A Spare Bed at the Orphanage

For over 12 months I looked at this motorcycle in a local dealer's used bikes section.

Nobody seemed to want it.

In a dealership that sells Honda, Suzuki, Vespa, Harley Davidson, Yamaha, Triumph, Cagiva, Suzuki, Buell and MV Agusta, this was the one solitary Moto Guzzi.

Unloved, it sat there for over 12 months, and as it sat there my resolve firmed that this lonely Guzzi should find a home where it would be loved and appreciated.

Readers of The Guzzi Project will know by now that my place is a home where Moto Guzzis are appreciated and loved and cared for.

So I decided that I had to give this lonely, royal blue 1996 1100 Sport a home.

Negotiations commenced with the dealership.

Twelve months ago they wanted too much - over $10,000. But this Guzzi had been occupying floor space for twelve months, and there's nothing like pressure from the dealership manager to shift stock to force reality back into the pricing equation.

My investigations uncovered the ownership history - there are few Guzzis in my neck of the woods, and every Guzzi enthusiast eventually finds all the others, and the bike's history was not too hard to find out........

I discovered that the 1100 had been traded on a Triumph, for $6,500.

I made an offer, and was told it was too low.

I waited 3 months, and took it for a test ride. I discovered that the front brakes - Brembo Goldline Calipers and 320mm floating discs - had a terrible shudder that made front braking diabolically dangerous. Given that new discs were over $600 and caliper prices were similar, I wasn't going to buy the bike unless the brakes had been fixed.

Armed with the knowledge of the bike's history, and how long it had remained unsold, I made another offer. My offer was that the price - including 3 months registration and 3 months dealer warranty - had to start with a 7, or it was no deal.

They considered their options, and we settled on a price of $7,950.

The bike was registered in my name and I became the proud owner of a shiny blue 1100 Sport. I rode away from the dealership, carefully applying only the rear brake and copious amounts of generous engine braking. I rode it for 2 weeks and returned it to the dealer for repair of the brakes under warranty. Four weeks later I got the bike back and the brakes were perfect - so much stopping power using only the index finger. The delay in the fix was not the dealer's fault - the company that does the work (Awesome Discs) are very good at what they do, but speedy turnarounds are not part of their service ethos.

The next step was to have the bike thoroughly checked out by my local Guzzi dealer - the folks at Eurocycle. Brian at Eurocycle identified a problem with the starter - it needed replacing or complete overhaul - and an oil leak from the shaft seal for the alternator, and a diff pinion bearing that needed replacing.

I rode the bike regularly - weather permitting - and it failed to start a number of times during that period, including one time 100 metres from the dealership I purchased it from (Peter Stevens Motorcycles in Adelaide). Scott in the dealership realised that there was something not right with the starter, and they agreed to pay for a new one under warranty.

Now I could have purchased a new starter from a dealer in Western Australia for about $700, but I thought that price was exorbitant, so I decided on some judicious web searching, courtesy of our good friends at Google. Granted, it was not my money I was going to be spending, but fair is fair, right?

I happened upon a Colorado company - EuroMoto Electrics - who were advertising genuine Valeo (OEM) starter motors for about US$180 plus shipping. That came to about AU$260, and so I ordered it one Friday afternoon. The following Friday morning the courier delivered it to my home. The world has become a much smaller place, hasn't it?

Ten minutes after the starter was unpackaged and the instructions read, it was installed. The bike has started first time every time since.

Peter Stevens reimbursed me and I think this was a definite WIN-WIN situation for customer and dealer.

It's been a win for John Rayski at EuroMoto Electrics, because I've referred a few Guzzi owners to his company's site since.

Anyway, I've been riding the Guzzi for over 3 months now, and like all Guzzis it has its quirks. It steers like a tank at slow speed. The riding position is a long reach, and is not comfortable around town. The fuel economy around town is lousy too, because the carburation at slow speed when transitioning from low throttle to medium throttle openings is not ideal. So I tend to ride it near the speed limit in whatever gear has me revving above the transition point - which is about 2800 rpm.

But get out on the open road and some bends and twisties above 60kmh (35mph) advisory limits, and it's a different beast. It's stable, and much more comfortable, and uses less fuel.

So far I've spent about a thousand bucks on protective gear - kevlar jeans, leather pants, dririder boots and a jacket and gloves, and one of those mesh suits of body armour for riding on hot days when a jacket is just way too hot. And about another thousand on other bits and pieces - renewal of registration, insurance, disc lock, Tarozzi riser bars (on order from UK) to lift the riding position by about 2 inches, a new adjustable brake lever and rear brake pads. Oh, and a new triple compound Dunlop front tyre.

So that's where we are to date. The bike is in at Eurocycle today to have the diff pinion bearing replaced, which should make riding the twisty bits a bit nicer because right now the rear end 'walks' a bit when transitioning from lean on one side to another.

If Brian gets time he'll also do the alternator seal.

So there was spare space in the garage, and now one formerly lonely Guzzi 1100 beds down each night sharing space with the Le Mans and the 750S.

A good result.

Oh, and I couldn't count the number of people who have approached me when I've been out for a ride through the hills around Adelaide, and tell me "I nearly bought that bike, but the dealer wanted too much". Sometimes patience and persistence does pay off.

The Le Mans Start - Part 2

Marty rang me yesterday, and told me that the long-range weather forecast for South Australia was 12 months of higher than average rainfall. Given that we've been in drought for 3 years, this sounded like good news. So I asked him where he got this information.
His response??
"I re-registered the Le Mans for 12 months............"

Very funny, brother.

But this is good news as it's been sitting idle for many years, and now that the seat is fixed and the engine serviced etc, there was only the minor issue of the rear indicators.
The Guzzi used to have a carry rack - which weighed about 7 kilos (14lbs) - and I removed it when the project started.
The downside was that the indicators (turn signals for those in North America) - which were originally mounted on tubular metals stalks with a threaded end - were mounted directly to the carry rack. naturally, I did not have the mounting stalks. Nothing is ever simple, is it?

I went to Eurocycle, our local Guzzi dealer, and the mounting stalks were $65 each. $130 is way too much, so I though about whether to get some half inch tube and make up the fittings. It would mean getting a tap and die set, and the cost of that didn't thrill me. So I decided to try the local bike wreckers. I visited my folks and then went to motorcycle wreckers near them today, but they only had second hand parts for the newer Japanese bikes, and all the mountings and fittings didn't seem to fit the Guzzi character. They also had new units at $40 to $55 apeice, which seemed a bit pricey to me.
I tried a seond wreckers, closer to home, and as luck would have it I found a pair of similar shape the the Guzzi units, off a Suzuki trail bike. They had the added bonus of flexible rubber stalks, which is always useful when trickling through parked traffic. They were both in as-new condition, and total cost was $20.
Then I went to Tandy and bought some spade connectors and insulating covers, so I could hook everything up. That was another $12.
I fitted the indicators and hooked up the hot leads, and then ran both earth wires to a common point, and then turned on the ignition. Hit the left turn button and voila, both front and rear were working as they should. Same for the right hand side.
Then I eventually fired up the Le Mans - it was a bit uncooperative for the first few minutes until I got the carbys nicely pumped full of go fast juice - and it settled into a lumpy fast idle.
Marty will have the rego papers with him when he travels the 1500kms to Adelaide to visit us in the school holidays.
The Le Mans awaits.
The next burning question is - What's it like riding around on 10 year old tyres??? Hmmmm.

Everything is Broken

June 2009

Seem like every time you stop and turn around

Something else just hit the ground

Broken cutters broken saws

Broken buckles broken laws

Broken bodies broken bones

Broken voices on broken phones

Take a deep breath feel like you're chokin'

Everything is broken.

“Everything Is Broken” – Bob Dylan, “Oh Mercy” album, 1989
Maybe Bob was talking about getting old - about the decay of degenerative age change. Maybe he was talking about the world, as he knew it, and the decay of society. Maybe he was talking about relationships, and the partings, and the loss.

He could also have been talking about ageing Moto Guzzis. For they, too, suffer the vagaries of age, and decay.

Steel rusts.
Alloys decay.
Rubber cracks.
Fabric frays.
Oil thickens, and then it all starts smokin’.
Brakes don’t stop, now everything is broken.

Okay, forgive me my minor lyrical diversion. Listening to Bob always makes me want to go and wax a little poetic.

There’s a lot to do on the 750S to get it tidied up and running, and everything made of rubber has pretty much turned to crap, so in that regard, everything is broken. But there’s nothing that hard work and money can’t fix.

The calipers for the 750S have been returned from PBR at Holden Hill, serviced and shiny and clean, with new pistons and rubbers and bleed nipples and all the bolts and fittings burnished and shiny and clean. All that we’re waiting on now, in order to reassemble the front stoppers, is the lever and master cylinder assembly.

Here's the calipers and the new lines. Sweet!

Which reminds me, I need to ring the dealer – Eurocycle – and remind them that we need the assembly soon.

Speaking of Eurocycle, they recently ran their first ride day in a number of years. On offer were test rides of a Griso 1200 8V, a Stelvio 1200 4V, a 1200 Breva and a V7 Classic.
So I turned up on a cool, breezy Saturday morning and signed up for test rides of the Griso, and the V7. I bought a new helmet a month or so prior to the ride day. My old AGV that I bought in 1980 to match my Suzuki GS1000S was well past it’s use-by date, and also had some pretty serious gouges in it courtesy of a high speed front-end wash-out on the GS1000S many years ago. I haven’t ridden all that much over the recent years, so I’d borrowed other peoples’ helmets, or worn the AGV at a pinch. Yes, I know, that’s pretty stupid putting an old and damaged helmet on your valuable head, but money was tight there for a few years. See the photo for a comparison between the old technology and the new, and note the gouges on the AGV.

So, I bought a new Shark helmet and some leather gloves.
Speaking of riding gloves, why is it that all motorcycle gloves feel like they are made for either off-road riding or MotoGP racing? Over engineered and over priced. I gave up at the bike shop and went to my local hatters and bought a set of unlined black leather gloves. I much prefer feel over bulk, and the current crop of gloves appears to be more a product of the desire of manufacturers to make a glove look safe, rather than give you good feel. I dunno how others feel, but it seems to me that one of the priorities on any bike is good braking, and I can’t understand how gloves that give you little or no feel for the modulation of the brakes actually contribute positively to rider safety.

750S - Before You Can Stop, You Have to Start

April 2009
Well, plans to start the 750S hit an unexpected hurdle.
Marty gave me a number of keys for the 850 Le Mans and the 750S.
The Le Mans started fine, but the key for the 750 won't unlock the ignition.
Have I failed to attain a certain level of Zen? Is the locked stuffed? Is it the correct key? Am I asking the correct questions?
All of these permutations have been explored, yet the end result is the same - one very quiet, non-compliant Moto Guzzi 750S.

Now anyone who knows Italian motorcycles of any time prior to the nineties knows that they have electrical systems designed by the Borgias, installed by kinsmen of Macchiavelli, and requiring the same level of maintenance as the average Alfa Romeo. One can only suspect that the designer of the lock came from the same bloodline.

They key inserts easily into the lock about 75% of its' length, and then requires some jiggling to plunge it's full depth into the bowels (barrels?) of the lock. It feels like it wants to turn at the 75% depth, and also at the 100% depth, but I have only 1 key, and a nagging suspicion that the ghosts of Borgia, Macchiavelli et al will come back to haunt me and snap the key off in the lock if I try to force the issue. So what to do?

I refer myself to the Moto Guzzi manual, of course, for here all will be revealed, for as we know, the manual is the source of all truths........
Yeah, right!
The Haynes manual is informatively descriptive on the matter: "if the lock malfunctions the lock securing dowel must be drilled out and a new lock fitted"
That's it. No pictures, no schematics, nothing more. Zip. Nada. Niente. Rien.
Rien. And frankly, right now a detailed manual in French would be of more use than the commentary provided by the Haynes manual.

WD40 has been applied. So much, in fact, that there was a small discoloured pool of WD40 overflow under the bike. Votive candles were lit, and hasty orisions muttered to the God-of-motorcycle-repair, all to no avail. Even a locksmith was engaged. The technical description was that the lock is fu?ked - apparently it has wafers rather than tumblers, and it would appear that one of the wafers has broken. Now we have to drill out the locating dowel, which appears to be hardened steel, in order to remove the lock from the barrel. That should be fun.

Keep the faith. When all else fails, try brute force and ignorance.

The Guzzi 750S project must roll on. Time to regroup and do other stuff while a solution for the lock is explored.

As the Tao says, "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." If we can't get it to start, at least we can work on the stoppers! :-)

I removed the front brake lines and took them to Power Brakes (PBR) at Holden Hill to get the lines replaced. They were cracked and perished, and the banjo connectors were rusted, and I wasn't about to place my life on the line, so it's time to start afresh with new lines. So PBR get the gig to create the replacements, and supply a new brake sensor switch as well. Should come in at about $180.
I also removed the calipers and inspected them - the rubbers were perished and the pistons seized, so they are going to PBR as well for an overhaul. I did explore replacements via Stein-Dinse Australia, but the new calipers came in around the same cost as the overhaul, and weren't an exact replacement for the originals (1 bleed nipple per caliper on the new units cf 2 on the originals). So better to stay original. Expected cost is about $600 for the overhaul, which includes new pistons, rubbers, bleed nipples etc, as well as rust removal, buffing and repainting.

I fitted some in-line ceramic filters for the fuel lines and cleaned the in-tank filters and the fuel taps. Marty bought the filters a little while back from our local Guzzi dealer - Eurocycle. Once fitted I rinsed-out the tank with some fresh fuel, followed by a refill, and opened the taps to prime the carburettors. There was some leakage so I tightened all the connections and shut the taps off.

That's enough for the time being, I need a beer.

A Dance In 3/4 Time

Jota (pronounced 'ho-ta') is a Spanish dance in 3/4 time. I guess the Laverda guys wanted to emphasise that this superbike was a 3 cylinder 1000, rather than a 4.

This example is a 180 degree crank Jota. Big on rumble, and even bigger on vibes until they climb onto the cam and start to roar like a whole pack of Ducatis. These babies were the first real superbike - a genuine 140mph in the late 1970s.

Here's a like to the wiki article on Laverda. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laverda

Marty has had the engine out and rebuilt. Rebuilt - yeah, right! The bike has done about 160,000km (100,000 miles) and all it needed was a new timing chain and tensioner. After the mechanic broke open the engine cases, he looked at Marty like he was weird and asked him why he'd brought the bike to him. It didn't need a scrap of work. Laverda makes tractors as well, and this thing is about as tough as a tractor. Mind you, given that the engine was out of the bike, a decision has been made to purchase a new cam chain and tensioner from Slater Bros in the UK, so it can be ready for another 100,000 miles or so.

I haven't started on the Laverda yet, but the plan is to remove every item from the chassis and then have it sandblasted back to bare metal and then powder-coated. The Jota will then be subject to a full nuts and bolts restoration, with the objective being a concours condition bike befitting the title of 'first Jota the Laverda factory ever rode'.

Yes, we have seen the letter from Massimo Laverda introducing the original owner (a mad Yorkshireman named Derek), and the provenance of this bike is that it was purchased by Derek from Slater Bros - who developed the Jota variation from the original Laverda 3CE 1000. It was ridden from the UK into Europe where Derek had some engine problems when relatively close to northern Italy. He rode the bike to Breganze and went to the factory for assistance. He was greeted like a long lost cousin and the factory went to great lengths to assist and accommodate him. When he returned to the factory he was greeted by the roar of a motorcycle racing along their test route. He enquired about the bike making all the noise, only to be told that it was his repaired bike being test ridden by Signor Laverda. He was told by the engineers that this was the first time Massimo Laverda - who was no slouch on a racing motorcycle - had ever ridden a Jota.

Derek brought the bike with him when he came to Australia, and after languishing on consignment in a dealership with little or no interest, Marty bought it on a whim, and it has given him wonderful service over the years.
When we finish, it might look something like the above photo, but in the rare silver colour in which it was originally purchased.

The Le Mans Start

Guzzi #2 is a 1983 Mark III Le Mans.

The Le Mans has spent less time off the road, but has been neglected as well. The after-market seat was damaged to the point where the ABS base was cracked and crazed, and was all but disintegrating. The photo below shows some obvious cracks along most of the major contour changes of the base, but the situation was much worse - up close it was more like the cracked shell of the hard boiled egg when you're peeling it.

I arranged through a repairer to have a seat base template made in fibreglass, and a new seat base made from this template. The bloke who made the template and the base made it from the same fibreglass he uses to make long-boards for surfers, and the base is flexible enough to not crack under use, and strong enough to support my 85 kilograms when I finally get around to riding the Le Mans. I had a motor trimmer recover the seat and she looks a treat. Have a look at the photo below. Nice, huh? It would want to be - the fibreglass mould, the new base and the seat trimming totalled $875. Mind you, we have the mould, so more seat bases could be made for Le Mans owners who have experienced similar problems. We reckon the cost of a new seat for any subsequent copies would be about $500.

Marty purchased a new dry cell battery for $200 and we changed the oil and flushed the tank and started her up. It took a while, but eventually she started and ran steadily.
We removed the sump the last time he was down and gave it a good clean to remove varnish and contaminants. We didn't have a replacement oil filter at the time so we replaced the sump gasket and refilled with oil and started her up. She leaked at the right hand side rear of the sump right from start up. In the meantime Marty got an oil filter. Then he went back to Central Australia where he works.

I removed the sump again, and discovered the reason for the leak - a small amount of the old gasket had remained on the engine base, and despite scraping the base clean the remnants were not removed. Our bad!
So I purchased some gasket paper and rather than spending $27 on a new base gasket, I folded the paper 3 times and made 3 new gaskets up from scratch. A sharp blade, a straight-edge and a hole-punch helped me achieve new gaskets that look every bit as good as the originals. I fitted the new oil filter, and the hand-crafted gasket and ran the Guzzi and presto, no leaks.
Now that she's running well and is ready for registration. Next time Marty comes to the "big smoke" I hope he'll have the rego papers and we can go for a ride.

S is for Sport

Let's introduce us to our project bikes.

Guzzi #1 is a 1975 750S. Now I know beauty is subjective - the Angelina fans out there are demonstrable proof of that - but I believe that this bike has the most beautiful tank God ever put on a motorcycle. The flared panels, providing a natural fall to the alloy heads and rocker covers are a rare example of a tank and engine in real symmetry and sympatico. The tank to me looks like the flaring of a great white shark's body around the pectoral fins - a streamlined combination of power and aesthetic beauty. This theme is continued with the long Silentium mufflers with their sharks-gill fluting. The 750S is a motorcycle of rare beauty to behold.

The 750S has been stored in a shed for the last 15 years, and has been the home for a number of families of mice, going by the vacant battery compartment. The alloy was filthy, the mufflers were rusted, the fuel lines were rigid and cracked, the brake lines were, well, broken, and the master cylinder was seized. The front calipers were siezed and somewhere along the way three of the four bleed nipples had been snapped off.

Now, the plan is not to restore this bike to concours condition. Such a restoration would take too long and delay the rationale for fixing the bike up - to get it back on the road. In South Australia a motorcycle over 30 years old can be registered under the 'Classic registration' category, and ridden for up to 90 days per year on a log book, with a cheaper registration of $120pa rather than a full registration of over $500pa.

Note the Laverda in the background of the second shot, but more of that later.

The Cold Start

The project started in March 2009. I was blogging it elsewhere but could never find it in any search engines, which is why I've moved the blog to this locale.

It started because my brother Martyn ('Marty', 'Mart', 'Cosmic') has 3 motorcycles and a sidecar stored at my place, and they have all starting to show serious signs of neglect. There are legitimate reasons for the neglect, as Marty has spent the last 10 years living in central Australia, and has little time in our home town of Adelaide, and even less time to spend working on bikes.

Marty, whom I love dearly, is 2 years younger than me.
He's made good decisions most of his life. In this, we are very different. He has never been married, and has had only two significant relationships, which didn't work out. I, on the other hand, have been married and divorced a couple of times and had one serious (7 years) relationship after my second marriage (of 20 years) didn't work out.

When it comes to getting non-essential tasks started, though, Marty is hopeless. He needs a very large boot up the backside to get him started on these non-essential tasks. So things like getting the bikes fixed and running have lapsed into nothing happening. Frankly, the bikes have been neglected for many years, and despite him expressing the desire that he's gonna do something about them, nothing has happened.
Enter me, Dave, 'The Motivator'. I am sick of hearing Marty crap on about getting the bikes going. It's time for action.
'The Motivator' is a 54 year old single parent to a 15 year old daughter, with another (21 year old) daughter who lives with her mother. I'm more than a little relationship-averse. You can only get whacked around the chops emotionally so many times before, like Pavlov's dog, you develop some behaviours that respond to the stimuli you are subject to........
So now I am projecting on inanimate objects.
Forget Angelina, or Scarlett. The objects of my lust are two Moto Guzzis, and Laverda Jota.

These bikes have been silent for so long, and all 3 are real fine bikes. It's a shame to see them lie so cold, when their real power and beauty is to be found in the revving of the engines, the changing of the gears, the hum of tyres on asphalt, the whirring of the chain and final drive, and the thrill of the ride.