Moto Guzzi - My Mandello Mountain Bike

Hi Everyone,


I have only recently found this forum and although i have been into Cafe Racer Building in the past, I havent done anything for a while until recently.


I would like to show you some of the bikes I have built or have worked on, I think they will fit in nicely here and I would love to hear what you think.


This project started out when i decided i wanted to do something left of field and something that people would take a second look at but mostly something that went well, handled well and most of all sounded sweet.


It started life as a Black Moto Guzzi Mille GT 1988 model.
To say it looked ugly would be too light a comment, they were bought to life as an in between LeMans and Cali commuter bike, but most important for what i wanted was that it had wire wheels and it was stock standard in good condition.





And she a dream.......


After Junking everything that was not needed, I got hard core and then stripped it even further.




Had to get rid of all the tags on the frame triangle, grind and sand everything off that not needed.

One of the purposes of the project was to lighten the bike. Standard it weighs 254kg or about 500lbs.


For any bike, the lighter the better. Lighter means everything is under less stress. The brake better and accelerate better naturally, every bit of weight you lose is less HP you have to find.


Anyway, I lightened the fly wheel by 4.5kgs (almost 10lb), LeMan spec valves (44mm inlet) and 36mm Delorto Carbs up from 30mm. That took the top speed from 160km/hr to 220km/hr, it was that restricted !!!





These bikes are a dream to work on. Simple. It is basically the same as a V8 pushrod engine except missing 6cyl....

So what do you do when you're really bored ???


You take the rear drive housing off a guzzi and sand, grind and polish all the cast marks off it of course .... :
It took 50hrs to sand everything smooth enough to a state where i could start to polish it !!!
You got to love something like doing the hard yards to do something like that but the end result makes it worth while.



So

Can Anyone guess what the colour of the bike will be ?

have a look at this bike - http://www.bikepoint.com.au/news/2011/vintage-veteran-and-classic/moto-guzzi/le-mans/custom-bike-moto-guzzi-le-mans-24647?intref=ed-news

Nice Round head, great cafe job..


I would have loved to have had an Aluminium tank, but at the time, they were prohibitively expensive.
I ended up with a fibreglass tank.


Cheers Neil

Ok,
Yellow it is !







Metallic yellow, similar to VFR yellow in 2pack with a couple of coats of clear.







I wanted to originally keep the centre stand but as time went on, i opted for a light and almost hidden side stand.







Almost there.
Front guard is plastic off a 19inch front wheel and just doesnt suit.
Mock up of seat unit.

beautiful! I have a thing for these guzzis... wow, 10 pounds off the flywheel must have made that motor feel loads more peppy!

Hi,
Yeah, the flywheel was 9kg standard, the heaviest of all Guzzi's and everything suffered because of it.
Gearchanges because instead of the engine revving one way or another on up or down shift, the weight could easily make the back tyre chirp or make the rear swat or lift with the shaft action, it was quite horrible.
Lightening the flywheel had the effect of making it handle better as there was basically no reaction in the rear anymore, making it rev a lot lot easier and also cut the vibration to zero.
Obviously it was out of balance and grossly overweight and by lot and by turning it down on the lathe it fixed it completely.
Having said that, if i had known, i would have cut a lot more off as they race with only 1.5kg flywheels !


Cheers Neil

Rocan said:

beautiful! I have a thing for these guzzis... wow, 10 pounds off the flywheel must have made that motor feel loads more peppy!

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amazing how simple mods can transform a bike.... I wish I had a lathe to turn down my flyhweel on my cb350... could probably shave a good 300 grams or so....

Hi Rocan,
The best way to lighten them is take off the massively heavy generator rotor and change it for a high intensity magnet off something like a CBR250 at 1/4 of the weight.
They also had really heavy cranks but not much that you can do about that.


Cheers Neil

Finished

Stats


1988 model MilleGT


950cc Lemans spec heads, 36mm Delorto carbs with Accel pump.
185kgs inc fuel
Fibreglass tank, front guard and seat. Battery under seat.
Japanese switch gear (off CBR250)
Front and rear master brake cylinders off CBR900
Tarozzi rear sets
Stainless steel custom exhausts.
Electrics under tank.
Dyna ignition, GT40 Coils.


Build time 3yrs, one break up and two house changes

A ride on the bike - back view


moto guzzi *better video*

Sweet!

Nicely done.

If you don't mind me asking, what was your final cost on this?

Right proper!

Hi Bozz,


Original bike cost $6000


About another $6000 to finish it.


All in Australian dollars.


Cheers
Neil

Bozz said:

Sweet!

Nicely done.

If you don't mind me asking, what was your final cost on this?

Right proper!

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