Targa Tech: The Targa Lives!
With the Targa Twin finally bursting into life it’s time for Stan to add the finishing touches.
With our Targa Twin finally bursting into life it’s time for Stan to add the finishing touches.
We may work for the world’s largest scooter magazine but from time to time even we struggle to get our act together. Like every other scooterist the world over, our best intentions fall victim to family matters, the pressure of work and quite frankly just getting distracted. Incredibly it was back in December 2018 that Dan embarked upon a “quick winter project”. Tino Sacchi had kindly loaned us a Targa Twin 275 engine and Dan had acquired a lovely Series 3 LI to act as its host. We’ve reported on the trials and tribulations of the build in almost every subsequent issue and glancing back one thing leaps out, not one moment of delay was caused by the engine. That’s why I began to panic when it wouldn’t start...
Having sorted out the twin carb’s cabling, ensured that fuel was flowing and followed Tino’s wiring diagram to the letter, no matter what I tried the system wouldn’t spark. Over the course of a week I visited and revisited every connection. On two occasions I started entirely from scratch. Even after Tino sent photos illustrating his own machine I still couldn’t see what I’d done wrong. Fearing that the Variatronic ignition may be faulty I’d even booked some workshop time at Oiltek. Then suddenly inspiration struck. I’ll admit to being a ‘neat freak’ when it comes to wiring and yes, you’ve guessed it, in trying to create a tidy set of junctions
I’d created a false earth. With the connection made good it took only three kicks to bring the engine into life. I’m still not sure if the engine or my excited shouting made the most noise. One thing’s for certain, the engine sounded gorgeous.
With firm evidence of my own incompetence still fresh in mind, I decided to let a Targa expert check over my work and headed to Armandos in Sheffield. There Guido, Giulio and long distance Targa rider Joey Fontaine gave my Targa the benefit of their experience. Once they’d pronounced it fit for use and synchronised the carbs, all I had to do was fit the various pieces of trim.
The next stage of the project is to get the engine run in and back to Armandos for a ‘shake down’ service before the season proper starts. With foul weather warnings being issued every two minutes that could be quite a challenge. Fortunately I have a cunning plan and it involves fitting a GB plate…