[engine roars]
We're here with my mate Brian today. Brian I've known for a few years because we've got
an interest in Moto Guzzis as you can see. And Brian's going to explain about his Zagato 850
Le Mans that he's brought along for you to watch today. [Brian] I suppose the first question to answer is
why Zagato? [Nick] Yeah! [Brian] Scroll back a few years. 1970s, me as a young teenager. The pinup on
my bedroom wall was that famous, the Davida poster. That beautiful girl on that
Moto Guzzi Cafe Racer. I fell in love with her instantly. She was gorgeous! [Nick] And the bike!
[Brian] The bike was ancillary to be honest. It was nice but it was ancillary. Now wind forward to
about seven years ago, when I hadn't seen that picture in all that time. And the internet
threw up this picture out of nowhere. I think Davida probably started using it again.
But actually, I fell in love all over again. But the bike was owned by the photographer whose
name is Ben Part, and it was a beautiful old Guzzi. Le Mans Guzzi, and it was made out of bits and
pieces cobbled together. It had an aluminium tank. But he put the badge Zagato on the tank as a bit
of a mickey take really. They are a very famous old Italian styling house, famous for lightweight
aluminium racing bodies. Aston Martins, Alfa Romeos and all that. And it was that photograph,
that image, that actually started me on what was a total three year journey, and building this bike.
[Nick] These are really nice badges too. Did you have those made up? They're brass? [Brian] Yeah
they're brass. Like the rest of it, takes an awful lot of polishing to keep up.
[engine roars]
[Nick] Well take us through from the front Brian, and we'll go through the bike. [Brian] Most obvious
thing at the front end, beautiful old Borrani spoke wheels. They're
the original ones. But they're matched with Ducati 916 rotors, the discs. [Nick] Nice! [Brian] They're
quite huge on here, but of course I had to get the adapters. [Nick] 320s? [Brian] These are 320s.
Had to get the adapters made up to fit the springs on and get the space just right.
[engine roars]
[Brian] The front forks are original Moto Guzzi. What I wanted to achieve was that I wanted when
you first saw the bike it looks like a classic old bike. And it does, it looks like an old bike.
It's not modern and whizzy in there. But I wanted it as high-tech as possible.
And so as a result I've got MCT Darren at MCT to machine in some Suzuki GSXR internals in here.
So the front end is a dream. I've anodised the adjusters on the top from blue to black.
So I didn't want it, I know it sounds crazy, but I didn't want it too blingy. [Nick] And your speedo as well,
that's really neat in here. Is this a Moto Gadget unit? [Brian] The electrics all the way through are
motor gadget. It's bog standard ordinary headlamp, but I cut a hole in it, made a former...
[Nick] Really nice. [Brian]...out of some strength steel and dropped this down. [Nick] What's this?
[Brian] I agonised over this and I might change it even now. That's the starter button. [Nick] Oh right!
[Brian] I wanted to keep the palette simple. Silver, black and gold. And a red starter
button just wouldn't wouldn't hack it. So it's yellow. Finishing off on the brakes on
on this side we've got RCS brakes on it. They're very, very high spec RCS 19.
And they work brilliantly on there. But Brembo didn't do, at the time, they didn't do a
hydraulic clutch. And these old Guzzi's, the cable clutches, and I wasn't prepared to compromise. And
I actually came across they had a prototype there, and this is the prototype, and they now make this.
It's a clutch version so we've got Motor Gadget electrics all the way through.
Beautiful old aluminium tank built by John Williams up in Scotland. There's a 40 week waiting
this from John if you want one of these. It's 24 litres. [Nick] It's the old
enduro sort of style tank. [Brian] Yeah, and it is huge. But it was exactly what I wanted.
The problem that that created was that actually I really had to get my thinking hat on about how
I was going to finish off at the rear end with the seat to go over this... [Nick] Tricky part.
[Brian] The engine, it's a T3 base. I would have liked a Le Mans but I had a Le Mans in the garage and the
T3 was a wreck and the Le Mans was beautiful, and I didn't want to actually tear up a beautiful
old Le Mans. So it's a T3 engine. It's got new cylinders on it. They're bigger bore. They're
950cc. It's ported and and flowed and I've also had them twin plugged. So you get two spark plugs
in each of the cylinder heads. That's run through a Silent Hektic ignition system,
which is expensive, but I tell you what, is perfect. The timing, it runs perfectly.
[engine roars]
[Brian] We've got some straight through inlets from the carbs. [Nick] They 40s on there or 36s? [Brian] They're 36.
So They're Le Mans carbs 36, with the bell mount on the back. [Nick] They're really nice.
[Brian] Bespoke exhaust pipes by Roy Upper. Os pipes. [Nick] Really sweet, I bet they sound great.
[Brian] His neighbour Nigel, MBS, did the engine work for me. So I suppose if I'm honest
I've done a lot of project managing in this rather than building.
Some of my favorite parts of the bike I think are the paintwork which looks pretty damn plain.
Until you start taking it apart and you look a bit closer. The idea with this bike was that
from a distance it looks like an old classic bike. The closer you get the more you notice.
And with your nose pressed against it there are still things that you wouldn't notice.
I mean you get obvious things like the brass petcocks that I got made up and especially
commissioned in brass on there just to be a a little bit blingy on there. But
these side panels in particular, just black until you just catch them in the right light
and you see the Zagato logo on them. They were done by a friend of mine, Chris Tanner, who sadly is no
longer with us. He was absolutely a wizard in his art. [Nick] Do you know, I've never seen that. [Brian] You've never
seen it? How many times have you seen this bike? [Nick] I know!
[Brian] Now on here I also agonised right at the beginning, really early doors about the Cafe Racer look.
Had to be the bare frame, naked under the seat and that.
[Nick] It's always, yeah, I know what you mean. [Brian] Because really, really early on I wasn't sure, I actually made all the brackets
that fit around that frame that take these side panels, is removable so I can have it as each.
[Nick] Oh so they screw in? [Brian] Yeah! Actually I love it with the side panels on.
[Nick] I think it looks great Brian, it really does look what, you know, most people would call that what they call a factory look.
You know, it looks as if the bike came like that. It really does look great mate.
[Brian] No that's fabulous coming from you, an expert builder and some of the best Guzzis
in the country. [Nick] But show us your really trick bit. Now this is something I never worked out with mine.
Mine's just bolted on my seat. Show us your trick seat Brian. [Brian] Okie-doke!
I told you it's Moto Gadget. A lot of people have the Moto Gadget keyless ignition.
Well my switch is actually at the side of the seat, and with the keys in my pocket, when I
lean up against the bike when it's on its centre stand, I have to bend down a little bit when
it's on its side stand, the key actuates the ignition. There's only a three centimeter distance
range on it, and it all comes to life. So I lean against the bike here,
and it comes up. So you've got your Moto Gadget, your speeder comes on everything like that.
You've got your rear light come on, you've got your stop and tail as well.
You've got your indicators. Lovely, lovely old Hella Ox Eye indicators. The rear sets
are handmade by a guy called Simon Barleycorn that works on old British bikes. [Nick] I had those
on my first bike. [Brian] Really, really beautiful. And a Hayter lawn mower control underneath the tank
to actuate... [Nick] You have a piece of lawn mower on your bike? [Brian] Yeah a piece of lawn mower on my bike, to release
the seat. We've got another Suzuki GSXR part here, that's the catch. When I operate the
control, very slowly releases there. Because if you notice the light is in the teeth. [Nick] Oh no wires?
[engine roars]
[Brian] Now I'm not an engineer but I know people that are. So what I do is, I make the bits up that I
need bespoke made. I make them up in MDF and I draw them out, and there are some drawings
of some of the bits and pieces that I've done before. This is the mount underneath the seat.
It's the front brake hangers. You can buy these commercially, but not for the space between
the holes that I needed. So I had to make some up specially. That's the rear brake control,
the stay between the the swinging arm and the caliper.
These are just some other bits and pieces. These are the hangers for the
exhaust pipes, and the rear sets. And when I made the speedo,
duplicate copy out of hardwood, onto a piece of board, wrapped a piece of steel around it.
Pinned it so that it stayed in place. Cut it, weld it, sink it in, and with no more technology
than a dremel, drill some holes in the top, and very very gingerly over the next day drill it
out really carefully to make sure it's exact fit and it's very central. And that's how we
came up with those.
[engine roars]
So that's my Guzzi. And where have I've been with it since? Well little old me building my dream bike in the shed,
it's been up to Kickback in the national custom finals,
it's been on show at Bike Shed at their show in Shed Row, it's won an Ace Cafe, Cafe Racer
bike award. But the pinnacle for me is when Moto Guzzi rang me up, and they actually borrowed
my bike for two weeks while they put it on a stand at the NEC in 2019. Can you believe it? Beside all
their new models. I was overwhelmed, I got a head that's about to explode! I hope you like it, cheers thanks.