“It’s been two and a half years since I left Brazil where I was born. I left home to pursue a Bachelor in Industrial Design at the Politechnico di Torino in Turin, Italy before going for my Master of Fine Arts at the California College of the Arts. I sold my apartment, left my friends and family and leapt towards realising my dream of disrupting the way of design in the bay area, or at least participating in it.
I’ve had this Moto Guzzi since thanksgiving of 2014. I picked it up on a crisp November morning with my girlfriend, now fiancée, who slept only 2 hours after a 13 hour shift to take me over the Bay Bridge to buy this Guzzi. I was in love… and the girlfriend wasn’t bad either.”
“When I first got the bike it was basically stock aside from having the front fairing removed. It would start with some difficulty, but wouldn’t idle. It had a very temperamental bottom end, but felt good overall. I was coming from a 1982 Yamaha XV750 Virago, so for me it was fun-filled worlds away. During the first couple of months I had more than one problem a day to fix. The small mods done by the previous owner were setting off a chaotic shit-storm in the electrical loom, causing fuses to pop randomly, the battery to drain overnight, the headlight to burn on start and all kinds of other nonsense. I dealt with it for about 3 months while I scraped together enough money to get myself a Motogadget M-Unit. That weekend I shut myself in the garage with the motorcycle, stripped it down, rewired it and rode it out on the Monday. This didn’t solve everything, but certainly helped me begin to win the battle.”
“I started to plan necessary upgrades instead of having to constantly fix problems. The upgrades that followed included fitting custom dials, blinkers and a new headlight. I designed a custom subframe to take the modified Ducati 900SS seat and tail. Rizoma CNC Aluminum Reservoirs and Racing GP footpegs came next, followed closely by new EBC brake rotors and a custom mounted Ohlins steering damper. I removed the airbox, added velocity stacks and redesigned the exhaust to suit a mid-to-top end focused powerband, rejetting the PHM40 Dellorto carbs to suit. I then gave her a cleaner, more powerful spark using Dynatek coils and an EME high output power generator (rotor/stator).”
“Then it was on to smaller details like heated handgrips, a shorter travel throttle and lightened throttle spring. I relocated the reg/rec, added Pirelli Angel GT rubber, mounted an LED taillight and even polished the exhausts and engine guards. It was a lot of work just getting the bike to this stage, but it’s only stage 1 of my Guzzi build…”
“During stage 2 I will be adding some illuminated 3D printed half-fairings of my own design, which I’m doing as part of my Master’s Thesis. I also wrote a book as part of thesis project titled “The Future Cafe” which is up on Blurb now and chapter two will soon follow…”
“From clay through bronze and steel our creative power and design output has been dictated by means of manufacturing, means to shape available material into a designed object that serves a specific practical or social function. In the 3D printer era the consumer market faces a shift in the power balance, where the empowered end-user does not need to rely on big brands to interpret their needs through a mass-produced item. The de-centralization of design through facilitated fabrication will continue to feed the freedom of industrial design self-expression, and with it also change he future of custom motorcycle design. To embody the fabrication context of it’s design, the future café project will live in a set of 3D printed motorcycle fairings, designed to carry the classic elegance of vintage motorcycles into the new context of nearly limitless form exploration.” – The Future Cafe
Stage 2 of Eduardo’s custom Moto Guzzi 1100 Sport build, with its custom designed and 3D printed fairings, is due to be released in the summer of 2016, when we hope to be sharing it with our readers again. The project is set to pave his way into motorcycle part manufacturing, merging his industrial design skills with 3D printing technologies. Until then though you can follow his progress on his Instagram account…
