The End is (Al)Most Definitely Nigh…

…accelerated by the magic of electricity.  I need to now start making plans for the Little Goose as she will be nearing completion soon.   

 

The rear light is in a rough position but all lit up along with nice wiring blocks also to the rear indicators…

…the taping up continues apace…before and after shots…

Working methodically from rear to the front of the bike with the fabric loom tape…

  

The clocks have come off to make the final bit of wiring easier and tidier.

 

Tape loom and shrink wrap applied…

…and applied to the LEDs of the dash lights

Much tidier.

…and finally another 10 second video of lights and sound…

 

All being well tomorrow should see the brakes completed and mounting holes drilled into the seat pan.  Then Saturday I will be taking said seat pan to an upholsterer’s to see if they can make the seat how I want it…watch this space.

(Dash) Lights…(My) Camera…(In)Action….

…for now at least.  The wiring is moving at a pace thanks to my brother-in-law Leon…a completely new loom is taking shape with wires that match the colours on a great A3 sized Guzzi wiring diagram I have compared with the random colours used in the botched loom. 

 

This is where the main loom joints together front to rear…

  

…some tidying required around the back of the headlight bowl as this is temporary to check that everything works…

…which it does!  This is an Osram Nightbreaker bulb and is brilliantly bright.

 

The dash is coming on also…the clocks are back lit but are quite dim so will look at changing them to LED’s if possible.

The dash LED’s are are super bright, particularly the High Beam.  Both the indicator dash lights are working and the Neutral light leaving only the Ignition/Charge light to wire in.  The front indicators, with their LED’s are working just fine…

  

…leaving the rear Stop/Tail light and the rear indicators to wire in and that should just be about it for the wiring loom.  It will then be wrapped in fabric wiring tape to keep it all neat and tidy as well as protected from moisture and grime.

One of the jobs left to do is to de-link the brakes as I mentioned in a previous blog.  So the nice people at HEL made me a brake line up that would do the job…except for the fact I forgot to specify a 90° bend in one of the unions…doh!  So I have now ordered another brake line but this time from Venhill (remembering the 90° bend!) whose unions are screwed onto the braided line rather than swaged on like the HEL ones meaning they cannot be removed successfully by someone at home.

Jobs to do…

• Fit the brake line when it arrives and put fluid into the braking system and bleed.
• Balance the carburettors.
• Check the nearside fork seal, as it wept when tied down on the trailer…too much compression!
• Commission a new seat for the old seat pan…below is my preferred option seeing as I cannot go Street Tracker with it due to the tyre cut out in the seat pan…safety over aesthetics.  I have ordered a 20cm square of race seat foam that I will stick to the bare seat pan to get it to the MOT (Ministry of Transport) safety testing station.

• Check all nuts and bolts…add medium strength thread-lock, then torque tight.
• Bin the current fuel pipes with their crossover and run a single fuel hose from each carburettor to each fuel tank tap.
• Take it for its MOT test…job done.

Elecktrickery, De-Linking & …Progress.

Well this was a quite unexpectedly early blog to be making seeing as the wee Guzzi has only been at its temporary home for just over a week.  But, how things move on when you know what you are doing.  Of course the ‘you’ to whom I am referring is not me but said Electro-God brother-in-law!

Once my girl had settled into her temporary abode she was disembowelled of the rats nest of wires that had masqueraded as a wiring loom.

Now that mess is being replaced with precision, care and attention to detail…

  …by someone who knows what they are doing.

The previous owner of the bike had continued with the quirky (flak jacket donned!) linked brake system Guzzi bestowed upon the V50 but had upgraded the master cylinder with a handlebar mounted one that on inspection is going to unbalance the brakes as it is so much more powerful than the original frame mounted cable operated gubbins.  The Brembo bar mounted master cylinder is expensive especially as it required a new lever and clamp…probably around £170 ($260)…so rather than replace that we are going to de-link the brakes.

The original Moto Guzzi system has the brake lever operate one front brake caliper whilst the foot brake operates the other front brake caliper plus the rear caliper in order to evenly distribute braking and enhance stability under braking.  On the rear brake master cylinder there is a banjo splitter one side of which sends brake fluid to the rear caliper via a short braided hose whilst the other sends brake fluid along some copper brake pipe which then connects to braided hose to one of the front calipers. 

SPLITTER

So the plan is to remove all of the copper piping and place a blanking plug in the corresponding connection on the banjo splitter seen above.  Given the angle of the screw in brake light switch it seems easier to blank off one side of the splitter than go for a single banjo that would present problems when attaching the side panel.

Up at the handlebar mounted master cylinder a double length banjo to allow two braided hoses from both front calipers will be inserted into the master cylinder separating the front brakes from the rear as in a conventional braking setup. 

I am aware that it is likely that the rear brake will become quite hard as it is only actuating one caliper as opposed to two so I may choose to go to a smaller capacity rear master cylinder if I can find one that has 50mm mounting hole centres.

The ignition wiring circuit is complete now, although the routing and taping up of all the wires will still be needed.  So whilst the lighting circuit is being worked on, below is a quick video showing how with some fuel the Little Goose would come to life!

A Trailer...A Trailer…My Kingdom for a Trailer…

…oh, here’s one I bought earlier!  Today, the Little Goose goes on a small holiday to have the stress of poor wiring removed without the added trauma of my incompetence with electrickery…that has been left to my brother-in-law who knows what he is doing.

So off she went on the trailer that we bought late last year and in the big wide world she don’t half look small…and  a little vulnerable without a seat and panels on…oh and her frayed nerves hanging out and draped over her lithe frame.

…and in her new home for the next few weeks…

  Behind the curtain lies more Italian exotica!

But for now she shares space with a Honda XR250 that is being re-commissioned for the road.

So for the next few weeks my brother-in-law will be replacing all the wiring and at the end of it will be a fully functional running bike.  And I will get to learn some electric magic also into the bargain. 

After the wiring, brake fluids, carb balancing (if required) there only remains a seat to be sorted out…oh, and the nearside fork seal appears to be leaking…not sure why as yet. :(