Ugly Goose - Moto Guzzi 850T cafe

Stunning! She would be a hit at one of the Guzzi rallies. Interested? New Cumberland, WV; Westfield, NY; Zanesville, OH?
 
What a beauty, well done!

Regarding your rear brake, I think the issue is in connecting rod between the pedals short arm and the arm on the "transverse shaft" which transforms the movement from the right side of the bike to the left. Is it possible to shorten the connection rod so all linkages are square? I can't explain exactly why but I think it will help
 
I just got done playing with it. I took it down the driveway and left a 4 foot skidmark.
Maybe a little too touchy now.

I shortened the one lever and then shortened the linkage between the two drums.

I read a how to for front drums, take the linkage off one side and pull until you feel it start to drag. Mark the top. Do it again on the other side and put the linkage on so that the marks are at the top. Then adjust the linkage to fit.

I had to cut 1/2" of threads off both sides as they were all the way in and I couldn't shorten it anymore.

Thanks for the help everyone.

I have the distinguished gentlemens ride tomorrow and that will be the big test.




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My wife is going to ride my monster to carry tools and look for parts that fall off.

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Well, the distinguished gentlemens ride was a blast. Did 75 miles. needed to do 85 miles to get the bike back home.

Started off well enough.

I made it nine houses from home before my shifter linkage fell off (forgot to tighten the lock nuts). I made a quick fix and was off.
At the first stop, the bike wouldn't start. I tried to bump start it and when I flopped down on the seat as I dumped the clutch, the plate hit the rear tire and folded under. I had my neighbor who outweighs me by a good amount hop up and down on the bike before I left checking to make sure that this would NOT happen. Oh well. Ran without plate.

Then the shifter stopped shifting, I couldn't get it to shift into anything except 2nd and 3rd. I don't know what was different, but it now hits no matter what I adjusted. I know how to fix it, I just need my angle grinder.

Anyway, the battery was flat, I never checked to make sure that it was charging when I rode, but I am hoping it is just a bad battery. I drained it when I wired the bike and it wouldn't hold a charge, then all of the sudden it did again.

On the way home (the long way that would allow as few stops and no highways - 3rd gear isn't that tall) the tail light and speedo stopped working and then a few miles later the bike just died.

Fortunately in a good part of town and I found a homeowner that let me park it in their driveway. I pulled the seat cover off the Monster and my wife rode on the back of that home (without any pass footpegs) to get the trailer.
 
BTW:
the rearsets are ridiculously high. Raising them up and having a lowered seat made them pretty dam cramped.

the guzzi motor is ridiculously torquey. Hoping off of that and on to the Monster, it made the 999cc Ducati twin feel gutless. And that was with not having 1st gear most of the time!

The bike got a lot of attention at the ride. other then the shifter and battery, it was great. I know it was a little ambitious to go on a long ride after only a single 6 mile shakedown ride two days prior. BTW: I almost never used the back brake. I never use it on my street bike either, all that effort and I forgot about even having it. The front brakes work decent, the forks and shocks are way to soft - something to look at upgrading over the winter.
 
Hats off you did the ride with the bike!

As for the starting issue: I found my 1000SP hard to start even with halfcharged battery. I run a smaller battery and I think it's hard for it to deliver enough juice to crank the engine when not at good charging level. Another issue could be worn starter especially since it looks like you have the old Bosch starter, there are several replacements on ebay. I bought a "valeo copy" for ~50€ last year and it works perfect. It's also stronger than the original Bosch type if you choose a 1.1 or 1.2kW - Bosch is only 600W.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Anlasser-Starter-fur-Moto-Guzzi-California-Le-Mans-Daytona-Centauro-/122052382374?hash=item1c6ae38ea6:g:UJcAAOSwRgJXkFnv

When I had the 30mm carbs I also found out you should open them slightly when starting hot, otherwise I couldn't make it fire. I even think the manual says something like 1/3 open, try to experiment with this once you got the electrical issues sorted out.
 
Pretty sure it was the fact that I drained the battery dead when doing the wiring. It starts faster then any bike I have ever owned. it seems to fire within 1 revolution of the crank. even after I had it in pieces, it fired right up. Weather it is the battery not recharging or not holding a charge, there isn't any issue with the starter, timing or carbs.

it has a pretty big battery for a motorcycle - 200 CCA and it is the stock battery for Buell, HD and Aprilia. I have one being delivered to the store - Wal Mart for $39. It is a little pain to get the battery in the box under the engine, but once I get it I will throw the multi meter on it to see how the stator is performing.
 
It's probably just the drained battery then. My Bosch was worn out when I bought the bike and the relay only clicked most of the time.

As for your gearbox issue: All Guzzi's seem to have a weak point between 2nd and 3rd gear and you could often find an extra neutral there. It feels like you should "shift a little higher" going from 2nd to 3rd than going from 3rd to 4th and so on. I've learned to keep the pressure upwards on the shift pedal until I feel too "engagement clonks" in the gearbox and then release the clutch. But even after 6000km I still miss from time to time

I've been told it's due to the shimming of the shift mechanism. It could be yours need adjustment or the rear sets have amplified the issue with the more loose connections? It may be worth fitting the original shift pedal and take a ride to see if it's working then?
 
If you find you do need Guzzi tranny work, there's a fellow named Dave Blue who is a Guzzi wizard, esp. trans work, & I believe he's somewhere in or near Ohio. Used to wrench for a Guzzi race team or 2 back in the '70's - '80's. I'll dig up some contact info if you need it.
 
Just read through your thread....very nice end result there!!

Congrats, and I'm sure you'll work the little niggles out.
 
I think my shifter issue is easily solved.
When it rattled apart, I thought I had a fix, but the adjustment was off causing the gold hemi joint to hit the shift arm.

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At the next stop I adjusted again ( and it seemed to work) but once moving, the indexable arm hit the shaft for the rear brake.

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I plan to cut that shaft down and put a hole in it and hold it on with a washer and a cotter pin or R clip.




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Perhaps you should move the shifter linkage above the footrest too? Thats how it is supposed to work and there will be less items to avoid.

If the shifter arm is made shorter you will need less travel with the pedal too. Right now you are going from a short arm to a longer so the shifter pedal need to rotate more than the shifter arm for a given movement of the gear shift arm at the gearbox. I suggest to make the shifter srm same length as the arm on the pedal
 
When I say "shifter arm" I mean the arm attached to the shaft going through the frame from first threaded linkage bar...the one you customized earlier on. Hope its clear
 
I have been sick lately but I did get the new battery in and cut off the shaft that stuck out. I took it for a quick test ride and it shifter fine, but the throws are too long. I will look at flipping the linkage but the big problem is that it is really hard to get the bolts that hold the lower subframe to line up and I will have to take them out to flip the indexable arm on the shifter.

Bike starts right up. I still need to verify that the battery is being charges when running.


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OK,
tested the bike. at the battery when running I am only seeing 12.2V - about the same as I had before starting. doesn't change with RPM.
there is a red and two yellow wires out of the stator, what I the easy way to test if the problem is my wiring harness or if the stator is bad?
 
Unless I'm looking at the wrong diagram (definitely possible), then that's a lot fewer wires than I would expect.

I'm seeing three yellows, a blue, a black, and a brown/black?
 

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Here is the diagram I made when I took it apart. all wires and connectors that were on the bike were on this sheet.

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But looking at it, I am not sure how the electricity is supposed to get back to the battery.
 
There should be a red wire leading from the rectifier directly to the positive terminal of the battery.
 
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