SFC1000 mirror

A

andre

Senior member
Guys

I've never really liked the 'hinged' Californian mirrors on the SFC1000. At some stage probably after I busted one I installed a chrome bar end mirror on one bar. Never really liked those either.
I just had a look in the ole box of old stuff and I have one good lhs Californian and 2 busted rhs Californian.
Anyone have a spare intact rhs Californian or please advise of whats worked for you? Fairing mounted in the original spot is my preference. And I prefer to run two mirrors these days so I can see behind easier.

Thanks, Andre
 
Reporting back - I found a rhs mirror out of Australia. Post to NZ was surprisingly reasonable and prompt. It was from some car accessory company. I imagine they may have had no idea what a Laverda was.
Mirror arrived today. Looks perfect. Even seems to be a genuine part fwiw. I just have to find the mounting bolts for the left hand one and then they go on. Thats why we keep old motorcycle bits on old boxes... Couple of broken rh mirrors in the box.

Thanks again for that simple tip. I'm still really surprised to be able to get a mirror.

Andre
 
Oddly enough I just this week received and mounted a new Vitaloni Californian right side mirror for my own SFC 1000, they’re currently in high demand 😁 I got mine from a UK company selling Fiat parts and accessories, a little cheaper in this case than US suppliers. I was really surprised too that these mirrors are so widely available.

The original left mirror on my bike was factory painted crinkle black, while the currently available mirrors are either gloss black or a finer textured black. I chose the latter for the right side and it’s pretty close.

I notice the new replacements use a standard Phillips head screw for the pivot ‘hinge’ while my original left mirror uses a black slotted head screw with more bearing area under the head. The head is DIN standard but the screw is 40-mm long and not commercially available. I’m assuming it was custom made for Vitaloni in the 80s, but not today.

If anybody has an original slotted head ‘hinge’ screw from an old scrap Vitaloni Californian mirror, I’d like to find one to match the one in the photo below from my original left mirror.

IMG_0551.jpeg
 
Last edited:
one could either use a normal inbus screw with a washer or - depending on the diameter - a torx clamping screw like these:

1794213833367.png

or maybe a pan-head screw like these, just if you can't find others:

1794214059633.png
 
Those Torx clamping screws look like a good compromise if I can’t find an original screw. One issue there is that the shank appears smaller than the thread, not designed as a bearing surface.

Thanks for the ideas!

Another option is to make one, I’ve done sillier stuff.
 
Last edited:
piranha-bro2 said:
I think that would be rivet counting in the extreme!!
Click to expand...
It surely would be... 🤣

The SFC is near perfect cosmetically, first uncrated in 2001 with 2300 km clocked since then... so I guess that gives me a bit of an excuse.

I’m an old hand at this nonsense. I also have a German 2-seater plane that was manufactured in 1970-72, with about 100 made in all. Some of the nuts and bolts are LN (Luftfahrt Norm), metric aircraft stuff that you can look up if you have enough patience, but which isn't really in production nowadays. Almost nobody has ever heard of it except people who work on very old e.g. Eurocopter helicopters. It's illegal to fit anything else and the last LN 9355 6 mm x 28 mm screw I bought was $14 plus shipping, $35 delivered. It has a precision shank for the required close tolerance fit in the plane's landing gear, so I bought two to have a spare for a total of $49… for two 6-mm screws. This gives one a certain mindset, one that is possibly not 'all there' (crazy)

Nobody in the real world cares much about hardware specs on SFC 1000s or little oldtimer German planes either, but it keeps me out of the bars.

So anyway if anybody has a slotted head 4mm x 40mm Vitaloni Californian mirror pivot screw I'll take it :)
 
Last edited:
By the way, on the subject of you learn something every day…
Laverdalothar said:
one could either use a normal inbus screw with a washer <snip>
Click to expand...

That’s what I’m using for the time being, they fit and work OK. I hadn’t heard the name ‘inbus’ before for an internally hexed screw head, so curious about this apparently German usage, I looked it up.

“Origin of "Inbus": The name is an acronym for Innensechskantschraube Bauer und Schaurte. It comes from the German hardware manufacturer Bauer & Schaurte, which patented the internal hex socket design in Germany in 1936”

This will help me in my German plane stuff. In the US we often call them Allen Screws after a different company that patented something similar in 1909 😄
 
Last edited:
Silvaire - you are right - color should be wrinkle black and the only option I had with my purchase was a gloss black. I am imagining the rivet counters saying 'oh no look one of your mirrors is the wrong finish color'. In my younger days I'd have painted the gloss one the correct finish but now I'll just pray no-one notices... tsk, maybe I should fix it...
Quite fiddly fitting those little 5mm mounting screws. I'm just doing a bit of epoxy repair to the plastic fitting that goes between the mirror mount and the fairing.
I'm still very happy at the prospect of two original style mirrors. In my younger days (again) I was happy to run with no mirrors but too dangerous for my ole reflexes now.
Regards, Andre
 
Hi Andre,

It surely is a bit fiddly to install the nuts for the mirrors between the windscreen and fairing but to my surprise it looks OK when done.

Apparently my SFC 1000 was delivered with only a left mirror. The previous owner fitted one on the right too (gloss black) and that’s the one I replaced because I didn’t want to mess up my wife’s oven with baking wrinkle paint to a uniformly wrinkly finish! Maybe I’ll repaint it someday. The stickers are available if that matters.

Incidentally the ‘genuine’ Vitaloni mirrors currently available are clearly lower in quality than my one original, it’s not just the pivot screw, but they’re good enough. Vitaloni moved from mirrors to sunglasses 40 years ago so who knows who is making the mirrors now. I’d be surprised if they aren’t made in China.

The ‘Californian’ name is a bit funny, nobody in California uses ‘Californian’ as an adjective, only foreigners. Italian charm.

All the best
 
Last edited:
Merde!

@Silvaire - now I've installed the two mounting brackets, one old, one new - the new one in gloss black looks a bit too different to the old one in 'wrinkle' black. 1000 curses. I'm inclined to remove the new one and paint it wrinkle, otherwise I wont be able to sleep.
I have spare 'hinge' screw if you want it. Can post from NZ.

I'll restrain myself from asking about the source of Californian decals. Too many wisecracks to follow

Andre
 
The harder you look the fussier you get until you may descend into the absurd… says he, speaking for himself!

@andre, I’ve sent you a DM and much appreciate the help! My rivet counting compulsion will be satisfied with the right pivot screw 🤪

If you want the decals, I found a Google search on ‘Vitaloni Californian mirror decals’ surfaces a couple of sources. Link
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top