Good evening folks, As mentioned in another thread, I recently became the new owner of a very rare 1980 Darmah 900 Supersport Desmo (SSD). Why rare? Well, because Ducati failed to understand the late 70’s market and somehow imagined there was a “missing piece” between the Darmah 900 SD (Sport Desmo) and the 900 Supersport. That did not work and only over a thousand were produced and sold in 1979-1980 (with a few assembled in the following years with left over parts). So allow me to introduce frame number DM900SD*951021* with engine #DM860 904800. It’s a late production and has all the “goodies”: 900SS engine (cams, heads, etc), Conti exhaust (a performance option back in the day), but still the Dellorto PHF 32 carbs (not the 40 of the 900SS), which should make it a bunch easier to live with, lowered footrests. These bikes all came in this light blue metallic livery with darker blue stickers. I love the way it looks because it is so Mad Max like. Remember “The Goose” and “Toecutter” (except those bikes were Kawa Z1000, but who cares…)? It is a Japanese import from Sapporo (Hokkaido) and I will be registering it in France as a “classic” bike. As it is in a very fair shape, my intent is to refurbish/recommission it as close as possible to stock, rather than restore it. So more to follow here on my investigations and progress and, without any doubt, some questions. Stay tuned! G
The darmah SS is an oddity, the engine and frame number dont tell you much except its a Darmah engine and frame. The SSD's were simply SD's pulled off the SD production line and converted to SSD so consecutive numbers might be an SD and an SSD. The difference from memory was the front mudguard, fairing, fairing bracket and the footrests. The later SD had the SSD fairing bracket on the frame anyway and the bracket for the footrests I seem to remember the SSD side panel had a cut out for the rear master cylinder Your bike probably originated from Australia or at least 904800 did so its probable that 904801 did as well but not for certain. Aus was by far the biggest market for Bevels in fact i think they sold more bevels to Aus that the rest of the world put together.
It is pretty well preserved indeed. The odometer is showing 20.800km today. The Japanese “MOT” registered 20.500km in June 2004 and 20.700km in April 2011. That’s 300km in 20 years… So I guess it’s been stored pretty well as I see very little corrosion. Only dust and old grease. She’s sporting brand new 2001 Michelin Macadam tires (hard as wood)… When I went down to take a look at it in mid December, the chief mechanic (pro seller shop) started it for me. It started after the 3rd attempt and I was really surprised (and pleased) at how smooth it idled. It was only the second time they started it, as they had checked it when first importing it in 2021. Here’s a short video of that first attempt: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mq_D-oi1KDRItPiC9WPIed6-Rqed4dhK/view?usp=drive_link Here are the pics of the classified that got my attention: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lD5rCHIUtH8cH0LNUjr1MMcXPlqKV1ix?usp=drive_link @Paddy Barratt Thanks for sharing your knowledge. The Japanese title shows first registration in 1990, so there’s a 10 years blank in the bike history, which could very well have been spent in Australia, as you suggest. They do seem to have particularly enjoyed this era of motorcycling down under. I love this video, for instance.
I bought an fzr600rr that came with ‘new’ Michelin Macadam tyres. They were like wood when fresh! The original non-stick tyres. Bike looks like a really good find.
