Cardboard Fabrication!

Well the last session I have had with the little Goose was to find some solution to the number plate, rear light and seat conundrum.  After much rumination, expert judgement and a lot of guesswork a solution was found!  Hurrah! 

The problems were what kind of seat could I have without making too many compromises that would allow me to have the number plate in the right position.  However, a standard sized UK number plate’s width would foul the rear indicators.  Additionally, the rear light with integral number plate holder I had bought was not going to be part of the solution.  So that was £25 not very well spent.  The problem was that what I had purchased was probably meant to be sunk into the rear of a seat or ‘Frenched’ into bodywork somehow as the rear terminals weren’t encased in an aesthetic manner which you should be able to make out in the next photo with the old seat pan.

Although the old seat pan looks okay it doesn’t suit a slim seat in a flat tracker/Brat style plus the rear lights wouldn’t look right because of the issue stated above.  So the old seat pan went back on the shelf.

Out came the cardboard in the shape of a fish tank box!….and some rough lines drawn upon it following the lines of the frame.

Ah!  This was now looking better for the progress of the seat.  So much so that I had splashed out on another rear light, but this time it was in its own casing and would mount on a mudguard or bracket in some way.  As I referred to earlier, the standard UK number plate mounted at the right height/angle so as not to foul the rear wheel, would partially obscure the indicators by about 5mm each side.  I could mount it a little further down a yet to be made home built bracket but the angle would be more horizontal than vertical as per the MOT tester’s handbook.

Having seen regulations that state that motorcycles registered before Jan 1 2001 were eligible for 3 line number plates that’s what I decided to go for.  There is still a bit of a grey area associated with this which I won’t bore you with….so the solution was a flat seat, new bracket for a new rear light to mount to and a slimmer number plate…

             

Thankfully the kind neighbour that sorted the petrol tank out has offered to fabricate the seat pan and number plate bracket and powder coat them both….for nothing again.  This kind of support and expert help is invaluable. 

I have revisited my job list and the next job will be fit the clutch cable before routing it gets too difficult and fit the oil breather tank in place and cut all the hoses to the right length and fit.  Sounds easier than it will probably turn out to be, but hey…at least it ain’t wiring!!!!

Grinding, Crimping and Snipping…A Trio of Firsts.

A solid eight hours on the bike this week due to taking a day off work to eek out the Bank Holiday weekend.  Obviously the wiring is still an ongoing best guess situation but I managed to change all the connectors for the left side switchgear (lights, horn, etc) along with their corresponding partners on the main loom.  I have a great colour A3 wiring diagram as I have mentioned previously so when I popped open the original ‘Lego’ switchgear I could see that all the wires matched and went where they should.  So…the first snip was to remove the original switchgear…no going back from here.

 

Old switch and new switch.                         Contemplating the cut….

   

Wasn’t so bad after all.

After removing the original switchgear I cut off all the connectors on the loom and the new switch and replaced them with brass bullet connectors.  Now I know a lot of people don’t generally like them but I have found these ones really good with a great tight fit and were simple and quick to crimp closed on the wires.  I used some heat shrink insulation over all the connectors…which I didn’t get a photo of…doh!  Rather I got one of the heat shrink being applied.  Woohoo!     

  

  

…and the next bunch!               

As an old bike chunks of the wiring had been replaced over the years, making the following of the wiring diagram difficult.  For instance one set of four wires, shrink wrapped, were all different at one end of the run to the other and when they entered a connector block they were all different colours again the other side!  None of which matched the original.  This is going to be difficult to work out.  I have managed, by process of elimination plus some guesswork, to wire up the rear indicators and separate the tail/stop lights.  On the switchgear I have three or four wires I am not sure about as the wiring diagram that came with the switchgear is not very clear and the new switch has a separate pass and horn, rather than the combined tilt switch on the original switchgear which has resulted in more wires on the loom and less on the new wiring.  My brain had reached meltdown after eight hours so that conundrum will be left for another day.

Some decisions were made with regards the seat too.  Originally I had decided to just go and buy a custom made seat for about £175 in the flat tracker/brat style that I wanted.  However, a trip through YouTube made me consider building my own by chopping about the original seat pan.  I have since binned that idea given the shape of the pan rising at the rear and I want a very flat seat. 

 

My father’s neighbour, who blasted the tank, fabricated and welded in the petrol cap and then powder coated it all for nothing (top bloke Lee!) has offered to make us a seat pan out of alloy.  This will clearly be a better job than I could do and will be cheaper as I don’t have the correct tools to be cutting and shaping alloy sheet.  So the plan is that a flat alloy sheet will be the basis of the seat which I will then take to a local upholsterer to get an idea of their ability to make what I require and within budget.  With that decision made I used an angle grinder for the first time to lop off a couple of lugs on the frame to allow the seat pan to sit flush on top of the frame rails as the lugs protruded above the frame.  Once ground off the bare metal was painted.

Before…

…and after (but before filing and paint).

All in all, I am happy with the way things are going although there is still a lot more to do with the wiring taking up the bulk of the next few months.  To break up that brain freezing complexity, I shall wrap and put the exhausts on in the near-ish future.  Feel free to comment or advise!

Knitting Fog…Otherwise Known as Wiring a Guzzi!

This process is far more time consuming than I imagined.  I knew it would be difficult as I have no electrical skills whatsoever…in fact everything I have learned mechanically has pretty much been the result of resurrecting the Guzzi.  All that has been done so far on the bike has been achieved with maybe eight – ten hours a month and has all been stuff that can be seen.  The wiring is a different kettle of slippery fish altogether.  What is definitely going to help me in the very near future is an A3 sized colour wiring chart that a helpful chap on the Moto Guzzi Club UK forum will do for a not unreasonable £10.  I have yet to use it in anger but it is far better than the monochrome tiny one in the workshop manual.

So although the build is going very slowly I have learnt how to solder….in a fashion.  Another thing that looked easier to do than is reality!  The bike’s previous owner had all earths running through two points on the bike, primarily the bolts that hold the battery tray down.  I decided not to reinvent the wheel and use the same points ensuring that paint/powdercoat was filed back to make a nice clean contact to the frame through the captive nut.  Insulation tape has been wrapped around the connectors after these two photos were taken.  There are five earths here on the nearside of the bike and two plus the battery negative on the offside of the bike.

 

 

I have conceded that the bike will not be on the road this summer now given how long things take and the little time that I have but I will have it running *prays* within the next couple of months.  In terms of wiring this is what remains to be done:

• Switch gear on both sides of bike.
• Cut off and replace some connectors.
• Join some areas of the loom together when I have worked out where they go!
• Purchase a digital speedo and wire that in.

All of which looks to be a good two or three months working at the slow pace at present.  Then a seat needs to be bought, exhausts wrapped and fitted, fluids of all types added, re-torquing of all bolts and almost certainly some trouble shooting.  I expect that this little Goose will turn a wheel on Tarmac sometime in Spring 2015.

In my last blog it looked like I was part way through fabricating a seat mount…anyway I have binned that off as being an unnecessarily large and ugly piece of metal work that on reflection I did not need.  Now, I have fabricated a bracket out of 2mm thick steel bar instead, primed and painted it and I am sure you will agree it looks better than the other monstrosity I was planning.

Minor Tweaking and Rough Fabrication…

As lovely as the rearsets are, I have had to make a modification to the brake set up as it appeared that a hole necessary to connect the bottom of the brake rod had been omitted.

Here is the original photo from the suppliers website showing three holes to adjust the brake rod’s position with what I actually received in the correct position.  It’s clear to see that a third hole was needed. 

 

 

If you have read the rest of my blog you will note that I am not particularly adept/confident at mechanical/fabrication type tasks.  So with trepidation I took the brake pedal to a friend of my father’s and drilled a 6mm hole where one was needed using a superb industrial pillar drill with Titanium tipped drill bits.  Hot knife through butter springs to mind…well, after the event at least.  Prior to put the bit through the lovely billet alloy I was a bag of nerves…anyway, I judged it spot on…luck?  judgement?  Who knows!

I have added an extra nut to the outside of the rear brake cylinder mounting bolts to bring it further out in order that the brake rod lines up and doesn’t prevent the brake pedal from returning correctly.  It all works as it should now.  Some of the chrome had peeled on the brake rod so that got a coat of Satin Black.

Some tweaking of the gear linkage was needed to get the pedal in the correct position.  I had originally bought a slightly longer turnbuckle but managed to sort it in the end.  Everything is loosely connected at the moment as final adjustments will only be needed when the tank and seat get put on the bike.

As I think I have previously mentioned I need to fabricate a mount for the rear light/number plate assembly.  So I have purchased a sheet of 1mm aluminium and have started to cut out the required shape.  Originally I was thinking of some simple steel bar to go between the rearmost frame rails that would allow the rear light to be mounted.  However, I think using ally sheet will give a bit of a firmer foundation for the seat which is yet to be purchased.  Plus it will ‘seal’ in the electronics.  Anyway, so I have a roughly cut shape that needs quite a  bit of work to complete.

  

Further work on this next week is planned.

Shiny, Shiny Things…

…are a distraction!  With all the confusion and out of my depth feelings around the wiring I decided to allow myself to be distracted by some wonderful Italian alloy billet artwork. 

Thanks goes to Marco and Remo at Fly Hammer… Fly Hammer Racing Parts.  Prior to my purchase Marco was really helpful via email explaining a number of things and Remo the craftsman that made them.  Utterly brilliant.

…and attached to the bike…brake side.

…gear lever side.

 

I just need to purchase some linkage rods to the brake cylinder and to the gear selector. 

Obviously I couldn’t resist popping the petrol tank on to just to see how it is going to look at some point. 

 

 

Side stand and the fiddly springs was also mounted on the bike today.

With fewer distractions, next week I really do intend to sort the earth connections out and the two points where they will all meet.