Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Racer by 2WheelsMiklos - MotoMatter
Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Racer by 2WheelsMiklos

A guy approached us with a load of pictures of Moto Guzzi LeMans café racers. Beautifully executed versions of the 1970s classic.

He wanted us to produce something similar but also said it will need to be a practical daily ride in London. It must be 100% reliable (he is not mechanically inclined) and he was not willing to pay a fortune.

Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Racer

With a little prodding it turned out what he really wanted was the Guzzi engine configuration. The requirement for the 70s LeMans was only because these were the only images on the web which he could find.

Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Racer 1

Having got this sorted out we realised that daily 100% reliability would almost certainly push us to a modern donor. It did not take long to land on the basic Guzzi V7 Classic. Standard Guzzi engine layout, spoked wheels and a nice ride. Guzzi themselves do a café racer version, but this was not what our man wanted. We looked around and acquired a low mileage 2011 bike in great condition.

Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Racer 3

The design brief called for a solo seat, rear-sets, clip-ons, good looking exhausts, a slimmed down overall look and a plain alloy finish.

The solo seat was made in-house from a cut down BMW R80/7 unit with the tail light built into the hump. Tuck and roll upholstery is by P&D Custom Bikes.

Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Racer 4

Clip-ons are by Café Racer and the bar-end mirrors/indicators are by Oberon. Grips are grey Renthals. The headlight is a Bike-It LED unit and the stock instruments have been lowered to directly above the new light; so giving the top of the bike a clean low line.

motoguzzi_018

Rear-sets are by Café Racer and the linkages have been fabricated in-house. GP Style exhausts are by DanMoto and are hung from the pillion footrest brackets. The rear shocks are Hagon Nitro piggy-back units.

Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Racer 7

The stock spoked wheels have been rebuilt by Hagon. Hubs are painted black, rims powder coated black and new stainless spokes fitted. The front brake has been upgraded to an EBC wavy disc and the stock front fender has been trimmed down. Tyres are good looking Metzler 880s.

motoguzzi_055

The very large airbox between the V-twin cylinders has been replaced by pod filters. A new battery box has been fabricated for the small Shorai Lithium battery and located under the rear of the seat. A stainless collector for the various engine breather pipes has been fabricated and placed behind the cylinders. To give the slimmed down look slightly modified flat carbon fibre Laverda Jota side panels have been fitted. These have been drilled to show the centre of the bike and now also carry the Guzzi winged eagle logo.

The V7 Classic has a plastic tank so the alloy finish required some subterfuge. A 97% nickel paint has been applied by Silvester Coachworks to the tank, seat, fender and some engine covers. The paint dries to solid metal so really looks the part.

And so a good looking Guzzi Café Racer – but also a daily 100% reliable ride.

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