Friday 19 June 2009

OB2 The Resurrection






Having been around the block and come back with a proverbial Cheshire Cat grin on the first test-run of OB1, Sean 'Bones' Bryant [here in the dark blue over-alls] traded in his own 900SS Ducati for another Guzzi donor. Together we built the OB1 Guzzi for Ewan McGregor who was then playing Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars.
Never to do things by halves, Sean went for an ex-Charlie Rice Lemon IV as the starting point for his own project, rather than a mangy dog T3, or SP which is the usual route. But Mr Rice had pushed the envelope over the edge, and the Lemon was so hairy, it was almost unridable on the street.
Bones chucked a lot of time, money, and bloodied knuckles at it, and it has actually been 90% finished for the past 5 years but moth-balled since for various reasons.
I made the original tank mould; based on a Ducati NCR, and the seat hump; based on a Magni Australia. That's carcinogenic P38 body-filler dust on my face not Elizabethan powder make-up in case you're wondering. The aluminium panel beating was then done by the wizard Peter Kyte in Hereford UK, and Cassius in Rotterdam NL made the fairing.
On Monday we blew out the cobwebs with a trip to Nico Bakker; Holland's famous frame builder, to have the Captain Nemo / Corbin Warbird fairing fitted. New one-off fork yokes machined, topped off with board-track style bars. The engine and gearbox are being breathed on by Race Co UK's Amedeo Castelani and hopefully he can sanitise the power somewhat....BP

10 comments:

Otto Nero said...

Bello Bello , mi piace !! ;-)

Davide Caforio said...

wow! i'm so interest in this new project. Please, please, send me a photo of work in prog of all.
Good work guys.

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!

:-O
:-D

DAVIDE

By Hand and By Brain said...

BP-this is my new favorite bike. you guys been holdin out, eh? wow what a cool story too. I saw two gents go ape shit on each other here in the states over a Duc 900...sweet.
J-

harreng said...

Look foreward to seein' the finished bike, looks great!Seeing that front wheel reminded me,
I bought a gold Astalite to go on the front of my GSXR750 race bike[early '90s]after bending the original, it was the cheapest option at the time, but a really nice wheel I always thought,and being made of sheet etc. much better balanced than cast wheels, don't think you can get them now can you?

Sideburn Magazine said...

grazie mille colleghi !

pushymofo'
- I should pass by RaceCo in a couple of weeks, Sean will correct me, but to memory it alread had a Charlie Rice cam that was lumpier than the pyramids (gold plated no less), Carillo con-rods, Wiseco pistons, 42mm Mikuni flat-slides... just the usual. Race Co will do a 'slick-shift' conversion on the gearbox, & flow the heads with some down-size carbs.

harreng
- the (now black painted) Astralites were picked up cheap; & the gold one (in the pick-up) was a gift. No body wants them anymore but I think they're cool. These are 18" back 17"front. But being riveted together I think repair is impossible if they're corroded or if you twang 'em.

BP

Nolan Woodbury said...

I suspect it's a good idea to look into that engine again...for although Charlie was popular for a time, his engines had a certain 'time bomb' element.

Love the nose fairing! Keep up the creative work. Can't wait to see it done-

Nolan/VMOL

matt machine said...

that tank seat and fairing work kick serious arse..... im ready to order a set ...who do i speak to?

oh yeh.

originalracingsnake said...

Is that a Hyperpro out back or a Maxton? Lovely ally stuff, I'd be afraid not to ride it.

Sideburn Magazine said...

ORS
- its a HyperPro, but they don't have any odd-ball Guzzi shocks, so this one is a combination of their Yamaha R6 piggy-back body combined with a Ducati 916 spring & then dialed-in according to rider weight, & prefered angle of dangle for front fork.
BP

TwoTone said...

Hi Ben,

So Sean is still alive and finishing the guzzi... What's the status now? Is OB2 finished? Please up-date us with pica's... Please says hi to Seanski for me...
Grts, Ton.