I knocked up a simple stand to help hold the bike steady while I added bits. Being a full race version there is no side or center stand.
The rebuilt rear wheel uses the original hub, the brake shoes were still good, as were the shocks. The wheel is trued, the tyre is he one that came with the bike, the inner tube is new.
The front wheel got similar treatment to the back one, the forks were both seized but freed off quite easily. They seem too work ok. Note the speedo drive, I very much doubt the bike had a speedo in racing trim. I have fitted the drive anyway, if I find a headlight with speedo I might well fit it but for now it will stay as a super light racer. I still have to add stays for the mud guard.
Funny old thing, restoration - so many jobs to do, some of which are fun and rewarding, others you can't wait to be finished. My particular nemesis is wheel building. I had already built the two wheels up and spent ages truing them up, the inner tubes arrived, I have used the tyres it came with as they were proper Italian ones and not in bad shape, they cleaned up nicely. With the tyres mounted and inflated I could start putting stuff back, quite a challenge as I had no idea what spacers went where and if I had the right ones or not. My first attempt didn't go too well, I thought it was all splendid and then when I went through my boxes of bits I found a speedo drive that I didn't know I had. That gave me a bit of a dilemma as I am pretty sure a full racing version would not have had a speedo, unless the race series demanded it. I guess if it was built for a road race series it may have been mandatory, I have no idea, I need to do a bit more research.
The seat had me scratching my head a bit too - it looks well made but definitely home made, it consists of wood, aluminium and fibre glass, it is very light and I suspect period correct. I have stripped the paint off it and got it ready for it's new paint, which brings me on to the next dilemma - paint colour.
My bike had been painted yellow at some point but there are fragments of original blue paint on a few parts, most notably the chain guard. I carefully rubbed away the yellow so I could see a fairly large area of the original cover and used that to match up a tin of the right stuff. I found some that looked perfect on the cap but it way lighter in application. Funny thing is, I really like it. It compliments the silver of the frame perfectly in my opinion. The only two blue bikes I have seen have both been lighter than mine was anyway so I am going with the lighter shade. There is very little paintwork on it so if somebody down the line wants to change it then it's no big deal.
The bike came to me with some fairly nasty clip on handlebars that I didn't like so I have cut down an old pair of ace style bars that I think look a lot better. The controls have all been cleaned up, I'm not happy with the clutch lever though so will try and get a better one. I also have an issue with the brake lever, Maserati went for a single lever system so the right hand lever on the bars should be a double one that does both the front and rear brake. The one that came with my bike is only a single so I am going to have to sort that. The throttle mechanism has cleaned up ok, as has the twist gear shift, I am quite pleased with today's progress, it's starting to look a bit bike like again now.
I spoke to the guy that is doing my gear shaft, he says it will be complete and going off for hardening by the end of the week, I hope so because I am itching to get the engine back together now. I have all the other bits in hand, although I notice in the box of bolts there are some with the heads cut off so I imagine they were rounded and need replacing, no big deal I'm sure my favourite engineering supply shop will have some.
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