Hello everyone. Here’s the beginning of a new thread about a pair of 1989/1990 900 Supersports, freshly arrived in my garage from Japan. Stay tuned, more to follow…
Hi Guillaume, can't believe you sold the matrix! ...so you used the Vitrolles importer (on leboncoin).. I have been looking for a while as every now and again they have NSR 250 Rothmans pop up!! Cheers Grant PS: Good luck with build, they look really good to begin with!
Yep, these guys. They do import nice and rare stuff, but you have to be very careful when you assess what you are buying… Japan being a bunch of islands, there is a lot of salt in the air around coastal areas. Some bikes show up very corroded…
I’m gobsmacked that you sold the green goddess, wish I’d had a chance to be the buyer. That said, I’m growing to like the old one-eyed bikes a lot more. Looking forward to seeing how your journey with it (them) progresses.
So here’s how all this started. I spotted that 1990 900SS on a listing: serial #1282 - 36.000km, imported from Japan in late 2022. After exchanging a few emails with the seller, watching a video of the engine running and so on, I decided it was worth the 3 and a half hours drive down south to give it a closer look. With fairings and fuel tank off, I insisted. Which was approved. I must admit I was a bit disappointed. Overall dirty/crusty with a lot of hacking into the wiring harness. Some work there to put it back to original. Out if curiosity, I went looking around the rest of the (rather big) showroom and, to my biggest surprise, found a second one. A low miles 1989, this time, serial #0054 - 11.950 km, imported from Japan too, about a month before the other one, looking tidier but missing some of the hard to find OEM parts (fuel tank elephant cap, mirrors, etc.). I asked about this one. YES, it’s for sale too. NO, you can’t swap parts with the other one… Damn, that’s frustrating! So I drove back home and a plan, a project, started to take shape in my mind. What if I take both? Two bikes to make one pristine and when done, sell the second one as a decently priced project bike? My wife agreed it was financially reasonable, when I thought that was a really cool thing to do, working simultaneously on two identical bikes. That’s how this started, 4 weeks ago.
Ducatis were officially imported into Japan by a company called Murayama, back in the day, before Ducati Stores existed (exactly like SIMA was the official Ducati importer in France). You can sometimes find their logo on the fairings. You may even have heard about “Murayama Special” bikes, that are becoming classics for some, today. http://kenworks77.sakura.ne.jp/wp01/ducati-f750/ One thing they all shared is the addition of a very pretty Ducati Meccanica steel plaque with the Murayama logo and, most importantly, the bike serial number. And I find that really cool… So here’s a more detailed intro of each bike I recently purchased. #0054 - aka “The Chosen One”: - First registered August 1st 1989 in Nagano - Frame #ZDM906SC*000054* - Engine #ZDM906A2C*000431* #1282 - aka “The Donor”: - First registered June 2nd 1990 in Gifu - Frame #ZDM906SC*001282* - Engine #ZDM906A2C*001265*
Don't be silly as you've overlooked the most comfy chair in the warehouse, that Chesterfield.! No seriously, it would have to be the kooky F1 for me.
A little more about the project mindset. First, you must realize both bikes were sold without any maintenance record, manuals, tool kits or anything… Nada. Just keys. Well some keys. Never mind, as I absolutely love « the Search ». You know, trying to find stuff missing on the web. Like this NOS commercial brochure: Or this NOS workshop manual: I am still looking for the user manual, specific to 1989-1990 Supersports, and the tool kit, which seems to be shared with 1989-1990 851 SBK. This guy: If anyone knows of a nice one available for sale, please give me a howler. Both bikes are running. However, the «Donor» (#1282) seems to have been more regularly ridden and maintained. Here’s a video of it running at the seller’s workshop. Mechanics felt confident enough to rev it a bit. Sounds awesome in person. https://youtube.com/shorts/WTCo1I-22k8?feature=share The « Chosen » (#0054) has been sitting for a much longer amount of time and was only started with « start pilot » and with great care, as you can see on this video: https://youtube.com/shorts/pLrr-TDhs5s?feature=share By the way, that « start pilot » thing stinks… Japanese official paperwork helps with mileage history as it seems that bikes with motors > 400cc have to get certified every now and then (don’t know the exact details). So here’s what we know: #0054: - 11.700 km - March 2013 - 11.800 km - October 2016 - 11.950 km today. #1282: - 34.400 km - July 2010 - 35.800 km - June 2020 - 36.177 km today I am in the process of getting both bikes registered in France under my name to keep a clean continuity in paperwork. Both bikes will be taken care of. I just won’t spend as much time cleaning and refurbing the « Donor », and leave it to its next owner.
The project started by the purchase of a few essential furnitures which were missing in my inventory, among which these: You need to understand that I really want to make this SS a pretty bike when I am done. And these will be « invisible » on the red frame. I also found and downloaded an electronic copy of pretty much every book and manual about this bike, as well as a very resourceful forum that some of you may know: http://forums.ducatipaso.org/viewtopic.php?t=2760&sid=d9fd96386039a19aeb5bc13a2e1f1de7 And I started eyeing up eBay listings, out of curiosity and, of course, started to buy amazing (but unnecessary) stuff. Like these beauties.
And once I took all the required pics for the authentication/registration of the bikes as « antiques » (or collector vehicles), I was able to start breaking them apart. I decided to do things simultaneously on both bikes, as I want to be able to compare. You know, play the 7 differences game. That required a bit of storage organization but nothing too challenging as I am lucky to have a very decent amount of space in my garage/shop. As mentioned earlier, I chose to keep #54 because it is an early 1989 bike, has lower miles, and looks to be in near genuine OEM condition. - Gas caps (Cagiva elephant is sweet. May be it’s a Varese bike?! ): #54 #1282 - Mirrors (the round black Vitaloni ones are OEM period correct for 1988-1990): - Headlights (#1282 has been modified to add HID. Probably someone who rode at night - lenses are slightly different too): #54 #1282 Clutch masters (#1282 has a very nice upgrade with this PR16, but I am looking for OEM here, so it will stay where it is. #54 #1282 #54 has been neglected for a while, however, and a lot of small plastic and rubber bits are toast. I also suspect it hasn’t been serviced in two decades. The tires are a 2000 Pirelli Dragon in the rear (beautiful tire!) and a 2001 Michelin Macadam up front… Finding parts for pre-91 SS is more challenging. My 916/998 go to parts stores are not enough and I quickly needed to find new sources, among which : Stein-Dinse (Germany) Corsa SBK (Netherlands) Desmo market (Italy) Ebay Italy - Lots of hard to find OEM parts are still scattered around Italian private stocks. Makes for a very exciting treasure hunt!
Last but not least, I quickly found out #54 has been dropped on its right side at some point. Nothing too bad but it will need to be addressed. Looking at #1282 tells me we should be all right. Speaking of treasure hunting, I had a quick look online at fairings. Not that I was expecting anything, but just in case, you never know… And bingo! Found a brand new (NOS) OEM one in Italy waiting for me and for a very good price too (200€!). I had tears in my eyes when it was delivered home last week… I will have the damaged one professionally looked after in the future.
No time to waste, life’s too short! Another reason I chose #54 over her twin is the wiring loom. #1282 has been messed with, electrically speaking… #54 looks a lot tidier, in comparison… I have exchanged a couple emails with Richard from Motorcycle Wirings and he said he could tackle this one, if provided with the old butchered loom, diagram and a few measurements. https://www.motorcyclewiringspecialists.co.uk/ I will leave this to the next owner to tidy. I have already addressed the brakes of #54. That’s something I am now pretty familiar with and it didn’t take too long for a very nice result. Nice discs, even though these are smaller (300mm) than the 916 (320). With a little 0000 steel wool rub, they quickly returned to their former glory. Calipers, both front and rear required a little more persistence for an acceptable result. The inside (pistons and seals) was pretty clean though. Before: After: Rear: And I started playing around with the DP metal braided brake hoses. These look really promising, I can’t wait to see them on the bike…
I then dove into the heart of #54. The very reason I wanted one of these, the carburetor. It’s a little « crusty » in there… But nothing a little elbow grease can’t deal with. The carburetor is a Weber 44 DCNF-118. Basically a two barrels car carburetor. It’s going to get a good ultrasonic bath and full refurb.
The fuel tanks are usually considered as a weak point on these bikes. Here, I checked before buying and both were in very good shape, internally. #1282´s tank is looking nicer on the outside, so I will swap tanks. #54 tank must have had a leak at the low fuel light/wiring nut. It has been repaired with some sort of red silicone and is totally leak proof now, but in my opinion, this will deserve a proper welding job in the future. And the fuel pump is dead… Both tanks will get new fuel filter, pump pre-filters and a new pump, for peace of mind on the fuel delivery side of things. Hoses look in perfect shape. At this stage, a lot of parts are being cleaned and stored. New oil in #54 fork tubes, as well.
