Continuation of the diary:
1. November 2006:
Yet a couple of thousand kilometers. I think it's typical for Morinisti
that they rather ride their Morinis than anything else. I really should
have written something here a long time ago, but every time my thoughts
were on my beauty, I took it for a spin.
Anyhow,
a lot has happend since the last entry. Shortly after I bought it, I
bought a pair of Hepco Becker panniers (again from ebay). The rack
was for a XJ600, so I had to warm up the welding gear, because I wanted
to go on a smal camping trip. I quickly made a temporary solution -
Temporary, because the way the Morini looks like now is not how it
going to stay.
Perhaps I should mention what I have in mind: It
is going to have the looks from the early Sport. Why not buy that one,
you might ask? Because I wanted the cast wheels with three brake discs
and the kinked frame. Also, the later engines has some improvements
that I wanted.
I'm going to make a seat in my own design, not unlike
the racing-seats from the 50ies and 60ies. And maybe I'll give a
fairing, too. The paint job is going to be excactly like the early
Sport, and for this to work I need an early type tank - which I already
have bought! So much about the looks, details will follow.
One
of the first details that I attended to was the foot pegs. I had read
and from almost everybody heard that the stock ones just don't work:
you sit like a
"doubled over hunchback on the toilet",
as someone wrote. The foot pegs are too far ahead in connection with
the low positioned handle bars. Initially, I thought that it couldn't be
that bad, but after a very short period my back started agreeing with
all the others. A solution was required.
Nice low handle bars
Cleaning and paint is coming, of course! ;o)
Luckily you can get some from Tarozzi especially made for the Morini.
However, I find the brackets a bit clumsy looking, so I bought Tarozzis
without the brackets and, brace yourselfs, welded some brackets to the
frame! I spend a lot of time considering whether I should weld in the
frame, but aesthetics won over the fear of "ruining" the frame. So now
they are situated nicely in the bend of the silencer bracket.
The
rear set presents a new problem: There's no room for the rear foot
pegs. Most Morinisti just shrug their shoulders, but I wanted the
possibility to have a pillion on the bike. The solution was yet again
some metal work and welding: Two bolted on arms that at the same
time are mounting points for the lower part of the rack. Now I only
have to find some Tarozzi foot pegs. The original ones aren't very nice
to look at!
Another problem was the non-original handle bars
that were mounted. I think they were mounted to minimize
the hunchback-problem. But first of all they weren't nice looking
(a Sport has to look small and compact) and second of all they were too
high and all the angles were out of wack! Off they went and an original
on. Now it looks just right and the seating position is finally perfect.