BULLITT, MONKS, DISNEY, IMM, and DUCATI

Eventful month so far.

Drove the family to Disney for a long overdue vacation. I'm glad I did because it convinced me never to take I-95 that far ever again. 1100 miles of a straight line is exhausting, if I ever visit my retired uncle in SC, I'm taking the long, windy way. Adam from IMM says if I made that trip from Britain I'd end up in Mandello del Lario - Guzzi factory. Hopefully the next time I drive a trip that long I'll be doing just that. Speaking of which...

I got presents when I arrived back to beautiful NJ. A buddy of mine, Bill, sells these towelettes and donated buckets of them - they worked fantastically removing 60 years worth of sludge from the R60's timing cover. More exciting though, issue 6 is here from England.

Well worth the wait, they just don't make quality magazines like this very often. I just found out that Adam that publishes Italian Motor Magazine is the brother of Guy that publishes Greasy Kulture, another top notch magazine from over the pond. Me and my brothers don't share any common interests, let alone do anything as remarkable and publish our own mags.

And look at this clown... The first 2 pages of a 7 page article. I'm just getting over being bashful about the whole thing

 I finally realized my head is worth more than $40 and gave up the vintage half helmet.

I fought getting a full face helmet for many years now, but I'm happy I made the switch. I wanted something with a more vintage look as modern Shoeis and the like still just look wrong to me. The Bullitt seems like a better quality helmet than the Biltwell Gringo (solely based on simply holding them in my hand and trying them on), yet retains the vintage look, and feels very comfortable while riding. I thought I'd remove the face shield and use the goggles, but my field of vision is better with the screen and I'm kinda digging it. I used to have a bell half helmet years ago and I hated it and swore off any future Bell helmets, but this one pretty damn good, at least so far.

Never seen a Paul Smart Edition Sport Classic in person till this week. $19K will buy it. Don't have the money and don't want a modern bike, but maybe I can convince a someone to buy it so I can at least test ride it.

That new BMW RNineT was just to the right of this picture again, cool bike, but when you own a REAL R90 that you built yourself, who cares?

Arrived fresh from Britain

Il "Veltro Nero" Aermacchi cafe racer è finito!

until I decide to hot rod the engine...

Photo: P. Ivanitski

Il "Veltro Nero" è quasi finito!

Took the bike into work today and had my first official test run exceeding 2 miles. Put about 10 on today and the bike performed brilliantly. Despite some cold start issues at 530 AM on my way to work, when it was time to head home the bike started with one kick. Excellent

The rest of the tank decals arrived today and I think they fit the look of the bike perfectly. The only thing left to do at this point is modify the M50 Sport seat that I have for fitment and maybe put on rear sets, but I may just hold off until the end of the summer for that, I'm thinking I'd rather just enjoy this for awhile. 

This is the deepest I've ever gone into building a motorcycle and am psyched to see 9 months of work finally paying off... Il "veltro nero" è quasi finito!

 Here's a sneak peek

start-ups, decals, and nonsense

Well... I'm still without my tank back from powdercoating, so I threw the old one on to test out some things.

The video is short because when I went to lower the idle speed I accidentally stopped recording. I was too lazy to make another video so this is all you get... I didn't like the Dunstall replica muffler, so I took it off for shits and giggles and just ran the header pipe. The video doesn't capture the loudness of it, but I really love the sound, may even end up keeping it like that if the tuning isn't a nightmare. By the way, that blue beacon on the instrument cluster means my generator isn't charging, still have to figure that one out, but there's a really good electrical test process in the H-D service manual. For once that manual is good for something

Since I've been sitting on decals for over a month waiting for the tank to come back, I finally got a little antsy and put some on the rear fender. I was dying to get that Italian Air Force roundel on the bike somewhere given Aermacchi's aviation history.

Note the NOS tail light. In lieu of hunting down an unobtainium plug, I just soldered the wiring right to the bulb. It works, but it'll have to be corrected someday

Anyone else think this looks like it should be a box of condoms instead of gloves? 70% Thicker for NO pleasure

Also got around to welding up a new battery box. Smaller = less weight, and I still haven't even turned it to Swiss cheese. There's a certain charm about the old Italian bubble boxes, but on this bike I think less is more.

I had my wife sit on the bike so I could better visualize the lines with a rider on it.

Other than that dreadful stock tank, I think it's looking pretty good so far. It definitely needed those Condor bars and a more forward posture. The foot controls fit her pretty well, but I'm a bit taller and the bike is begging for rear sets when I'm on it. I'll have to weld on extensions onto the frame like the Sprint H had for the passenger pegs (my SS model was never intended for two-up use), and then find some nice Tarozzi's to mount on it. Money, money, money.....

It's beautiful out now though, I think I'm going to take the Beemer out for a nice midnight ride someone and enjoy this