revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 9:04 am FCR39s sound a bit small for 450cc cylinders.

I've spoken to a few people who seem to know what they are talking about & they say for a standard 900ss motor there's not much in it between the two options the 39s are better for low down power & the 41s better at the top end of the rev range. I short shift on my 900ss' so I think I'll be happy with the 39s.

Where the 41s really come into their own is with a 944 kit & some hotter cams but that's an expensive & time consuming road I won't be going down. If I do want that much more power in the future I'll buy an ST3 or 1000/1100 EVO engine & put it in.

Back to the project.. fixing the frame

I’m lucky in that a few miles from me is a guy called Dennis who, when he isn’t fabricating regular commercial stuff, happens to build Ducati TT2 frames for historic racing teams. I dropped my frame off to him & the following day it was ready.

Here we have the headstock area after Dennis TIG welded up the crack & fitted the new section of T45 tube. I asked him to leave the repair weld visible so people in future could see that the repair has been done. £100 well spent I think.

[img]]

This complete, the next stage is powder coating the frame. Once again as luck would have it, just down the road from me is a very talented guy called Steve who worked for Dymag wheels back in the day & now has a business refurbing race to wheels & doing the odd bit of powder coating.

I couldn’t decide whether to go original or black with the frame colour, but Steve told me It’s nigh on impossible to match the original Ducati silvery/bronze colour in powder coat. 1980's budget saucepan beige is apparently the best match that can be done so shoot me for being a snob but I'm not having a beige Ducati - satin black it will be. This also fits in with a paint scheme I have in my head which is a job for another day if the budget allows.

Don''t know about you but I love having a nose around an interesting workshop & whilst I was there Steve showed me some sets of Dymag magnesium three spoke wheels from Barry Sheene’s Akai Yamaha Grand Prix bike which he is crack testing & refurbishing for a client who has bought three of Sheen’s bikes from Barrys son. Lovely. Or is that just me?


More to follow when I get the frame back in about 10 days time. Meanwhile the I’m in full cleaning mode trying to remove 27 years of grime from the bike. Could someone please tell me why products like Gunk about as powerful as gnat's piss btw? I've also got the usual list of consumables to buy like head bearings, bolts etc.

Cost to date £100 for welding & maybe £20 in degreaser & Gnat's Piss.

Man maths alert: Labour costs will remain at nil for this project as I refuse to cost out my time on the basis that I'm really enjoying this .

That's cheap! Great job and fix there. Impressed.

I had my 916 done in Satin black along with my 5 spokes back in the day.

£100 for the frame repair and brace is good, I think my Z frame cost twice that for a (bigger) frame repair and bracing.

Good stuff!

I don't know if Gunk has changed chemically but it always used to need a good bit of agitation with a stiff brush when I used it. Leaving it to soak in was always helpful.

IanB wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 9:17 pm Meanwhile the I’m in full cleaning mode trying to remove 27 years of grime from the bike. Could someone please tell me why products like Gunk about as powerful as gnat's piss btw? I've also got the usual list of consumables to buy like head bearings, bolts etc.

Cost to date £100 for welding & maybe £20 in degreaser & Gnat's Piss.

Mate, Jimmy Meek has got an ultrasonic bath big enough to take twin carbs if its any use to you? He's babysitting my 900SS motor and a couple of sets of Mikunis while I move house. Cleaning fluid is all it would cost..

IanB wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:34 pm

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 9:04 am FCR39s sound a bit small for 450cc cylinders.

I've spoken to a few people who seem to know what they are talking about & they say for a standard 900ss motor there's not much in it between the two options the 39s are better for low down power & the 41s better at the top end of the rev range. I short shift on my 900ss' so I think I'll be happy with the 39s.

Where the 41s really come into their own is with a 944 kit & some hotter cams but that's an expensive & time consuming road I won't be going down. If I do want that much more power in the future I'll buy an ST3 or 1000/1100 EVO engine & put it in.

Rich at Louigi used 39mm Dellorto's on their 900 TT2 IOM Race bike. Recommended 39's to me for my 904 motor

Cleaning time whilst I wait for the frame to come back from powder coating.

Google Trim Gel. It'll bring the black bits up a treat..

https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/chemical ... k-trim-gel

Little round yellow applicator sponges work best.

https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/foam-wax-applicator

And I'm not going to mention the £12.99 M&P indicators because I KNOW they're not staying.


Are they?

Some Japanese loveliness

Some Swedish loveliness

These will do until I can locate some high level Termi or Silmoto pipes

Noisy!!!

weeksy wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 12:26 pm And I'm not going to mention the £12.99 M&P indicators because I KNOW they're not staying.


Are they?

They will definitely join the box of stuff to be distance tested !

and ?

Potter wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 10:22 am Still one of my favourite bikes ever, I wish I'd have replaced the dodgy electrics on mine and kept it forever.
I always wanted a superlight - there is one available but it seems like a lot of money - although if there is only one for sale then he can charge whatever he wants.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265519604829 ... SwgHFh8Y~-

its not crazy within the actual market, but in terms of my personal value it is.

IanB and GP can advise on it's actual retail value but i think tht's in the ball park

Yeah, SL's are top dollar these days, the holy grail is the FE tho'.

8k doesn't seem like THAT much (with me having no prior knowledge of old Ducati prices!). When you say "top dollar" for a classic bike I'm imagining something with at least a 2 at the start and 5 figures...

And 1994 is classic by now. There are people who've been driving legally for 10 years who weren't even born in 94.

I've got a SuperLight as well as this 900ss & they are becoming very collectable now, read expensive.

While this is a bad thing if you want to buy one. I think overall it's a good thing though if the value of the bike keeps pace with the cost of of good regular servicing with quality parts & the inevitable several thousands of ££s in restoration & engine rebuild costs which will be needed at some point on an Italian motorcycle which is over a quarter of a century old.

Hopefully it stops them getting street fightered, or heaven forbid, turned into a hipster dogs dinner with brown seat & same size front & rear Firestone tyres.