Lee Hathaway's 1975 Moto Guzzi 850T

This was a 1975 Moto Guzzi 850T police escort bike. It spent many years baking in the Arizona sun before a friend of mine picked it up and started a restoration. He is an experienced Ducati/MG mechanic and planned to restore this bike for himself. He rebuilt the engine/tranny, painted the frame and replaced the original foot-boards with pegs in the V7 Sport style. He had put it aside and left it sitting for a couple of years before I convinced him to sell it to me. I bought it as a rolling chassis with good mechanics, a trashed seat, a funky tank, and no wiring or electrics.

I hadn't redone a complete electric system from scratch before. I had a stock 850T wiring harness made for the bike and started to install it, but decided I wanted a simpler, cleaner look. The Motogadget m-Unit v.2 with the m-Button definitely simplified the wiring and cleaned up the handlebar controls and all of the wires going to back to the fuse box. The best thing about the Motoscope Classic gauge is that I can see the output of the electrical system. This definitely helped in troubleshooting the electrical system and saving the Antigravity battery.

My plan is to make it into a V7 Sport replica with a few custom touches. I love the low center of gravity of the Tonti frame and the long look of the V7 seat. I added a stock seat and tank and paid way too much for set of rusty toolboxes that are at the painters. The handlebars are from Stucchi Luigi.


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published