It is not that you cannot buy a rear fender for a V7 Sport. They are readily available. Or at least as available as spare parts for old Italian motorcycles can be. But what they also are – is bloody expensive!
A rear fender for a Moto Guzzi V7 Sport consists of a total of 20-30 centimeters of metal and retail at around 300 EUR.
That is a bit naughty. So when I finally received my V7 Sport seat to mount on my 1977 850 T3 I decided to fabricate the fender myself.
I had a steel front fender laying around that I had originally planned to mount on the KZ650. But I had changed plans and wanted an aluminum one for that bike instead, so I might as well use the steel one for something.
It is a standard 140x400mm steel fender and the width fits perfectly with the width of the cutout in the seat.
When I first saw the mounting of the rear fender on a V7 Sport I thought it looked a bit cumbersome. Perhaps it was possible to mount the fender farther up, right under the seat instead. But this 140x400mm fender I had would not allow for that.
Instead I decided to mount it just like the original. This enables the fender to be loosened and hence gives the seat the ability to be flipped open. Without this ability the rear fender will hit the rear wheel and keep the seat from being lifted as designed.
First job was making some small “ears” to mount the lower holes in the seat where “finger-screws” are used in the original mounting to allow it to be loosened.
I could have threaded the “ear” as they are thick enough for the small load put into them. But I opted for the “easier” solution of just welding a nut to the inside.
This was also the first time I really got to use the welder in the garage. Since I joined in February I have not done any work that needed welding. So it took some time to get used to the new welder. It worked okay, but it was very binary in its operation. Either it did not give enough burn or if I held it in a little longer then it burned through, so very narrow window of operation.
With all the excuses out of the way I am okay satisfied with the result. None of these welds will be that visible unless people really study the bike.
Given the fact that the fender is longer than the original it would actually stay put with just these two fasteners. The weight of the rear light and license plate would then force the end of the fender up into the underside of the seat and hence keep it from going further down and hitting the rear wheel. If would however not do anything if the forces went the other way, so I might as well mount it just like the original.
In order to do so I had to fabricate a little box that would join the fender and the seat.
My initial plan was to weld it to the rear fender. That had been the easiest option. But partly because I was not totally confident in my abilities to make small beautiful welds with the new welder and partly because I thought it would look better without any welds at all I decided to make threaded inserts in the small box and then attach it with little bolts to the fender.
I am so glad I went in this direction. Aesthetically it flows a lot better and looks easier on the eyes that welds would have.
Here it is mounted on the bike before I mounted the taillight and license plate.
And finally some pictures of the bike with the fender, taillight and license plate mounted.
I am really satisfied with the look. In some ways it works better than the original design as that fender is more square in its design and this one is more round and follows the tire from all directions.
For now it has just been treated with some rust-deterrent. My plan was to paint it black. But perhaps I will have it chromed instead, just like the original. I am not really sure yet.
But overall I like both my new rear fender and new seat. It flows very well with the lines of the bike and my girlfriend loves the comfort of it. All I need now is to mount some different side panels that shows more of the frame and have some emblems mounted on the tank, then I thing I am satisfied with the old Italian.