Moto Guzzi Cali Cafe Racer Build thread

I bought this bike as an unfinished project, its a 1989 Guzzi California 1000 with a LeMans Mk4 tank and lower frame rails and an aftermarket single seat unit. The Cali a Harley style cruiser but underneath the frame is the same as a LeMans, all it needed was the lower frame rails from a Lemans which then allows rearseats to be fitted. The Cali also has a pair of nice spoked wheels, with stainless spokes and allow rims. I thought it would make a good basis for a cafe racer.

This is how it looked when I went to see the bike at the sellers place.. I wasnt sure about the colour of the bodywork, but it was far too good to change.

I was assured the bike was running ok before it was taken off the road, and it still had a long MOT despite being partially dismantled, along with lots of history and receipts. Once I got it home I checked everything I could, and apart from a worn timing chain adjuster I didnt find anything to worry about. A previous owner had decided to spray the engine, hubs, gearbox etc black.. I think on a dark night with his eyes closed, cos it looked awful.

The plan was to dismantle the bike, clean up the motor, new fasteners, polish the alloy, strip the black paint off, remove most of the brackets and taps that I wouldnt need and put it all back together with a few nice touches and a new wiring loom. Oh and delink the brakes too.. phew.. how hard can that be?

Before the frame could go off to the powder coater, I needed to sort out a few problems. First the top shock mounts were damaged and needed to be replaced.. easier said then done, as they are welded to the frame. Now, I'm not a very good mechanic, and I dont have a lathe or a Mig/tig welder..but I do have a few mates who do, so off I went with the frame in the back of the car to see my mate Saf who runs a custom shop.. He let me lose with the grinder and before to long the shock mounts were removed along with a few brackets and the rear part of the frame. I did go a bit too far on the frame, leaving a couple of flat spots which will be visable as itll not be having sidepanels. I'll have to come up with a cunning plan to hide that mistake..





Next I had to go see my mate Jeff, to make me a new pair of shock mounts, I gave him this 'technical' drawing lol, and this is what he made..

The motor/box took many many hours of work to get the old paint off (modern paint stripper is rubbish), polish the alloy and replace all the rusted nuts and bolts with stainless. I even polished the stainless fastners, just using my hand drill and some wet and dry, and the few brass pieces, such as the dip stick, took awhile but cost nothing..

After all the long hours of cleaning and dealing with rusty parts, its now getting to the interesting part of the project, when I'm working with new shiny parts and it feels like your finally making progress..

This alloy battery tray sits on top of the gearbox came with the bike, but it didnt fit, so I marked out where it needed to be milled and took it over to my mate Jeff, with yet another 'Can you just.... ' While it was on the miller we made it a bit more 'cafe racer-ish' by drilling lots of holes in it

I had to spend some money now, for a set of Tarrozi rearsets. When I opened the box, there seemed to be a few parts missing, but hey ho, we'll see when I fit them.



I was right, there were some linkage parts missing because the rearsets are made to fit a Lemans, which already has the parts that I needed. After a few phone calls I managed to find the key missing part from a breakers in France. Everything else I needed I could get from a bearing factors or make myself..




I needed to make a link rod for the rear brake, so I risked losing a finger or two and used my mates lathe to make it (I'm left handed so lathes are tricky for me to use)...

Cut a piece of stainless rod..


Machine it down to the correct size and reduce each end to take a thread..


Find the right die to cut the right thread to fit the rose joint at each end..


With the power turned OFF, I used the lathe to cut the thread by hand..


Almost done

I sketched a few different seats to see how they may look, I wanted something slighlty angular to match the tank, with enough space beneath the seat hump to hold a lithium battery and a few of the electrical components. I went for a Rickman copy and ordered it from a place called Ragged Edge, there was a 3 or 4 week lead time, so in the meantime I took the bike around to my local bike shop to have its brake lines made up. I spent a few hours trying to repair the original throttle assembly, but in the end it didnt work out, so I had to spend some more money for a Tommeselli throttle. This meant I couldnt use the original switch gear, but luckily I was given a replacement from a CBR600. I also swapped an old exhaust for a front brake from 2008 R1, because it was felt that the original front master cylinder would be too small, since I'd delinked the brakes, the front m/c now had to work two and not one front caliper.

The billet end caps turned out to be a bit heavy, so we got a bit creative and lightened them..



Next I took the cones and H pipe over to my mate Saf (whose an excellent welder) where he welded an angled piece to the cones which in turn fitted onto the H pipe.. I had no way of getting the bike to his workshop, so I'd taped everything up on the bike and hoped we got the right angle when it was welded up..

No just an old Ironhead Harley 1000

Yes, well spotted, I had two a 120 CI drag bike with NOS and my road bike, which you can see here on the Dyno when I made a new exhaust last year..

http://youtu.be/hLHaPstpghQ

My new frame and tank have been made, it had to have a different engine mount to suite the older Ironhead engine. Here it is, due to be delivered on Saturday..