Early sport

[Mepstein]

Looking through some old post I saw one that said - the earliest Sport in the clubs's records is A1/5015 a 1974 bike. I know the two bikes I just purchased were early. One is a '74 and one is said to be pre '74 /a grey market import. Well, the grey market import is really early - A1/04742. I guess the sellers story was true.

[texaskitty]

Nice purchase! The one with polished fork clamps is likely to be older than the one with black clamps. It could be the original front tyre on the black clamps bike, which I see has been fitted with left side gear change and it looks like a Strada/GT seat. I am guessing that the older bike was not fitted with indicators at the factory as the ones it has don't look like CEVs.

[Mepstein]

Yes, the bike with the polished clamps is the grey market bike. The bike with the engine is a '74 sport, # 5729 and one of the first 100 Morini's to be imported to the states. It did come with its origional sport seat. Both bikes have been in storage for 26 years and have less than 5k miles on them. Unfortunately, neither bike was taken care of very well, the early bike getting the worst treatment. A previous owner took apart the engine for an unknown reason and left it to rust in a damp basement. I hope to get it running again soon.

[chirpy999]

Wow two great finds , keep us informed of progress with plenty of pictures!!

[Mepstein]

honestly, i know very little about motorcycles and had never heard of Morini before seeing these two. The prior owner had no plan for getting them back on the road. They would have probably sat in the storage locker for another 26 years if he hadn't shown me a picture. This site and the people on it have been very helpful and encouraging to me to get these bikes running again.

[Daddy Dom]

I am sure it's just a typo and your fingers just haven't got used to typing "Morini" yet ...

[Mepstein]

Here's a pic of the back of the bike. As you can see, there are no mounts for the turn signals and the black paint on the side panel is slightly different from the later bikes. (Shape, not color).

[Mepstein]

Tanks are identical side panels differ slightly in the way the black paint tapers. The white side panel is a fiberglass reproduction purchased from NLM.

[Mepstein]

Just noticed this on the front of my engine case. I didn't know to look until another member pointed out his early bike also had the frame number stamped on the engine case.

[John90]

Two great bikes. I would be tempted to touch up the paint and leave it at that cosmetics wise, at least on say the early one. Really enjoyed looking at all these pics. A lot of information there. the way the rear mudguard bolts are fitted, threads up, cable ties used, brake light switch, not just the stripes....

[Mepstein]

I hear what you're saying and if it was a well kept bike with patina, I might have left things as they were. But the engine was a corroded mess and missing parts. The tanks and side panels look better in pics than in person. Rust is starting to take hold. And all the cables, wires brakes and bearings needed to be gone through. Wheels will get new stainless steel spokes. I used to run a bicycle shop so I'm actually looking forward to lacing and truing my first set of motorcycle wheels. I've done hundreds of bicycle wheels. So the slippery slope continues.

[texaskitty]

I have never had a tank (or anything else) repainted so I can't speak from experience but if I ever do I will try to take great care to get the black panels exactly where they need to be. I have seen too many pics of repainted Sports with the black panels too big, too narrow or hanging down too deep at one end or both ends.

On my bike, the black panel on each side cover is slightly different. On each side cover, I think two pieces of tape were used to mask off the required black panel on the outside before the red was applied all over, so the resulting black panel's shape and size depended on how the two pieces of tape were applied. There's some exposed undercoat on the inside front end of each of my side covers.

I like the shape of the side cover black panel when it broadens out towards the front edge, like the one of Mepstein's next to the white side cover.

The other bike's two side cover black panels are much larger; it looks like they conform to the shape of the raised centre section. I don't think I have ever seen that before on a drum brake Sport. The 76 Strada/GT (still with drum brake front) had black panels like that and the paint shop might have been a bit confused with the transition to new paint schemes for 1976.

[Mepstein]

Found another pic of the two bikes

[Mepstein]

I got the rims back from Woodys Wheel Works along with new stainless steel spokes. They made the rims look great and smoothed out a couple dings. Now I just need to figure out how to lace it back together.

[texaskitty]

Looks nice. I dismantled my rear wheel a while ago and took plenty of notes before doing so but it probably won't help if I ever attempt reassembly. Both front and rear rims were laced so that the Borrani stampings were on the left side of the bike.