You need a BMW Airhead, you have just described my R90!julianharty wrote:
and meanwhile I'm toying with getting one or two more Morinis for the fun of them. For me, the newer 1200's are OTT for general riding, I enjoy the harmony of riding around 70mph on a bike that's in it's sweetspot and working well while being fuel efficient and easy to service.
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350 Excalibur
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MickeyMoto
- Posts: 2420
- Joined: 22 Nov 2008 17:41
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Re: 350 Excalibur
Re: 350 Excalibur
<A former R90/6 owner nods sagely>
My 1200 Corsaro was awesome but I know what Julian means. Perhaps if the design had been more than, what seemed at the time, a MCN artist's impression concept , I would have bought one instead of the Voxan 1000 Roadster. Now there's a bike you could ride in its sweet spot - though a bit more than 70mph if you wanted. Ease of service ? Uh-uh. The dry sump design caught more than one or two long term road testers out, resulting in oil ,being puked out of the breather after the oil tank was overfilled while cold. Cartridge oil filter, plus a crankcase strainer and a strainer in the main oil feed from the tank made for laborious oil changes. I didn't keep it long enough to have to do valve clearances or get to the plugs. The front one was seemingly a major production - so definitely Iridium plugs needed. Battery could not be removed without pulling the rear wheel spindle and dropping the rear wheel down. Like all French vehicles - not designed for ease of owner maintenance (possibly the 2CV - though didn't they have inboard brakes?).
The only bike I have that is easier to do routine service on than the Morinis is the 57 Gilera 175. Pushrod 4T single with a big oil drain plug incorporating a strainer. The plug sticks out of the side of the head so really easy to get out. I wouldn't fancy doing a full engine rebuild on it though (as I've done on a 350 Morini). You even have to split the cases to change the gearbox return spring and at least it's easy to get a flywheel puller for a Morini.
My 1200 Corsaro was awesome but I know what Julian means. Perhaps if the design had been more than, what seemed at the time, a MCN artist's impression concept , I would have bought one instead of the Voxan 1000 Roadster. Now there's a bike you could ride in its sweet spot - though a bit more than 70mph if you wanted. Ease of service ? Uh-uh. The dry sump design caught more than one or two long term road testers out, resulting in oil ,being puked out of the breather after the oil tank was overfilled while cold. Cartridge oil filter, plus a crankcase strainer and a strainer in the main oil feed from the tank made for laborious oil changes. I didn't keep it long enough to have to do valve clearances or get to the plugs. The front one was seemingly a major production - so definitely Iridium plugs needed. Battery could not be removed without pulling the rear wheel spindle and dropping the rear wheel down. Like all French vehicles - not designed for ease of owner maintenance (possibly the 2CV - though didn't they have inboard brakes?).
The only bike I have that is easier to do routine service on than the Morinis is the 57 Gilera 175. Pushrod 4T single with a big oil drain plug incorporating a strainer. The plug sticks out of the side of the head so really easy to get out. I wouldn't fancy doing a full engine rebuild on it though (as I've done on a 350 Morini). You even have to split the cases to change the gearbox return spring and at least it's easy to get a flywheel puller for a Morini.
Re: 350 Excalibur
I second that. I had a Voxan Scrambler for a while, lovely to see and a pretty good ride too, but for maintenance everything was well hidden. One big advantage: with an almost dead battery I tried to push start the bike and the clock went back to 0 km! So a new bike again, apparently that's why they don't need maintenance 
Re: 350 Excalibur
Julian,
I bought the New York with a seized engine from the forum, it turned out that the previous owner had replaced the rubber cush drive in the starter motor with a machined aluminimum block which broke up.
I figured that I probably had nearly enough bits on the shelf to repair it, and if I did not use the bits soon, I probably never would.
I don't have the technical know how to rebuild it, so it went to Benjy who most definitely does, so I have not ridden the bike yet, who knows, I may fall in love with it. Although I have already done that with my 350/501, that one is going nowhere, and space is at a premium. I do like British singles and have a couple of them, as well as a Yamaha Serow for off road fun and four other Morini's, so something will have to go.
The bike is an interesting one in that although it is a New York, it has a square frame, as the Excaliber does, the concensus of opinion (including some very expert opinion) is that it was a crossover model, in Morini's waste not want not, tradition.
Pete
I bought the New York with a seized engine from the forum, it turned out that the previous owner had replaced the rubber cush drive in the starter motor with a machined aluminimum block which broke up.
I figured that I probably had nearly enough bits on the shelf to repair it, and if I did not use the bits soon, I probably never would.
I don't have the technical know how to rebuild it, so it went to Benjy who most definitely does, so I have not ridden the bike yet, who knows, I may fall in love with it. Although I have already done that with my 350/501, that one is going nowhere, and space is at a premium. I do like British singles and have a couple of them, as well as a Yamaha Serow for off road fun and four other Morini's, so something will have to go.
The bike is an interesting one in that although it is a New York, it has a square frame, as the Excaliber does, the concensus of opinion (including some very expert opinion) is that it was a crossover model, in Morini's waste not want not, tradition.
Pete
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julianharty
- Posts: 483
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- Location: High Wycombe Area (Bucks)
Re: 350 Excalibur
Ah yes, an R90 would probably suit me too. Back in 1983-84 I road a 1978 (ish) R100RT well over 100,000 miles as I was in the Royal Air Force in north Scotland (Lossiemouth) and happily road it 423 miles home after work on a Friday, then about 500 miles on the Saturday, then back to my base on the Sunday. The bike was so happy and easy to ride at sensible fast speeds (I averaged about 70 mph including stops and over narrow Scottish roads). I bought a later model of the R100RS that was a dog and was quite thankful when it puked oil out on the M40 and then damaged the crank so I gave it to the BMW dealer for spares. The R90 seems like it'd be a better bike to ride than the old 1000cc models that replaced it.
And Pete, thanks for the history of the bike. Funnily enough I have a full starter motor casing with gears and the motor which Mike gave me, and Hans (hombre) gave me a spare empty casing so I could experiment with replacing the standard starter motor with a smaller one from a newer Japanese bike so it'd fit in my 350 K1 frame. That project is still on my backlog for when I start needing an electric start for the 501 engined 3 1/2. I could of course use an older 350 frame which has just enough space for the standard starter motor, but where's the fun in that?
So do let me know when you've got the bike back from Benjy and decided if it's something you want to keep, or not. I'd love to see it, especially with the odd square frame. I happened to unpack some old ATG magazines from 1991 this evening and 4 covers in succession have the hand-drawn picture of the New York 501 - it's almost as if it's meant to be mine
And Pete, thanks for the history of the bike. Funnily enough I have a full starter motor casing with gears and the motor which Mike gave me, and Hans (hombre) gave me a spare empty casing so I could experiment with replacing the standard starter motor with a smaller one from a newer Japanese bike so it'd fit in my 350 K1 frame. That project is still on my backlog for when I start needing an electric start for the 501 engined 3 1/2. I could of course use an older 350 frame which has just enough space for the standard starter motor, but where's the fun in that?
So do let me know when you've got the bike back from Benjy and decided if it's something you want to keep, or not. I'd love to see it, especially with the odd square frame. I happened to unpack some old ATG magazines from 1991 this evening and 4 covers in succession have the hand-drawn picture of the New York 501 - it's almost as if it's meant to be mine
Re: 350 Excalibur
hombre wrote:I second that. I had a Voxan Scrambler for a while, lovely to see and a pretty good ride too, but for maintenance everything was well hidden. One big advantage: with an almost dead battery I tried to push start the bike and the clock went back to 0 km! So a new bike again, apparently that's why they don't need maintenance
I used to take mine back (on a trailer) for major services when it was in warranty to the dealer that supplied it (by crating it up and sending it to the UK). Despite having been first registered in France in 2000 (by Voxan at the Issoire works - so a factory bike!) I didn't get it until 2006. I particularly wanted an early 'Gardette' Roadster.
They gave me a 2 year warranty though, as to them, it was 'new'. They had to replace the starter sprag clutch and the original battery within that time. Unfortunately the shell main or big end bearings went when it was four years old, just after the factory finally closed
That's why I no longer have it. Patrick at Pointe de Corde in Limoges said he didn't even know if he would be able to get the parts, and a full bottom end rebuild would be > 3000 euros (and that was in 2010!).Really smooth and grunty despite keeping to the French 100BHP limit. The Magneti Marelli FI was a joy compared to my 2008 Corsaro. Just mapping I suppose. The 'upgrade' Corsaros weren't as bad as the early ones and you could at least start them easily most of the time - eh Chris Webber?
No point me acquiring an Excalibur - particularly a 'rough' one as you can guess where the engine would end up
Re: 350 Excalibur
That's big money for an overhaul, especially 10 years back already! It might have been worth while doing it yourself when not in a rush. Anyway, no point in discussing that. The engine was pretty nice though, if I'm not mistaking the Scrambler had few horses but approx 80 are still okay. One thing I didn't like was the oversteer (when racing around roundabouts, The Morini Scrambler has a bit of the same problem, maybe because of the large frontwheel?
About that Excalibur, I'd love to have a good one one day, but for now I have enough projects in the shed. Even my daily ride (the Scrambler) needs some work when the regulator failed last week :/
The Excalibur went to a good home though, me and Hagen had some good laughs about the utter sillyness of these choppers
About that Excalibur, I'd love to have a good one one day, but for now I have enough projects in the shed. Even my daily ride (the Scrambler) needs some work when the regulator failed last week :/
The Excalibur went to a good home though, me and Hagen had some good laughs about the utter sillyness of these choppers