Timo Geusch left the building an hour ago

On his newly acquired Morini 350 Sport.

It looks gorgeous.

It has some issues.

I'll let Timo carry on from here

 

Well, I've made it home without having to call out CN's breakdown
service. I see this as a good omen so far. It runs OK - given that it's
done around 850 miles since a top end rebuild I didn't give it too much
beanage and motorways are the usual annoying slog but out on the
backroads it demonstrates that it's quite a capable little
bike. Fortunately I had the road from Sissinghurst to Biddenden to
myself so I could go play a little. They were built for these roads
. The seat is bloody hard and I had forgotten just how small these
are.

As to the issues TOG mentions, the list so far is:
- It has an annoying backfire at idle and low revs. That goes away at
higher revs and supposedly has only been there since an "expert" had a
go at the carbs. Go figure. Given that one of the elbows hadn't been put
back into the air box correctly, I'll better check the whole intake
system. The engine isn't quite as 'sharp' as I'd like it to be, but the
only other early Sport engine I can compare it to was the one in my Dart
and that had gasflowed heads, which made a massive difference.
- The kickstart lever slips over too far and can jam under the brake
lever. Very annoying but it looks like there is a technique to it which
prevents the lever from jamming.
- The clutch needs adjusting properly. Just riding from the chateau down
to my place stretched the cable far enough to triple the free play, with
predictable consequences to the gear shift
- Someone's been at the electrics. Oh joy. With the usual domestic screw
connectors and all. Oh, and my personal pet hate, the preinsulated crimp
shit.
- Front has got a 100/90 on, which IMHO is too big and it does feel
overtyred. Not to mention that it's been put on backwards.
- Marzzocchis might be original (well, these aren't, they look like
they're new but they were OEM fitment) but very good they aren't.
- Silly little mini indicators (in fake carbon fibre, no less) need to
go ASAP. Especially as they're on holiday anyway. And the rear light
needs changing back to the original. Fortunately I have both the
original indicators and original rear light with number plate carrier
- The tank has a few "bubbles" - boils would be a better description -
under the fairly recent paint. Looks like I'll have to let Beav lose on
that tank. This was mentioned in the description so it didn't exactly
come as a surprise.
- I think it's overbraked with the dual front disks. Given that the rear
brake lever is at an impossible angle the brakes feel even less balanced
because the rear is pretty unusable.

All in all I would say it's a 90% bike - someone has thrown a whole heap
of money at it and it clearly shows, but they haven't spent the time and
money to sort out the usual post-resto niggles.

I guess I'll be on the blower to NLM in the next couple of days to order
a few parts (gaskets and a set of standard carb jets) and reserve a
Sunday morning for a little fettle.

 

I agree that these just don't need a dual disk. Mine wears a floating
disk, a 250C Grimeca master cylinder via a braided line, and standard
EBC pads and it works really well.

Sounds good. Have to introduce it to my one some time,

 

That's my take on it. It looks utterly gorgeous, and the bills I saw
totalled over £1200.

But the indicators are those horrible mini ones made of fake carbon
fibre. And don't work. And the seller decided to fit them, while leaving
the horrible CEV tin switches in place.

The electrics are a bit of a mess.

And then there are the kickstart issues, and the fact that (IMHO) the
pilot jets or settings are wrong.

That said, for slightly over £2k, it ws (again IMHO) a bargain.

 

The proverbial plank seat is a small price to pay for the grin factor on
the twisties.

Presumably it has the rubber elbows between carbs and heads ? Check that
those are also a good tight fit. Didn't the Dart have the 'M' cam rather
than an 'S' - or did yours have an early Sport motor 'retrofitted'?
Sir needs and L5 and 28 mm carbs.

A feature of fitting Tarozzi rearsets (IIRC it has those)? NLM do an
extension block to increase the offset on the folding kickstart.

Get it 'shimmed' while you are at it.

Ah. I have a feeling the former could even have been used as OEM. Rear
light connection in the case of my 2C.

For the trade mark pin sharp handling a 90/90 is required.

Better than the Paolis on a 250 !

Tarozzis again. It tool me ages to get the rear on mine to work
reasonably, but it is strictly to pass scrutineering as far as I'm
concerned.

Dig out the Morgan carb tune and have fun.

--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Aye, mine was OK with the standard disk and the 250 m/c, the floating
disk has transformed it. Good feel and plenty of power.

 

Having seen the message on the Morini list I realise that your Dart did
have a sport motor.

IME a general blunting of sharpness can often be as a result of a
sub-optimal spark. I fiddled about with the carburation on mine for
ages. It ran OK, but not as well as it did when in its prime. I think
Stuart at NLM is correct in saying that until you have a tip-top
ignition system you'll never get the best out of a wee-vee, even if it
starts reasonably well. The heart of the system is the ignition charging
coil on the stator. Low resistance in the windings is the root of much
poor running evil.


--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

i've got Ikon Dial-a-ride-a-likes which are excellent but they're
pricey.

 

At least the rear elbow doesn't fit into the airbox very well. When I
checked it more or less didn't fit at all...

It had an early Sport engine.

Sir tries to avoid that sort of expenditure at the moment .

I'll have a word with them then. I'm not sure if that'll improve matters
much because the problem is that the kickstart lever (which isn't an
original anyway) goes over the fully folded out position and only when
it goes past it, it'll jam.

I'll keep that in mind.

No, they're definitely not OEM (I've seen Morinis with unmolested
electrics).

's wot I thought. I'm also not too sure about the rear tyre. According
to some of the stuff I read that should be a 4.00 and it's got a 3.50 on
it at the moment.

That they may be, but they're more or less a hardtail conversion kit.

Fair enough. In my case the lever will have to come up by almost an inch
in order to make it useful.

That's the plan .

 

I'll measure that but that's clearly not what I needed to hear...

When NLM did the top end rebuild they already changed one of the
transducers so I guess the ignition wasn't too clever at that point.

 

TBH I don't think a new set of Marzocchis are that cheap either.

 

Heh. That's what I told him I thought it ought to have!

 

Fortunately the Laverda could do with new tyres anyway and that takes
a 100/90 front. At least that way I don't have to dispose of a brand
new 100/90 but just migrate it from one Borrani to another one.

 

I bought Avon Road Riders in that size for the LC (though it was a
rear with a 90/90 front).
--
Adie
(replace spam with nickname to reply)

UKRM FAQ: http://www.ukrm.info/faq/

YZF-R1 : FZ1N : RD350LC
(anyone would think I was partial to Yamahas)
keeper of the FAQ for my sins
MRO#11 BOTAFOF#7 BOTAFOT#130 DIAABTCOD#17 MIB#24 YTC#16
BOB#15 ex-UKRMMA#22 BOMB#11

 

IIRC the one on the Morini is a Road Rider, too. Looks like it's a
decent tyre but just too wide for the Morini.

 

Looks better, though (IMHO).

Sounds like a plan.

 

Timo Geusch  wrote:

Single disks do lok a bit unbalanced, but more in keeping with the
era. Maybe.

Maybe that TOG would want to join in...

.....Ebay item 270424732188 looks likely

 

That it does. It's also less likely to overwhelm the front suspension.

Heh. There must be a nest of them in Bath as mine came from there as
well...

 

<Pulls bait out of the water>

He's not biting, is he?

 

We'd probably have to use a 400/4 as bait...