Its Italian, but not Ducati... Guzzi content!

I found the missing link piece via the internet from a French breaker, with P&P it cost 28 euros, which wasnt too bad. Next job was to make a suitable link rod for the rear brake (which I'd delinked BTW, as on a std Guzzi the rear brake also operates one of the front calipers too)..

starting out cutting off a length of 12mm stainless rod, bit thick but it was the closest to hand at my mates workshop, that i could 'borrow'. Now I usually leave machining to the experts, as I'm a novice on a lathe and miller, and I'm left handed, which makes all the controls in the wrong place for me, but they left me to it... so here goes (though I did have someone looking over my shoulder every now and again to make sure I didnt break the lathe or lose a finger or two..).
Step 1, cut a 115mm length of rod, that saw saves a lot of time..


Step 2, turn down 15mm at each end to 6mm, ready to cut a thread for the rosejoints


Step 3, find the correct die, ready to cut the thread


Step 4, using the lathe manually (power off!) to cut the thread, then turn down the centre as 12mm was a bit too thick..


Step 5, test fit..it may be a tiny bit long, I'll need to try it out see how it feels, but its easy enough to shorten if needed.

 

I cleaned up the original exhaust downpipes and cross over pipe (I dont have any silencers for it..as I want to make them. I was going to start to polish them, but the prospect of polishing stainless was too depressing for words, so I took the easy way out and took them to the local polisher and paid £20 to have them and the rocker covers polished.





I didnt want to polish the cross over pipe yet, as it'll need cutting and welding for the new silencers, good job really, as inspecting it showed up cracks in a couple of places.. more work to do..


I messed about with a few different sized stainless cones to see which one will be best as a basis for the new silencers... think this short one will be the one.. only got one of them, so will have to try and find another..

 

I went to my mates bike shop and picked up a bottle of 15 weight fork oil and asked him to give me a price on a pair of Hagon shocks. I'd looked at various options for rear shocks, from cheap and cheerful Hagons through Ikons to Maxtons (£550 for a custom made pair), right up to Ohlins which are now over a grand for their basic set! I did have a mint set of original Konis which were the right length, but the lower mounts were completely different, so couldnt use them.

At the bikeshop, I was asked if I'd considered a set by YSS ... who?? I was handed the catalogue to browse, and they didnt look bad at all, erm, but were they just some cheapo chinese copy?? Apparently not, they make components for some of the big name brands and are now being assembled in the UK to your spec. They'd sold a few already at the shop and had been impressed with the quality, the clincher was the price, less than the basic Hagons... so I ordered a pair, Here's a link to the company.. Y.S.S. :: World Class Suspension ::

A few days later, I had a busy day... started by cleaning up the fork sliders and yokes, ready to spend the afternoon polishing them at my mate Jeff's workshop..
Started like this and ended up not looking too bad. I havent tried to get a show bike finish, there are still a few visible marks in the alloy here and there, but its good enough for a bike thats going to be ridden.. I did start the day with the intention of removing all the casting marks in the yokes. Having started I soon realised I'd rather have a life, so didnt bother..





After a few hours at the polishing mop, I looked liked a miner, despite wearing googles and a dust mask, the polishing 'soap' gets everywhere, its ironic its called 'soap' as its anti soap as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who does that fulltime has my respect and symbathy, what a god awful job.

On the way home, I popped into the bike shop, as my new shocks were due to arrive today, and sure enough they had. I was impressed with the quality, not bad for £132. They were on the bike as soon as I got home, even the kettle had to wait. ..

 

By this point, I wanted to get the front end on, so at last I could wheel it around, and make brum brum noises lol.. but my own stupidity caught me out. When I take a bike apart, I always take loads of photos as I go along and make notes of where cables go and so on, makes life so much easier when it comes to putting it all back together. I didnt bother doing that with the front end, it was obvious how it went together..duh ! well, I convinced myself I could remember who it went together, and I got it wrong, and ended up going around in circles, till I finally figured out what I'd done wrong.

In this picture, you can see a gap between the headstock and the top yoke, I even made a spacer to take up the difference..till I realised what I'd done wrong..

 

Plodding on with the build, at times it can feel like its never going to be finished, the trick is to keep going, try and do something every day. Otherwise, a day turns in a week of inactivity, and week into month, a month into six months, until the bike ends up as another 'unfinished project' on ebay.. Next task was to strip the front calipers, check and clean them (thankfully the pistons and seals were ok) and rebuild with stainless fasteners. Doesnt sound too hard, but the socket heads that hold the two half together were siezed solid, had a hell of a job to get them out, didnt help that a couple of the bolts were rounded off. Got there in the end, but now run out of the right size of socket head, so ordered a hundred quids worth of stainless fasteners, which should keep me going for awhile.

Then for something a bit different.. making the alloy 'battery tray' a bit more interesting and 'cafe racer-ish'.. drill lots of holes in it in other words.. As you can see I marked it out super accurately at first then I used some old maths trig and a pair of dividers to do it a bit better... now just got to clean it up with wet and dry and polish it, then it can finally be bolted back on the bike for good. I dont intend to use this as a battery tray, I want the area below the seat to be empty, with the battery and all the electrics hidden away elsewhere. Its making work for myself, but I think it'll be worth it.

 

With the front end finally sorted out, I could drop it off the lift and actually wheel it around. So I fitted the tank loosely and the seat unit (which I didnt like), and wheeled it outside so I could step back and see how it looks. First problem is the sidestand, its way too short.. I can see from the photo that the front forks need dropping down a bit thats nots going to make a lot of difference. Probably have to cut the one I've got and extend it.


I also fitted the headlight, it'll need to come off again, as I need to paint the shell, but while I did that, I also polished the stainless bolts I used to mount the light. I used the simple method of sticking the bolts in my drill and pressing the bolt against some wet and dry while spining it up..works better than you may imagine, and much easier than doing by hand..



Anyway this is how it looked, still not sure about the seat.. may try and make one? I do like a commando fastback seat and also some I've seen using a Bevelhead 900ss seat unit. BUT I always think its wrong to fit a well known part from one bike onto another, it just doesnt feel right..weird I know, but there you go..


Another job is to work out what do with the electrics, not looking forward to that, and also source a front mudguard. May go for an alloy one and bolt it to the underside of the forkbrace.. then I'll need to make a new forkbrace as the cast one on it now wouldnt work too well.

And finally, a closeup of the motor.. and I know the rocker cover bolts are undone, its cos I was waiting for new gaskets..

 

I polished the battery tray, didnt spent a lot of time on it, as I decided it would look better if it wasnt too shiny, so went for a more burnished look, well thats my excuse anyway...


Next I dropped the forks 35mm through the yokes, which seemed to give it the right stance, with the frame rails parallel to the ground. The rear shocks are 13 inches eye to eye, while the front forks are 31 inches from top to axle .. that surprised me as Harley wide glide forks are 31 inches too, and they get fitted to bikes with 35 degree rake. Anyway, dropping the forks left the forks sticking out the yokes looked a bit odd, so I took the chance to mount the clip ons on top of the yokes, looks ok and my dodgy shoulder should thank me for it.


I also taped a couple of bits for wood to the seat rails to raise the seat to see how it looked. Still not too happy with the seat, I'm trying to convince myself to go with it, as thats the quickest and cheapest option, but I think I'll end up looking for a different one. The problem is that the tank is very angular, while the seat unit is all curves, it just doesnt work.



I spend some time trawling the web, looking for ideas for the new seat, I found a seat that I really liked, which was made for a Rickman originally, and which would give a retro 'endurance racing' look, which I liked.. I tried to sketch out how it might look on the Guzzi, first with a 'typical' cafe racer seat, then with the Rickman seat unit.. I ordered the Rickman one soon after, from a place called Ragged Edge. They had a 5 week turn around, which was ok, I had plenty to do in the meantime.

 

Unfortunately LM1 and IIs prices have gone through the roof in the last couple of years, III and IVs arent quite so pricey. Thats why I went for the Cali, its not so different from a LMs once you take away the bodywork, and its was so much cheaper. Its down a bit on power compared to a LMs (smaller carbs etc), but that'll make it a more usuable friendly road bike, and if I need more power, LM heads and carbs will fit right on.

 

I dug out the throttle controls and took it apart to see if I was going to keep it or replace it. I was surprise to see how it was made, the brake master cylinder bolts to the throttle housing, so if I change one, I'd have to change both, while it doesnt split in half like most controls, but has a section for the switchgear that unbolts. Very odd. All that wouldnt have been a problem, but the throttle itself looked knackered, but I decided to see if it could be reused. It had been damaged, with strange spiral grooves cut deep into the plastic throttle, this is how I got it..


It took me awhile to realise that it had heated grips, hence the wires embedded in the grip. The remnants of the grips were a pain to remove without further damaging the plastic throttle tube beneath. Got there in the end, and I've used some strong glue to repair a split at the end of the the plastic tube. With luck it'll be ok to use again.


Oh, and I wouldnt mind having 'SYRENS' too




The bike then went off to my mates bike shop to have new brake lines fitted. Its a bit out of sync really as I wanted to get the exhaust done next, but since I got an offer to take it there for free cant complain. Though its a bad time of the year to get work done at mates rates as they're flat out now the suns out. Jon the mechanic wasnt impressed with my newly painted throttle assembly, or the action of my glued together throttle.. and I had to agree he was right. But I said if I change it, I'll need a new throttle, new master cylinder and new switchgear too, and it'll be a pain to rewire it for that. Jon pointed out the the LHS switchgear was already non std, he recognised it as being off a Honda, not that I'd ever know that. Then he mentioned he happened to have the matching RHS switches, off his old race bike CBR600R that I could have for free.. ok I said, hang fire onthe brake lines, I'll see if I can find a decent master cylinder.

Back home I ordered a Tomaselli throttle from Disco Volante (they do have some nice stuff.. very tempting), and had a look on Ebay to check prices on secondhand master cylinders. I had been told a Bandit 600 one would work well, but those I saw all looked pretty knackered. At this point, one of those odd bits of of luck occurred.
My neighbour Paul came over to say he was knocking down an old shed as the floor was rotten, and what did I want to do with the bike bits in there? I'd forgotten all about them, they'd been there about five years since I bought I bike off Paul, along with some spares which he let me leave in his shed as I had no room at the time. Most of the stuff was worthless and went in the bin, except for a full exhaust system off a Suzuki 750 Katana, bit rusty here and there, but usable...erm, who do I know who may make use of that?
To cut a long story short, I swapped it for a as new master cylinder from a 2008 R1 from Les the chap with the supercharged Z1.. he had all sorts of useful bits and bobs in his garage. I needed to order a new lever for it and find a plastic reservoir 'pot', and off we go. Its a 16mm piston size Vs 12mm for the original, so its plenty big enough for the twin calipers,


With the brake lines done, the bike came home, and I could carry on with the exhausts..

Got the bike back home this week, but need some dry weather now to work on it outside, as I've not got much room in the garage now. I went for having two front brake lines from the master cyclinder, avoids having to use a splitter and just looks a bit neater I think.

 

THe seat had arrived and I did a quick test fit of the tank and seat unit.. looks ok, better than the old set it came with. I want to make a shallow 'tray' next to sit between the seat rails below the seat unit, which will hold a lot of the wiring, fuses etc, while the battery can live in the seat hump. I want to use a lithium battery as they are so light compared to a std lead acid equivalent.

 

Moving on to the exhaust, no money to buy any fancy silencers, so best make a pair.. Starting with a pair of stainless cones (£40) and a five quid lump of billet alloy.. and of course a trip to my mate Jeff's workshop..





I designed the billet end caps for my Harley exhaust last year and since then a few more have been made for other folks who liked them.. pity I dont get any royalties lol.. but I did get the last two that were made of a small batch. Now all I need is some 2 inch perforated tubing and the internals will be done (thats if I bother with any baffles lol
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I'm going to use the link pipe for now, as it'll save time and some money (those stainless bends arent cheap), though later if I dont like the way it looks, I'll no doubt revisit that area..

 

I needed to find about eight inches of stainless tubing to connect the H mid section of the exhaust to the silencers, it should end up looking something like this..





With the sun shining recently, I could work on the Guzzi outside and make some progress. The main job was to sort out the link pipes from the silencers to the H section part of the original pipes. Fortunately I found a small length of suitable stainless tubing at my mates custom shop, where they kindly did the welding and some linishing while I drank all their tea. I'll need to clean up the welds a little more, but that can wait. Next step is to make a bracket to hold the cones to the mounts on the rearsets. Dont think a bit of masking tape I used today will last long otherwise lol.. I hit a problem getting both sides level, as I couldnt take the bike to the workshop when the welding was done, but eventually, I got the two silencers within a few mms of each other, which will do..

 

The exhaust cross-over pipe (which had to be welded), was annoying me as it was so black and tarnished. Since it was stainless, I thought it should clean up ok, so attacked it with a wire brush. Its not perfect yet, but a lot better than when I started..


I got hold of four stainless clamps to hold it all together, so next job was to cut four slits in each of the silencer end pipes and clamp it all up.

 

Thats all been a quick review of six months of work, I've missed out a lot of the boring stuff.. Coming up to date, I needed to make somewhere for the eletrics to live. The Guzzi wont have any side panels and I want the area below the seat to be as uncluttered as possible. I made a template in cardboard of a 'tray' which would hold the relays, fuses etc, and would sit between the seat frame rails. Originally I was intending to make the tray from a solid piece of billet, but the price of the material was too much (ie I couldnt get it for free), so instead I went to see a local chap I knew, who made it for me in stainless for £20, he also gave me a few offcuts of stainless sheet, from which made the mounting brackets, which he welded on for me. He also cut out a seat support in stainless too, which I'll bolt to the underside of the fibreglass seat unit. It would've taken me hours and hours to cut that out of stainless sheet, while he did it while I waited. THe next steps will be to mount the rectifier to the underside of the tray, and fidn a way of doing the same with the coils..