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Turning a Centauro into a Café Racer...


1100sport

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Hello everyone,

Happy new year to everybody!

 

If one can find something positive about the crisis, it is that prices are falling down. Not a good time to sell, but plenty of opportunities if you are on the buyer side... And this is what prompts my question today.

V10 Centauro are getting cheaper and this could be the moment to accomplish a plan that have crossed my mind a long time ago: create a Café Racer to my taste (without front fairing) based on a 4v engine with clip ons.

 

I love the look of the 1100 Sport/Daytona tank and I have had one made in aluminium that seats on a shelf in my garage for a long time now.

 

1. So the idea would be to fit the 1100 sport type tank on the centauro frame. I know some have put Daytona bodywork on Centauro so I guess this is feasable, but I don't know whether it is a bolt on or not. Anyone knows?

 

2. For the rear, I like the look of the V11, so I would like to fit a V11 rear frame and tail section.

Would that all fit together ? Centauro main frame + 1100 sport tank + V11 rear section ?

 

Thank you very much !!!

 

Mathieu

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Anything is possible with the right time and effort! You could even get someone like John at the Tank Shop to make you a custom alu tank and tailpiece- about £500.

 

This is a nice Belgian Centauro we saw at the V11 meeting in Sibbe 2007.

 

V11meeting014.jpg

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I'm not 100% sure but I always thought the Sporti/Daytona RS and Centauro bodyworks are interchangable with very little problems. I've read (I think at the cog) about people swapping between them. But that is swapping ALL of them. You probably can't use the Sporti tank and the Centauro seat.

 

I have considered removing the fairing from my Sporti. The problem is that unlike the V11 Lemans, the headlight and clocks are not moving with the handlebars. Maybe the easiest way to go is to get Centauro headlight and clocks as it all will fit on the triple clamps with no mods. A V11 headlight would be even nicer and shouldn't be a problem.

 

For the rear end, I have yet to come up with a (more or less) bolt-on solution except maybe molding a copy of the OEM rear fairing and modify it (removing the frisbee ass). I don't know if a V11 rear would fit, that would be interesting.

 

DSC00436_1024.JPG

FWIW, here is a picture of my bike without the fairing. It looks very different naked. Just imagine a proper headlight and clocks and all is set.

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I found the original manuels for centauro and daytona RS and indeed both bikes use the same main frame and sideplates.

Thus it is possible to swap the entire body work (or at least the tank and entire rear section of the daytona).

 

But using altogether the daytona/1100 sport tank on the centauro with a V11 rear section is much more complicated: on a spine frame guzzi the tank is actually bolted on the rear frame.

I tried to compare the rear frame of the V11 with that of a daytona and you clearly see that the "braket" where the tank is attached is different. So using the V11 rear frame with a daytona/1100 sport tank will involve some work...

 

The easiest solution is probably to use the tank and rear section of the daytona/1100 sport and modify the tail to fit my taste for a more "retro" look.

 

We'll see!

 

Thanks

 

Mathieu

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Anything is possible with the right time and effort! You could even get someone like John at the Tank Shop to make you a custom alu tank and tailpiece- about £500.

 

This is a nice Belgian Centauro we saw at the V11 meeting in Sibbe 2007.

 

V11meeting014.jpg

 

That bike belongs (belonged?) to forum member Belgiancentauro. I'm sure a search of his posts will turn up some pictures and descriptions of what he did to it. Nice bike!

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Marabese Design for the original V11 LeMans.

 

LeMans_Prototype.gif

 

The bike is gone but I still have all of these strange parts. If you wanted to know

what a V11 Sport looks like with an early Daytona fairing - here you go.

 

 

V11project.01.gif

 

V11project.02.gif

 

V11project.03.gif

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Thanks Paul and all others!

 

I have been lurking around on the german sites - I too remember having seen some "umbau" V11 modified with 4v engines... I have discovered that at least 2 companies have put 4v engines in V11 (InTeam Guzzi and V2 Moto) but both have gone bankrupt! I would have liked to find the pics but their websites are dead now. Talking about crisis...

 

I came across a number of modified Centauros though. All are more or less designed the same way using a 1100 sport/daytona tank and a light Daes Mototec rear section. It looks ok but not "fabulous".

centauro.jpg

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