A machine gun toting 850 T3 Carabineri (police) bike from 1981 that had been in the UK since 1998 and had spent the last few years languishing in a customers front garden. I wanted to turn it into a cafe racer. There is nothing finer than a round barrel Moto Guzzi.
The bike had a complete and utter strip down to bare metal. Engine out, crank-out and back to bare cases for vapour blasting. Brakes and the forks received the same strip-and-rebuild treatment, stainless Goodridge lines offering a bit more bite from the Brembo calipers on solid rotors. An under-tank master cylinder for the rear brake keeps the rear triangle super tidy. A traditional lever for both fronts and pedal for the rear looks and feels better. Modern but tasteful rear-sets replace the clunky, stock peg arrangement. Rear suspension is British, made by Hagon the custom shocks were built to suit the bike. The decent sized box beneath the seat houses the electrics. Posh switches mounted to bars from a Vincent, wires internally routed, power the smallest indicators in Motogadget’s range and the headlight is our own, developed over the last few years to incorporate an old looking but digital chronometric styled unit by Smiths. Levers are from a nineties Kawasaki and the throttle’s brand new. The tank has a subtle Tricolour stripe, executed by south coast paint wizard D’Luck. The black plimsoll line along the bottom of the tank reducing visual bulk. And a black leather tri colour stitched seat hand made by Glenn Mogor.