Duc Hunting - 1990 Ducati Sport

In the never ending battle to expand my horizons, I've decided to do a little Duc Hunting. A 1990 Ducati 750 Sport. Why? I was getting a little bored with Ironheads and figured I needed something a little different and I wanted some actual hands on with the famous Ducati Desmodromic valve train. And, yes, a full up valve job would be a real pain in the balls. But, hey it's still a V-Twin right? Got this from an old friend of mine, he found metal in the oil and quit driving it several years ago and has never gotten around to fixing it. Anyway, I tore the engine down and found the rod bearings on the verge of total failure. Fortunately, he quit driving it before the crankshaft got jacked up. New rod bearings, gaskets, piston rings, seals, a little lapping compound on the valves, a few other small parts and the engine was sorted. I went through the rest of the chassis; cleaned and repacked all bearings, flushed the brake fluid, changed the fork oil and this bike was back on the road. It was a hoot to drive: fast, light, maneuverable, everything you would imagine an Italian sport bike to be. What did I learn? It was a real nicely made, well engineered machine. A piece of mechanical art. And I learned that Italian bikes are a pain in the ass to work on. And parts cost a fortune, pistons were a $1000. EACH. Ring sets were $150 EACH. There is no aftermarket. I originally wanted to keep the bike, but, I ultimately decided to sell it before some rare (i.e. expensive) piece of exotic Italian unobtainium decided to crap out and leave me stuck with a $1400 repair.

The full sized version of pictures on this website can be viewed by right clicking on the picture and selecting "VIEW IMAGE", then use your browser back button to return to the the web page...