V7 Sport Seat Fender mounting question

[swooshdave]

I'm sure this will be sacrilegious to ask but why did the have such a convoluted seat and fender mount on the V7 Sport and the 750S and S3? I mean aside from "it's Italian!"

Am I wrong but couldn't they have hinged the seat from the fender? They could have used the same mount that they hinged the fender.

And you can't say that it helped with the rear wheel removal as they didn't hinge the later bikes.
 

[v7john]

I'm sure this will be sacrilegious to ask but why did the have such a convoluted seat and fender mount on the V7 Sport and the 750S and S3? I mean aside from "it's Italian!"

Am I wrong but couldn't they have hinged the seat from the fender? They could have used the same mount that they hinged the fender.

And you can't say that it helped with the rear wheel removal as they didn't hinge the later bikes.

Last point first. It did help with rear wheel removal. Try to take the rear wheel out of an 850T while it's on its main stand and on the ground. You can do it on the old 750s. The clamping arrangement for the fender tip also allows the seat to be fully raised to near vertical.

Removing this feature was just a cost cutting backward step.

As there was a good reason for having the flip up fender, it had to be hinged from the seat and not the frame. You can't have both hinged there or the seat would prevent the fender being raised. One or other of them has to be fastened to the frame somewhere!

[Tom]

I think that they wanted the seat on the frame for load support.  Granted, using the fender as a mounting point would have worked but they would have to extend the frame too.   Possible cost saving move at the time.  I'm sure that ergo dimensions weren't meant for the American market.  The bike was meant Euro riding vs American riding aka touring.

[swooshdave]

I was able to get the rear wheel off on the 850T but I guess I did have it on the bench with the drop out off. Even then it wasn't fun.

I think I counted four bolts to undo the rear fender which isn't bad as you can't expect to take off the rear wheel that often.

If you had to remove the rear fender on a Commando to take off the rear wheel you just run the bike over with your dump truck. That bike is built around the horn which is bolted to the rear fender. 

[Tom]

   Wait.....what??? 

[JoeW]

I am pretty sure that every thing done to the V7 Sport was for weight savings. Leno Tonti promised the powers that be that he could get the bike to reach 200 kph out of the box. The starter was smaller and lighter, alloy triple clamps and headlight ears... The original Taleo Rosso bikes were thin wall chrome moly frames. The seat/fender combo shave a little more weight off of the bike.