Sfida: Italian for Challenge

The logbook stated three previous owners before I added my name in January of 1999. I had a Daytona 1000 Series I at the time and had fancied the Sfida since seeing one owned by a Swedish guy who lived here in Scotland back around 1990. Starting then I had kept half an eye open, but even then they were 'thin on the ground'. One of the most successful production special builders, Arturo Magni and the Italy-based Count Agusta concern became legends in the Italian race scene; dominating the championship circle for two decades. Remembered best as the headman for MV Agusta's racing works, Arturo's connections with MV helped Giacomo Agostini rise to fame. After the motorcycle division closed in the late 70s, Arturo and his family produced all sorts of performance modifications for MV Four.

After a short dalliance using both Honda and BMW engines, a long and fruitful partnership ensued with Moto Guzzi. The Sfida is one of a family of bikes Magni produced and still does; albeit now on commission only. The Sfida (it really does mean challenge in Italian) fit period Guzzi Le Mans 1000 running gear slotted into a frame of Magni’s own design (yet mirroring Tonti's original frame) along with the MV inspired tank, fairing and seat piece. The frame is massively constructed consisting of larger diameter tubing and stiffer bracing. The real genius of his design lies in the Parallelogramo rear fork. This consists of two arms which forces the rear wheel to rise and fall vertically; eliminating the jacking 'pinion crawl' which the Tonti framed Guzzis were prone to under hard acceleration.

Around Christmas,1998, I spotted one in the Classifieds of a classic bike magazine for £5.5k and called the seller. It was still there, so I went down to Cheadle (about 350 miles from my home) for a look. Upon setting eyes on it I was hooked; the Sfida was in good condition and Ian the owner had obviously looked after it and done some nice modifications. The next week I was back again with a bankers draft and a van and Magni ownership began.

The two modifications I appreciated most were the installation of Tomaselli adjustable clip-ons and a modification to the parallelogram to allow manual greasing and installation of heavier bearings to the arms. For the next two years the bike went out on club runs and got ridden more and more. The Daytona, although more modern and a lot more powerful, could just not match the low seat height, compactness and utterly faultless handling of the Sfida. An older design it may be, but it could run rings around the Daytona on anything but the fastest of “A” roads where the Daytona could use its superior power. The Sfida had the genius of Magni, who knew power is only a part of the equation required to make fast and fun progress.

During this time the tacho failed, so a competition number was purchased along with a new instrument cowl and speedo, the original was hand made and underneath lurked many horrors. The silencers rotted so on the advice of my good friend David MacMillan I bought a pair of Supertrapps from the US and got custom down pipes and a crossover made up to fit. Apart from that the loom got some attention but I knew that I was fighting a losing battle with the wiring. In general terms the quality of the major components were superb; the aluminum tank, the big, but thin bubble fairing and bulletproof Guzzi engine gearbox and final drive. It was so typical Italian gorgeous to behold but they spent so much on the major components I suspected the minor stuff was sourced from Michael Mouse Eng. Esq...

The company I was working with had been taken over by a big multi-national, and from 2001 onwards I became a wage slave. My work took me everywhere and was pretty much all consuming. I had no complaints as the money was good but the hours were horrific. The result was that both bikes sat in my shed at the bottom of the garden gathering dust...the only riding I did was in an aircraft seat. Fast forward to 2008 and a early retirement, I was not going to be wealthy but I would have time and the Magni was high in my priorities.

The Daytona had been sold. We never really got along that well and a Ducati 1098 was purchased to take its place. If I was retired, then I needed something to give me a grin factor and to ride on the long, hot and balmy days of a West of Scotland summer. We normally get one on a good year...maybe two. The plan for the Sfida was to get it back on the road ASAP. I knew I had to replace the windscreen which had cracked and the swinging arm needed touching up. A damn good cleaning and she’d be good to go.

It’s a story familiar to anybody who has worked an older vehicle. Once the back wheel was out it was obvious the swinging arms would need recoated, the more it came apart the more I found. The headstock bearings were shot and in short order after photographing all I could, David was 'round showing me how to knock out the headstock bearings and separate the engine from the frame.

That, along with the swinging arms (two per side) bars, headlamp shell etc: went for powder coat while the petrol tank, fairing, seat units and side panels were dispatched to the painter. Pausing here, I must mention G’s Customs. Gavin Brown did the paint and a nicer guy you will not meet...a true master of his craft. He airbrushed in all the logos and the bike has a real custom paint job with lashings of clearcoat. I cannot recommend Gavin highly enough. Other sundry pieces were sent off to the platers and the seat sent out for recovering. The bike is now a deeper shade of red than the original, which I had always felt was too much on the orange side of red. The overall effect suits the Sfida perfectly.

The frame and other bits arrived from the coaters about a month later. The engine and gearbox looked poor next to it. After trying everything to clean them, it was obvious that they needed professional attention and the “Money Pit” commenced. I could get philosophical at this point and mention a greater plan about how I wanted the bike to look and what I wanted to do, but it would be a big fat lie. I did know that I wanted to get it looking as close to new as I could, that I did not want to build a grenade as reliability was a higher priority than power, so to that end any modifications would be towards reliability. Hell, if I wanted more power I could go and just drop in an 1100 engine. I wanted to rewire it and again make it simpler and safer with more protection in the system. My original intention was also to keep the bike more or less stock but upgrade the suspensions and brakes if required. The rest grew organically, when I reached a point in the build where I was focusing on a particular area I would scour the web and forums for options and after a while make my choice on what components I would buy and what I was going to do. The things that held me up, worried me and generally slowed me down were not the big bits or stripping the engine and gearbox, but the small things. How would I mount the fusebox and the ignition electronics? What would I use to replace the old foot control rubbers as I couldn’t get originals? What would I do about throttle cables...

After stripping the engine and gearbox (again, thanks to David for the guidence) down to the casings I found some surprises, somebody had been in there before me, different seals had been installed and the gearbox input nut had been chiselled on and off for starters. Once all stripped the casings went to Stephen Smethurst who did a great job cleaning them all up for less money than he originally quoted. When they arrived back they then went out again for professional Ultrasonic washing and epoxy impregnation. A bit over the top, but I can be OCD after all the horror stories of people building new engines to have them self destruct on the first run. No chances or shortcuts taken here.

I always liked the idea of timing gears, and after some research, it fast became obvious that this was a contentious area and if I did want them, under no circumstances could they be alloy. Enter Joe Caruso, who sold me a set of steel ones. Not cheap, but I was lucky to have found Joe and again, found him to be supremely knowledgeable; another great guy. Apart from that the engine remained stock; valve springs, cam followers, big ends, small ends, mains, all the seals and host of other pieces replaced, not because they really needed it, but I did not want to go in there again anytime soon. I also got the opportunity to fit my Moto Spezial V sump with outside filter that had been purchased years previously but never installed. It’s also got a site glass, how very modern. A RAM single plate clutch went in with an alloy flywheel, on recommendations from David. Again a subject of much discussion and controversy, but if it’s good enough for David’s V7 it’s good enough for me. The Lucas Rita system was taken off and a Sachse crank mounted ignition system fitted. This meant I could junk the distributor and blank it with a nice alloy cap from Moto Spezial. The triggers on the Sachse system live on the end of the stator and also incorporates a combined improved regulator rectifier into the bargain, Sachse also supplied me new coils, the Lucas ones were incompatible being 6V in series.

The carbs remained stock but were lightened in colour and GG straight alloy manifolds put on, the inner piece of which was replaced by a part from Joe Caruso. The inlet tapping points for manifold pressure could not be removed as they fouled the finning with the GG part.

The gearbox was built back up again all the major bearings were replaced and the main input and output (or clutch and layshaft if you like your terminology suitably obscure) were replaced with the 14 ball all metal variety, Guzzi changed from these original bearings to a Nylon caged 9 ball item without a change in part number, I guess the accountants were in charge that day.

Engine and gearbox were married together again around March 2010, so well over a year and a half had gone to reach this stage. The frame had lain in the dining room all this time. It’s just as well I don’t have many friends. Also during this period when it was too cold to go down to the shed to work on it I made up a wiring diagram, well more of a wiring schedule in Excel, sized cable to suit and decided on most of the components I wanted for the electrics. The fusebox was replaced with an M-Unit from Moto Gadget and is a combined electronic relay/fusebox about the size of a packet of cigarettes (sorry but I am of an age when that was a standard unit of measurement), it is very trick. A fusebox was also purchased from Centech, more for marshalling cables and making connections easy. I liked the AP2 from Centech as it has split inputs, an area for marshalling earths and is not constructed from plastic. All the wiring was done with thinwall cable as it’s able to withstand a far higher current for a given CSA. The main marshalling of the cables, the M-Unit and AP2 were mounted under the right-hand sidepanel. In order to get it all to fit, I made a small frame from aluminum strip and bolted the whole thing together. The ignition amplifier went into an alloy box from my local electronics shop and suspended from the frame by 2 alloy strips and secured by 4 'P' clips. This meant relocating the rear brake reservoir further forward in the bike. Battery is a 16Ah Odyssey and mounted 180 degrees from the original, I didn’t want the positive terminal that close to the frame. The headlamp was treated to an HID kit with the ballast mounted underneath the frame rails using more Al strip and P clips.

Other components were getting installed alongside the rewire and by the time it was 90% complete, the exhaust system, which had been given heat resistant coatings,was on, all the alloy which had been cleaned (not super polished) was in and the wheels bolted up. I wanted to install an oil pressure gauge... and this was not as easy as it sounds. I went through three iterations as I recall, eventually settling on a fitting where the original oil pressure switch lived, remotely mounting an adjustable pressure switch and a gauge beside the clocks, all joined by Teflon tubing re-enforced with a steel outer braid. Stainless steel braided tubing also replaced the rubber oil lines to the heads. Wilbers rear shocks looked the part, as the stock Koni’s had seen better days about five years before that. This was getting seriously expensive, but little did I know how much more there was to go. It’s now August 2010.

The brake calipers both back and front were pretty much shot. It took me quite a while to even identify the caliper types and from what I could see it was just not worth refurbishing them as seal kits were not much less than new units. The rear master cylinder and caliper were replaced with new versions of the original items but with a lot more stainless steel parts and the rear pads replaced with EBC “green” items. The rear disc was cleaned up and the solid one piece disc sprayed with heat resistant matt black paint. For the front brakes and master I searched umpteen options, settling eventually on ISR four-pots with conventional masters, which after much soul searching were not bought...instead, their six-pot and radial master big brothers purchased instead. At this time I also bit the bullet and converted the clutch line to hydraulic. The ISR masters have some nice features, as well as good looking levers and a span adjustment. They incorporate a force adjustment by way of altering the fulcrum to operate the cylinder from the lever. Secondly the masters can be supplied with buttons on the securing clamps; great, as the M Unit can be configured to operate all push button switch gear.

When the painted parts arrived, I moved the Sfida into its final phase by piecing it back together. During this time Joe sent me an email with a red and black MV which inspired the matt black EPM wheels, black exhausts, black rear guard and a shorter front guard in red to finish it off. During this phase I also came across Magni’s drilled rotors which were also very nice and matched the wheels. The exhausts went back down to Camcoat for re-coating, the wheels and rotors ordered from Magni and the short alloy guard came courtesy of the tank shop. It currently remains unpainted and will be sprayed to match the rest of the bike in the winter. Exhaling, the whole lot was finished late in May, 2011.

Along the way other things went on that cannot really all be documented. I mentioned earlier those small things worried me, like the foot control rubbers? Ducati Monster items. The throttle cables? I made my own from bicycle cable. Nearly all the external fasteners are stainless, as are the engine mounts. All new swinging arm bearings, wheel spindles and nuts too. The indicators were replaced with LED Kellerman units and the rear light is an aftermarket LED Cyclops type popular with Ducati Monster owners.

Since putting it together the bike has done around 150 miles and fettling (knock on wood) has been relatively straightforward. A sticking float, resetting the float height on the other carb, changing advance curves twice and a leaking bevel box seal which spat lube because I used a non-vented cap. All sorted. It doesn’t light up the road in terms of acceleration, but I’m having more fun on it than I can with the Ducati at twice the speed. The bike is rigid, stable in the turns and changes direction easily. Steaming along at (close to) legal speeds listening to the engine roar and pop on the overrun is a joy. The Ram clutch with hydraulic line and lighter carb springs with the Moto Spezial 90 degree cable guide/bearing pulleys have transformed the controls. On the downside, despite the gearbox rebuild I still get false neutrals from time to time. I guess you can’t have everything...John Noble