Sunday 25 October 2015


Bormi Racing in Italy supplied me with a pair of their gerabox mounts for the Tonti frame, this allows for the bottom frame rails to be deleted, saving weight and looks great ! i had them nickel plated and polished, why not hey !




last pic shows the gearbox mount in place, also acting as a mount for rear set foot rests.

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close up of the extended sump (supplied by HMB guzzi) with filter located underneath for easier oil changes and cooler running oil.


Saturday 24 October 2015

EXPERIMENTAL DEPARTMENT"
Italian motor magazine had a reprint of these signs for sale recently, i thought it was cool for the bike shed where all the magic takes place ! the sign is a copy of a sign found at the original Motoguzzi factory before it closed, the translation is "Experimental dept" .





THE 




LE MANS WHEELS AFTER MEDIA BLASTING, LOVE THE DESIGN OF THESE WHEELS  !



Pic below shows a dry build of the main components. 1980 mk 2 Guzzi le mans Tonti frame (modified for late timing cover). 41.7mm forcella italia front forks , later timing cover allowing for frame mount to use the upper mounting. HT Moto supplied fuel tank, this is an MV 350 copy designed to fit the guzzi Tonti frame. exhaust system is supplied by HT Moto, 48mm exhaust header leading into a very neat twin silencer system with a great sound too ! 
std le mans wheels are being used, i really like the design of these wheels and add to the period look of the bike. 








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Complete mk2 le mans engine 1980 vintage, the pic below shows the end result of a lot of work and not inconsiderable cost ! cleaning, vapour blasting getting all moving parts checked, renewed, new bearings everywhere, mains, big ends, little ends. 
its a good chance to renew everything and start fresh, that way i have more confidence in the reliability of the engine after the build. more internals upgraded include a cnc uprated oil pump for higher flow rates, plus a deep sump that allows filter changes without removing the sump (supplied by HMB guzzi). 
key upgrades from std include the lightened flywheel assy, Raceco SS2 fast road camnew cam followers, inlet ports flowed to suit the new cnc 40mm alloy inlet stubs (from Radical guzzi) and a set of race spec valve springs from HT Moto designed for the new cam set up. should make for a nice engine, a little more livelier than std, quicker revving,  but still fun and rideable.


engine vapour blasted, cleaned and all new valves, valve guides, all new bearings, rebore and fitted 1st oversize std 850 le mans piston. 

Flywheel lightened a little from std spec

Monday 19 October 2015

can you guess what it is yet ? 

mk2 guzzi cafe,
this is where it all begins again !
Anyone who has seen my previous blog, http://guzzicafe.blogspot.co.uk/
has seen my last bike , which has now been sold and moved on to its new
owner in London.
The mk2 project started with various mk2 le mans parts lying around as well as another visit to my friend Hartmut from HT Moto fame. Sadly Hartmut has since retired from bike building full time, but to me his work with guzzis inspired me to want to build another bike, using some parts available from HT moto ( Tank and exhaust system).
the tank is a copy of the MV 350 tank, modified to fit a guzzi frame. the exhaust system is a design that HT Moto have developed for many years from their race bikes and is about as light and as neat as a twin exhaust can get on a guzzi and sounds good too !
so far, a lot of time has been spent cleaning, vapour blasting and repairing all the moving parts ready to be re assembled. I reached a point this week when a lot of the parts are coming together and i wanted to record the keys moments in the build.

engine internals were all treated to new bearings, big end, mains, new little ends, new oversize pistons, piston rings, rebored barrels, heads all new valves, guides, valve seats, and inlets ported out to match the 40mm cnc inlet manifolds (Radical guzzi), HT moto supplied a custom set of valve springs and shims to suit a Raceco SS2 camshaft.
flywheel assembly was filled with holes and lightened, and the whole assembly inc crank balanced.
finally along with a new clutch, the engine is ready to go together and i delivered the engine to Nigel at NBS Guzzi to do this for me, he built the engine on my last bike and he is one of the leading Guzzi experts in the UK.
http://guzzicafe.blogspot.co.uk/