What follows is less of a build/project, more of a rehab program for a bike that hasn't run in 11 years. I posted a quick intro on the Newbie threads, but to give some background to my situation; I'm a kiwi that's recently emigrated to Ontario, Canada. Started riding at 15 and got my license on a '90 DT175 trail bike. Would take it to hills above the beach and let loose. Bought my first road bike at 17-an '88 VT250F. Most recent ride was an SV650S, a 70km round trip daily rider in sun, hail or rain. Like some of you, the Ducati marque has haunted me ever since I saw a 916 outside a dealer one day over 20 years ago. Up close, it was the small things like the depth of the paint, the plunging contour of the tank just to access the ignition, even the Cagiva font was perfect for the time and place... Fast foward to now, and I'm browsing Craigslist, when a very clean 95 Strada comes up (listed that day) with an asking price of only $US4250. Checked location: 5 hours drive away? Boom, in like Flynn! Ripped down the 401 skirting Lake Ontario, hung a left at Niagara Falls, and I was in New York state. Met up with Sean the owner who was a great bloke. Bike looked even better than the photos. Had forgotten how compact the design was. The Termi's looked legit, as did the rear Öhlins. Notable downside was that it's been a garage queen since 2007. Hasn't even been started, let alone ridden, in the time since... No matter, i jumped in the deep end anyway. Handshake made, deposit left, and agreement to collect the bike in 5 days time. US Customs need 72 hours notice of export, so contacted a freight fowarder to get the paperwork sorted. $150, done deal. A week later, it's on the back of a u-haul north of the border! Let's get this thing on the road.
So straight away there are, of course, some essentials like fluids & filters, belts & brakes, but one thing I hadn't planned on, but was required, was modifying chassis geometry. When I went to lock the steering the first night, no dice. The ignition position was clearly in 'lock', but the bars moved freely. Then I saw the steering damper frame location: I remember seeing something in the Haynes about it, and sure enough the front mount and therefore entire steering head angle is set-up for track-use. A quick peruse of the service history showed an order for a rake adjustment in 1999. Has it been like that ever since? My Haynes bible indicated the factory reset task as 5-spanners on the difficulty scale. Fantastic option first up. First step: remove circlips from the clamp bolts. Getting internal circlips out is never fun, especially when you don't have the specialist pliers. Fortunately, #8 wire is good tech. I grabbed two tiny allen keys and slotted them into the holes, then got my needle-nose pliers into the act. Easy.
Finding a c-spanner to rotate the adjuster tube in the steering head wasn't proving easy, so removed all bodywork while I waited: View attachment 128569
Nah, it's deffo a Strada (aka Monoposto). '4V DOHC' visible on heads, unlike SP's. P8 ecu was shared on a few models, and aluminium sub-frame was standard on single-seat bikes (I think).
As per attached this circled and then another further around the front of the motor.. It’s unusual as if you just google images of a 916 engine you will see that the circled item isn’t there it’s just blanked off. The 98 SPS has it, but that is a 996 engine running the same huge ecu as yours has. I didn’t realise that some of the early 916 had this setup too
Thanks for the info. I know that US-spec '95s got the Ohlins shock as standard (according to Falloon), but don't know much about the ignition pickups. Do I need to keep them in mind for anything?
Why don’t you try out the steep head angle before changing it? (I have always wanted to, but never tried on mine)
Thought about it, but will go with the factory setting to start with. For one, I want to be able to lock the steering(!) I plan to do track days in the future, so will give the race angle a go then.
