Hello From Wokingham!

Hi everyone, another noob joined today!

This forum kept showing up in my Google searches for info so I figured the least I could do is sign up and join you all So, introduction time...

I was in my twenties when the 916 first came out and, like a lot of people I guess, thought it was a gorgeous machine. Around the turn of the century, before I later grew into an overweight middle-aged bloke, I had the chance to spend a day blatting around Cadwell on a 748:


Which was, of course, a great deal of fun and, as I'm just an average road rider, also an eye-opening experience. Steve Plater was a guest instructor that day and, if I remember right, so was Paul 'Marra' Brown and some other good club racers (I can't remember exactly who). Anyway, I thought I was doing well, knee down around Park, sweating bullets in my helmet, thinking I was on the limits...when one of the club racer instructors came around the outside, one handed, giving me the thumbs up before disappearing off around Chris Curve and down to the gooseneck.

I wasn't expecting to keep up or even get anywhere close to their pace, naturally - but it was still jaw-dropping just how fast they are when you're up close and on your own limit. I must get back to doing some track days again, maybe once I lose some flab and can squeeze back into my one piece! lol.

At the time, I had a Kawasaki ZX9R and a Suzuki DRZ400 (both great fun for their respective use cases), but I always loved the idea of getting a 748 or 916 one day. Anyway, kids, mortgages, middle aged spread etc. came along. Small kids and forever carrying family stuff around in the car meant that the Kwak and Suzie had to go. Some years later, I picked up a Triumph America once the kids were old enough to pillion, as it's a comfy, passenger-friendly cruiser to burble around on. Okay, yeah, it's a bit of a tractor but it's a good machine (I still have it and enjoy it).

Anyhoo, fast forward to a month ago and I found - and bought - this 1997 916 BP :


It's in pretty good condition for its age, with about 11.7k on the clock. Service history is very much incomplete, however. There's evidence of some dealer servicing and a few indies but not much. I had the seller (Superbike Factory, Bradford) change the belts, fluids and all the basics. I also popped in a new clutch pack, as the one in it was okay but showing a lot of wear (e.g. plate pack width just below 38mm). I've done ~100 miles of test rides on it so far, generally everything seems sound but I've found a couple of inevitable niggles...

Fuel reserve light doesn't work. Found that out the hard way, but fortunately it burped out a short distance from a petrol station.

Tacho runs fine for ~10 mins then drops to zero. Switch off an on again, and tacho works! Engine seems to be running absolutely fine, so perhaps just a wiring issue between ECU and tacho.

However, with the lack of complete history, my plan is to ask Ducati Alton (Snell) to give it a full tear down and check-over, just in case there's a hidden horror lurking somewhere.

Righto, that's enough from me. Thanks for being a goldmine of useful information, and I hope that someday I can contribute something back.

Cheers all!
Jimmo