Great first ride today. Everything’s looking good. The motor starts like a dream hot & cold, pulls really strong without any hesitation, and the bike feels super light and steady in corners. I absolutely love it. I restarted this bike with cheap 10W40 supermarket oil, in order to “clean/rinse” the engine first. After only 100km, and a hot engine with very fluid warm oil, I flushed it. It was already black, due to detergents action. All that soot is no longer in the engine. And of course, I refilled with my favorite blend of 15w50 zinked-up fluo cocktail. Yummy!
Riding out this morning for a 4 days road trip in the south east. Vercors, Diois, Baronnies. Moment of truth! I will try and take some nice pics.
500km yesterday. Amazing weather! Col de Rousset: Col de Cabre: Bike’s running great: engine pulls strong and feels powerful in the climbs, I love it! However, the front forks are not functioning as they should and that makes it tricky on bumpy parts… I only changed the oil but these will quickly need a full refurb. And I have a small oil leak on the vertical cylinder … Damn! It’s minor, so not “loosing oil”, but it makes the rear part of the engine look oily and that’s not to my taste. Looks like it could be coming from the cylinder base. More to follow!
On the way to Mont Ventoux with a nice group of friends riding some very cool bikes. We summited! Gorges de la Nesque:
beautiful pics... Is that a PASO I see, they always look so cool in europe, then when you see them here; they just look awkward
This one’s not called a Paso, actually, but a 907ie. Very similar though, an upgraded successor of the Paso. Injected engine, 17’ wheels, etc. Short production span too, with 2303 made for 1991-1992 model years. What surprised me the most are the instrument cluster that looks like it’s been taken from an 80’s Fiat or Lancia and the nose fairing which is plain red. No see through plexi windshield. https://www.mcnews.com.au/ducati-907-ie/
On the way back from last weekend road trip, the original rear shock of the chosen bike (#0054) was waiting in the post box, fully serviced and cleaned. That allowed me to swap back shocks between the two bikes, making #0054 look even prettier. Now on to the forks!
Waiting for the forks to return, in order to wrap up #0054 refurb. Well, I am not good at waiting, sat on my hands. Not happening. So I started working on the donor (#1282). Initial idea was to simply prep it for an easy/trouble-free sale. Problem is this bike is just like her twin sister, maybe just a little more greasy for having been ridden more and more recently: everywhere I use a rag, it’s nice and shiny under the filth. So I keep rubbing, moving stuff out of the way, to get a better look, I just can’t stop… to the point where I am now 30 minutes away from doing the valve lashes… Why wouldn’t I do it ? I mean I have a box full of 8mm shims, it’s only time and a hobby. Same for the carby. Why wouldn’t I throw it in a nice ultrasonic bath, while I am at it? Geez, I just can’t stop… Here’s what I’ve done so far: - New oil and oil filter - Spark plugs (looks like bike was running rich). - Air filter - Fuel filter and pre-pump mesh filter - Clutch overhaul - Brakes bleeded - Replaced various rubber bits that where toast, some of which are pretty damn hard to find, NOS being the only option at that point… - Removed the belts. I was very happy (but not really surprised) to find things pretty clean underneath the valve covers. -Started tidying up the wiring a bit. I had an interesting chat with the r/r connectors. Ended up with dirty sticky fingers but now it’s clean and the charging system won’t be a problem anymore, as it seems to have been… - This bike was equipped with kind of NGK heavy duty spark plug cables. It does look period correct and once cleaned, despite being yellow, they look pretty cool… I also decided to return the clutch master cylinder to OEM, which will in turn allow to also return the choke switch to OEM. All these can still be easily ordered. Simple. I removed this PR16 RCS which looks pristine. It is now for sale if someone’s interested, don’t hesitate to PM me about it if that’s something you need.
I hear you... nothing better than a few hours properly tinkering in the garage and getting lost in the detail of even the smallest jobs.
Well, that’s exactly what I did this morning. Getting the rear a check-up and a good clean. I found things oily/greasy but zero rust. Everything came out like it was dipped in melted butter. Messy but nice! And dipping the chain in diesel (that’s a first for me but apparently it’s working like magic…) to get it back to clean and shinny.
I also removed the heart to access the intake valves. Now that’s dirty! Déjà vu… Nothing can beat a bit of elbow grease. Ultrasonic bath time!
Something happened. Something I completely missed, until tonight when somebody on our French forum wrote : « You’re lucky, your second bike has a reinforced swing arm ». « What the hell is he talking about? » was my first reaction. Until I went and checked… Now how in the name of the Lord did I miss that?! Well, aside from feeling like I have just been diagnosed with early Alzheimer, I guess this is good news. Swing arm swap next!
Great thread - glad I came across it, and great work . Can you tell more about the AFR reader please? Make, source? TIA
I use a « MTX-L Plus » wide band AFR gauge from Innovate like this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Innovate-Motorsports-3918-MTX-L-Black/dp/B071RSKR4Z I use it to tune both my injected and carbed bikes. It’s absolutely brilliant. You set the AFR to get the desired %CO using a table like this one, for exemple: The main challenge will be to find a M18x1.5 to gas1/8 bung in order to plug the cable (M18x1.5) to the exhaust headers (Gas 1/8). It’s actually impossible to find. I mean we looked everywhere but to no avail. We ended up drawing a plan and getting some made professionally. A series of 5 made locally ended up at 52€ a piece. I can send you the million $$ plan by email if you guys want to group to get bungs done over there in UK.
I did the valves today. What I found in there was not too bad, really. The horizontal camshaft was dragging, though, and I was not surprised to find 0 lash on the exhaust closer. In red, the values I decided to work on: Intakes V: O=0.08 / C=0.05 H: O=0.11 / C=0.05 Exhaust V: O=0.10 / C=0.06 H: O=0.16 / C=0 I lapped two openers and changed a closer to get to this (changes in green): Intakes V: O=0.11 / C=0.05 H: O=0.11 / C=0.05 Exhausts V: O=0.15 / C=0.06 H: O=0.13 / C=0.05 I am pretty happy with these numbers, and the horizontal camshaft no longer drags. On to the new belts!
I swapped swing arms this morning. The chosen bike is now equipped with a 36.000km reinforced swing arm and the donor with a 13.000km OEM one. I made this choice as I really intend to ride a bunch around country. Here’s a good comparison of the two swing arms side by side.
