Chicagoairhead
Just got it firing!
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2011
- Messages
- 3
Hello! I am brand new here. I have owned a '69 V700 for some years.
A couple of weeks ago an acquaintance asked me to look at a friends v1000 G5.
She had discovered the bike while rummaging at a garage sale at the house next store - nestled in the back of the garage was a grimy, dusty old Moto Guzzi! The home's elderly previous owner had passed away and her husband (who had owned the bike) died 10 years before her. The new home owners had no idea what the bike was or what it was worth, so they sold it to her. The G5 has a little over 28k on it, and looking at it carefully, I am confident that this is original mileage. It came with a huge and heavy homemade faring mount holding up a Windjammer faring, also bolted to the beast were a set of Bates bags with an equally heavy mounting "system". This bike was covered with what appeared to be grease - and lots of furry lint like crap! It was easiestly the most filthy bike I had ever seen.
I rinse the bike off to see what it looked like, then dumped the thick black goop that passed for oil - looked like raw crude to me! I pulled the plugs and added some Marvel Mystery Oil to the cylinders letting them sit for a couple of days, then put the bike in gear and gently rotated the rear tire by hand - what started as a tight engine loosened up in short order and rolled in gear easily! I flushed the tank, then ran a new fuel line with a filter inline to the carbs, place a good battery from my daily rider in, and was ready to see if she would run! Ends up the cable from the battery was shot. I ran a jumper from the battery to the starter and it turned grudgingly but quickly loosened up after two short cranks and fired nicely. I was not able to get the thing to fire at this point, and had to call it a day.
When I talked to the acquaintence who had asked me to look at the bike, he seemed surprised by the list of things that would need sorting out, and the rough estimate of the costs. I was just going to see what it needed, and the state of the engine, nothing more, and was doing this for FREE. He called me back the next day to say the the owner decided she didn't want to spend the money to resurrect the Guzzi, and would I like to buy it? We settled on a price of $400, and it was mine!
It will need a title, who knows what happened to the old one - but the old man had it plated and paid the road taxes back in 2000, so at least we know it wasn't stolen! I removed the faring and the bags, which all told had to weigh 80+ pounds! I de-greased the bike and gave it a bath - which help incredibly! It looks good and solid - no silly mis-matched fasteners or weekend mechanic mistakes, aside from the duct tape on the air plenums and the tractor parts employed to mount the faring.
I have yet to get the engine to run, though I am confident I am close - just haven't gotten back to that yet.
Any ideas where I might find a stock headlight for this bike? All I seem to be missing is the headlight and front turn signal assemblies. Anybody have these collecting dust on a shelf? Please let me know and what you'd like for them. I am excited to see this baby healthy again!
A couple of weeks ago an acquaintance asked me to look at a friends v1000 G5.
She had discovered the bike while rummaging at a garage sale at the house next store - nestled in the back of the garage was a grimy, dusty old Moto Guzzi! The home's elderly previous owner had passed away and her husband (who had owned the bike) died 10 years before her. The new home owners had no idea what the bike was or what it was worth, so they sold it to her. The G5 has a little over 28k on it, and looking at it carefully, I am confident that this is original mileage. It came with a huge and heavy homemade faring mount holding up a Windjammer faring, also bolted to the beast were a set of Bates bags with an equally heavy mounting "system". This bike was covered with what appeared to be grease - and lots of furry lint like crap! It was easiestly the most filthy bike I had ever seen.
I rinse the bike off to see what it looked like, then dumped the thick black goop that passed for oil - looked like raw crude to me! I pulled the plugs and added some Marvel Mystery Oil to the cylinders letting them sit for a couple of days, then put the bike in gear and gently rotated the rear tire by hand - what started as a tight engine loosened up in short order and rolled in gear easily! I flushed the tank, then ran a new fuel line with a filter inline to the carbs, place a good battery from my daily rider in, and was ready to see if she would run! Ends up the cable from the battery was shot. I ran a jumper from the battery to the starter and it turned grudgingly but quickly loosened up after two short cranks and fired nicely. I was not able to get the thing to fire at this point, and had to call it a day.
When I talked to the acquaintence who had asked me to look at the bike, he seemed surprised by the list of things that would need sorting out, and the rough estimate of the costs. I was just going to see what it needed, and the state of the engine, nothing more, and was doing this for FREE. He called me back the next day to say the the owner decided she didn't want to spend the money to resurrect the Guzzi, and would I like to buy it? We settled on a price of $400, and it was mine!
It will need a title, who knows what happened to the old one - but the old man had it plated and paid the road taxes back in 2000, so at least we know it wasn't stolen! I removed the faring and the bags, which all told had to weigh 80+ pounds! I de-greased the bike and gave it a bath - which help incredibly! It looks good and solid - no silly mis-matched fasteners or weekend mechanic mistakes, aside from the duct tape on the air plenums and the tractor parts employed to mount the faring.
I have yet to get the engine to run, though I am confident I am close - just haven't gotten back to that yet.
Any ideas where I might find a stock headlight for this bike? All I seem to be missing is the headlight and front turn signal assemblies. Anybody have these collecting dust on a shelf? Please let me know and what you'd like for them. I am excited to see this baby healthy again!