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I'm glad to see this thread...So a little about me (in the spirit of OP's post). Been through motocross and street bikes in the 80s, old Porsches (914s and 912s) and VWs (Ghias) in the 90'sand early 2000s, and took a break with little kid raising until 2008 when I got divorced, got good solid cusstody of my kids and got back into motorcycles. I'm 45. I've got older brothers who lived through the 70's motocross era and my dad used to race a Formula Vee with another guy and he owned a Taylorcraft, the other guy had an old Cessna 172. I flew an airplane before I drove a car. Messing with this stuff is in my blood. Im no where near as naturally awesome as my dad or a bunch of guys on this board but i try. My old man just sold the '69 steel tanker Penton that EVERYONE in my family learned to ride on. He had all the unobtanium parts stored away and got a good price for the bike. My oldest bro had turned it into an unrecognizable MX bike with all plastic, no lights etc many years ago. Through all this, in every single one of these groups of owners, there are the busybody guys who get their panties in a twist if you "destroy the purity of a classic" ....one you own,maintain, pay the insurance on, ride and they the stare at and blow hot air about btw. The P car guys are the worst of the lot. I know a brilliant Porsche 356 mechanic who quit and moved on in the 90s to drag racers becasue his P car client base became unbearable for him to deal with and this was in the era of 100k speedsters just coming to pass. He was making very good money. I understand being the steward of a truly rare and classic machine and a certain responsibility comes with that. An 850 LM in good shape, hell yeah, save that sucker. There are a few other moderns Guzzis I feel fall into this category but I won't list them here because it's just opinion and no more important than the next guy. The reason I'm posting this is after 8 years on my LM III, doing my own maintenence, returning it to stock in places and improving others, I just blew the engine up. Lost a rear main seal on the freeway and by the time I figured out what happened, the lump was a doorstop from top end to bottom end. Turned out the oil pressure sender was dead. Anyway.....I'm putting a massaged 1000cc rebuild into the bike (with help from a local Guzzi Guru) and I'm putting all the stock plastic and fused lump into storage, moving the guages into a low profile plate and reconfiguring everything, fairing, lights, fenders etc etc.Not cutting the frame but a new front end with modern forks in in the long term plan. I've gotten a fair amount of hassles from a few vocal folks (not here btw) about how I'm ruining a classic bike and one went so far as to say I shouldn't own such a machine if I'm not willing to keep it stock. To them I say.....Suck it. It's true, a bone stock LM III might be moderately valuable in at some time and a time capsule machine is somthing I appreciate as much as the next guy but right now, you can get one well under 10k so if you want to be the vanguard of the marque, go buy one and knock yourself out buddy. 10k isn't chump change but still, we aren't talking classic Ferraris here. The P car guys have even gotten fed up with the BS. There is a sizable "outlaw" movement for old 911s and 356s now. Those cars get wrenched on and driven hard as they were intended to be in the first place. More power to them. Let some other guy trailer his ride to the show and let some stick up the ass judge with a white glove on assess for "correct" badging and woven cover spark plug wires. Sorry for the rant and no offense if you're a collector of stock machinery. That is a beautiful thing and someone has to be the one to keep a few pristine examples around and I sincerely thank you becasue that's a big commitment. I just get so tired of the opinions from the busybodies and sideliners who who take it upon themselves to explain my motorcycle to me. I love this thread. Thanks for starting it, NCAmother
I love the idea of using your old leather jacket as a seat cover. That's really great touch. I just recently restored a G5 and my personal challenge was to bring back to factory as close as I could. I'm glad I did because it turned out to my liking and now that it's done, I'm glad I did. Would I do it again?... probably not. Trying to do a nuts and bolts restoration on an old bike as a first major restoration is only for the insane. Factory parts are really hard to come by, etc. etc. The pro's to doing that is that I really learned a lot of details and subtle nuances between years on the same model. Is that going to do me any good?... Probably not, just like the weird equations and other non-sense classes I took in school growing up. My next restoration will have some flex. My idea of a custom bike would be something that at least looks 70-ish percent like the original bike, as in, if someone looks at it can say, yep that's a such-and-such, but it's done up nicely. I personally glance over the customs that are difficult to identify, cause at that point a Guzzi caf� might as well be a Honda or Kawasaki cafe' (nothing wrong with this, just saying for the example).Again, that's just how I see it. Customizing is great, and I love a tubbed out Pinto for example - as long as it still looks mostly like a pinto - Make sense?That said, you shouldn't worry about what people say about other people's bikes. That's not cool when people do that. If anything, let that be fuel and motivation to make yours special and really kickin'Good luck, and looking forward in seeing the progress of your project(s)
Everything about it is custom. SB Lario on steroids with different suspension and brakes. She moves and she handles sweet.
....find a pic of my brothers tubbed 401i gremlin...
That's crazy that you you/brother have nearly the same car of the random tubbed car I used for the example (Pinto/Gremlin). What are the odds!
What a beast! Love it! What do you have to change to make it street legal? Too bad you can't keep it that way, looks like a lot of thought and great craftsmanship has been put into it.