'97 M900 long-term refurb'

[Darren69]

That's my excuse too! Handbags and shoes outnumber my bike parts

[Andy B]

Managed to get a bit more done to the ol' girl recently...

I decided against stripping down the heads for vapour blasting - keep the budget down....

see how we go next year and if im looking for another project over the winter that'll be it

so for the meantime it was get the engine as spanky clean as possible, and throw a small amount of masking tape at it...





Came out altright i reckon...



clutch side was a right PITA to get the casing off though...

two clutch tools later - broke the first one



- and the rather large air compressor in work - job was a good'un

got a hand from a friend getting the frame back on the motor



couldnt resist a quick look outside...

I was a little dubious about how the yellow hoop would go with the red frame - I like the little history/colour story from the 888 so thought i'd adopt it for the rebuild - but i think it turned out quite well... compliments the shock quite well....



started putting the front end together and found the brake lines were tricky to get all lined up...

the mounting on the top yoke was a little off.. i remember it being a tight fit the first time i had the calipers and master off the bike....



lowering the yokes sorted it - BUT being the adjustable Showas, this was the furthes away from the bars i could get them to allow for the brake lines....

[Andy B]

put the rest of the front end and loom on - mainly to start getting a bit of clutter out of the spare room - and she's starting to look better






on the downside - i took my label off the rear brake plug when i connected it, and faffing round with the loom i disconnected it again, and so have lost which plug i need.... theres two on the loom, very close to each other - can anyone tell me what colour the wires are to the back brake? I think the choice is between a [purple & grey/red] connector and a [black/blue & brown/white] connector....

have a few days off next week where i'll hopefully get a few more bits done... but want to leave enough room to comfortably do the valve clearances in the new year...suppose it'll be a case of see what fits leaving enough room to get at the covers..

[Yorkie]

I like the colour contrast a lot, looks great.

Yorkie

[Mr Gazza]

Your colours are working really well...I always love a yellow hoop, the red frame and white wheel combo is very bold..I also love all the soft silvers which seem to match nicely.

I can just imagine it with a yellow tank, but any colour will probably look good on that.

There are longer handlebar risers that will allow better clearance with the adjustable Showas.
I have them on mine as standard with the Sie. I have about 20mm of fork showing over the yoke if I recall correctly...I can measure and photograph if you wish....You might be able to pick a pair up...they need longer bolts too.

[Mr Gazza]

Just realised that they are the earlier adjustable Showas and also that you have fully floating iron discs (you lucky fellow)....Is this an "S" model?

[Andy B]

i have wondered myself whether this is a S model... but when i've tried looking up any information i dont get many results and just get told its a prts bin special so dont expect the same tooling bike to bike..... Is is just the brakes and front forks that make the S differ from standard?

that said, when i gave my insurance the reg number they came back with 900s... so i guess so...?


Managed to find some universal bar risers on ol' ebay... if i need the forks any lower i may give them a try...

I was a little torn on tank colour, I always had grey in mind, whereas annabel wanted white - and it is technically her bike.... so since i've managed to get hold of a spare tank, i'm thinking i'll get one done in white and one in grey and then she can choose (and if i ever pinch it for a ride out i'll throw the grey on it

[Mr Gazza]

If the insurance people reference it as an "S" then it seems more likely that it is.

I don't know what the spec' for a '97 "S" is beyond the Showas and brake. I would have expected to see an Adjustable Ohlins with remote reservoir on the rear to match the front.
Carbon mudguard and hugger normally adorn the "S"s.

You might even find that the rear brake has a floating caliper?
Rubbers on the footrests might be another clue.

Your front calipers look right for '97, but at the top of the forks there are remote reservoirs and a speedo/tacho nacelle which I think I am right in saying came later than '97?

Darren seems to be a font of knowledge on these things, maybe he could confirm

Regardless of whether it's got all the original equipment or not it's still a crackin' bike and you're doing a great job...

[Darren69]

ok and so 1997 was the year or our saviour TPG and so began many improvements and technical upgrades to existing models mainly to 996SPS and ST2 but 900SS and Monster both got bimetallic valves and carb heating kits. The '97 M900 was detuned and had the small valve heads from the 750 with new camshafts to suit and max power was 66.6hp compared to 80hp of the 900SS beginning engine number 037728. The actual S model didmt officially appear until '98 but many of the features of the previous Club Italia/Police/Solo model were retained including fully floating cast iron brake discs and remote res master cylinders with adjustable levers and floating rear brake. The solo was fitted with a centre stand and like the Solo appeared in the brochures but wasn't generally available with only 3 being built.

I'm a bit confused by the above text as the accompanying press photos show standard steel semi floating disks with coffin masters and it would appear that they did switch back to steel disks later that year (from May, after the recalls for handlebars breaking, changes to calipers and discs, rectifiers etc, etc!). So all in all not a great year for them.

[Mr Gazza]

Thanks Darren..

So the remote res' brake and clutch are probably right then.

[Darren69]

No I don't think so now, I might be wrong but I re-read that section and the preceding chapter for the previous year and it would seem that in both cases they only made 3 bikes each year to that spec and they appeared in the sales brochures each year but never made it into production. So 3 Special Editions from '96 and 3 Solo's from '97. It doesn't say if they were sold or what happened to them. The 39 Club Italia bikes that were made to that spec in '95 were only available to friends and dignitaries of the Castilgioni brothers who belonged to Club Itailia riding club. '98 appears to be the first proper year for the 900S

[Andy B]

So are the forks on mine the fully adjustable showas? (not that it would make much difference to me mind - as I wouldnt have the first clue of how to go about utilising them )

after finding a previous owner of the bike on here on my first thread - (not the previous owner i bought it off mind) It looks like its had a few changes over the years...

Rear shock confirmed changed in 2010 after leaking. and looking a the old photos on that thread, i've just noticed - the footpegs/rear sets are different - the ones on it now are rubber covered.. had a standard plastic hugger put on it some point between the photos and me acquiring it, and the forks in the photos come through the top yoke a whole lot more than they do now....

[*J_Dubs photo]
perhaps thats just the renthals that made the difference?


anyway... no floating rear caliper - but does have ali swing arm... not sure how much of a rarity that is on a 900 though... the speedo/tach unit is an aftermarket "RoadRacing" unit which has had grey dials put in it - the oil pressure led on the tach wasn't wired up when I got hold of it, and I have a suspicion the tank has been changed since that old photo....but could be wrong.. and was pleased to see braided hoses on it too when i bought it

eitherway, i am pleased with the spec of it regardless if it came out of the factory that way I was somewhat ignorant of it all until I started reading up on the forum.... the only thing I'd seen about monsters really before buying one was reading to avoid buying if it had the standard Marzocchi forks on the front....

[Darren69]

Yes, they're the fully adjustable Showa type. The main adjustment to set on those is the pre-load (the amount the springs are compressed) is set correctly for your weight and any other load on the bike (luggage/pillion etc) which will control the attitude of the bike during riding and if set correctly will prevent the bike bottoming out on the forks or diving too much under heavy braking. The other 2 adjustments are compression and rebound which are used to fine tune the way the forks oil damping behaves in conjuction with the springs (basically is controls the flow of oil backwards and forwards in the forks as they move) so together with the thickness of the oil in the forks it can be used to speed up or slow down the way the forks react over bumps etc in laymans terms. So its probably best to set them back to standard settings and see feel how they feel and adjust to fine tune if you don't like how they feel (too harsh/too spongy etc, etc) its a bit of a black art and experimentation is the best way and if you do adjust them its also a good idea to keep track of what and how much so you can always go back to the start up settings. BTW I think your forks are dropped a bit lower than standard but that's probably good since they are too rear biased with the standard settings and most fit jack up kits to the back end as well.

[Andy B]

finally getting round for a bit of an update on the build....

Sorting the valve clearances out seemed to drag something rotten..... and what a PITA of a job!!! i'll take my Guzzi when it comes to setting clearances over the Duc ANY day!!



So all the clearances were pretty far out when i came to it... thankfully after a lot of measuring and triple checking and subtracting and putting everything down on a spreadsheet and learning i've been using the measuring tools wrong and sending shims back to be swapped for the right ones once i'd leart my lesson, i've finally got all my clearances to factory spec! (Guzzi - turn the screwdriver half a turn, measure, tighten lock nut, put valve cover back on.- hell, you don't even need to take off the tank since the vee is the correct way round )

aaanyway.... desmo-rant over....

With the valves all done and covers back on, thought it a good time to fit the new oil cooler too... was a little bit of an extravagance, but I liked the cleaner look on the belt side of the engine, and once i put it on, I was very pleased I chose to splash out that extra 80 quid...



seemed a bargain after being told by Moto rapido that the lines were 100/110 each!

next up was the belts....I had been told they were done a few months before i bought the bike which was just on a year ago now.... but, being the trusting soul I am, thought i'd better treat it to a new set - plus it had Dayco belts on it which seem incredibly cheap on ebay....

I opted for the CA cycle works belts after reading a lot of good stuff about them.... (the saving of 20 quid helped too.. - almost covered the new oil and filter)



Whilst all the faffing with valves was going on i did a little bit here and there to the tanks getting them ready for paint...







was surprised just how good a nick they were in once all the paint was stripped...

[Andy B]

Wheeled her out of the garage earlier today for a few snaps for my rebuild folder... and she's looking well Added a handful of stainless bolts for the engine casings, rear brake pad in, front ones haven't arrived yet, but hey ho...

Trial fitted new front fender too... not 100% certain on it... but it does offer a lot more fork protection than the standard one.... will see if it grows on me.... it was free at least so thats a bonus...







New reg/rec should arrive this week, and then it might be time to start her up for the first time!