1978 Moto Guzzi V50 MkI build

v-pilot

v-pilot

More Fun At The Ton!
Ok, My name is Ken and I am an addict...motorcycles are my addiction. Hoosierdaddy and and others wanted to see what I've done with myV50. I'll start with a bit about it. It was my dad's first bike. He got it after seeing a 1982 Yamaha XZ550RJ Vision I bought in '84 while in college. He helped me rebuild the engine(I flogged her pretty hard and she started to leak) and was bit by the bike bug. So he saw what he thought was a cool little Guzzi and bought it after quite a bit of thought. He rode a bit until the engine got hungry and decided it would consume its left side cylinder. He started in on it and gave up after seeing the damage. He decided life was too short to spend any more time on it and went out and bought a '87 Le Mans SE...one of 100 available here in the US. So the little 50 sat in the garage for 15 years under cover. I dug her out 3 years ago but couldn't get started right away. Pics of when I got her.
 

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Thanks. Really? What a basket case! A Desmo is why she got put on the back burner
 
I've called her Karina...Dear Little One, in Italian. She's got a late '77 head tag but not registered till '78. The motorcycling media waxed eloquently over the V50 when it was first introduced but I just didn't see what they saw. I wanted my dad to see her returned to her former glory before he passed...It did happen and he's still here. Just wish he could have taken her for a spin but his health prevents it. He's still my hero. Anyway, I digress, sorry to all that find the V50 appealing in the factory trim...it just wasn't going to work for me so I decided to take some liberties on the rebuild. BTW I have the big Le Mans too...ride the wheels off it! I love the lines, so I took my cues from that one. But I also fell in love with the V11 Scura when I saw it so Matte black/red was how I'd finish it...the rest is a lot of work, sweat, and frequent unplanned blood donations. Some of the tear down.
 

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Oh yeah, before I forget, I need to thank Hoosier daddy for assisting a noob...that's me and Dale for his blessing on posting another V50 build here ;D
 
v-pilot said:
Oh yeah, before I forget, I need to thank Hoosier daddy for assisting a noob...that's me and Dale for his blessing on posting another V50 build here ;D
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You've done well GrassHopper!
Started the thread in the right place, included pics, and Linked to it in your sig... BAM, you got it! Any other questions just let me know.
Now seeing that awesome bike is worth it. What a great project, let alone the fact it was passed down to you from your Dad. Too stinkin cool!
 
Hi, As you can see the poor thing was a mess. Apparently for dad, life was also too short to spend any time cleaning her. At least it was pretty well preserved under a thick coating of gunk. That's all the tear down pics I have as wrenches were turning and parts were flying off and I was covered in that gunk. Before I knew it I had a bike in a pile and not much recollection of how it was supposed to go back together. Well, enough of the boring...time for the good stuff. Some pics of the rotors and wheels. Each wheel took me a month of Sundays cleaning, stripping, hand filing and polishing, and painting. The rotors I ended up drilling like those on the later models. I used a Monza rotor as a template but not shown in the pic
 

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I guess one of the rotors with the drilled holes did show up. Thanks for the compliment Dale. Makes me feel a bit better now after reading your intro...you have all the stuff!! Was feeling more than a bit sheepish about posting my amateur rebuild after seeing what you have going
 
I guess one of the rotors with the drilled holes did show up. Thanks for the compliment Dale. Makes me feel a bit better now after reading your intro...you have all the stuff!! Was feeling more than a bit sheepish about posting my amateur rebuild after seeing what you have going
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Hi Ken,

I have been lurking for a while and registered this morning.

Your own work is intimidating - I've just collected a V50 that looks in slightly worse condition to your "before" pictures on the trailer - wrong handlebars, missing original airbox (aftermarket foam jobs substituted by a previous owner), missing sidecovers and missing front left brake caliper.

I have a loooong way to go but your thread and Dale's thread will help me to maintain focus.

Keep posting,

Papa Smurf
 
OK, so the engine decided to devoured half of its self. I got lucky and found one on ebay. It was within a couple hundred miles of the one on my bike and looked decent. So I bought it...from a '81 MkIII, so it had the points setup. I had a bunch of ignition boxes and rather than figure out which ones were good and which weren't I decided the later unit was better. I installed a Dyna S in place of the points. If you have the Bosch boxes you're out of luck. It also had the trans with it. Here is another 3 months of Sundays. Tearing down degreasing, acid washing, filing, polishing, painting, and reassembly...this is recurring theme here...what fun!
 

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You've got a cool look going there, looking forward to seeing how it all came out! :-#)
 
Beautiful!

I've been meaning to ask... Is that your XJ-S in your avatar? I had an '86 XJ-6 way back ago. LOVED that car. Deep blue with a Camel interior just like this one...

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Hi Hoosier, Yep that's me and my Jag at a buddies wedding (poor bastard!) It's a 1988 JXS V12 British Racing Green, wires, go fast stripes, full burled walnut interior, Connolly leather, cat eliminators, custom intakes, shift kit and more. Around 43k on the clock one of 2,500 coupes imported in '88...last year before Ford took over
 
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