When Is a Conservatory Not a Conservatory…?

…when it is a motorcycle workshop of course!  If my poor mum was alive…well, first off she wouldn’t allow this…which is why my dad has got away with turning his conservatory at the rear of his home into an indoor garage cum workshop.  Well done that man!

Plywood board screwed into the fabric of the house… 

Kitchen door on the left…bathroom window doubles as a place to Sellotape wiring diagrams to!

The table has been turned into a tool storage facility…

…and in the other corner next to the patio doors to the bedroom we have a trestle type table with ‘stuff’ on it and a make shift paint spraying area where the seat pan is…oh and not forgetting the exotic Italian in the middle of the room!

In my last blog you will have seen/heard the engine jump into life due to the magic performed by my brother-in-law Leon.  The replacing of the wiring will take some time yet as and when we are both available to do it.  Picture one shows all the cabling I have recently purchased in 3 different amperages.  So when Leon finishes the wiring it will be a brand new loom.

We have had a little rethink on the seat pan that we had made up…basically 2mm sheet cut to shape.  It seems likely that using that pan will foul the rear tyre under full rebound so we are going to use the original seat pan which has a great big cut out in it for this very reason, thereby allowing the tyre to move through its full range of movement.  Below you will find a photo of the style of seat I initially wanted, sort of a flat tracker style in brown with a tuck and roll cover…

…however, with the original Moto Guzzi seat pan on the bike I don’t think I can replicate the flat tracker style due to the very obvious shape.  Here is the seat as it was originally on the donor bike before I dismantled it…

 

…and how it is now mocked up on the bike.  Because of the change of plans and the fact that we have cut off the mounting point for the original seat catch a basic bracket was fabricated at the rear end which will be partly covered from the rear most point of view by the re-imagined rear light and  number plate assembly.  I shall have to drill a hole either side of the seat pan to connect it with a bolt that will go through the side panel mounting bracket.

 

The seat pan will sit upon the rails when it is in its final position.  The pan itself does have a natural raise in its profile.

 

This is roughly…very roughly…how the rear light and number plate holder, when fabricated, will be positioned.

Any suggestions in relation to how I might still achieve the flat tracker look from the seat will be gratefully received. 

Happy 2015 to you all!!!!

The Little Goose Clucks Into Life…

…thanks entirely to my brother-in-law Leon….take a well deserved bow!

By all accounts we didn’t stand a chance as complete novices numpties with the wiring as it was complicated by years of patching and bodging.  However, three hours was what it took for Leon to untangle, uncover and uncomplicate it all by separating the ignition wiring out from all the other clutter and joined in wires simply to ensure it could be started…and start it did!

 

Ignoring the excited noises coming from me and my daughter counting for hide and seek with her cousin in the background, take in the sounds of a working small block Guzzi…Click the YouTube link below…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWrp93Ko_aM

Clearly the lighting circuit will need to be in working order at some point but at least we now have a position by which to move forwards rather than staying in the twilight zone as we have been for the last few months.  So plenty of wires to be replaced and tidied up from the temporary situation at the moment…well pleased!

The Battle of the Wires Has Been Lost…

But I shall win the War!  This little Goose will live.  Eventually.  Not this year though.  Probably…

I am afraid to say that after wiring everything up, somewhat optimistically, in what I suspected might be the correct order, the moment came to turn the ignition key and fire her up.  That moment was captured forever on video as absolutely nothing happened….oh I did blow a fuse but don’t think that really counts.  I don’t understand this wizard’s magic called electricity and cannot make head nor tail of the rats nest of wiring that has been hacked about by various owners over the past 35 years. 

So this is how the bike looks today and is unlikely to look any different in the coming months…

   

I have two options at the moment…let my brother in law who ‘knows about these things’ have a look and a go with it or it gets shipped off to an electrickery expert.  Both options will require a new loom I think.  So that’s as far as I can go at the moment.  The next job to tackle is shortening the throttle cables due to having clip-ons rather than the raised bars that were originally in place and taking my slightly rough soldered dash LEDs off and putting new ones in that can be properly connected.

One piece of good news is the lovely shiny almost new motorcycle trailer that I got today in preparation for the need to take the bike to an electrician or more likely so someone can bring me home when it stops working miles from civilisation.  Once it starts working of course!

Once all that is done then it will be the commissioning of a nice leather seat, topping up the fluids, bleeding brakes, ensuring everything is tightened up correctly and then just maybe she might be able to turn a wheel under her own steam.  In Springtime!  Maybe Summer!  Definitely not next Winter…

The Devil’s in the Detail…

…as objectively it looks like little has changed in the past 6 weeks.  To be fair I have had a few weeks where the bike had to take a back seat due to some remedial work on the house…apparently that was a priority.

So what have I done since last time?  Well…I have become more confident with a soldering iron and have been tackling various bits of wiring.  The new clock surround came with LED’s however they needed the wires soldering to them as the LED’s had solder tags on them rather than spade terminals, although I did initially try mini spade connectors but they were not stable enough.  The heat from soldering and possibly the odd unsteady hand loosened the plastic that the LED is attached to inside the bulb housing in all of them.  I have used glue almost successfully to keep them in but will no doubt have to think of a more permanent solution to stop them dropping out.  Suggestions welcomed.

I have changed a number of loose connector blocks on the bike with either soldering the connections or using new connectors with some success.  Quite a few spade connectors were quite baggy on their respective terminals for some reason, such as the brake light switch connections.  Out came the soldering iron again along with heat shrink and have come out nicely.  I am praising myself there a little as I am not the most practical of folk and generally not good with my hands so little wins boost my confidence no end.

Along with soldering the LED’s, I have also soldered the ignition wires to the four terminals on the back of the ignition barrel as again the spade connectors were baggy.  A lovely A3 colour wiring diagram from a member on the Moto Guzzi Club UK forum has been brilliant in helping me knit this particular fog!  Speedo and tacho cables have been connected to the clocks along with their respective bulbs and the idiot light wires/LED’s which remain connected to their original connector blocks.  Other than the indicators, much of the front end appears to be nearing completion.

The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed a Dymo in the first photo.  As oily hands and hand written bits of masking tape do not mix I decided that a more permanent and less likely defaced solution would be Dymo labels.  I started with the paper ones (seen in the 1st photo) that came with the machine but then bought a yellow plastic cartridge and am really pleased with them.  However, one or two had come apart (they are self adhesive) maybe through damp or me not pressing them together properly.  Needless to say I have gone a little Dymo crazzzeeeee!

More wiring beckons for the next instalments and hopefully we will be nearing the point of combustion!

The old girl has a new home for the winter…a cold cramped garage has been replaced for a warm, cramped conservatory at my dad’s house!  She looks at home I reckon…

 

‘Till next time…

No Steps Forwards, Two Steps Back…

Not much in the way of progress for the last few weeks what with holidays, birthdays and general commitments elsewhere.

I had to remove the fork sliders from the stanchions in order to put the fork oil.  This is for lubrication purposes only and has no effect upon damping.  I originally thought I could dribble it in from the top of the stanchion with the fork nut removed but it wouldn’t drain down.  One slider came off okay along with the damper assembly but the other took some shifting as the fork cup got wedged in the bottom of the slider.  A friend came to the rescue and is re-powder coating the slider as I marked it trying to remove the cup myself.  Anyway, one fork is completely assembled with the correct 70ml of fork oil in it and the other will be done as soon as the powder coat is complete.

 

The only real move forward this month has been the purchase of a decent sump lift to replace the rusty caravan step I had been using to support the bike.  I have put oil in the sump, bevel drive and gearbox also.

I got the lift from a German retailer and have been really impressed with their price, service and the quality of the lift.



http://www.bs-motoparts.com/en/#

The plan is to start tackling the wiring again in a couple of weeks and hopefully be able to connect up the battery and try and start the little goose!

Wrapping, Shiny Bits and Yet More Wiring To Redo!

Exhaust wrap…sets off the cafe racer quite well so I thought I would have a go at it.  Turned out not so bad actually.  I went for the pale coloured wrap thinking that there’s enough dark colour on the bike as it is.  I watched a couple of tutorials on YouTube which recommended soaking the wrap in water before applying it which is where I started.  A word of warning though…exhaust wrap is made of fibre glass so best not to wear shorts and have it trailing across your bare thighs!  Itchy doesn’t come close!

  

Getting the collets in correctly first time around would have helped this task!  Much wiggling and manoeuvring managed to get it on okay; having an extra pair of hands helps greatly.

    

Gutsibits provided me with a lovely shiny polished surround that comes with 6 LED’s.  I originally got the pre-drilled surround but the holes were 70mm on centre apart rather than the 60mm needed for my V50, so I sent it back and got the undrilled version.  Obviously this meant that I would be drilling this £140 piece of billet…gulp!…still I had the experience of doing similar to the rearsets so a friend of the family allowed us to use his pillar drill and super bits that drilled the holes beautifully.

The clocks were a little ratty looking so a bit of primer and some more Satin Black and lacquer and they look almost new.

As I was replacing the original filament bulbs for LED’s there was quite a bit of snipping off large spade connectors and swapping them for mini spade connectors.

The LED’s have what looked to be mini spade connectors but are actually ‘solder tags’.  Being a highly un-proficient solder-er I wondered if some mini spades might fit which they did but they are not a tight enough fit so will have to be chopped off again and soldered!  I think a thin piece of card between the ‘solder tag’ and the plastic body at the bottom of the LED will prevent me from melting it!

 

So the soldering iron will be coming out next week with a bucket of hope also!

 

So after the re-doing of this bit of wiring I shall solder next week and then it will be a case of sorting the throttle twist grip out so as to stop the cables moving excessively.  Then, with a bit more wiring, I hope that within the next 6 – 8 weeks we can be adding fluids and try and fire it up for the first time!  Stay tuned…