Cagiva Mito Fairing - Primer Stage

Compared to the Varadero the Mito has a lot of fairing. The whole thing was a total mess. Luckily my good mate Tom came to the rescue and both of us got stuck into getting them sorted.

Firstly, they were absolutely caked with oil and muck. Secondly, the paint was pealing so badly from these that much of the orginal paint had to be removed. Thirdly, the decals were an absolute nightmare to remove. Many hours with a heat gun and blade sorted them out. The front mudguard had one leg broken. Tom sorted it out with some fastglass. There were a few other areas that needed some fibreglass repair also. It was also necessary to fill in many scratches with some stop putty.  They are almost ready for color and clearcoat.

There are so many parts to the Mito. Quite a lot of plastic and metal make up this little bike! Many of the fasteners that were on this Mito are rusted and will need replacing. Once everthing has been painted and ready for the rebuild I have to source many of the smaller nuts and bolts for the bike. The shocks are next for attention. Both the front forklegs and rear shock require a repaint. This bike was really through the mill. There are less than 20,000 miles on the clock of this little Mito. I think she lived a very short and abused life! :(

MITO Chassis ready for assembly

Finally got the Mito chassis sorted. All of the major parts have been completely cleaned, stripped and powder coated! The next stage of this process for this machine is to work out the battery space frame and motor mount. The Mito will have 72V and 40Ah. It will basically be the same spec as the Varadero however the motor will be an AGNI motor with reinforced windings for those extra RPM. The controller will be a Kelly with regen and it's lifebatt all the way with this one also. Zivan NG1 72V 10Amp charger. This little Mito is gonna be wicked when finished! :)

Before and After

This Mito chassis was dumped in a back yard and was bought for €80.00. I actually bought two Mito's as the first frame was incomplete and the front wheel was ruined. The second Mito was €50 and this one had upside down forks. By using the parts from both bikes I managed to get one good bike together. There are still a few parts missing, the rear seat and front windscreen.

The Italian engineering and styling on the MITO is beautiful and it was such a shame to see the abuse that the bike had been subjected to. In Ireland there are many of these bikes discarded. the only problem is that they will corrode quickly if left! The tank on one of the bikes, when sandblasted, started to show holes in the metal! Lucky there was a second better tank on the other bike. The front wheel of the second MITO was damaged so it was sent off to be repaired. Further, the wheels were stripped and checked before being powder coated. This process cost around €150.00.

The sandblasting and powder coating took a couple of days and was not too expensive. Basically it cost around €150.00 for the cleaning and in the region of €200.00 for the powder coating. Well worth it in my opinion, as the bike comes up like brand new. So this bike has cost roughly €630.00 to get to this point. I reckon that it will be completely sorted, less EV components for around a grand. Not bad for a spanking, sweet little 916 replica! :)

Battery Space Frame and Motor Mount

The space frame and motor mount will have to be made as one complete unit for the MITO. On initial inspection there are three locations for mounting the original motor to the frame. The motor effectively hangs from lugs in the frame. The advantage of the Mito over the Varadero is that there is a lot of empty space to play with. The fairing will also completely enclose the space frame which will help to shield the components from the elements. Without the exhaust, that back wheel and well oversized sprocket should stand out nicely!