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Advice please on a Breva 750

G

George_S

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Messages
44
Location
Bergen County, NJ
So. Yesterday I looked at an ‘08 Breva 750. Completely showroom new cosmetics, honest, adult seller.
Two items on my mind which may be completely normal from what I know about these.
1. Start from dead cold. It kicked over and started, did not stall, but needed active use of choke and light throttle until it wanted to idle.
2. Almost impossible for me to get it into first gear. Could that be due to it wasn’t warmed up?
Once going it was very sweet, ran, shifted nicely into everything but first, and sounded perfect.
Short test. It never got to normal operating temperature.

Bike is priced reasonably and I’m convinced seller wasn’t hiding anything. New brakes, tires, battery, fluids, oil and filter.

Thanks
 
Hi!

That particular motorcycle does not have a “choke”. It’s fuel injection.

So…

It has a “fast idle” lever which advances the throttle cam a few degrees to raise the rpm’s until it warms up. This is perfectly normal. You set the fast idle, start the bike and ride away. A few minutes later down the road, you back off the throttle advance and she should idle perfectly.

Gearbox shifting issues with 1st gear, is likely due to minor cable adjustment being necessary. Dry clutches must be inspected and properly adjusted on a routine basis.

Once the clutch is properly adjusted, I’m certain that she will shift very precisely and easily.

Whatever you do, never stomp on the shift lever to try and get her to shift into 1st gear! You will likely bend a shift fork.

Go back to her, sit in her, from cold, start her up.

1. Squeeze the clutch lever until you feel resistance from the pressure plate in the clutch. If you never feel the resistance engage, there is no slack in the cable because it is already too tight! If there is slack, it should be about a pencil eraser’s width of freeplay up at the lever where it meets the cable.

Either too little or too much freeplay will cause the shifting issues you described.

2. Squeeze the clutch lever in fully, apply gentle but constant downward pressure onto the shift lever.

3. Slowly feather out the clutch while maintaining the gentle downward pressure in the shift lever. She should snicker right into gear. If she does, then again, the clutch needs adjusting.

If she is as you described, and the price is right, grab her! She will delight you as it is a lovely and intoxicating motorcycle.

Good Luck!
 
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Thank you Scott. Good to hear. (I know it’s not a “choke” but even the owners manual calls it that!)
I think when BMW had the same with their FI bikes it was called an “enrichener”.
Or was it Triumph that called it that? 🤔

The price is IMO, very fair. I think I’ll grab it!

EDIT- It did work as your #3 example. I did know enough to try it that way and it went into gear.
I imagine I’d need more time with it after I buy it to see if it gets any better when warmed up or not, or it’s an issue with my way of shifting, or it needs an adjustment.
 
Last edited:
It is your lack of technique. You will learn quickly.

If you are not used to a European style, single plate dry clutch, this is normal. There is zero movement in the gearbox if there is not some movement of the clutch plate, hence the gentle downward pressure while feathering the clutch as I described.

The motorcycle sounds lovely. I hope you acquire her!
 
Scott has hit the nail on the head. All of my dry clutch bikes, MGs and BMWs have been like that. Put a little pressure on the lever, ease the clutch lever out and the neutral light will go out and you are in gear. When the gearbox is warm there is enough movement of the gears so this is no longer necessary. Definitely do not do the Harley thing and kick the shift lever. I cringe every time I see that.
kk
 
moparnut72 said:
Scott has hit the nail on the head. All of my dry clutch bikes, MGs and BMWs have been like that. Put a little pressure on the lever, ease the clutch lever out and the neutral light will go out and you are in gear. When the gearbox is warm there is enough movement of the gears so this is no longer necessary. Definitely do not do the Harley thing and kick the shift lever. I cringe every time I see that.
kk
Click to expand...
Thanks to you too. I’m heading out to see it again and most likely buy it now.
 
George_S said:
So. Yesterday I looked at an ‘08 Breva 750. Completely showroom new cosmetics, honest, adult seller.
Two items on my mind which may be completely normal from what I know about these.
1. Start from dead cold. It kicked over and started, did not stall, but needed active use of choke and light throttle until it wanted to idle.
2. Almost impossible for me to get it into first gear. Could that be due to it wasn’t warmed up?
Once going it was very sweet, ran, shifted nicely into everything but first, and sounded perfect.
Short test. It never got to normal operating temperature.

Bike is priced reasonably and I’m convinced seller wasn’t hiding anything. New brakes, tires, battery, fluids, oil and filter.

Thanks
Click to expand...
I put 50,000 additional - and 100 % trouble-free - miles on a used 2004 Breva 750. It is in the top three joy-makers among all my many motorbikes. You'll love yours too.
Along the way I gathered many helpful accessory & maintenance tips into an on-line text file. Here is the link: dansher.com/bikepix/Guzzi/_V7_fyi.txt
 
Sorry for a dreaded oil question but I'm a bit confused about the engine oil weight as recommended.
I did a google search on oil for a '08 Breva 750...
One owner's manual I found online as well as another article says it uses 10W-60

And then I find an owner's manual under the seat of my bike that says 5W-40. The manual under the seat was printed 2003 and doesn't mention any model year on the cover. So IDK if all year's manuals were printed in 2003, or is my manual for a 2003 model year? That said, I can't see such a change in oil recommendation over a model's manufacturing run, so I'm leaning toward going with what that manual says 5W-40?
 
George_S said:
I'm leaning toward going with what that manual says 5W-40?
Click to expand...
Smart, but see below. How far below freezing will you be riding? See John’s words above, and really comes down to what you can easily get. Use full synthetic, and keep a careful eye on the level, but never near the full mark. Search and read here on why.

IMG 0666
 
I ain’t riding if it’s below 40 so no issue there.
According to that chart I can use just about any weight. Doesn’t seem right but weight probably matters less with a synthetic.
 
Weight very much does matter.

May I suggest an excellent option.

SuperTech motorcycle oil in the 10W40 or 20W50 weight. Perfect for the NJ climate. You can buy it at any Walmart. Less than $9 a quart and as good as any other oil out there and I’ve tried and had tested, every major brand.

This was my motorcycle shop default oil. It is made by one of the largest manufacturers of quality oils in the USA, Warren Oil Company.

I have had it tested at Blackstone Labs many times over and it always comes back with stellar reports.

I personally run it in all of my motorcycles except my 4V 2012 Stelvio NTX as that particular engine must be run with 10W60 4T oil.

It is a full synthetic oil and it has never let me or any of my hundreds of customers, down.

The thing about oil is this….

Oil is cheap, engines are expensive. Change your oil in your motorcycle every 3,000 miles or at least once at the end of your riding season.

Never put your motorcycle up for the winter with dirty oil. It’s caustic and eats at the internal metals.

IMG 3372 IMG 3374
 
This was the info sheet I gave out at my workshop on the above oil recommendation.

It has some very interesting info.

Enjoy. I hope you find it useful.

One other interesting thing about SuperTech oils is that they are fully JASO MA2 certified, which means they can be utilized in any gearbox, transmission or cartridge transmission, like Japanese motorcycles. This oil will never foul out the clutch plates in a wet basket type clutch or cause the plates to become grabby or snatchy.

SuperTech motorcycle oil is world class oil at a reasonable and fair price.

Enjoy!
 

Attachments

  • Oil Statement.pdf
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OK. All the labs say to use the proper weight oil as Recommended by the manufacturer. I get that. That's what I’m trying to do.

That’s why I asked why does the 2003 Breva owner‘s manual say to use a 5W-40 and a 2006 Breva manual says to use a 10w-60 oil? The difference seems like it would matter. At least a little.
Since mine’s a 2008 and I'm not running it below freezing, I’m leaning towards the 10w-60.
 
George_S said:
That’s why I asked why does the 2003 Breva owner‘s manual say to use a 5W-40 and a 2006 Breva manual says to use a 10w-60 oil?
Click to expand...
Search and read here on why. Carry-over text from yesteryear. It's all been VERY WELL covered, ad nauseam. Run whatever you'd like that meets or exceeds the spec, and most importantly as stated above, you can easily get. End.
 
When i bought my Breva 1100 in 2006 the recommended oil was Agip 4T racing 5w40, I think that was a mineral oil, very shortly after Agip full synthetic 10w 60 was recommended by Moto Guzzi. I think its just the advancements in oil technology.
 
Kevin.NZ said:
When i bought my Breva 1100 in 2006 the recommended oil was Agip 4T racing 5w40, I think that was a mineral oil, very shortly after Agip full synthetic 10w 60 was recommended by Moto Guzzi. I think its just the advancements in oil technology.
Click to expand...
Yes that explains things. The timeline makes sense. Thank you.
 
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