V85 facelift

[Huzo]

Looks great,Pete, magnificent job. Hope to see it in the flesh when the plague ends.

Should be doable Ian..

[Markcarovilli]

Looks really nice and it truly makes it yours....

Mark

[Rich A]

I’ve always been attention shy...

You wanted to see my a$$.

RA

[Huzo]

You wanted to see my a$$.

RA

Yeah, as I said..
Happy to see yours, but too shy to show you mine. You go first...
On a long haul flight from Heathrow to Melbourne once, the elastic in my shorts broke and they were hanging dangerously low going through customs...
The border guards were  going to have me for importing crack...!

[Zoom Zoom]

Well, that looks fantastic!!!

You ought to send a pic of that to Guzzi so that can see what they're hiding under the black paint. Or not. You have a truly unique bike there.

John Henry

[hauto]

Sorry ,but I like the black.I have to admit you are one driven Mo Fo,great work!

[Huzo]

Sorry ,but I like the black.I have to admit you are one driven Mo Fo,great work!

What is a Mo Fo and is that a good thing ?

[Vagrant]

Mo is short for mother and I suspect you understand the rest now.

[spmoto]

I like it and I agree that a bit of brightness up front would serve to balance fore and aft. How about posting before and after shots?
 

[Huzo]

Ok

[RinkRat II]

      For sure it looks better now without those goofy boxes out back  Nice job Huzo, really quite the transformation! 

         Paul B

[Huzo]

Mo is short for mother and I suspect you understand the rest now.

Oh, I see..
Like in “Meet the Fockers”

[groundhog105]

Very nice.

[Knuckle Dragger]

Noticed you haven't either swapped or added the front 'guard/s yet.  Weren't you getting a dark Caponord Rally one?

[Huzo]

Yes mate, but it hasn’t arrived yet...!
Not going to use it now anyway, I like the open mortard looking front wheel without the fork protectors. I am going to do something different about them as well.

[Knuckle Dragger]

Makes the front of the motor terribly messy from mud, pebbles & road debris, but.  Fresh wet tar would be.... just awful.

I'd imagine quite a bit of detritus will collect on top of the bash plate (if you're keeping it) on wet gravel days.

I could see a foreshortened upper mudguard - sort of a quasi duckbill - complemented with a Caponord lower acting as a '"proper" mudguard to protect the motor from gunk flung up from the tyre.

Otherwise, I agree.  Having 2 full front 'guards would just look plain weird, although having a lower mudguard will necessarily detract from the "offroad" aesthetic.  Nevertheless, in black it would be more discrete than in bright red, & operationally more effective.

[Huzo]

Makes the front of the motor terribly messy from mud, pebbles & road debris, but.  Fresh wet tar would be.... just awful.

I'd imagine quite a bit of detritus will collect on top of the bash plate (if you're keeping it) on wet gravel days.

I could see a foreshortened upper mudguard - sort of a quasi duckbill - complemented with a Caponord lower acting as a '"proper" mudguard to protect the motor from gunk flung up from the tyre.

Otherwise, I agree.  Having 2 full front 'guards would just look plain weird, although having a lower mudguard will necessarily detract from the "offroad" aesthetic.  Nevertheless, in black it would be more discrete than in bright red, & operationally more effective.

Nothing about any of that is untrue except the bash plate.
I have removed it, but even when fitted, there is a clear eflux for any contaminants to be hosed out easily. The GS Beemers run a black guard as well as the duck bill and they tend to get away with it in the main, so I have not ruled it out completely.

[Knuckle Dragger]

D'you think it's feasible to shorten the OEM 'guard to make it into a type of de facto duckbill?  Bit of a risk, I suppose...  it will either look really good (after surgery with a Dremel & sander & subsequent touchup with a nail polish bottle) or really shitty!

Somewhere on the other V85 thread there's a profile photograph of an example completely missing it's upper mudguard but with a dark Aprilia lower installed..  It just doesn't look "right".  As if something's missing, which of course it is...

The upper 'guard - as well as looking aggressively "offroad" - also serves the very real functional purpose (even in a vestigial form) of keeping the headlamps, air intake & rider protected from debris & mud flung up from the front tyre.

[Huzo]

D'you think it's feasible to shorten the OEM 'guard to make it into a type of de facto duckbill?  Bit of a risk, I suppose...  it will either look really good (after surgery with a Dremel & sander & subsequent touchup with a nail polish bottle) or really shitty!

Somewhere on the other V85 thread there's a profile photograph of an example completely missing it's upper mudguard but with a dark Aprilia lower installed..  It just doesn't look "right".  As if something's missing, which of course it is...

The upper 'guard - as well as looking aggressively "offroad" - also serves the very real functional purpose (even in a vestigial form) of keeping the headlamps, air intake & rider protected from debris & mud flung up from the front tyre.

Your points are well made KD..
However, there’s as much chance of me taking a saw to the beak as a bull going into orbit. I will buggerise around with the black guard in addition to the beak though, the GS’ make it look ok.


Some method of stopping it soiling itself up the front of the motor is being developed..
The next thing is an Akropovic muffler and the front caliper mounts in silver..

[Knuckle Dragger]

Just wondering.... why the Akra?  There's so many nice alternatives out there.  Ago's, Mistral, & my personal fave (I like both the sound & the look), Zard.

Speaking of looks, the OEM exhaust is one of the handsome-est standard cans I've seen since Ducati stopped fitting Contis.  Pity about the weight, baffling & back-pressure, 'though.

If you're still going to keep the OEM muffler rather than sell it on, what about a bit of DIY surgery as an experiment or academic exercise?  I had a semi-successful cannibalisation of my Aprilia's cans, removing ALL the internal plumbing & replacing it with a fiberglass fabric wrap & wadding around a perforated core.

The results were..... loud.  Illegally so, despite having retained the internal catalysts.  In fact, sufficiently (well, excessively & window-rattlingly actually) loud enough to make dogs run for cover, & easily-impressed pubescent teenaged boys turgid with desire, & right royally piss off the neighbours.

Not my finest hour, I must admit, but once astride & not behind there's quite a sonorous bark to them 'ol cans.  There was never any legitimate excuse for not hearing me coming, despite the volume level of the latest top 40 hits on the ICE stereo of the Daewoo GCXL5, even from a mile or 2 away.

Travelling through the canyons & passes of the wilder & narrower roads of Tassie at night was truly.... epic!  Kept the 'roo, possums & wombats well away from the verges too.

Still, that Guzzi can's rear appears to have a nice neat oval of Allen Screws securing its end-cap.  I'd be itching to investigate......  It's in my jaded eyes one of the best looking original cans I've seen in years, veritably begging for some meddling.

[Huzo]

I cannot conceive of anything sounding more mellow yet tonal, as the Akrapovic.
The choice of manufacturer is not cast in stone, Termignoni would also get a second look if I came across one.

[SIR REAL ED]

So am I mate..
I had high hopes to have the wheels back into the ‘85 this weekend but have not managed to. The wheels are trued and tyres fitted, but my compressor did not have the pressure/flow to inflate the tyres. There is a gap between the tyre and inside of the rim that usually flexes out enough for initial inflation but my setup was found wanting.
Tomorrow I’ll get them inflated, then balance and re fit.
The Sikaflex 291 did a great job sealing the spokes so cautious optimism there.
Here they are anyway.

I'm sure most people know this, but sometimes removing the core from the valve stem will give you enough flow to seat the tire.

Really creative types will use a bit of lighter fluid or gasoline and light it to produce a small explosion inside the tire.  Never tried it, but physics says it should work.

[SIR REAL ED]

Ok

Looks great Huzo!

[Huzo]

Looks great Huzo!

Yes. It hasn’t changed anything meaningful, but a nice exercise in aesthetics..

[SIR REAL ED]

Yes. It hasn’t changed anything meaningful, but a nice exercise in aesthetics..

I think the red tank and black engine work well together.  Silvering out the engine might be a bit too much.  Although it would definitely make the bike look more 1970's-ish!

You might want to try a roll of duct tape first before disassembly and painting........  easy to apply, easy to strip.....  don't ask! 

[jrt]

Regarding the caponord fender-  in stock form it is still just a bit too short to prevent road debris from hitting the alternator cover.  I fitted a fender extender on mine...but dang it was ugly, so I took it off and replaced it with a semi-triangular piece of neoprene.   Like a mud-flap on a truck.  Used rivets to affix it to the fender- now it is unobtrusive and, so far, seems to work though I haven't (and won't) take it off-road.
I can take a picture if you would like.

[Huzo]

Regarding the caponord fender-  in stock form it is still just a bit too short to prevent road debris from hitting the alternator cover.  I fitted a fender extender on mine...but dang it was ugly, so I took it off and replaced it with a semi-triangular piece of neoprene.   Like a mud-flap on a truck.  Used rivets to affix it to the fender- now it is unobtrusive and, so far, seems to work though I haven't (and won't) take it off-road.
I can take a picture if you would like.

Yes please !

[jrt]

Let's see if this works:  wide shot-


Closer view of fender and fender-flap:


And I also replaced the awful windscreen with this small abomination- it is simply cut and bent aluminum with a small Einstein sticker on it.  For when I approach relativistic speeds.  Oh, and I made new bar-ends out of stainless- sorry, they are a bit cut off:

[Huzo]

Typical of attractive Italian types.
Looks lovely but can fly off the handle without provocation or warning...

[SIR REAL ED]

Let's see if this works:  wide shot-


Closer view of fender and fender-flap:


And I also replaced the awful windscreen with this small abomination- it is simply cut and bent aluminum with a small Einstein sticker on it.  For when I approach relativistic speeds.  Oh, and I made new bar-ends out of stainless- sorry, they are a bit cut off:

Looks good.  I like the red frame with yellow/white gas tank& bodywork.

I think I would have to remove the upper white front fender just to see how it looked without it.  Then maybe paint the lower fender white and add a mud flap to the front of the fender.

Hard to say if that would look better.