The Changing of the Guard
The guards on these bikes should be a beautiful, polished aluminium and although they're are available ('NOS') out of Spain and England', I haven't worked out which one of my daughters I'm gonna sell to buy a set of them! Consequently, I'm fitting a set of Gonelli plastic guards (apparently standard equiptment on later model Sherpas?) It was always my intention for this bike to be a 'rider', so having the cheaper set of guards eliminates the fear of stuffing a good set. having said that, I fully intend to obtain some ally guards for when I just want the bike to look pretty. If anyone can give me a lead as to where to get these locally (Aus), I'd be happy to know.
The bike had some Gerry-built front guard stays when I got it, so I had to get a set of 'NOS' ones out of spain, which seemed to take forever to arrive. They bolted straight on all I needed to do was position the guard and drill 4 holes to mount it. I don't like the look of the all-in-one guard and flap, but for around $50.00 who's quibbling!
The rear guard is a bit more of an issue. The Gonelli units are very short and the Sherpa only has 3 mounting points (2 at the rear hoop and one down by the swing-arm. If the guard is fitted using the lower mount, then the guard just protrudes past the rear frame hoop and looks silly. If it's fitted just using the 2 rear mounts, then it has no stability and will just flap around. It was suggested to make an extra mounting bracket and bolt it between this and the rear mounts, which is what I chose to do.
Using a lenghth of 20mm aluminium flat, I bent a curve and bolted it between the side panel mounts. Then I could simply drill 2 new holes and have the guard mounted at 4 points and have enough guard hanging out the back to vaugley replicate the profile of the original guard. Only problem with this is that the area between the end of the guard and the swing arm is exposed to the perils of riding. To 'bridge-the-gap', I fashioned a piece of an old Preston Petty guard I had, to create an extension. The Gonelli guard is now sandwiched between the extension and the new mounting bracket, and then it's bolted to the lower mounting point too. The whole shooting match can be removed as one unit, by simply undoing the original 3 mounting bolts and the 2 side cover screws, leaving the new bracket, extension and guard bolted together! Fortunately, the side cover hides my atrocious attempts at engineering and fabrication!
The end result (I think) is a servicable guard that closely resembles the 'style'of the original. And as I said before, if I drop it and stuff the guard, it's an inexpensive fix!
So now, the motor gets up onto the bench....
