In the earlier eighties, Morini and Valentini (famous Morini dealer) worked together to prepare bikes for some desert rides after Valentini’s son Massimiliano won the six days of Elba.. Specifically, in 1980, during the TransAfrica adventure where 3 stock Morinis  raced, 2 among the 6 bikes which completed the race were Camels. Morini also participated at the Dakar and Massimiliano ended 4^th after few Yamaha xt 500 and a Montesa. Lack of money and serious interest by Morini in the Dakar made the end of the Morini attempt to conquer the podium. There were also some privateers that participated in other races during the 80s but only with discrete success.

In 1985 Morini was purchased by Cagiva which augmented the production line with a improved motorcycle. The 501 camel was born. Such engine had nikasil coating cylinder barrel, it had a larger displacement and a hotter camshaft. The first series was sold without an electric starter. The second one had a centrifugal clutch starter which gave a lot of headaches to people since it required a lot maintenance.   

My plan was to rebuild a Morini Camel with better suspension, better electrics-only 12 volts, and to update it with the centrifugal starter (why not/) that was available in the second version.  

MORINI 501 BB
Picture 1,2,3  Here the stock Camel in decent conditions.
Picture 4,5,6,7  The first mod was the installation of a complete WP front end with a 320 mm disk and 4 pistons caliper. The back shock was also subsituted with a custom wilbers with several dampening controls through a separate reservoir.
Picture 8,9,10,11   The rotten heavy mufflers were also tossed in exchange for small light steel cones with buffler inserts. Notice the rotten Lafranconi before substitution. They were incredibly heavy. The other very heavy item on the bike is the front light which again I tossed. I need to shave some weight because I want to add the electric starter
Picture 12,13 The fun begins. The Morini 501 has 2 electric circuits -the famous Spaghetti wiring system; a 6 volts for blinkers and back light and a 12 volts for front light and everything else. The 501 originally doesn't need a battery to start. Of course this doesn't hold in my case; the coils in the generator were modified to convert everything to a 12 volts. See the two ducati coils and the electronic ignition with pickups installed.
Picture 14 Picture of the electronic module as well as the rectifier that now only rectify 12 volts of course. A new mount was also installed on the top frame to house the new larger morini tank
Picture 15,16 The new Volano-Alternator has been installed, Such alternator allows the installation of the starter. See 501  starters with the new housing on the second picture

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