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| ELEFANTSTEVE ONE MAN AND HIS LOVE OF FANTIES |
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| The engine has been worked over by Simon Parry of DTM racing, a link will be found somwat further on to DTM, whos the ducati wizard, but in no way limited to. New seals and gaskets throughout, new belts and valve clearance checked and set to where they should be, they were so far out they were almost in woodstock, and the engine re blacked to make it real pretty.. |
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| While the bike lay about in many bits, it gave me the chance to re-coat the frame to the pinging red sheen its got now, as well as cleaning every nook and cranny of all and every other item of "bike", after all any one who has had the lump out of one of these fants would know that there really aint a lot of bike left together bar the front end and the odd bit of frame, and for those who may be toying with doing the whole out and in thing yaself......find a chum or 2 to help, im sure some where soon in here i will list the removal process. As well as the rather economic with the facts, service books method. |
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| ELEFANT 650. PRESS PIC |
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| ELEFANT 650. STEVES PIC |
| TWENTY ONE YEARS LATER, NOT BAD ID SAY OIL STAIN ON FLOOR IS FROM WHEN SHE USED TO BE POORLY, ALL BETTER NOW THOUGH. For those of you with good eyes you may well have seen a decal on the chain gaurd for my tattoo man, another master in his field, goes by the name of nutz, and not only a great artist but a bloody nice chap, along with jackie they have a tattoo and piercing studio in ware, herts, uk. The waiting list is long, but well worth the wait, a link can be found below. |
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| So next on the list, now she is complete again, is a jolly good tune up. Carbs to balance, timing to tweak etc, again this is to be done by Simon Parry of DTM Racing, a link to his site can be found below |
| I will update and add to my site as time goes by so please do check back as even I aint sure wat may appear in the future. I can say that there will be a picture history of the other fant i have as it gets the same treatment as the one above, which like a tit. i didnt take any pics of that re-build, ho hum. If you got here by way of micapeak.com, hi fellow fanty dude, or dudet, if you have come from elsewhere, than check out the first link below, 158 elefant owners have logged there bikes there, so far. go on, if your a fant owner, make it 159! |
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| Above is my fully restored Cagiva Elefant 650 85. After much time, sweat and money I feel the time has come to show of my fant to the world. So welcome fellow fanty lovers and " other bike lovers", you know who you are!, to my site. To be honest this website thing is all a bit new to me, well building my own site side of it, so have a squint through and see where it takes ya, cos as yet, i dont know what is to follow, lets just see what happens, one thing i do know is you will find lots of pics of me beast, along with links to on and off topic sites, mind you, only links that are worthy to sit side by side to an elefant that is.......................... |
| AT LAST THE SECOND RESTORATION A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF PROJECT FANTY |
| Ok, below is wats left of the beast after i stole its engine for the last project. Slowly the bits are comming of, and I guess any time soon its just going to be a mass of bits, really cant see wat could remain together as this one is in for a special seeing to. Blue is the going fav for frame, seat, grafix, gators and grips, with the tank,panels and guards, front and rear, to be a bad arse yellow, A sneek peep of which can be spotted on the rear plastics in a pic below somewhere. The idear was to pop A 900 lump in but ive done a u turn and decided to get the old 650 lump sorted out from its siezure, once mended, time for a bigish bore, big as i can go with out getting involved with the crank case that is, but more on that as it unfolds. |
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| As you can see the frame is sporting some bat acid scars, and some servere oil build up on the swinging arm and monoshock. Most of the bike is kinda ok, not great but at least something to work with, only two bits for concern are the exhaust, being as this ones 99.8% spangled, welded to buggery on the inside and the baffle has rotted off and slip down inside the box, and the disks, rather thin on the front and grooved on the rear, are begging for new'ns but being as they are not listed as available any where in this solar system, seems its gonna be a bespoke job for the boys at All Bike Engineering. As for the exhaust i have heard tell that they can still be got from three cross motorcycles but have not checked this out my self, but at a cost, so im told, of around 5 or 6 hundred notes, think i shall be getting an after market and get me a little pipe teasing sorted at DTM Racing, thus freeing up some money to throw at the engine. |
| GOING GOING GOING GONE HOWS THAT FOR SUPER NAKED |
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| As you can see the rear plastics just fell apart in me hand whilst removing the rear light and gaurd, baked by 15 years of spanish sun i guess, so out came the fiber glass kit, that stuff is buggering great, a good solid repair, even stronger than the orig with the added bonus of a bit more support for the new rear light fitting and reg plate holder, topped of with a little plastic padding, smoothed, primed and finished in the spunky looking yellow you see in the bottom right corner, der. |
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| Above is a peep into my grubby little work shop, gym, storage and kids art gallery all rolled into one, gonna freak meself out one day and give it a tidy, but then again probably not.!!! Any how, things are moving on, engine has been dropped of at DTM for some r and r, but not with out an alarming few tutts and intakes of breath from simon, along with the odd, ooo that dont look good.See this is the lump that the kick start decided to engage whilst i was riding, rotating with the engine until it jammed into the foot peg, locking up the engine and burstng the final drive bearing out into the big wide world, bugger a. The first plan was to replace the thing with an e 900 lump, but possible as it is, it was going to be too much arseing around so the rebuild and rebore was plan b, well plan b can sod of too as i know now the cylinder casing extends down into the crankcase as does the piston travle, and to get any expansion in size requires some well and expensive engineering, and as the missus is keeping a eye on me budget, it aint gonna happen. So plan c is being hatched and will be exposed soon as im sure i aint gonna change one of me minds anymore. Below is a few shots of the even more naked patient, loom stipped back ready for the reemoval of, coils and ignition removed and just about as near to every thing as pos until the swinging arm is removed again, leaving just the clocks / instrument cluster to remove along with its entrails, and the forks to drop to allow for new gaters |
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| Below is some of the body work that has been sprayed, let me say my digi cam is shite, cos its a wicked yellow that you dont get to see in these pics, and the blue tank plastics are like blue mirrors, only they look drab here but be assured its well and bright in the flesh. All the body shit is now done apart from the tank, thought id leave that to last, save it knocking about and getting bent or chipped. So it time to think grafix and decals, watch this space. |
| below is wat used to be at one time a smashing ohlins race shock, mind you, its quite tidy for 20 years old but could do with a little tlc. so of to Harris Performance for a new spring, re-gas, a bunch of rubber plugs for the balljoints and a new braided hose from the adjuster to the shock. i ave no idear how much this is going to set me back, but its gotta be less than the 4 or 5 hundred it would be for a new one. apart from a new set of gaiters to the forks i think the front end is holding its own. |
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| just a few shots noting progress. watch out for the spline bearings in the suss/swing arm set up.mine all fell out but i think im back to the 29 a side there should be. least i couldnt find any more. |
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| mmmm shiny. reflective panel is brighter then the head lamp. LG CHEM. great kit. |
| mmmm blue, |
| look at the state of that !!!! |
| all looking a bit cleaner now |
| wat a lovley yellow |
| ok, thought id just make mention that after a small 600+ mile round trip to the lakes, i have aquired a third elefant, 650 again, but this one has the hydrolic clutch, not dry as the other two. so thanks for that david, aka mito maniac. now, if ya reading dave, dont get upset over the following..... condition of machine, well wat can i say, knarley, at best, rear ohlins has gone and who knows where and has a cheaper replacement, no adjustment and 100% spangled, bounce the bike and it acts like dropping a ball and just keeps bouncing. front forks i think are rotting from the inside out and sit in a 50-90 mim depression before any additional load. orig can is mank and has had a can fitted by a system of brackets and has a custem y piece to connect, only the tube dimms are huge and off line . all the panels, tank and even the petrol cap has had some form of respray, which is now all flaking away. that said there is some good points, engine mainly which i think is ok but would get the once over from dtm before any serious use any how, frames a grotty mess but sound enough, wheels are cool and the electrics dont seem to bad. so wat do i do, strip and shelf the bike for a good source of spares, or have the full blown freak out from the missus and restore, rubbing me chin as sit here and ponder on this question, spares or spouse grieve and another few months of financial draining. should be simple to decide, but then again.............. ;o |
| ok,now we got some bits back it is time to rebuild...november, and getting cold, bugger, still, make summer even more of something to look forward too. the engine is back from DTM the shocks back from Harris Performance and the seat is back from A + R Pounds, the trim dudes. 2 downers allready is that the engine took some scrapes in the van on the way back from DTM, scraped against the final drive shaft of the remains of me other fant lump and took some paint of, and the other is that the smashinly refurbed shock below has been fitted with an adjuster link hose that is to short, only realised once i had fitted the engine, frame.swing arm, shock set up together, so now im going to have to put the bike on the jack and remove the shock to get a new line...one step forward and all that...... |
| NOVEMBER |
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| well here we go, where did i put that instruction manual.............. |
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| wonder if its any easier from this side, naaaaa all you c is now a one as it were, and on me own again aswell, found it a lot easier to build with no front end and then slip in the forks and wheels later on when all was bolted up. |
| WEEK END 1 |
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as you can c, me oldest boy can just about control him self over the fant project only took a severe arm bending to get this forced grin. |
| looks like its getting there, but still a ways to go yet, . renthals give it a nice look, dakar highs at 830mm wide, so a snip bigger then oem, less room for switch gears and levers though, between bar end and brace, but just fits. hel brake and clutch lines are on, but all still needs fluid and a bleed. fired her up for afew farps and all sounds well, wiring is all complete with the street fighter rear im so fond of and a phillips blue tone halogen in the headlight, so in short im at another hand in pocket stage as its back to dtm racing for the can, dyno and full tune. i will keep u posted... |