New Lease V7 Sport

[czakky]

I didn’t do much to document this “resto” but the synopsis on this old girl are as follows:

Late last fall I was alerted to a CL ad about a V7 Sport project 4 hrs away from me. I had no intention of buying such a thing and never really imagined I would. I had four bikes and not much space but called the guy anyway. I got the lowdown on what he had and decided it was worth a look. It had what looked like good bones, tons of spares, numbers matching, en extra 850 hot rod engine (cam, high comp, dual spark) and we settled on a price. It was missing the 4ls front drum and exhaust a few other odds and ends. The PO had a solid lead on a 4ls and re-pop exhausts are available. 
As I dug into it reality hit. I was prepared to rebuild the engine but it really needed everything, I mean everything. In my parts search I was able to find that this bike had some type of racing provenance m, apparently winning some inaugural class in the 70’s. I can tell you they didn’t win by NOT crashing! Long story short, I’ve been through the old girl completely, all seals, all hardware replaced. I bought it in November, got the frame from PC and then major engine components in January, took my first ride in May! In its current guise I’m running S3/850t foot controls (LH shift, slightly more forward) while I search for correct brackets. Lightened flywheel, somewhat hotter cam, sump spacer w/external oil filter. Otherwise mostly stock including points. The stock starter is ditched in favor of the Bosch gargantuan.

Ive got about 1500 miles on it now and still have quite a bit more to go as funds and availability allow. It has a horrible paint job and a pretty scruffy headlight, along with the foot controls at that point I’ll call it good.

Riding the short stroke v7 is a lot of fun. Power is similar to 850t/T3 just moved up in the rev range 500rpm. The sports are geared super high! Even lazy shifting has me clicking into 2nd at indicated 50mph (80kmh)!

 

stripping it for PC

delivery day

 

current

[docc]

What a worthy resto! Welldone, man!

Where are re-pop exhaust available for the V7Sport, now?

P.S. - I wonder if the 2002-03 V11 Sport "green" is closer to the original V7Sport Legnano Green than the introductory V11 Sport "electrified" green?

[Chuck]

Agreed, Docc. I did a pre buy in Indy for a guy out east. This was supposedly an original bike with very low mileage. It certainly looked like that, too. The color was much closer to the Legnano than the electric "greenie."

[czakky]

Interesting. I have a pile of digital photos comparing cars and bikes whose colors are close to the v7 (legnano ?) green. Some pictures show the v11 as being as close to the v7 as anything. Oi! 
maybe she ends up black!

re-pop exhausts available are the pictured lafranconi’s and the original shark gills.

IMO shark gills look better, lafranconi’s sound/perform better.

[docc]

I trust this @czakky guy, and can't wait to see where this V7 Sport goes!    

[czakky]

Guilty… there was room in the budget for an inspection hole cover on this build.

[LaGrasta]

 I lifted this from another site, years ago, since my 2010 V7 is this color.

V7 Café Classic Paint Code 

Using all of my super Spidey senses, including deductive skills worthy of Sherlock Holmes' smarter older brother, I present to the Moto Guzzi community the paint code for the weird greenish gold color found on the V7 Café known alternately as "Legnano Green" or "Solaris Yellow": (drum roll please) Nissan paint code ER4.

Long story short, I had a warranty repair done to my gas tank due to the bike being delivered with the right side horn rotated up so high that, thanks to normal engine vibrations, some paint got rubbed off. Thinking ahead, I asked the dealer to provide a bottle of touch-up paint and the paint code for future reference. The paint code from Moto Guzzi was unobtainium, so the dealer, Steel Horse Classics, used a professional auto body shop who matched the paint perfectly. When it was all done I got a small bottle of paint with ER4 written on it.

My first search for ER4 turned up somthing like 1996 Nissan Gold. Since I don't know anything at all about automotive paint codes, my first reaction was "what? - nah! - must be some mistake". I have since learned that ER4 was likely never used on any US market Nissan car and is listed at various web sites only under the years 1996, 95-97, and 98-99 (for the Nissan Micra). The color description on these sites is listed as any one of the following: Gold, Gold Pearl, Yellow, Yellow Olive, Yellow Olive Effect, and finally my favorite, Sumatra Yellow Metallic. Solaris Yellow or Legnano Green is never mentioned anywhere.

I found a US based outfit (automotivetouchup.com) that would supply a touch up bottle of ER4 and I did a comparision with the bottle I received from the dealer. I have concluded that they are one and the same color. The bottle I received from automotivetouchup.com was way to thinned out for proper use as a touch-up paint, so I had to apply multiple coats to get proper color density. I think that due to all the color elements in this paint, use for touch-ups will probably always be less than satisfactory unless it is professionally sprayed on. Anyway, just my small contribution to the Guzzi pool of knowledge and the three or four people out there who may find this information useful! 

Splotch on left is automotivetouchup.com 1996 Nissan paint code ER4 (yellow); splotch on the right is from the auto body paint shop that did the warranty repair. 

 

[czakky]

Hmmm… more for me to chew on. I’ll probably have to just pick my favorite and go with that.

thanks for that lagrasta