Wards/Benelli 250

[Barnone]

Looks real clean inside the valve cover. Nice and simple bike. I agree with leaving it stock and not going over board on the restore. Keep the progress photos coming, please.
The Cannon Ball run came through our town and the neatest bikes to me were the rusty and unrestored ones.

[Mr. Vintage]

[BOOTLACE]

G'day! Thought you might enjoy these pix I took of the race version at Assen a cupla months ago. An hour earlier, in the vendors paddock ,I saw an unrestored one. The seller assured me it ran, and was asking 1000 Euros for it. It was very much complete. Unfortunately, (or not...!), I was travelling Europe on a motorcycle, so running back to buy it was out of the question. Bloody.










Damn SWEET!

[chazbird]

I had a 1968 Wards-Riverside Benelli, only a 125. It was a about 3 years old by then and been sitting. I couldn't get it running correctly and/or it was unreliable, can't remember what exactly but it soured me on it. I had no idea that it was actually a nice, beautiful bike, with good components like your 250. It obviously had to do with it running crappy, having Montgomery Wards lineage and all the hot shit bikes coming out by 1971. I believe I sold it for $10, if I remember.

[Tripletreat]

That race Benelli is simply exquisite! How could anyone put that in harm's way on the track? I'd have to put in on the coffee table if it were mine.

[anonny]

What a sweet find.

[BOOTLACE]

Originally Posted by Tripletreat

That race Benelli is simply exquisite! How could anyone put that in harm's way on the track? I'd have to put in on the coffee table if it were mine.

Bugger that! If it's built to race....race it!

[Mr. Vintage]

The back wheel is done, if not necessarily true. The rim has a welded seam, and based on how accurately this was accomplished there must have been plenty of vino with lunch at the factory that day. It is out of wack both axially and radially about 0.030" around the weld, but it's fairly true around the rest of the rim. If I keep it under 120 it should be fine.


I cleaned up the horn and made it work. Before:

It actually comes apart! And has points inside you can adjust!

Back together. I resisted the urge to paint the black parts.


When I had it running the dynamo lamp wasn't doing anything, so I thought I had better check the voltage regulator. Glad I did as it was incorrectly wired - the two dynamo wires were swapped, and the wire to the telltale lamp in the headlight was just grounded at the regulator. I stared at the mostly-correct wiring diagram for a while and I think I follow how it all works.

The regulator is in OK shape, it has one set of points that are cooked well done, so I'll need to figure out how to replace those. The coils check out.

As for the rest of the bike, I'm in a bit of a holding pattern until the bills from the holidays get paid....

[Meriden]

Good work. Brings back memories of the 125CC Wards Benelli that I bought for $26 as a freshman in high school. I rode that bike for a week before I could affort to buy a brake cable. Everytime I wanted to stop I would head for the high grass.

[zspringer]

I am also working on rebuilding both a Wards 175 and 250. Have you started going through the motor yet? Cosmo Motors has been taking pretty good care of me when it come to parts.

Let me know if you need any help, I will probably be asking you for some!

Good wrenching

[Mr. Vintage]

Originally Posted by zspringer

I am also working on rebuilding both a Wards 175 and 250. Have you started going through the motor yet? Cosmo Motors has been taking pretty good care of me when it come to parts.

Let me know if you need any help, I will probably be asking you for some!

Good wrenching

So far it looks like the 250 will run well as it is {fingers crossed}, but we'll see when I actually start riding it. I'm optomisitic...

[EvilClown]

Dang.

[redsky49]

Vicarious pleasure, indeed.

First motorcycle was a 125 Benelli Cobra, paid for at the local (hobby!) shop in 1965 at the rate of $10 per week, as that was the most I could afford working part time as a soda jerk.

I believe the 250's were Barracuda's and I think there may have been some other marine theme names as well. They all had pretty metallic red or blue paint jobs, and some of the worst factory support you could imagine. Probably being sold out of lawn mower and hobby shops didn't help much.

I hope you can resist the chop/bob/cut cafe thing and just bring her back to life as her builders intended.

Enjoying the project

[Mr. Vintage]

Looking for low-cost bike projects, I turned to the seat:

Before there were big blocks of foam I guess there were springs and flat bar; it weighs ten pounds:

I took apart the seat and used what I could for a pattern (there's some Guzzi seat in there too):

Put the Singer to work and sewed a cover:

The inner frame that holds the seat's shape is made of this tar-board stuff, like they glued to the inside of your volkswagen's doors. It took a little repair too.

The vinyl is sewed to the tar-board, which I had to do by hand:

I think it turned out OK considering I don't really know what I'm doing:

[bdjuju]

Originally Posted by zspringer

Cosmo Motors has been taking pretty good care of me when it come to parts.

I used to get parts from Cosmo as well, but when I went looking for them this November, they seem to have vanished.
They used to do a fair amount of business on ebay, too, but no signs of them there, either.

Have you dealt with them lately?