The Espresso Fetcher (Guzzi 850 Project)

After a few years with Beemers, i thought it was due time to get back to an Italian ride. So I listed my Gulf-BMW R75/6 Cafe Racer on the norwegian equivalent of craigslist and the next day a guy called and wondered if a swap with a Guzzi-project would be interesting.

Well - after a couple of days and some money exchanged (in my favour ) the BMW left, and this one arrived:



A stripped mid-eighties T5 with a lot of goodies on the side.
Most noticeably a 43mm Showa USD off a 1999 Suzuki GSX-R1000 with accompanying 17 inch rims. I was originally thinking of doing a classic cafe racer again, but I felt that with the modern fork and rims, it would end up a bit to far from my vision of a classic cafe racer. So after a while, i decided to go for a more modern variety, but still very much inspired of the cafe racer style.

After I posted a picture of the project in the Cafe Racer tread, Lornce came up with the term "Espresso Fetcher" - hence the name of the project.

When ready, the T5 will be transformed to "the Espresso Fetcher"

First ting, the Rental bar sitting on the bike went straight off, and back on with clip-ons. Since I've already had decided to leave the narrow road ( to the cafe ), I went for some street-fighter inspired styling elements - Dual round headlights, with a small fly-screen ( never been a big fan of 'fighters, but I think that in this setting it will work)...

I found a Ducati 916-style seat/tail in one of the boxes of parts, and after some tinkering to find the right angle, I decided that it would fit my vision:



I like to decide on colors/design of the bike quite early in the project(kind of helps me focused) - thought for a while of going for all orange, but could not bring my self to paint that beautiful aluminum tank ( from the Tank Shop in UK), so after some fiddling with photoshop, this is the color scheme I'm going for:



Well, thats kind of the story so far - I'll keep you posted as the project moves on (if anyone bothers to listen )

to be continued...

i need a tonti.

more please mr.

Hey.... Just for s**ts and giggles, how about posting a photo of the bike that you traded for this one? I'm curious about what you gave up in exchange for this pile of creative problems and long nights in the garage .

That G-Bike is one hell-of-a-start to a finished product!

interesting project...
How do you fit the rear suzuki rim to the rear guzzi drive?

That looks terrific!

Here's the one who went away...

I think you got the best of that deal!

Great looking Guzzi! Needs more carb!

This guy must be channeling your color scheme:

Courtesy of a german company called Guzziladen (www.guzziladen.de) - they sell the fork/rim ready for the Guzzi...

HOT DAMN to both of them!!

I am in love with your gas tank

Is it dented in on the right side?

TAG Heuer (and gulf) color scheme on that BMW makes me all kinds of happy. Love it!

http://www.ultimatemotorcycling.com/Triumph_Bonneville_Steve_McQueen_Special

drool bump.



Love the look of the USD forks. Heck, love the look of the whole thing.

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Nope, looks good in real life - probably some odd reflections when I took the photo...

Regarding the Gulf color scheme _ been in love with that since I saw the LeMans Movie with Steve McQ the first time, and a Ford GT40 in Gulf racing livery is one of the prettiest thing I can imagine (except for the dream I had one night featuring Keira Knighley in Gulf colored body paint - ooops, did I say that out loud )

Was thinking about doing something similar with the goose, but it's kind of "been there, done that", so I figured it was time for something new this time, but then again, who knows...

To get that Gulf color scheme right, you kind of need a front fairing to get enough orange in, so that you don't end up with a mainly skyblue bike - and since my plans for "The Espresso Fetcher" does not include a fairing...

Well, I'm in for a couple of busy days in the garage during the week end, so I'll keep you posted on the progress - more pictures to come to morrow...

Nice looking project, and I LOVE that gas tank too.



Mike

Well, made some progress today:



Got the taillights adapted, mounted the turn signals, started to fit a hugger, sorted out most of the electrics - all 'n all a good day in the sun !

Looking forward to a long day working in the sun tomorrow!

Some sweet there Kai... Glad to see that you are not cutting the rear frame sections.

Nice project with a very cool look...

Best,
Rob

Ditched the "H-tube" for shorter exhaust:


Got the taillight mounted properly, polished up the headers, and painted the silencers - and went for a totaly different paintscheme:



Moved all fuses & relays to a box under the tail, mounted a battery box, sorted out the mounts for the tailend and hugger:



Bled the brakes, got some "Prova"-plates and took her for a spin:





She purrs like a cat, handles like a dream, and with a few minor touch-up details, she's good to go