… and here’s a picture of my Italian cafe-racer. It started life as a Moto Guzzi Mille GT, but it was converted by a previous owner, who fitted rear-set footrests and clip-on handlebars. I bought it as a ‘runner’ and have very largely rebuilt it. It’s probably 95% finished now and needs a seat. The blue lift is there just because it doesn’t have a centre stand.
Here’s a list of what I’ve done to it:
- Rebuilt the engine, replacing one cylinder head (broken cooling fins) and repairing the sump drain screw thread using a Helicoil.
- Re-finished (powder coated) the frame and swinging arm, having removed the broken side panels and te-tagged the frame.
- Repainted the fuel tank, using replacement decals and creating pin-striping.
- Re-built the wheels (new tyres).
- Rebuilt the carburettors and replaced their bell-mouths.
- Fitted a new all-electronic ignition system. No need for points any more.
- Fitted a Lithium battery (smaller, lighter and better).
- Fitted a new regulator (to suit the Li battery).
- Refurbished the rear-set footrests.
- Replaced the dropped handlebars.
- Rewired the whole machine around an electronic controller (no need now for fuses).
- Replaced the warning lights with LEDs, keeping the original light binnacle.
- Refurbished all of the brake components, keeping the linking between one front disc and the rear disc.
- Built a rear ‘hump’ and painted it.
- Replaced the headlight, indicators and rear light cluster with more modern equivalents
- Replaced the rear shock-absorbers and rebuilt the front forks with upgraded damping and springs
That’s quite a long list, so you can see that this was a lot of work (and expense), but I’m quite pleased with the result – the bike starts and runs, and all the electrics work. On the way I learned that spray-painting (using spray cans) is a poor idea – almost everything in my garage is now stained pink!