72 Benelli 175 Enduro

[Lotus54]

I fired up the 175 this morning. 2nd or 3rd kick and runs great.
I took a short video, but cannot upload (still too big).

Lights are nice and bright, horn is loud and just very slightly ‘warbly’ with no battery. Not worth doing anything about.

[Lotus54]

I rode it around the yard- it has quite a lot more snap than before I rebuilt it. It will lift the front easily with just a bit of throttle and responds quite well.
I still have some things to finish, petcock developed a leak and is in a horrible location and of course some small things.

https://youtu.be/iCFsXJ-nhTI

[John H]

That looks like it's going to be a blast to ride.

[Lotus54]

I’ve been starting and short rides- always fires right up, runs great and even the brake work.

I am working out a better air filter, and need rear brake lamp switch.

[Lotus54]

I wanted to do something better for an air filter. The original was a wire ‘brillo pad’ type setup and someone put some foam in instead. That didn’t really work.
So I found a K&N (I’m not a big fan of those, but should be ok for this bike) that would fit- IF I made up a spacer/adapter.

I should have made it out of aluminum sheet and bought a nut. But noooo. I bought some aluminum 4” ‘discs’ and cut it to work.
I have never done inside threads (just outside) so I did one first on a scrap. That worked fine- so figured I would just go ahead.
It took me quite some time- nothing happens in a hurry on this little mini-lathe. Metric thread cutting is different than SAE, just engage the half-nut, make a pass, then reverse it- then reverse again. This machine is setup so you can just change directions, not stop, change directions and go. So it was pretty easy.
The usual figuring how to hold it and cut what I wanted- and how to situate the tools…all took time (especially since I don’t know what I’m doing). But I got there in the end.

It works well and nobody but me will know what is in there. It was fun to make anyway.

[John H]

Looks nice. Yeh, internal threading can be tricky. Nice to have a go/no go test piece if it's a critical fit up. Youtube is a big help there too.

[Lotus54]

I had taken the 175 out for a much longer ride- ran great. But after stopping for half an hour or so, I went to restart. Generally this bike wants the enricher on, even after such a short ‘off’ time. But when I flipped up the little plastic ‘cam’- it broke. Darn.
  I used a stick to hold the rod up and fired right up of course.

So at home I measured the broken part best I could. I designed a new one in Fusion 360 (3D CAD). Then 3D printed one. I did have to modify a bit to make the overcenter work right, holding the rod up until pushing the lever back down. But that was easy to change.
I make it much more robust than the original, finally printing in hi-temp nylon/carbon fibre. Just for the heck of I added the ‘175’ on the underside that also aids in grip for lifting the lever.

[John H]

You are really getting creative with that printer. Can you print rubber?? The air boot on the Ty175 is junk so looking for a hose off something that will work.

[Lotus54]

I can get flexible filament- but I do not know how flexible it really is. I have not gotten any yet to try.
I will do a bit of research.