Winter work

Here's the Guzzi in it's current state.

After much scanning of UK ebay I've picked up 2 18" Astralites in the 2.5 width I need to run the front 110 Avon AM22's race tyres. (why settle for 1 when you can buy 2???).

I'll be fabricating (actually I won't because I'm a useless fabricator, I'll be standing over someone's shoulder), a new underslung rear brake. Partly because it looks cool and also because I want to ditch the heavy stock set up. The tab on the swing-arm that attaches the caliper holder gets in the way when I change tires which means I have to remove the rear bevel drive box to remove the wheel: a huge pain.. The new caliper will attach to a plate/spacer and have a brake stay arm attaching to the swing-arm. I can then shave the tab and save precious ounces. See the set up I'm badly describing here.

The caliper you see is from a late model Ducati and the rotor is a Guzzi item. It will get skimmed, drilled and turned to cut down the weight.

Other changes planned are: mount the Magni fairing, install charging system, mount lights, make new foot-pegs, put on the 40mm front end I just picked up and lots of other little stuff. More pictures to follow......

Current events

Homer's Harley

Here's my friend Homer and his bike. I just picked up the bike for him from Long Beach docks after he attended the Catalina GP. More details and story up-coming in Sideburn.

Tasty

Seen over at Sideburn.

I'll take one in red please

Summer racing in pictures

Long overdue I know........ Guzzi footage here.

Just south of Weed, California after sleeping in the truck. Rough night.

Steve Arnett and his Imola rep.

Tim Fowler and his house in Seattle. A national treasure.

Seattle.

Vancouver BC.

Paul Brodie and his hand made bikes. Website here.

Guzzi nerdana. Moto International in Seattle.

Bret and Glass from the Past. Website here for vintage fairings etc.

Portland 160 racing. Footage here

Ben's Guzzi on ice/English summers

Luckily a girl passing by was able to help lift the bike up.

Check your tires

This is what happens with 7 year old tires. Check the date code when you buy race tires. They might have been sitting around for a while.

On board footage

Don't get all excited thinking you'll see the next Reed/Hailwood battle. It's a couple of geezers farting around learning the track. Shot in August on my Pacific Northwest racing/road-trip. Full report soon.

Click here to have a laugh

MK 1 shininess

My friend Chris has finally received his bodywork and frame back. His MK 1 is shown earlier in the blog. This is going to turn out nice!!

DTF's

Finally got around to fitting my DTF head guards. I'm all set for Seattle Vintage Days now and will post again soon.

July update

I raced in Portland in July at the Vintage Days put on by the local organization OMRRA. Much to my shame I didn't take pictures as I had a new on board camera to try but unfortunately I was having technical difficulties with it.

Quick report. The Guzzi ran great. I installed a new gear set 8/35 as the 7/33 I used at the previous race was too short for Portland's long front straight. I was topping out at 8,000 rpm well before the end of the straight. The 8/35 made a huge difference. I have a wonderful gearing chart from Guzzitech.dk. Click here for the link. Scroll down to table of contents and the gearing Excel spreadsheet application will be there. Using the chart I was able to calculate that with the 7/33 and tyre combo I was doing 135mph at 8,000rpm. Using the 8/35 I would be at 142mph. In the race I was hitting about 7700rpm at the end of the straight. Not necessarily any faster but it meant I wasn't flogging the engine unnecessarily. My shift points remained the same so acceleration didn't suffer. Thank you Charley Cole of Zydeco Racing for the 2 week turnaround time on the gear set.

I have finally found a jetting combo that works too. In the past I was way too lean and I think this may have been the cause of my failed rod bearings due to pre-ignition....

Without my usual long-windedness here's my jetting at the moment: 41mm Dellortos. 165 mains, 265 needle jet, 2nd clip position. K4 needle. VP110 red race gas. 30 degrees of timing.

I think there's some tweaking to be done with timing, plugs etc but I'm definitely in the ball park. The Guzzi is pretty quick (for an old tractor).

Had 3 races. Got a second and 2 thirds. Battled with a Honda 750 the whole weekend. He beat me twice (:

Steve Arnett's Duc was still broken but we will be racing this coming weekend in Seattle, his home track. I've been prepping the bike to make it somewhat eligible for the Seattle Vintage Days. Technically they have a 750cc, 1972 cut off year but the Guzzi kind of looks the part. Nobody really cares and are just happy to have bikes on the grid. I did have to take off the lovely Astralites and source some Borrani wheels to make the bike more 'period correct'.

Seattle 'tweaks': Borrani wheels with new Avon Vintage race rubber for skinny rims, jetting, fork brace to handle the crazy downhill full braking hairpin. See a vintage bike go around Pacific Raceways here .

Hopefully I'll have some footage up too in a couple of weeks.

Below is the bike almost ready for Seattle.

Bling bling

Dave Shaw of Finebau Forge Custom Products sent me some great headguards for the racebike. While designed for the newer line of Guzzis they fit my Sport 1100 engine just fine. The beauty of the guards is that they attach under the valve cover and are fixed by all the valve cover bolts. In the event of a crash they will protect the spark plugs and head fins without breaking off.

I hope I never have to write a review of their performance but you can see some crash test shots in this small product promo video that prove they do the job they are designed for.

Portland pictures

This is not what it looks like. It was actually a short cut.

My friends Mike and Rob flew up to see the races (that's their story, I'm convinced the famous Portland beer had more to do with it) and actually had steady hands for a few minutes and took some very nice shots (in more ways than one). Click on the following link: here to see the art shots.