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I came across these old personal images I had posted on the internet years ago. I had forgotten all about them but when I went looking for images of brake reaction rods etc there they were. This was my Bimota DB1 with its custom alloy fuel tank (hidden) its Racing Campag wheels ( hand cut slick on the back) Staintune mufflers made for me by Sandy that owns Staintune, four piston Brembo calipers and other mods I cant remember. In the background is my lovely modified Hailwood Mille that I smashed to bits,sigh and the fairing for my TT2 Ducati race bike just peaking out there. Here is our race bike after finishing the the 86 F1 TT. back to camera brown jacket Axle the owner of the bike, facing in the leather is Pete Muir our rider in the blue jumper is an English race whose name I have forgotten but we got friendly with and he assisted us in our pit stops when he wasn't racing. Next to our bike is the winning factory Honda of Roger Burnett, or Roger Hairnet as we called him. Here's Aussie superbike Champ and also successful WSB rider Mal Campbell at Sydneys Oran park for the 87 swan series on the Factory NR 750 oval pistoned race bike Honda sent over for him to ride that year. Mal was a factory Honda rider at the time and Aussie Champ as well if memory serves. ten years later I was mechanicing for him at the Aussie WSB round on a Privateer Ducati 996. Still racing now Mal and still way faster than most at Phillip Island on Post Classic bikes like Suzuki RG500's. 86 TT and David Tardozzi's Works Bimota that he later destroyed at the Glen Helen section. We went and helped pick it up and it was a molten pool of wreckage in the middle of the road as it had caught fire. Totally destroyed. Bathurst 85 and the late great Roger Freeths Macintosh Suzuki, note the Monocoque Suzuki Superbike in the background.( https://amcn.com.au/editorial/monocoque-master-steve-roberts/) Also note the unpainted bronze welded frame on the Mcintosh so he could keep and eye out for any developing crack in this prototype frame.Macintosh built beautiful bespoke frames for all sorts of stuff back then and we could buy road kits of this exact bike. Roger was actually and Astrophysicist and part time racer who was very very good and used to win this yearly race regularly and was also Mulitple NZ champion. He also was a keen rally car navigator at national level in NZ for Possum Bourne and was tragically killed in a rally car accident way too young. Totally fast and safe bike racer though. Swan international series 87 Oran Park and factory Yamaha GP racer Rob Mcelnea. Our working arrangements at the 86 TT sharing a house with Steve Wynn's crew. Our bike in the background, with back to camera is rider Pete Muir, partially hidden in red overalls is the bikes owner Axel and in the foreground is Wynn's bikes. None of the Steves bikes finished a lap in anger that year, we finished every race and practice session. They weren't amused at the time. The others are visiting German spectators that dropped by apart from the two Pete is talking to who were Aussies visiting. My TT2 race bike. I built this from factory parts and a second hand engine brought up to factory specs. I had a perfect example to follow as Axles bike was a genuine factory bike.My first attempt at 2K painting as I recall. My old 888 race bike with sump extension and home made rear brake disk and carrier. I didn't like the Brembo rear caliper at the time and decided to use the Nissan. factory frame, Ohlins GP forks, no brake torque arm, Marchesini wheels carbon tank and fairings, Corse radiator. And for you guys, Jay Springsteen and his mechanic, Daytona 87 Ciao

Changed out the stock mufflers for these nice Mistrals. These have a bit more rumble and pop than the stock mufflers. I really like the sound of the stock pipes, a rich deep tenor and smoother than these. These are more open sounding, and they suit the V11’s rough and rowdy ways very well. The bike seems to like it, she’s running with a good spirit, like riding a Mustang horse if-ya-know-whadda-mean! Also: the stock mufflers weigh 9.89 lb each, total pair is 19.78 lb. These Mistral conical carbon fiber mufflers weigh 4.65 lb each, total pair is 9.3 lbs.

I'm bringing a Lenovo Flex tablet that has it loaded as well as cables and a couple of different map .bins.

The Mcintosh in the image actually has a 17" rear and 18" front I think. from memory the Mcintoshes came out with 18x18 combination at the time and the 17 was fairly recent and maybe that's why it has that combination. The 16" front came about as racers wanted quicker steering, less centrifugal mass,more rubber on the ground and better braking. So the theory's went A smaller wheel has less leverage on the brake assembly as well so you get a little more stopping power out of the brakes. It didn't last long and they finally settled on the 17" My TT2 race bike had a 16" front and the earlier factory bikes had an 18 and others used to tell me all the time how bad it would stability wise be but we raced Axles bike at the TT with the 16" front and the stability was never questioned. I rode a friends Mk4 Lemans with a 16 front and thought it was fine as was my 84 Kawasaki GPZ900. Racers eventually settled on the 17 front for various reasons some of which was pressure from tyre manufacturers wanting a std size for sports bikes. Interestingly 4 piston brakes were first invented to fit inside the small dis 16 front wheels and they went on from there. Look up Freeths bio, stout fellow and brilliant racer, typical Kiwi quiet achiever. Ciao

Well, just the Coppa is going to make it down. Wife is going to follow along with the SUV and tools and such. Maybe her V7 will be there next year.

Our beloved V11s and ol’ Doc Watson have something in common: Rough and Rowdy Ways!

Had a good run on 2 wheels (30 years) - bought a killer convertible and I'm done for a while. People just can't be bothered to pay attention any more. VT4L

Buddy , I hope you find a way to change your mind

The rear caliper on the Daytona race bike pictured is free to rotate on bearings on the axle same as the bevel box. Its just an inverted version of the bevel box and the torque is provided by the brake not the engine driven shaft. This is a bike I built from the ground up in the early 1980's with my own designed and built anti dive which we thought was worth having at the time. I also built all the bodywork including the original plugs and moulds. The dive mechanism is a leveraged version of a brake torque arm. Chuck might like the red engine cases. I was very avant garde back then:) Ciao

Yes wildguzzi has 5 speed experts. A few things, some 5 speeds were straight cut gears and some helical. Straight cut gears are more winey than helicals. Some gears due to variations in gear cutting quality will just be winey, nothing wrong with them per say just noisy. 5 speeds also have tapered cone bearings on the shafts I believe and they require shimming so maybe this is an issue. I dont think what your box has is terminal but may require adjustment/attention. Ciao

Just for you Chuck Ciao

I got yer big jugs right here, pal..

Join up and ask over at wildguzzi, there's a lot more Tonti frame guys there. https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?board=1.0

yes....Stone Touring...1100 5 speed. I have several bikes, HD and Honda, many issues over the years, , but never a gearbox/transmission problem.

It opens all the way on my bike , but you may have to pull the rubber boot part of the nozzle back to fill..I always do it that way anyway because I like to see the fuel height while filling it..so that aspect doesn't bother me cheers

Nice use of red.

Maybe this does help: https://hmb-guzzi.de/Universal-joint-complete-with-shaft-Cali-from-2001-on http://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=106

A Rickman would have been a lot less work. A friend of mine has owned a Rickman Kawasaki since new and has recently completed a full resto on it. The Motoplast came in a kit that was frame, swing arm rear shock and bodywork inc fairing. That was it.The original glass work, all of it! was of such poor quality and fit I actually threw it in the dumpster as I knew I could design and make better myself. It was a lot of work and the set cowling is a fairly ordinary shape. The Rickman was far superior quality in every way and a much easier build. Italians, you get what you get. Note the Nylon rear sprocket. Popular in the early 80's for about 2 minutes:) I had also mounted the battery under the swingarm which I may have been one of the first to do. Ciao

Yowza! (that's American for 'now yer talkin') Great pics and story. "Astrophysicist and part time racer" I'll bet he was fun to have a drink with. the Macintosh bike is running a 19" front wheel. I thought the mid 80's saw a vision toward the 16"? Could you comment on the evolution of front diameter in racing?

Knew I bought the Brisk's for a reason , thinking that was to be the desert for her when running good. They shoud run good with the Iridium plugs to. Had a great ignition system for a 440 was it called Dr Jacobs. Pure bonus with a great spark. Intake boots have no sign of cracking, and they are robust. She even idles if the balance hose sneezes of, not good running of course. Cheers tom

We're talking the same shape, but...

just don't give examples of 'other vices' my girl's response was "so the options are motorcycles.... or strip clubs?"

Paul Lewis is happy to tell how fast he was He works down at the local Harley shop in Newstedt, Brisbane these days. I imagine his "confidence" may not have been overly popular at times but he could walk the walk from what I have seen. He had some interesting races over the years including a stouch at Daytona 86 where he and fellow competitor on a ducati clashed, Lewis fractured a foot and the other guy crashed off the track. Lewis rode to 2nd and then got carted off to hospital after giving his press conference from a stretcher

Looks like I’ll have the U-joints next week. That’s just two weeks from when the driveshaft failed. Pretty great for fairly rare Italian parts coming from another country! Thanks again to Pressureangle for doing the sourcing. With two driveshafts at hand, I am hoping to do some deeper inspection of the existing U-joints and try to asses if the front cross can be flipped to face the Zerk forward and modify the scattershield collar for greasing access without drama or developing a New Zealander's (dangerous ) vocabulary.