sensor, but is supposed to be a pretty simple fix.

The cams are the worrying thing in our part of the world. That aside, GRiSOs are fantastic to ride, I can't think of anything else quite like them.

Cheers

Welcome to the ghetto! Welsh twisties, I like the sound of that...

Welcome Neil,
I had the same problem on my 1200 sport. The closest dealer I trust is 1000km away, so I called them about the speedo problem I had, they shipped me a new one and had me ship them the old one and covered it under warrantee. It took me all of 15 minutes to replace.

Greetings JJ.
Looks like you are making the rounds of the cool and fun forums. Good on ya.

DM

Hey DM.
Well, I'm on this one and the AF1 forum, been on the AF1 forum for years as an Aprilia rider , it's a good source !
This seems pretty cool too ;-)

Well....had the faulty Speedo sensor confirmed, a new one will be with me in 2014 !
Thankfully I have a Garmin Zumo to bolt on in the meantime as a speedo   

Neil,

I had the same problem on my '07 GRiSO 1100 and it was aggravating to say the least. The problem recurred several times and there was a clear cause and effect at work. Virtually every time I rode in a good rain, which we have a lot of out here in the Northwest, the damn thing quit on me. I replaced it twice under warranty, but in the mean time I was accumulating quite a few miles that weren't showing on the odometer. It croaked one time less than sixty miles from home on the first leg of the first day of a 3500 mile trip to Colorado and beyond. Luckily on that trip I had a GPS that did a serviceable job as a substitute, but it pissed me off and drove me nuts not having a working speedo/odo/trip meter on that long trip. Eventually someone directed me to a video of a guy performing major surgery on his sensor, but I was put off by the complexity of the operation and continued to search for a simpler solution. Finally Greg Field came to the rescue, as he always does in these circumstances, suggesting that I dry it out thoroughly and reroute the cable slightly to provide enough slack to mount the sensor the opposite direction thus preventing the spinning rear wheel from driving rain water directly into the connection between the sensor and the cable. And then the grease the shit out it to further deter the water penetration. Lo and behold, it worked! It was easy, took only a few minutes, and has been trouble-free ever since. I apply more grease from time to time and whenever I wash the bike I stuff a bit of plastic bag around the sensor as an extra margin of safety. I don't want to go through that again. I currently have 39,532 miles showing on the clock and I figure there's another 5,000 (round numbers) that didn't register. I struggled with that bastard for a long time before Greg solved the mystery and I would guess it's been working flawlessly for the last 35K or more. Of course, now that I've said that it will probably fail again, but I'm pretty confident now that the problem has been solved for good.

Good luck with yours - make it backwards and grease the piss out of it and I'll bet you'll be racking up the miles in no time.

Pete

My speedo failed on me a few days ago. But it came back.
The red warning light comes on too.
I had the 6200 miles service done but I did not clear the wrench off.
Now I have 13000 miles and the instrument is very upset with me.

I have not done any rain riding but I did wash the bike recently.
Maybe hosing it off got the sensor wet??

DM

Welcome Neil,

italian bikes don't like rain. :-)
It seems that Guzzi has now solved the problem. With the new odo everything should be ok.

Cheers from Switzerland!
Bruno

DungeonMaster wrote:

My speedo failed on me a few days ago. But it came back.
The red warning light comes on too.
I had the 6200 miles service done but I did not clear the wrench off.
Now I have 13000 miles and the instrument is very upset with me.

I have not done any rain riding but I did wash the bike recently.
Maybe hosing it off got the sensor wet??

DM

You can reset the wrench yourself using the establishment code at the top of the forum. Easy peasy.

The problem in the rain with those bikes is the shitty OEM spark plug caps more than anything else.
Hell on my 09, a good wash with a garden hose was not recommended. lol.
My 07 didn't like the rain either, which is almost unheard of on a 1100.
It's all NGK caps now on both bikes...

Never had a speedo sensor failure though, even last March when I was caught in heavy rain all day in the mountains, figures...  
Wife had the same experience with the 1100 and no problems there either.
Witchcraft I tell you!!!!

As Steak can attest, we ride in the rain A LOT out here. We live in a mild climate that allows us to ride year-round so naturally we do run into some wetness from time to time. And yes, washing the bike (there seem to be two types of people on this subject...) which I do frequently, is enough to cause the speedo sensor to fail if it happens to be one of those that's prone to leakage. I've never had a problem with the spark plugs and since the fix I described, no more problems with the speedo either.

By the way, it's also true that if it gets wet and fails, it will usually come back once it dries out. That's the time to FLIP IT AND LUBE IT! - Works like a charm!

Pete

Some have complained about how shiny my GRiSO is. Yes, I wash it frequently. With a pressure cleaner. Never had an issue.  Buggered if I know....     

FLIP IT AND LUBE IT...
I like that.