Moto-Guzzi "Neva-Lost" Board Track Racer

Tail light, which will not be hanging from the tail, but at rear axle. Old Farmall tractor light, nice bullet! Needs to be "skuffed up and dented". and painted maroon. Too shiny.



Here's the fuel tank valves, one of them should work? which one, I have no idea, all need to be rebuilt.


Next issue:
How do you fit 6” wide axle into 4” opening. Like the priest says, “It’s got to fit, since you’re married”…

So, this is before the marriage.



And this is after the “Amen”.

Not that difficult. The seat stays were widened also, with help of “moderate violence” and a rubber hammer pushed in-between the rails. However I may have created another problem, as you may see…





This problem was resolved by welding the chain stays on new and wider pedal tube. The tube was scavenged from the old and mutilated Guzzi Ciu (RIP in moped heaven).
The frame actually looks GREAT! Nice and “AIRY”.
However I am not fully convinced that using a badly vibrating 2-stroke motor as part of the frame structure is an intelligent choice. I “may” have to do some additional modifications in this area;-) More later. Back to the garage...
Ciao!

harry76 said:

I dont think it matters how you hit the metal, whether it be nylon hammer or something heavier, all that metal working you are doing is thinning the metal and therefore weakening it..... and being a late model Jap bike the metal may already be on the thin side. Im not trying to scare you, just raising the point.... im really liking how this build is progressing and i really like your fuel cap. Are you leaving the finish on the cap or do you plan on polishing it?

Click to expand...

Yes, I guess I could beat the crap out of it and get it way thin... I'm sure it will be OK, the tank was suprisingly heavy steel. Like said, the welds worry me much more. ;-)

But you have a good point, this is my first attempt, so if you guys see anything weird going on, just let me know. I'm pretty sure I will screw up something later (or already have;-)

Fuel cap will "Neva" polished. Never. It has 90 years worth patina on it!

Here are some attempts to fit everything together with the new aerodynamic, low resistance rolling wheels. Testing going on with mock motor mount as well as aligning the sprockets, chains and rear axle. You'll see also the "salvaged" motor mount from moped. This allows me to keep all measurements original. Kind of easy way to do it?
This better work or I’ll have nice living room art. Instead of a dead deer head, I’ll mount this one over the fire place!





Then into something abit more interresting....
Houston, Houston, we DO have a problem. the mock paper motor makes good use. Some slight clearance issue with the carb and air cleaner. Then again, the real board trackers did not turn right, only left? I think I’ll be OK, it’s going to work!!!

Being as compact as it is, I don’t have much wiggle room between the wheels. That was the idea, narrow and short. But I was running out of inches. The motor was moved as far back as possible, which is about 3/4”. Still not adequate clearance, it might work, but too close to my taste. Pumping tires to 65 psi might rip off the air cleaner;-)

To gain clearance I decided to cut the intake from it’s bottom attachement and rotated 45-90 degrees (depends what looks right) to right and weld it back... or I’ll do a more interesting intake altogether.




Moving into more relevant things than left and right turning wheels....Besides if it turns only left, how could I get lost???

Tube mount with rubber insert in front and a solid mount in back. (solid mount still missing here)
This shows also the rear section joining the pedal axle tube, or whatever its called…





70% finished front mount and “tail section”.




Since there may be a need for additional structural strength, I decided to slaughter my 26” Huffy, which served its short but lively life as a welding test bed and organ donor.

Not necessarily in perfect chronological order, so going a bit backwards...

I found from Flea-Bay NOS Monark Supertwin's 36 spoke wheels with 105 gauge spokes, super heavy spokes! They are wide rims and spoke holes have similar dimpled spoke exit areas as motorcycles have. Bontragers are 1.8" wide.

I need to remove the Monark spokes and axles, since I have no use for them. (I have a gut feeling that I cannot find this obscure lenght spokes and will end up rethreading all of them. Which i not a big deal, just takes more than one night and 6 pack of beer. Got to be careful with the beer, so I dont get overly exited and rethread them all the way down or start from wrong end;-) Since I go from 16" rim to 26" rim and from bicycle hub to moped hub, I expect to get some use for Advil too....





Here's mock up continuing with "less aerodynamic" wheels and with REAL rubber tires. Propably more suitable for my 220lbs than the yellow disc wheels.






Whats going to happen with hubs and rims is a bit unlear. Initially they were supposed to be used "as is", however I am brewing something else. Not beer, the rims, that is. Right now I may end up painting the rims and hubs maroon or black and get spokes copper plated. (and just like my wife, I reserve the right to change my mind as often as i like...)
Here's an idea what that MAROON is all about, it is a old Guzzi racing color and quite suitable for old bike. Check the "Bacon slicer" flywheel!!!




Still to find….. A seat, perhaps old Troxel or well used Brooks with copper rivets. Front light was found, it is a yellow 5 3/4" "Guide" fog light, propably from an old french dump truck? ;-) That should go as well together with this built as meatballs and perfume.







I found old 4” diameter 0-60 psi pressure gauge. Being 60psi, who know from what locomotive or NY basement it was stolen from long time ago? If you have no heat, let me know.... I’ll take it apart, throw the guts in trash and get the original Guzzi speedo guts installed in it. I keep the outside, dial and needle original, so it looks the way it does right now. This way I get to do a bit of my own job, being a watchmaker. It will be installed either halfway down on side of the springer tubes or higher up on frame, but most likely not on handle bars. Besides, why would you want to have a steam pressure gauge on handle bars, makes no sense…





Throttle is under development, I would like to use rods, rollers and steel wire, just like the real trackers had. Have no idea how to do it, but it cannot be that difficult? I have more Italian beer left and a lathe. Not necessarily a good combo in that specific order. So I have to time the lathe first, then the beer, unlike once when I did more that 1/2 case of beer before hitting the primer on my car with sanding blocks. Needless to say, it was not pretty and more Advil was needed....

Can you tell that I like beer??


The avatar is kind of small, so here is a bigger one;-)



Back to garage to do something useful.....

My lucky day!!!

I've been searching for a good seat allover, but never realized that I had one in the garage!






Now.... if I could only find my rat-tail file??????

.


The rear axle is fitted and I did some work with chain tensioner, alignment of chains etc. The chains had to be shortened 1 link, other than that they fit fine. The system is brewed from old nuts, bolts, springs and Guzzi parts.

Yeah, this should work?





Italian spaghetti factory!





Whatever I can find, cut and modify, will be on this bike. This spring loop attachement came from 1993 Dodge Viper half shaft u-joints. 2/3 was cut off, bent to fit and welded to the frame. Well, they were rusty and useless away, price was right too, free, straight from the garage floor.


Chain tensioner will be of course drilled full of holes for reduced weight and added speed! Got to somehow compensate the burgers I ate today?



Testing bear trap pedals. I may or may not keep these.




Concerned about the structural strenght, a bit more tubing was added to the frame. New rear motor mount is also visible. It was a left over piece from the frame rack I built.



The yellow dump truck headlight came in today, tomorrow I will let the angle grinder introduce itself to the light bucket. Should be a short lived and happy marriage.

Hopefully I get the lead body solder kit from Eastwood before the weekend, so I can start inhaling lead fumes. Good news are that lead causes cancer only on rats in California, here in PA we have 3 Mile Island, so a bit of lead only keeps your immunity system in better shape. I worry more much more about glowing in dark or than having a grey face...
After few days in garage, I should be able to scare the crap of my "Emo" daughters white face!

OK, back to the garage again. BTW, I abandoned the "rat-tail file" seat. I was too scared to test drive it. I may have to go back on Flea-Bay to find a normal seat.

harry76 said:

Looks real good, but your pedal chain looks way too long. Are you going to shorten it?

Click to expand...

Yes, one link needs to be taken out. It will not be same as bicycles. (having a "tight" and straight looking chain.)

Mopeds typically have about 1" to 1.5" of vertical movement in pedal chain. As far as I know it is to compensate whatever lenght you have on your primary chain...This lenght is almost identical to my other mopeds, only difference is that the chain tensioner is reversed. (chain is channelled UP instead of down.) I cannot do a tensioner pushing the chain up, since it will hit the lower rail. So, the general look will be close to what you see.

Today was the "monkey-business" day.



I cut out the Guzzi moped steering neck and mated it with bicycle frame.
I have now officially a Guzzi bicycle! (with 49 cc motor) or you can call it a moped with a title;-)

Got a call from Monark, they will be sending the "beefier" fork to me soon....