My usual fair is 600CC upwards Japanese 4 cylinder stuff but every now and again something happens along that I just can’t resist. Such a bike popped it’s funny little head up the other week. I have no idea what it is and several suggestions have been made but I am still non the wiser. It has a 50CC Italian made Franco Morini 2 stroke in it but I have no idea if the bike is Malagutti, LEM or what it is. All I am pretty sure of is that it is of Italian origin. It’s a great looking little thing, the engine has loads of compression and it has the biggest, fattest spark I have ever seen but it won’t start. I thought the crank seals may be knackered so I changed them but still nothing, it has a new carb on it but the naughty little minx doesn’t want to know.
Information is fairly scarce but I have found some sources of info in the USA where these things seem to have a pretty significant following.
What I think I have discovered is that two different ignition systems were fitted – Bosch and Dansi. While I can’t see any manufacturer’s marks on mine – only an LEM logo – I am pretty sure mine is the Bosch system. It looks like somebody in the past has fitted a pair of Dansi points and so the ignition timing is a mile out. I have a new set of points coming which will hopefully give me my answer. I hope it does as I have spent far too much on this thing already!
I will come back to this next time when I know more.
Next one in to the shop of despair and hopelessness will be the Honda CBR1000F with the noisy cam chain. It also has a carburation issue that I may sort out first. It’s a lovely looking bike and they are still very popular so I think it’s worth putting the time in to it.
In the mean time the CBR1100XX Super blackbird is all done and ready to go for MoT. It’s a bit challenged in the beauty stakes and it is quite high mileage but it runs like a dream. I have two sets of pipes for it – some straight through Delkevics and the original ones that Mr Honda felt suited the bike. I quite like bikes to let people know they are coming but the Delkevics are what your average Vicar might call “fucking ridiculous”. They are so loud they make my ears hurt and last time I started it I didn’t see the cat for a week. If I took it to an MoT like that I would fully expect Julian to smash my stupid little face in. I’ll throw them in with the bike along with a carefully worded health warning.
For the first time in a long time I have some space so I will get some more bikes and projects in as they happen along. There are a couple of interesting things in the offing at the moment but I don’t want to say too much at the moment and tempt fate but I think they will be very interesting and somewhat different to anything I have written about thus far.
I still have my FZR600R in cocktail colours to get to, getting the correct paint for it is proving to be a bit of a challenge. Scottie tells me he has what may be a better tank for it so that would be a big help. The white parts are a really fine metallic that may be difficult to match in so I may have to do a fair bit more spraying than I would normally like. First I will put nuts on the two shock absorber bolts, I didn’t realise they were not on there when I took it for a test drive – lessons have been learned, as our politicians like to say.
I think that one is going to be a keeper, I am certainly not tired of looking at it yet. If I do end up keeping it I suppose I should sell the Aprilia but I am not tired of looking at that one yet either. I’ll tell you what, this whole breaking lark is a lot tougher than it appears to the casual onlooker. Beats the bejesus out of having a proper job though.
Before I embark on any more restoration or building work I need to finish stripping the hideous TDM850 that I bought last week. I got it running but lots of the parts on it are beyond help so it was never going to be a candidate for returning to use. I will finish that in the next day or so and then list the parts for sale, there is plenty on it to make the effort worthwhile.
Article provided by David Powell of Boston Bike Bits.
