Monty Python must had some insight into my project!
Between my father having a stroke, a storm ripping the roof off an old cottage on our property (empty, but still needs to be dealt with), the usual Christmas crap, my work roster, the poor ol' 851 was suffering serious attention deficit disorder.
But, while I was an absentee parent Niall at Straightline2ten Panel and Paint assumed the role of primary care giver, applying some much needed TLC to the fairing panels I dropped off for daycare. The fairings were actually in pretty good nick, needing bugger all, apart from the early 851 tail I had found to replace the later 888 style (I just prefer the big bum look and it's more authentic to the year), and the nose cone.
The tail was a very pleasant surprise, and turns out it has a bit of history in coming from Dani Amatriain's Factory-spec racer back in the day. Amatriain was a pretty fine racer in his own right (8th overall in '92 WSBK) but is probably more well known for managing Jorge Lorenzo and the Espargaro brothers more recently.
I don't know why, as it was never mentioned, so I just assumed it was fibreglass...but it turned out to be carbon fibre: winna winna chicken dinna!
And very cool that this tail:
...might possibly be the very same one sitting in my shed:
The fact that the tail came with the seat and bump pad was a huge bonus. The seat is normally just a plain moulded rubber pad, where this one has been recovered, making it much easier to move around on vs grippy rubber. It doesn't look too bad, and while the bump pad "skin" is a tad worn it's still in decent nick for the age. As genuine Corsa race parts they are impossible to find so I was as happy as a dog with two dicks considering the bargain price from another enthusiast. Thanks Carlo!
Now, are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? How good does Amatriain's "Marlboro" bike look?! It's just one of those iconic colour schemes, so I actually considered a full Marlboro paint job....but I had to be realistic and draw the line somewhere. Looking closely it was in pretty average condition so after a deep breath the stickers came off, I sanded away layers of paint/patina, and patched up the cracks before handing it over to Niall to work his magic.
The nose was fine, I just wanted a classic/retro number board applied, which sounds uber-simple but there was a subtle thinning of his lips when I used the words "pin" and stripe" in the same sentence.
While Niall was busy calling me all sorts of unsavory names I started looking for the right person to tackle the exhaust and I eventually saw some artistry in metal that convinced me I had the right guy.
Someone who can turn this:
Into this:
...is an absolute miracle worker, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he goes home and turns water into wine. It almost seemed like overkill employing his incredible skills to carry out what was a pretty simple job: massage the larger 45mm ST4 rear header (OEM 851 is 40mm) to fit through the swingarm aperture, and fabricate some link pipes to position the mufflers appropriately...but he seemed intrigued by the bike and almost as enthusiastic as I was.
Of course the picture you've painstakingly painted by numbers in your head is absolutely worthless unless you have some way of communicating it, so I supplied this photo:
He had a bit of work on at the time so I eventually dropped the bike off a couple of weeks later with the front ST4 header and cross-over fitted, muffler hangers fabricated, and string lines in place to mimic the bottom line of the tail fairing (which was off getting painted). It was a very fidgety week or so until I got the "Pick 'er up!" text and I was off like a robber's dog to do just that...
...only excitement was replaced by confusion. WTF? It felt like I'd jumped on a plane bound for London and woken up in New York:
If you had been nearby I'm sure you would have heard the sound of gears repeatedly clashing in my head as I came up with a box of neutral's trying to make sense of what I was expecting vs what I was looking at.
I'll leave you to process that for a bit....
On the flip side Niall had smashed it out of the park, with a full re-paint of the nose fairing rather than just a number board, shown here with a NOS clear Zero Gravity screen to replace the tinted screen that had no place on a classic race bike:
I thought the other panels were ok but Niall had well and truly shown them up, with the real possibility that what had previously looked perfectly acceptable would now look rather....crap.
As you can see I've wacked the tail on, finally getting to play with the lovely titanium fairing fastener kit that has been languishing on the shelf for 2 years. Manufactured by an 851/888 Forum member, the low profile wafer head bolts are a vast improvement over the ugly OEM allen head bolt + chunky collar arrangement.
Ok, so now that you've had a bit of time to digest it, what are you thinking about the exhaust?
Excuse the oil leak, the oil pressure sender has extended it's range of client services to becoming a visual as well as electrical tell-tale, passing oil through the guts of it every time the bike was run.
Now normally I have a pretty clear idea of what I want and like, but the exhaust had me stumped. I wasn't sure if I really didn't like it...or if it was just not what I was expecting. Either way it sure wasn't what we'd talked about.
Artistic licence had been exercised in making the welds loud and proud via heat treatment: the remnants of the Arrow pipes being too thin-walled to dress the welds to invisibility as discussed. Same for the exaggerated bends, the original Arrow bend pretty much dictating the shape. After being nervous the mufflers were going to be a bit "mutton dressed as lamb", I was actually pretty happy with them, but I was not happy that the system had strayed so far from the design brief. Bearing in mind I'd only supplied the Arrow pipes just in case they were of some use, there was no prerequisite to use them. I would have been perfectly happy if he'd chucked them in the scrap bin if it meant getting what I thought we'd agreed on.
This is actually after some re-work. At which point he was getting the shits with it and I didn't feel like we were getting anywhere so I ended up speaking with my feet and adding it to the list of things I'd sort at a later date, I just didn't need the agro. If nothing else it was an improvement over the previous single system.
I thought it was clear (as per the supplied photo!!!) that the line of the mufflers should be parallel to the lower line of the tail piece but a miscalculation has been compounded by the muffler securing springs only being fitted to the underside of the mufflers, further dragging them down.
Hmmmm, maybe I can just pivot them up like this?
But then it all looks a bit too jammed up against the tail, there is no means of supporting the system and my boots foul the link pipes.
Bottom line? It is what it is, at least for the near future
