I've been there. It's hidden behind a service station on the road out of Cambridge towards the A14 heading to Huntingdon. Nice place. Glad to see that it is still going.
I bought my Guzzi, as used bike, from Haywards. I've popped two or three times and found them to be very welcoming. If I had the room, I'd relieve them of another bike. They have some lovely old machines there.
Lovely place, full of character and very welcoming people! We’ll pop in again soon to browse the used clothing and check out the bikes in the showroom!
Going back to the battery not charging off the bike,modern smart chargers won’t charge a really low battery. To get round this connect another battery via jump leads to it then connect the charger this will trick the charger into starting charging,after 20 minutes remove jump leads and see if you are getting a charge,other options are to get an old or non smart charger that will try to charge the battery no matter how low it is done this lots of times usually works unless the battery has been left uncharged for a long time
Thanks for dropping us a message! We hadn’t thought of recharging the battery using another battery with jump leads. We still have the old battery, so we’ll give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion-we’ll post the results!
Trooping funnel mushrooms, I see them in Bourne Woods, south Lincs. Tasty apparently but I was bought up with a very cautious view on edible funghi so I haven't tried these. I currently have loads of Saffron Buttercaps growing across the street, very edible but I'm too cautious to try. I nearly purchased my Royal Enfield Classic 350 from Heywards but had moved from Cambs to south Lincs so I chose the Peterborough Enfield dealer instead.
A lot of modern bikes seem to drain the battery in a quite a short time if you're not using them daily. It probably is something to do with the regulator/rectifier but not showing up on the tester. 2 of my bikes have this problem and one doesn't. I have Triumph T120 and an RE Himalayan (the 411 Himi) and they will both drain the batter out in about a week or so if I'm not using it. I also have an RE Super Meteor which seems to be okay. There are 2 ways you can go at this problem. 1 get a batter tender and connect it to the bike when not in use. This (should) keep the battery in optimum condition. 2 just disconnect the battery if you're not using the bike for a while. I know it's a bit of a pain but it works... If the battery is draining while the bike is actually running, then again suspect the regulator/rectifier first or it could be the alternator stator, which is a lot more troublesome and expensive to fix.
Thanks for dropping a message! This place is a gem :-) It's an official BSA dealer, but it offers more than that. Check them out at Haywards. As for the MG gremlins, we think they’re asleep for now! We’ll probably find out for sure in a couple of weeks.
Hopefully you have sorted the electrical problems. To avoid USB parasitic drain it’s always best to fit a simple toggle switch in line under the seat, Guzzi did actually do their own USB charger for the V7 iii, not sure you can still get it. I took my v7 special out for a run on Sunday, lovely weather.
It seems to be sorted, but let’s wait and see. Our V7 III `special does have the USB port, so we’ll try using that instead of the toggle under the seat. Fingers crossed the weather holds for these lovely days!
We'll try the factory-supplied USB port first. We usually forget to switch it on after connecting the smartphone to the cable until we arrive at our destination, only to find out that it didn’t charge because it was left off!!!
I put a USB point on my Yamaha and started having battery issues. Turns out the USB point has a pale blue back light that is constantly on when connected direct to the battery and very hard to see. I put an inline on/off switch on it and leave it off when not in use.
We purchased this from Amazon (Thlevel USB C). It has a switch, and when it's off, there shouldn’t be any electricity drawn from the battery-that’s the theory!
So there was nothing wrong with your Moto Guzzi V7. Before the battery problem started you installed an after marked USB charger that slowly drained the battery. Normal starting battery's can't handle that, the plates will bend. You can now start alover with your lovely V7 and you will probably find out it is a very reliable bike.
Thanks for the comment! The multimeter indicated correct electrical functioning, and the battery is new. We've removed the USB as a precaution. It has an on/off switch, so it shouldn't have affected the battery drain. However, we're still not fully confident that everything is fine. We may replace the rectifier and keep monitoring the battery-buying a third battery would be too much! We really like the bike; it’s easy to ride, full of character, and has a classic retro look. :-)
I have a USB charger on my 2023 V7 850 Special. This ONLY becomes live WHEN the IGN key is turned on and the engine is running. It can not drain the battery as it is disconnected from the battery at all other times.
That’s what we assumed with the switch we purchased as well. We removed it just in case it’s defective. We'll connect a USB cable directly to the factory-installed USB port on the V7 for now and may reinstall the USB switch later. Could you share the model or type of switch you’ve installed on your V7? Thanks!
MotoGB used to be the sole importer of RE into the UK, but RE decided to ditch them and do it themselves. Unfortunately they did not put anything decent in place to support dealers, so it just all became a nightmare of supply, warranty and support issues. MotoGB then unloaded the stock they had left at vastly reduced prices, which further impacted the dealers, and killed resale values for owners. I think it’s called creating a clusterf@uck. Go to the bottom of the queue RE 🤬🤬🤬
It seems to be a broader strategy of Madras Motors (Eicher Motors) to become more profitable, which has already negatively impacted the dealers, as mentioned. This could also trigger a negative trend for the brand, which is unfortunate!
