1965 Benelli / Motobi 200 Sprite

[Canuck750]

Some parcels showed up this week, being at home for a week after surgery is starting to get old. I packed up my parcels and drove to my shop to have a present opening!

I got a very nice 22 mm Dellorto carb ( the 24 will go on my Aermacchi 250)



A new chain, a rear brake light switch, a NOS speedo and some rubber grommets for the ignition wiring passing through the crank case





I also received a whole bunch of NOS parts for a 1968 Aermacchi 250 short stroke motor I am rebuilding, con rod and pin kit, oversized piston and rings, valve guides, gaskets and so on. The parts availability for the 60’s Aermacchi Harley Davidson’s is pretty good! 

By the time I dropped the Aermacchi parts off to the machine shop for a crank rebuild, cylinder hone and guides I was pretty much worn out.

[kballowe]

It's amazing to me that any of these parts are still available !

I'm guessing that you need to be a good detective.

[Canuck750]

It's amazing to me that any of these parts are still available !

I'm guessing that you need to be a good detective.

I like the searching for parts and researching the history of these old bikes

Installed the speedo today.



Fitted a new chain

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Santo Di Motociclio sent me this real nice NOS wire grommet, it’s real deep to fit through the case casting

[url=https://postimg.cc/FYnTyRVq]

I welded up a bracket to hold the rear brake light switch



Works like a charm



Moved some wires around to get the chime lever to be clear of the high tension led

[kballowe]

Great pictures. 

Thanks


 

[Canuck750]

The day finally arrived to try and fire up the Benelli Sprite 200, installed a new spark plug, set the points and timing, I filled the crankcase with 2 litres of Castrol 20/40, attached the fuel bottle to the carb. After a couple kicks it started and briefly ran. After that it would not catch, it was close but it was kicking back a bit and only trying to start on full throttle. Spark is bright, kicking it without a battery as it does have magneto ignition. I have the air screw set to the recommended 1 full turn out from bottom. Turning the screw out richens the mixture.



I checked the timing again and its still spot on so I cant figure out why the kicking back feel. It seems to be flooding, perhaps I don't have the carb set up right. None the less it did start so that is positive, I will give it another go tomorrow.

Any ideas?

[kballowe]

Nice.  Very nice.

Can we get more more pictures ???

[cliffrod]

Glad to hear it did start.  As far as starting manners…. My singles have generally been good to start at approx the correct settings.  But some benefitted from minor tweaks.  If it’s kicking back hard, the timing could be slightly advanced.  Before you change timing, some minor kickback is probably normal.  Even if the process is generally similar, It seems like each single has its own individual starting procedure and will not tolerate anything else.

But you may have a carb or condition (like only starting on full throttle, then stalling) that’s rich , which promptly fouled the plug so that now it will not spark hot enough or at all to function.  Even if they were the same heat range, gap, etc, Some plug brands always seem to work more reliably in my old single bikes than others. I’ve got a coffee can with several brands, including some pink Lodge plugs that always seem to save the day.   If you haven’t swapped a plug (new plug, burned dry with torch or bead blasted) yet, I would give that a try first before I started changing anything else.

[Canuck750]

Glad to hear it did start.  As far as starting manners…. My singles have generally been good to start at approx the correct settings.  But some benefitted from minor tweaks.  If it’s kicking back hard, the timing could be slightly advanced.  Before you change timing, some minor kickback is probably normal.  Even if the process is generally similar, It seems like each single has its own individual starting procedure and will not tolerate anything else.

But you may have a carb or condition (like only starting on full throttle, then stalling) that’s rich , which promptly fouled the plug so that now it will not spark hot enough or at all to function.  Even if they were the same heat range, gap, etc, Some plug brands always seem to work more reliably in my old single bikes than others. I’ve got a coffee can with several brands, including some pink Lodge plugs that always seem to save the day.   If you haven’t swapped a plug (new plug, burned dry with torch or bead blasted) yet, I would give that a try first before I started changing anything else.

Good points Clint. I have a pink Magneti Matelli plug in but will try some others tomorrow, I have some NOS Champions to try and the typical NGK as well.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

I steer clear of Champions since they seem to damage the threads in alloy heads too easily. I've had issues with NGKs - my V50 III would barely start and would only run on one cylinder with new, properly gapped BP7ES. Installed a pair of Denso W22EP-U and it started right up and ran perfectly. Runs even better with Denso IW22 (Iridium).

This poor little Benelli is for sale near me. If I didn't already have five projects waiting. I'd think about buying it.

[Canuck750]

I steer clear of Champions since they seem to damage the threads in alloy heads too easily. I've had issues with NGKs - my V50 III would barely start and would only run on one cylinder with new, properly gapped BP7ES. Installed a pair of Denso W22EP-U and it started right up and ran perfectly. Runs even better with Denso IW22 (Iridium).

This poor little Benelli is for sale near me. If I didn't already have five projects waiting. I'd think about buying it.

That Benelli would make a decent parts bike, it would cost me far too much to ship it.

[Canuck750]

I got some of the Benelli / Motobi parts back from my painter, enough to get started on the reassembly. Hopefully the tank, fenders and side covers get finished next week



I tore this ‘second’ 200cc motor down and checked all the bearings once again following the crank case bearing failure I had on the other motor, reshimmed it all and put it back together. I now have two complete rebuilt 200cc egg motors for this bike

I made up new swing arm bronze thrust bushings , tapped all the bolt holes in the chassis parts and started reassembling. I went a little crazy wrapping the fresh paint with clean white rags.



I will get the rear wheel on, also waiting for the headlight ears to get painted before I can put the forks together.

[Dave Swanson]

This bike will be amazing. 

[Canuck750]

I got the rear wheel, header and muffler on today





The front forks went together, I made new felt fork tube seals from leftover felt seals I had from my Airone restoration. Polished up the aluminum shrouds chucked over a steel tube and chucked in the lathe. Progress finer grits of sandpaper and polishing compound to get all the scratches out.

[cliffrod]

It’s looking fantastic, Jim.  They’re going to make a very impressive pair of motorcycles.

[SIR REAL ED]

Very cool to see these bikes where almost every component is eye candy.

the good ole days....

[Canuck750]

A bit more progress, I picked up all the parts from the painter on Tuesday except for the gas tank.



All is good except the side covers will need redoing, for some reason the painter applied the side cover decals off level (he had pictures of the museum bike in Pessaro)



 this ignores me to no end!!!!



Paint is pretty good, I wish I had insisted on the pin stripes being hand painted, they were going to be masked and sprayed but they ended up being tape stripes with clear over, not the end of the world but I am picky. I can live with it, 99% of the world would think nothing of it, it will probably bother me to no end.

[Canuck750]

Just waiting on the gas tank now, will attempt to fire it up this weekend

[Canuck750]

I fired up the Egg today after stripping down the engine to replace a big double row ball bearing that jambed up last time I started the bike. It fired up on the first kick! Hurrah. Settled into a nice ideal, ran it for ten minutes then drained and replaced the break in oil.

I am waiting on the final paint and decals, won’t get the parts back until when I return from a vacation mid August.

Still working on figuring out the head light and tail light switch, Benelli indicated two types of lighting coil electrical, a single and double wire lighting coil and two types of headlight switch, a simple on/off type and a more complex headlight and taillight position and a taillight only position. The horn and battery are always live when the battery is connected and the Stator ignition coil deals with the spark. While the engine is running power is fed from the lighting coil to a rectifier and a separate regulator inside the headlight shell. So in effect there are three distinct circuits to the electrical system. Just to make it interesting my project bike came with the two wire lighting coil and the off/on switch, a miss match I believe, but I think I figured out the system today, just need to swap some wires around and try it again.

Fortunately I have the electrical diagram for both Stator options





The challenges of old Italian motorcycles keep coming.
 

[Canuck750]

I have been away for the past two months but its back to the work bench to finish the Motobi in time for the Rocky Mountain Giro in Naksup B.C. this coming September 8 - 9 - 10.

My painter has finally finished with the gas tank and side panels and I have got the bike to start on one or two kicks and idle nicely.



The oil pump is still leaking from the underside despite drilling and tapping the engine cases for M5 inserts and installing stainless steel M5 studs, all with locktite. I need to seal the four bolts that secure the two halves of the pump body together, I am amazed how much oil can run through the M4 machine screws.









I made up some upper triple clamp to fork ear spacers, the rubber bits keep stretching and deforming so I turned up an polished stepped aluminum pieces.









The steering damper got sorted by using an Aermacchi Sprint damper rod and hand wheel, stock is a plastic hand wheel but I like the aluminum look.



I rewired the headlight bucket spaghetti junction, tore out the old selenium rectifier and coil regulator and rewired the light on - off switch.
Honda 6V reg/units would not work but a friend of mine who used to teach University electrical engineering circuit design found me a silicone rectifier that takes two alternator wires and delivers 6V DC, hurrah!! For the regulator he gave me a bundle of three resistors to run in line with the power to the battery, its great to have a guy look at this who knows what he is doing.

I bench shifted the running bike through the gears so I have my fingers crossed its going to be a smooth runner.

One fork leg is leaking out the bottom, I need to strip it and see what is up with the O ring base seal.

[cliffrod]

Great to see new pics and hear good news about your bike, Jim.  It looks really great.  Good luck with these last gremlins.

[Canuck750]

Thanks Clint!

I have been working through snags for a couple days, solved an oil pump leak, reworked the fork base seals, rewired for a silicone rectifier, solved an intake manifold leak, lots more small stuff, ready to get it on the road.

[kballowe]

Wow.  That turned out extra nice!!!

We're gonna need video.   LOL

 

[Canuck750]

Wow.  That turned out extra nice!!!

We're gonna need video.   LOL

 

Thanks!
I will be getting my registration this week, running video to follow.

[Canuck750]

An update on my Motobi Sprite 200, I posted some pictures on the Benelli / Motobi site and Mac Dennis contacted me to tell me the tail light and license plate frame were incorrect plus a metal shield that covers the open end of the carburetor was missing. Now Mac is a great guy, he has helped me out a lot on this build, and to just top it all off, Mac gave me a NOS tail light, license bracket and the near impossible to find carb intake shield!!
I am so grateful to Mac, there are some really excellent folks out there, thanks Mac for your generosity.

The NOS tail light and bracket, never been on a bike before





And this sheet metal cup shaped shield that bolts to a nut welded on the underside of the gas tank, almost never seen on these bikes, I think only a couple in the Benelli museum had this piece on their bikes





I entered this Motobi in this past Septembers Rocky Mountain Giro in Nakusp BC Canada, on the Friday night before the weekend rides I took the bike up the 10 km mountain run and at the top I found the intake manifold split so I was out of action on the Sprite, very disappointing but I had brought my 1972 Benelli Enduro as a back up. On the Saturday it ran flat out for 300 km on a big loop through the spectacular Kootneys mountains of British Columbia and on the Sunday it got in two hill climb timed trials, the Enduro is unbreakable. Next year the Motobi will be back in the Giro for another try.

[kballowe]

This thread just gets better all the time !

Thanks for sharing !!!

 

[cliffrod]

It really does get better.  Love the new pieces. 

Glad to hear you’re riding them and doing well, too.  As much as I like seeing your bikes, I like that even more.

[Canuck750]

It really does get better.  Love the new pieces. 

Glad to hear you’re riding them and doing well, too.  As much as I like seeing your bikes, I like that even more.

Thanks Clint! I was down for the count for 5 weeks with my inner ear infection / loss of balance but I think I am mostly over it. Back to projects, my Aermacchi 250 is going to get worked on this winter.

[Turin]

Love those egg shaped motors.