MRC Forum- brought to you by www.morini-riders-club.com

The rebuild is coming along now. The engine is back together and nearly all the component parts are cleaned,fettled or repaired too.
The rear wheel is with a local mate (a competent wheelbuider) to swap a defective hub over and the frame is about to go on the Steve Brown racing alignment jig. This will involve a lot of oxy/acetylene being burned and me sat on my sit upon heaving on a long bar. Guaranteed accurate.

Well the frame job was a success, a couple of minor cracks became apparent after the straightening, so they were welded up too. so tomorrow I'll get some paint on it! Getting excited now, it's already insured and taxed so not long before the roads feel the thunder of 125 Italian cc's.

Who are B&B in Italy Steve? Googling it, just comes up with a myriad of holiday options.....

Well Simon, there is never a bad time for a holiday! I think it's BEB rather than B&B-I'll go and check-I need a few more odds and ends again. Getting closer every day now. I look forward to riding it to a section meeting-but that might only happen if Tom Farrow moves the meets to daylight hours for the winter-I'm not fancying these lights for 35 miles of Fosseway in the dark!

Hello Simon.

That would be B&B Meccanica.

Here is a link to their website...

https://www.bebmeccanica.it/index.php/ricambi-moto

Also on Ebay motors U.K...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/bebricambi?_ ... 3561.l2563

I have purchased from them quite a few times and (apart from a faulty speedo) they are generally pretty good.

Best regards,
Jenny.

Thanks Jenny-and I'll get that crankcase back to you at some point soon. Will you be going to Stafford show? I could take it with me maybe?

And another thing-who ever used 9 x 1mm fasteners on their bikes? Well Morini did and I never knew that size was a 'thing', till yesterday. It's what they used to secure the footrests and centre stand pivot, 4 of them! Why wouldn't an 8mm or 10mm do?
Amazingly my ancient cheapo Draper tap and die set has a 9mm die but no tap and it's 1.25 pitch. Where they both having a laugh?

New balls please! I have 1/4" and 3/16" ball bearings in stock here but theses are 7/32"! Another odd ball size and another thing-the screw securing the damper tube inside the fork slider needs a lower head than standard or the wheel spindle won't go through..and then the fork seals-I measure them at 30x39x12mm. that's not a standard size either

Is now on the road having successfully competed its first road test of about 2 whole miles. I was initially underwhelmed with the performance but consoled myself with the fact that this is only the first model with lower output than came later plus the fact the ignition is still a bit retarded and I can afford to advance it a little more. Then came the realisation that compared to a Bantam of the same era this wasn't half bad-and the brakes work too!
So I'll plot a few miles of shakedown rides and final tweaks then get some proper miles on the clock again.
As an aside, the rear dampers had no damping when I stripped them, and the forks were in a horrible rusty state inside. As I wanted to replace as little as possible I stripped the rear dampers (they come apart quite easily) cleaned and refilled them with 10w fork oil. The forks were given a rudimentary cleaning and I refilled them with 20w fork oil. The resulting ride showed that 10w would be plenty for the front forks and the rear dampers are nigh on perfect. I fully expect my bubble to be burst though when the fork seals give up-correct size O/D seals are unobtainable, only +or- half a millmetre. So I ahem, 'modified' some to suit. There is no circlip or any securing device for the seals so they may well pop out at some point!
The bike doesn't look a whole lot better than when I started, it is by no means a restoration. My plan is to use it as it is. In the end my plan for a quick oily rag and oil change went right out of the window-absolutely everything needed stripping/cleaning/repairing. I even had to part with some cash to fix it all up! I now have a bike I can hopefully use as well as a bike that would be an easy and quick restoration if I ever wanted to do that.
Next, the flat track Morini goes back on the bench..
At this point I'd like to thank my sponsors-much gratitude goes to Tom Ros in the Netherlands and Jenny Westwood in the UK for help and parts.

Congratulations.
Now. You show us your Corsaro and I’ll show you my Bantam...

Excellent. I look forward to seeing it at C&M next month!!

Ming wrote: ↑28 Oct 2022 05:26 Congratulations.
Now. You show us your Corsaro and I’ll show you my Bantam...

I still haven't worked out how to add pics on here, pathetic really. I would show you though! Have you really got a Bantam out in France?

been reading your posts on the Corsarino - fascinating and witty. it would make a great article for ATG (with photos of course!)

Steve Brown wrote: ↑28 Oct 2022 18:20 ...Have you really got a Bantam out in France?

I have indeed. 'Found ' some years back towards the east of France. I think it had spent most of its life in the local vinyards, judging from the baked on oil and sand mix which covered the engine. A broken Reynolds chain put it out of service, when no replacement would have been available locally.
I have only reassembled it, cleaned and sorted a few things. Paintwork is wonderful (apart from various dings), I only changed the original tyres yesterday...
Here it is near a local Chateau.