Michael Thomas was right...

Well, apparently you can put a v1 back together MY WAY (using heat) or do it the Mike Thomas way (no heat).  Guess what method I prefer now? No heat.  All this time i've been using heat, and it's completely unnecessary.  God damnit.

love you mike thomas.

here's the most recent v1 I rebuilt, two days ago for Nikolas Sanow of The Puddle Cutters (Portland, OR).

love you too nik.

specs:

new FAG bearings
new seals
case matched (lightly) to the ported polini kit that I sold him
1977mopeds minarelli v1 "race" crank
hammer clutch
12t sprocket

I'd like to touch on the 1977mopeds v1 crank for a second.  The quality is pretty bad, sorry to say.  I've had two of these cranks in my hands and both had a pretty unnerving rough spot in the big end bearing.  I had one taken apart and it was 0.03mm out of round.  It should be no more than 0.01mm.  Consider stock cranks i've had rebuilt that were 30 years old and were <0.01mm.  So, yeah.  What exactly makes this a race crank besides the fact that it's new? If you ask me... i'd just find a stock roller bearing crank with good threads and have it rebuilt by Vince at http://www.mrcrankshaft.com.  I mean, the crank is for sure usable but I would not abuse the hell out of it on a kit with close to stock gearing.  The big end bearing is for sure low quality.  The upper needle bearing isn't even the right size as it's too wide to fit in the piston, so you'll have to get an actual, correct size upper needle bearing for it --- which I would do anyway, because the one it comes with looks like a childs toy.  You will need to re-shim your clutch bell as well with a thinner shim.  Don't get me wrong here, i'm very glad that they had this crank made but I feel like the quality could be much better.  I would use it on a stock bike in a heart beat.