At Last! It's MOT Time.

[George 350]

Hi All,

After far too long of being a Morini Owner rather than a Morini Rider, I have finished the rebuild just in time for it's 34th birthday. Still need to do some little jobs doing, but it is now insured, so hopefully I can get it MOT'd at the weekend.
Here are some pictures.

http://s1120.photobucket.com/albums/l49 ... CF8527.jpg
http://s1120.photobucket.com/albums/l49 ... CF8528.jpg
http://s1120.photobucket.com/albums/l49 ... CF8529.jpg
http://s1120.photobucket.com/albums/l49 ... CF8530.jpg
http://s1120.photobucket.com/albums/l49 ... CF8531.jpg
http://s1120.photobucket.com/albums/l49 ... CF8534.jpg

All being well, I hope to get along to the next North Thames meeting in June.

And with the garage space now available, I can actually make some serious progress with the Strada.

George.

[valentini]

It looks magnifico George

[unreal]

Good looking bike!
Interesting brake set-up , do tell more.
Also what steering damper did you use?

Simon

[corsaro chris]

That's an impressive mileage, George!

Looks really nice as well - Mr Editors favourite type

Good riding,

Chris

[George 350]

Hi Again,
Re the front brake. Around 1995, the original disc was well and truly knackered, and the caliper pistons were heavily worn. They had done around 70,000 miles by then. I was on a tight budget at the time (thanks CSA) and I found that I could get a Kawasaki caliper and disc for about half the price of Grimeca ones. All that was needed was a hub to fix the disc onto, and a small mount for the caliper. The caliper and disc are from a ZX-10, the pads are ER-5.
Being an Engineer by profession, it was quite straightforward for me to design and make the necessary parts.
I reversed the forks, as the caliper is designed for fitting that way, and the end result was/is much better stopping and better lever feel too. The disc is 310mm diameter, the caliper a two piston sliding type (for which you can get pads anywhere), and the best news was that the weight of all the parts (hub, bolts, disc, caliper,mount bracket) were 50g lighter than the original worn out Grimeca ones.
For me this was a real win - win, in that it was cheaper, lighter and gave better braking as well.

The steering damper is a generic "Kawasaki type" (that is what the ads back then used to say!) similar to what used to be fitted to the H1 500 and H2 750 2 strokes. They are still available, one supplier is M&P
http://www.mandp.co.uk/productinfo/5106 ... saki-Style
At the same time as I did the brake, I also made a new kickstart that mimicked the original when fitted with a rearset spacer out of a 30mm thick aluminium sheet, modified the rearsets to have fold up footrests AND brake lever pad so that they would clear the kickstart. Other less obvious changes are a fibreglass seatpan (original foam, covered by RK Leighton), stainless indicator stems, waterproof idiot lights, modern wiring loom with proper waterproof connectors everywhere, 500 alternator with starter ring machined off and Denso voltage control unit. Otherwise it has always been "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" Just so glad that the Morini people aren't rivet counters!

Cheers,
George.

[EVguru]

All being well, I hope to get along to the next North Thames meeting in June.

You might be a bit lonely, we'll be at Cadwell!

[morteach]

Hi George, I've been looking at the kickstart and wondering about it - all is now revealed! You don't accept commissions to make them do you?

[Daddy Dom]

Just so glad that the Morini people aren't rivet counters!

You know, when I've come home from a ride, I sometimes just sit there listening to the engine running and I marvel at the fact that we have these rare and beautiful hand-made machines that utilised the best of everything available* and were assembled in a family-run environment by people who (I believe) had long lunches and passion. I hope Moto Morini's former employees are somehow aware of the great love and respect their engineering talents still command, some 30 and 40 years later. Ahhh.

Inspiring work, George.

Cheers,
Dom


(* - early switchgear excluded)