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Yes Frank the 900 does have a nice set of legs and I'm hoping the brakes work as good as they look, I think they are M1BB forks 40 mm, I decided to polish the alloy as opposed to standard black

I bought this bike recently to scratch my guzzi itch, if anything its inspiring me to push the 89 along, I owned one of these about 22 yrs ago and sold it to buy my first house , gotta be happy about that

It seems you made the same mistake I did. Imho tires and belts should be the very last things to replace in a restoration unless you have a certain date when you know it will be finished. My tires haven't seen the road yet but you can feel they have become harder

G.

Yeah too true, in hindsight I should have built the engine way back when and left the belts to replace last up, the tyres were actually on the old girl when I got her, not sure why she was pretty much impossible to ride, better get cracking or I'll need to replace the new belts as well, I really are bumbling my way through this but still confident of a good result

The way its all panning out it looks like the cases will be split and a full rebuild is going to happen. I have ordered a low km set of gearbox internals complete. Bought complete as buying the shaft alone was hard to find and any new ones were conciderably more expensive than complete secondhand units. I can't see myself ever being content without digging deep now and going for a strong finish. When i started this project it was to be on a budget style restore, well thats gone out the window, i have no idea yet as to cost of doing the motor (no doubt enough to bring tears to my eyes) but the show must go on.

Pretty much finished polishing the silmoto exhaust, I'm guessing with a little maintenance they will continue to look nice

Still waiting on g/box parts to arrive so motor still in my shed, got the cams out of the ST2, I have rebuilt the compressor that I want to spray the bike with so I'm a bit closer to the painting stage

HIGHWAY89 wrote:

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I bought this bike recently to scratch my guzzi itch, if anything its inspiring me to push the 89 along, I owned one of these about 22 yrs ago and sold it to buy my first house , gotta be happy about that

Is that a Cali 3. I had one of those about 20 odd years ago too. Mine was maroon and cream colour. I also had a sidecar in it for a while. They're great bikes with the same frame and running gear as a LeMans but with 30mm Delortos and less top end. They make a great cafe racer too.

Yes Andrew this ones a 93 model cali 3 , my first was a 89 model, maroon and cream as well, fantastic long distance stuff, chuck the dog on and cruise

I have a mate that's selling 2 of them, one a hardly damaged stat write off with low kms, for $6,500. I'm tempted. Here's a story that'll make you cry, I traded an '85 750F1 for the Cali . If only you could see into the future. Never mind. I have a mate who had a green frame SS that he sold when they weren't worth much. Now that's a sad story

Its really hard to see which bikes will increase in value, I obviously believe the 900 supersport of 89/90 will eventually, the cali 3 probs not, the F1 was a beauty and until recently reasonably priced I think, I paid 5k for this cali 3 and 12k 20 odd year ago for my 89 model cali 3, back to the 89 duc and I've just applied for early release of half my super, 5k haha,so the engine is going to have a total rebuild at last

The F1 is definitely a nice looking bike but nothing special other than that. Unwind the steering damper and the thing would spit you into the bush. I fitted the front wheel off my MHR on it expecting the handling to improve but it made no difference.
I ran into a bloke on a '89 900SS at Fitzroy Falls last week. I should have got his number as it was highly modified and I would have loved to have a closer look at it. Upside down front end, different swing arm and wheels, after market electronic dash among heaps of other stuff. I didn't even get a photo.Hopefully I might run into him again. I'm not sure if he's on the forum or not.

I didn't know the F1 had handling issues, I'm not sure I'd want to modify mine with upside down forks and all but I guess never say never

Gearbox parts turned up today, I'm hoping like hell the counter shaft is correct , this is out of a monster 900, probably won't be sure till we strip my engine down

HIGHWAY89 wrote:I didn't know the F1 had handling issues, I'm not sure I'd want to modify mine with upside down forks and all but I guess never say never

It’s why they fitted a steering damper from the factory. I rode to Frasers with my mate when he bought it new and it nearly spat him off on the way home because he didn’t have the damper turned up. Wind the damper up and It was good. Still wish I had it though.