It has been a long time since I have been able to work on this project on the regular, and I think/hope that I am within 6 months of being able to get back to it.
In the time that has elapsed since the project has last been able to be truly active, missing the project has lead me all over the internet in an attempt to live vicariously through others. I have learned a lot through all of that and I have been really impressed the work being done out there. There are some people in this forum doing really brilliant work in their home shops, and then there are always the professional types turning out the bikes that show up on BikeEXIF and the like.
Through all of this, I have refined my eye a bit, I believe. And, while my hand isn't trained up to transfer the ideas collecting in my head onto paper through drawing nor am I proficient in Photoshop or the like, I do know me some PowerPoint, and in an effort to try to explore some of my ideas further, I pushed that software package way past the point of diminishing return to produce the following.
In terms of the fundamental principals governing the ascetics I now hope to achieve, it is my believe that to achieve a visual sense of balance in the design of a cafe racer, the end of the rear seat and any cowl needs to end before the centerline of the rear wheel.
For example, Marcus Walz of Walswerk understands this, and the Guzzi produced by his shop is a shining example of this and most all else holy:
From here: http://www.bikeexif.com/marcus-walz
Conversly, Axel Budde of Kaffeemaschine demonstrates time and again that he does not. Viz:
From here:http://www.bikeexif.com/tag/kaffeemaschine
Further, I don't know how you leave those stock tabs in place at the back end of the frame and still call yourself a pro shop.
Don't believe me that this has significant impact? Well, look what happens if we shorten up the seat on Axel's daughter's future ride:
See how it all comes together now? Balance...ahhhh.
The guys over at Autofabrica, who do hands down amongst the best work I have seen, really drive home the point nicely with this "sex machine":
Ugh. So good. From here:https://www.autofabrica.com/type-9
I do note that at times there is a back-swept look achieved with a pair of riser bars and a longer tail that does work, but if the look is to be clip ons, I do think that rear axel to seat or cowl rule is a golden one.
Anyways, Axel isn't the only person to start a Guzzi project without knowing this, and I am guilty of the same. While I really like the design of my project from most angles (see the prior video of it idling) The straight on side profile of my build has bothered me since taking this picture way back in 2013:
My build and design is breaking this rule and suffering for it.
Here is a true measure, perhaps even optimistic given the vantage point of the camera, of where the critical meridian lies in relation to the design I have constructed:
\
Errr...fail...
With this in mind, I fired up my copy of MS Office, and set about exploring what the project would look like if I corrected this. I certainly could have had a better photo for conducting all of this, but I am 1500 mi away from the project, so I had to work with what I had.
For step one I doubled checked to see if simply adding the headlight on could save the balance, and it it helps, but it doesn't save truly save the day:
Accepting this, I began exploring what shorting the rear subframe, although it is really not a subframe, would look like. There are brackets that attach the the transmission that I had previously shortened, and with these shortened, it leaves a section of pointless hanging frame rail, which has long bothered me. This exercise provided the perfect opportunity to imagine what the bike would look like if I cut all that out. So, I explore that here:
Personally I thought that this actually brought about the effect we previously observed with the KaffeMaschines bike, so I worked with it further.
An exact dimensional check is achieved with the following, and I included a specific eye to the impact on the rear suspension (will result in a ~3-5 CM drop on the rear end using the stock shocks):
All seemed to be going well, so I toyed with paint. Here is a Dale inspire version:
In my humble opinion, not bad and certainly better.
The next matter at hand in my musings was the observation that, well I love many aspects of the current take design, the upswept lines of the tank don't jive with the clip on bar look, and in fact the Monza version of the V50 specifically include a different tank so that it would flow much better with the cafe look. There is also a side panel that just makes the otherwise elegant tank look cheap below a nice paint job. For example:
From here: http://thebikeshed.cc/pistonrings-guzzi/
The crappy masking job I am doing in powerpoint hides this issue, but if one is really going to go the distance on one of these (and since I am six years into this, why not?), I think this needs to be addressed. So, I further played with paint schemes in this version and reimagined the tank:
I found the result pleasing, so I began focusing my explorations on other aspects while continuing to tamper with paint along the way.
Up next was exhaust concepts.
There was the "keep it stock" solution:
And the "keep it a shortened version of stock" solution:
Both a little lack luster in my own opinion.
I really like the look of the mistral-style exhausts (
http://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26_105&products_id=2577) such as those used on the Walz Werk bike, so I sampled one of those:
Hazza. And this really pleases my eye.
So, after two years of dreaming of designs for the project that is painfully far away, this design, I think, is really pretty sweet. And, this is the direction I would like the project to head in when it is time to pick back up. Actually pulling this off will require me to go much further with fabrication matters than I have gone to date, but I am up for at least trying.
At the moment my idea is to finish a version 1.0 of the current setup and begin tinkering with how it rides while I work on fabricating v2.0. The latter intended to capture the above design. Towards these ends, I picked up a second frame for ~$25 on ebay, and it can be the basis of the shortened version. It is a bit tweaked too (hence the price), so I won't feel to bad having at it.
I am also planning to produce the slash-tip exhaust system that exits just behind the rear sets first because I think there is something to it that is not showing up in power point. I also think it will be really fun to build.
Anyways, those are the day dreams I am having while I am sitting half a continent away from the project. Fingers crossed that I can actually get to it. And, fingers crossed that I can find the super lucky future girlfriend that I envision ultimately owning/riding this bike. But, if the past 6 years since I started this have taught me anything, it is that all these designs will take their own course and time.
Lastly, I continue to give a nod to Dale's originals (somewhere here:
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=21821.50) as a source of inspiration.
Oh, and frame color TBD.