MOTO GUZZI SPECIALS
Not content with having built a stunning café racer from an old Le Mans, Neil Hickman bought a California and stripped it bare to create a sublime scrambler
A Le Mans and a California get the café racer and tracker treatments
Neil Hickman likes Moto Guzzis, especially those he’s tweaked to his own personal taste like these two specials: “I think the Guzzi V-twin is such an iconic engine,” he says. “There’s nothing better looking. There’s minimal clutter. And, stripped to the bare essentials, you’ve basically got a V-twin motor, carbs and air filters. It’s such an easy-going engine – lovely to ride, easy to work on, and Lino Tonti’s frames are so simple. You can cut and shut the rest how you like, but the basic frame has lovely straight lines.”
Neil’s grey café racer is based on a 1989 1000cc MKV Le Mans, while his red dirt tracker started life as a 1990 California III. He lives on the south coast of England, but has always been interested in Italian motorcycles; his first special build came in 1979, when he slotted a Laverda Jota engine into a Harris frame – and he still owns a standard Jota 120. “I bought it off a collector and it would be criminal to cut it up,” he says.”
The urge to build a Guzzi was inspired by the Hamburg-based specialist Kaffeemaschine, owned by Axel Budde. Neil says: “I saw one of his café racers at the TT; it inspired me to find a donor bike and build one of my own. V-twin Guzzis are not that rare, so I bought a donor bike, stripped it bare, then started working on my café racer,” he says in a matter-of-fact way.
That can-do, hands-on attitude reflects Neil’s background. “I was an apprentice with Nuclear Energy Authority,” he explains. “I stayed there six years. Then I joined a local company which had big steel and alloy rolling mills. It was Italian-owned, but was sold to China for a lot of money some years ago. In the UK we have a software company who come up with the software to control their mills. Engineering is in my blood and I love fabrication work.”
For the café racer build, the frame was de-lugged, with all welds ground back, and the rear subframe was shortened. The tank was made by John Williams at the Tank Shop, who also supplied the mudguards and seat.
The wheels are stock, as are the exhaust pipes, but Neil made his own silencers. “I mocked up the exhausts in cardboard, then deconstructed it into constituent parts. I then laser-cut the stainless steel plate, handrolled it and Tig-welded the pipes together. It was a fun thing to do. Very satisfying.”
The forks are standard, just stripped and rebuilt, while the shocks are TEC. The brakes are standard, too, but Neil fitted EBC pads for “more progressive braking”. The wheels were painted graphite grey and Bridgestone Battlax tyres fitted.
“The riding position is different now.” says Neil.
“I got rearsets from Jerome Viriot in France and mounted them further back and higher up. The seat is compact, so the riding position is a bit more forward and jockey-like.” Viriot also supplied bell mouths and battery plates for the two Guzzi specials.
Neil made the wiring looms for both bikes in his shed,
RIGHT: Most of the work on the bikes was carried out in Neil’s shed. Here, the engine and gearbox are being fitted into the frame of the scrambler
ABOVE: Inspired by street scrambler style, this is how Neil scratched the itch to follow up his café racer build
LEFT: Neil self-made the wiring looms for both bikes in his shed, using Motogadget M-units. He also made this underseat box which houses all the electrics using M-units and other excellent components from Motogadget. He used German-made Sachse electronic ignition with Dyna ignition coils – and when he rewired the bike, he made a box to fit under the seat that would carry all the electrical components. The battery boxes are behind the swingarm pivots on both bikes; Neil made a full size mock-up then replicated it in aluminium.
He followed the same process for the rear mud shield, seat base and other fabricated parts. “Pretty much all of it was done in my shed – apart from some fabrication and turning of spigots and bushes, which I did in friends’ workshops using a lathe and sheet metal machines.”
The café racer fairing is a Le Mans MKI replica, but Neil modified the nacelle to make the later headlight fit; the speedo is by Moto Gadget. Glenn Moger did the seat cover, while Wicked Coatings in Poole did the paint to Neil’s design. “I didn’t want any bling,” he says. “I just wanted to make it look retro.”
Neil has kept the engine standard. “I took the view that stripping 25% of the weight off the bike meant I’d have a much better power-to-weight ratio, so that improved performance by default. Also, because it’s lighter, the bike stops better. I wanted a bike that performs well and is useable. I wanted it to tick over in town – and be soft enough to cope with traffic easily. Ethanol gives so many problems with detonation if you increase performance, anyway. I’ve used it on track days and it’s a lovely thing to ride. This is a bike with long legs – and it’s indestructible.
“The aim was to strike a balance between useability, reliability and performance. It has certainly been reliable – it starts on the button. It’s not a show bike. The main objective was to build a bike to ride.”
After a year of riding the café racer, Neil was itching to build another bike – this time in the form of a street scrambler – but still using the Guzzi V-twin platform.
ABOVE: A longlegged café racer and a scrambler to nip round town on. Neil’s Guzzis give him the best of both worlds
“I’ve always loved the style of Harley’s XR750 dirt tracker – it’s a radical departure from my café racer. But my friend Pete Hodson, who I’ve known for some 40 years and owns Siderock Cycles, inspired me with his street scramblers so I decided to build one,” he says.
“I found a California locally. It was a runner with an MOT, but otherwise it was pretty ropey. I bought it with the intention of stripping it right down. I’d seen Le Mans prices escalating and realised the Cali frame is identical – it was a simply a question of what extra had been welded on to the frame!”
The Cali engine, according to Neil, runs smaller carbs and softer internals than a Le Mans, with lower compression and softer cams. He says: “It meant a leggy, softer engine for highway cruising, which suited my idea perfectly. The objective was to use the scrambler to potter around town on, pop out for a coffee, wear my open-face helmet... a kind of beach-style bike. I didn’t want it too radical. I didn’t want the big knobblies you see on some scramblers. I wanted a halfway house.” The Cali engine (as per the Le Mans) was bead blasted as a complete lump after Neil had masked off and blanked off all manifolds and critical areas. He reckons there was no need for a time-consuming rebuild as the internals were in good shape, which is no surprise since the bike had only 30,000 miles on the clock.
The carbs were stripped and rebuilt, though. As with the café racer, he built a new wiring loom, fitted a Sachse ignition with Dyna coils and the same Motogadget equipment with all the electrics located in an underseat compartment. The rear light is under the seat, with rear indicators in the ends of the frame tubes.
Neil adds: “The battery box is under the engine. The battery is a Yuasa sealed unit which is very light but is big enough to crank over the motor. Access is really easy – well it is after the rear wheel has been removed!”
The tracker got the same frame mods as the café racer plus a tank, mudguards and seat from the Tank Shop. Neil also fabricated the silencers as he had on the café racer – they were polished, whereas those on the tracker have been ceramic coated by Wicked Coatings.
The Cali came with alloy rims, but examination revealed they had lots of micro cracks around the spoke holes. The hubs were fine, though, so Neil bought new rims from Central Wheel Components in Birmingham, had them enamelled black and got Bob at Woolsbridge Motorcycles in Wareham to rebuild them. Heidenau knobblies were then fitted.
Summing up, Neil says: “I wanted the design of this bike to flow, to look uncluttered. I’m a bit anal with attention to detail and wanted to keep everything tidy.
“Both bikes are easy to ride. They’re not for show. If you build a special, you want to enjoy riding it.”
Well said, that man!