1967 Moto Guzzi V700 Corsa-Record

[cliffrod]

a little more progress ....

The original exhaust nuts in the engine aren't perfect, but they're not half destroyed by channel lock pliers like the ones that came on (and are still on) my V7 Sport. They didn't easily budge with a wooden drift. So for the last however long, I've been keeping them wetted with ATF. There isn't an exhaust wrench in my G5 Guzzi tool kit on the sport. Nothing else in the tool boxes here fit particularly well. And those cool exhaust wrenches on eBay cost $$$.

So while Elsmore observed the other day, I made a quick rubbed paper pattern of the installed nut. Glued it to a handy piece of scrap metal. About an hour of Hole sawing, bandsawing/hack sawing and some filing later, it fits pretty good and works even better.

Mark paper with exhaust pipe diameter-



Trim to fit over pipe and then rub against exhaust nut with something like a dirty finger





the pattern is almost ready to glue to the blank.



First, I used a slightly undersized hole saw on my drill press to cut out the center. then I aligned the pattern on the blank, glued it in place and did final trimming of pattern with razor blade after everything was firmly in place. Then it was a matter of sawing and filing to get a good fit. It's smart to make sre the fit is developed from both sides (square teeth) and from the inside out (to produce a good tight fit. I made the ends fit first before working on the center.

[cliffrod]

The wrench fits pretty good. Both nuts came loose with no drama or damage to nuts or threads in exhaust ports... And for no more $$$. Very cool.



One of the very tired tires on my bandsaw retired during this wrench project. I got new tires today, so will shape this wrench a little better once all is back in order. Someday, I'll get my mill & lathe running to do things even better. Until then, I'm pretty happy and Elsmore enjoyed watching me make a wrench.

[Chazza]

Nice work Cliffy. Fitting projects by hand are so satisfying,

Cheers Charlie

[cliffrod]

as my lathe prowess and kit develop before I make bungs for my gas tank, I've been planning about how to get around buying or making a full slip roll. I have some steel bars set aside for building a bead roller plus an old steel axle of the same diameter. About a foot of scrap angle iron was cut, trimmed and welded to make both fulcrum and adjustable ends. They were attached to an oak board with screws.

Fulcrum end-






Adjustable end-






after that, the three bars just dropped into place. The top bar needed a little shim. Some rebar works fine-

[cliffrod]

This slip roll bender doesn't roll metal into shape. It's more like a brake or bender. carefully moving the metal and making consistent bends, a nice round piece can be made. using a handy scrap of .063 aluminum that wasn't trimmed, it works pretty good on the first attempt.

[cliffrod]

Making shapes is more fun than doing lots of math & calculations. I'm not much interested in computer stuff, either. Using the wooden patterns I made for the reverse cone megaphones and collectors,, tape, paper, knife and straight edge, it was simple. Paper was taped to the wooden pattern, then tightly wrapped and overlapped before being taped to itself. Paper was trimmed at ends of the taper. A straight edge was taped to the assembly where the paper overlapped and paper pattern was cut.





Process was repeated to make all three paper patterns-



18g crs was marked and cut for blanks-



Doing short pieces of aluminum was very quick and easy. Short pieces of crs, not quite as easy but still no problem.... Long pieces of crs led to lots of flex in the top bar (somewhat expected) and required using both a piece of pipe to extend top bar & gain leverage plus a wooden slapper to help the metal move into the needed curved shape. The long pieces are as consistently round as they could be, but I'm confident they'll be straightforward to tune into shape once they're welded.


all will be gas welded and then put aside for final fitment and welding after the new headpipes & crossover have been made.

For someone needed a quick result without the expense of or access to a real slip roller, this is one option. with three pieces of pipe and some scrap lumber screwed together, a slip roll bender like this could probably be done any welding at all and no real commitment of valuable materials/scrap in your pile.

[cliffrod]

To tune these long cones, I used a steel bar as a mandrel. One end was clamped in vise and other end supported by a simple 2x4 outboard leg. Fast and easy to adjust, install/remove and equally fast and easy to install/remove work. Lots cheaper than something like real Pexto stakes and is a great example of why this slip roller bender (with no commitment of special materials) is a great low $$ option.



All is welded, parts tuned, welds quickly dressed and parts painted with some handy paint simply to ward off rust until more time and materials are available to proceed. Wooden patterns, paper patterns and finished collectors & reverse cone megaphones.

[Steve Murphy]

That looks great Cliff. I like the design of the tool you made too.
cheers
steve

[Chazza]

There is great satisfaction in using something simple and at the same time saving a considerable expense.

A Facechook friend, suggested that I should have used rolls to get the radius on the door skin I am trying to make. It was a method I had considered along with the English Wheel, but the rolls were far too expensive, both in time and money to make or purchase.

Nice work Cliffy another useful tip to file in my brain,

Cheers C

[cliffrod]

There is great satisfaction in using something simple and at the same time saving a considerable expense.

A Facechook friend, suggested that I should have used rolls to get the radius on the door skin I am trying to make. It was a method I had considered along with the English Wheel, but the rolls were far too expensive, both in time and money to make or purchase.

Nice work Cliffy another useful tip to file in my brain,

Cheers C

The nice thing about this slip roll bender for that type of task is how simple it would be to use different size pieces of pipe. using a clamp or locking pliers to hold the top bar while bending the sheet would make it easier to focus upon manipulating the sheet.

It works pretty slick with alloy sheet. For the crs, there was a lot more flogging required.... Still, it's cheap, effective and a great way to use shop junk without using it up.

[cliffrod]

Fabrication for the rearsets began. First step was the sawing-



All I have for reference to make these rearsets are a variety of pics from a variety of angles that are just as varied in how much or little usable information they provide. I would doubt the original bikes used solid bar for the loop, simply because it would have been unnecessary weight. I've looked at some new steel tubing. But since I'm cheap and romantic, I figured I already had a perfect piece of factory-approved tubing to try and use. So the original rear footpeg bracket was carefully trimmed away from the removed loop.



The tube was cleaned, reshaped and shortened. A pair of new peg brackets were cut and shaped before being welded to the new shortened hoop. When the pedal and shifter is made, the brackets will be drilled and a sleeve added between them for strength. Probably will add some support connecting the edges of the two bracket pieces after that is done to keep all as strong and aligned as possible. When it's time to weld everything to the frame, I'll make a pair of steel inserts to replace the dowels holding it together right now for pics.



The remaining original tube and bracket will be put aside and saved, just in case I can recycle it into the project at some point.

[cliffrod]

Related to this project, the V7 Sport was the direct result of the two World Record bikes that provide the inspiration for my Corsa Record project. The LeMans series replaced the V7 Sport. I've had my V7 Sport for 30 yrs, but never really liked the aesthetics of the LeMans bikes. They were more 1970's geometric when compared to the classic rounded detail of the V7 Sport. To me, the seat was the deal killer. Too square, too rectangular. Not cool. Prices have also gone nuts in recent years, so buying one wasn't really an option even if I did have a change of heart.

At the end of April, a 1981 LeMans CX100 (USA market model combining a LeMans II chassis with larger but detuned SP1000 949cc engine) popped up nearby for very reasonable $$. It had the different seat that I really, really like. So I got it and sold another bike to cover the costs. This specific model is the final installment of the original round cylinder/round head engine in a sport bike, so fits well. Supposedly engine was rebuilt/modified and barely ridden before being properly drained and parked over 20 yrs ago, it apparently was and was running great with very little work. It's been repainted so is not 100% original or "special" and needing to be preserved as is. This will hopefully be my new tagged regular rider bike.

A guzzi forum friend asked for a video of it running, so I did one for a new non-stone youtube channel. The video has a short segment about my Corsa Record near the beginning. Now that I have a place to post it. I'll probably try to do some video of the project.

[Steve Murphy]

Nice footage Cliff. I like the mower too!
cheers
steve

[cliffrod]

Yeah, this Guzzi Tractor has become quite a focal point. I bought it cheap for parts, but everyone wants me to get it running. With chrome plated bores that are likely failing & which would destroy the engine if started and run, it would probably cost $1500+ just to safely drive it a few feet without even buying tires, I’ve got a couple of spare frames, so it’s more likely to be used to build a bobber at some point of it ever gets used at all.

[cliffrod]

Plans to rework the tank (at least) are moving forward, at least in terms a better understanding of original method and original shapes. A very generous friend has been in Italy for the 100th anniversary of Moto Guzzi. Among other things, he spent time (again) in the Moto Guzzi factory museum and has provided me with many new pics of the original Record bike. The bike has been moved down to the floor for display and cleaned up. Lots and lots of really great info that could not be discerned from earlier pics when it was less accessible.

The biggest “little details” asset of the pics is the detail of the shaping- all hammer & probably on a stump or iron/steel table and no indication of wheeling. Very very cool. So I’ll give that a try and see how it goes.

And while I was typing, the mailman lady delivered my proper set of Menani clip ons. Menani recently closed their doors so are no longer making parts. These bars are. Missing the correct levers but were claimed to be the last such pair from their remaining stock of NOS Menani parts that they purchased when they bought Menani’s remaining inventory. Slow progress is still progress…

[cliffrod]

Installed the clip-ons.. big whoop but it is another piece of the puzzle. Studying the pics with actual parts in hand, I’m not 100% confident that the original Record bike has Menani clip-ons. They may be pattern but my Corsa Record has Menani clip-ons…. The estimated wooden perches that I had attached to the plain bars in mock up were very close, so I think my headlight vs cables issues should work.






Jim’s fantastic pics (sure is nice to have a fellow obscure-detail-oriented bike person taking pics for you) included better detail of the aluminum cover for the modified steel top triple tree plate. The aluminum one I have now is a discard from a friend who had already started building a similar Record tribute bike. Now I better understand why he wanted to make a new accurate one. So do I. But I’m also trying to mount the tach in a practical way, especially if/when I don’t have a full fairing installed. Now I’m thinking of utilizing the speedometer receiver in the top plate, with an appropriately fabricated aluminum cover plate. This shows a little detail of the modified OEM steel top plate and the aluminum cover.



One of the biggest revelation from Jim’s latest pics related to the tank. I had several profile pics but these provided very little in terms of overhead perspective. Now I have better information. The tank is much narrower than I understood it to be, especially at the rear. So I marked the approx correct width on the rear on my current tank top- it’s a big difference! The rest of the top needs to be similarly narrowed as well. My fat tank top will be replaced with a more appropriate narrowed tank top…. I think the bike will look much better, more sleek and slender like i had envisioned it would look.



the pics also clarified more about the method used to have them. No English wheel or pneumatic planishing hammer. All aluminum was shaped using traditional Italian methods of hammer and iron plate table (or stump). Parts were not smoothed to perfection. All of the hammer marks from the shaping and smoothing process are still present. Very cool. Many parts, including the seat and at least some of the tank & fairing, were painted with a plain paint brush….

I chose this project specifically because the original bikes were spontaneous utilitarian bikes that were quickly finished in primer, not a cosmetically perfect machine requiring similar methods to be somewhat accurate. I can handle primer on a paint brush and anxious to try shaping like they did.