DesmoDog

In the USA that's the only color they came in. It was also the reason I had Larry find me a yellow 996 instead of buying the red one they had in stock.

Ducati Superlight, 900SS/SL. When this bike hit the showroom I spent half an hour staring at it and running the numbers in my head. I was still paying off my 907ie and couldn't handle two payments. I should have sold the 907 but didn't. Oh well... it was a one year only model in the USA. Had I known that, I may have sprung for it. I've owned three 900ss's since then. I'm considering building a tribute bike with the same body work but different details (944cc, FCRs, Ohlins shock, differnt wheels, etc) or even selling my 851 and buying a real one. Could very well be my favorite street going Ducati...

Wheels? I wouldn't even think about trying to annodize anything that large, at home. It's been a while since I've looked into it but from the little I recall, getting a decent result would be next to impossible for a newbie home user, and the set up wouldn't be cheap either. Just getting them clean enough for it to work to begin with would be a challenge. What I'm trying to say is, Earache gets things right every so often and this is one of those times. Have them powder coated if you must but annodizing wheels at home? Forgetaboutit.

It's a .mov file. Quicktime plays it. Try right click and download. Or I can sum it up for ya'll; Or here it is in mp4 format http://teamyikes.com/851/ChinaSyndrome.mp4 Early on in the process you could see arcing inside the case, after the case split open of course. The good news is, these batteries are usually Lithium IRON as opposed to Lithium ION, which means they don't have the same tendancy to burst into actual flames when they fail. I didn't know the difference at the time so watching it progress was oh so wonderfully suspenseful as I waited for the flames. I was pretty sure it was going to burn down on the side of the road, but it didn't. So here's what happened as I understand it. The regulator failed, and the voltage to the battery reached somewhere around 60 (according to the manufacturer, that's what it'd take to overpower the built in protection, which they have since increased). When the voltage gets too high in a lithium battery, it starts to plate it's internals. Eventually it shorts itself out internally and then it's China Syndrome time. There's not a damn thing you can do until all the smoke leakes out. In my case the bike stalled, then started again, then died for good. Stopped on the side of the road, removed the seat to get to the tool kit, and noticed a small wisp of smoke. What the??? Small wisp became massive amounts accompanied by a horrible stench. A seriously nasty chemical smell that stuck to everything even after the event. Peaking under the fairing (while holding my breath) I saw arcing inside the case. After replacing the regulator and battery, I ended up having to replace the ECU, a bulb or two, and a relay. There is some sort of device in the ECU that is supposed to protect against over voltage. The component unsoldered itself and was rattling around in the ECU's case. Old school Ducati regulators suck. Don't run a lithium battery without a MOSFET regulator. Just don't do it. PS: The tool kit included with a 1991 Ducati 851 is missing one tool that is required to remove the fairing. You've been warned. That fastener was omitted when the faring was reinstalled by the way.

The aftermath of putting a lithium battery in an old school bike, and the old school regulator rejecting it. http://teamyikes.com/851/EarthX.mov This is near the end of the ordeal. Trust me, the smoke was a LOT worse earlier in the show. And the smell. Oh my god... PS. The bike now has a mosfet regulator, and another lithium battery. What can I say, I'm stubborn.

Yep, Ducati stopped using dry clutches on streetbikes about 15 years ago... but I thought they also stopped doing slipper clutches when they went to throttle by wire. No need for a slipper clutch if you can crack the throttle plates a touch under decel.

I've been kinda sorta looking for a vintage Vespa to restore as a retirement project. They're pretty scarce in these parts though.

What's "chain lube"?

Please! Our involvement was the main reason the forum took off so fast! In fact I'm dismayed we did not receive some of the money from the sale! Ok maybe not. But that's not the only forum I've been on that has died shortly after being sold.

When I Was in Korea we went in to a Ducati shop in Seoul. Found out that you can't ride motorcycles on the highway in Korea, and that the Ducati shop supposedly wasn't allowed to sell T-shirts with the shop name and "Ducati" on them. WTF? How can that be true? In any case they didn't have any. I told them if they did, they'd sell at least one to every English speaking person who came in. "Ducati Seoul" right? I'd have bought multiples. That said, I don't have an Ducati Detroit swag other than trackday posters... hmm....

When I Was in Korea we went in to a Ducati shop in Seoul. Found out that you can't ride motorcycles on the highway in Korea, and that the Ducati shop supposedly wasn't allowed to sell T-shirts with the shop name and "Ducati" on them. WTF? How can that be true? In any case they didn't have any. I told them if they did, they'd sell at least one to every English speaking person who came in. "Ducati Seoul" right? I'd have bought multiples. That said, I don't have an Ducati Detroit swag other than trackday posters... hmm....

A guy at work is fond of "you cum gurgling bug fucker". I doubt it's old but it cracks me up.

You can do it! No, really, I've seen it. Eeewwwwww......

Have you tried turning it off and back on again?

They're out there, but most are '65 and later. I've got two of in my basement at the moment, sold a third one, but mine are common models (Monza and Monza Jr). Those in the picture are pretty rare models over here.

Sign me up for the three narrowcase Ducatis please.

Is it possible to post pics on this site using code? As in, I have a bunch of pics hosted on my website. Typically when I post any of them on a forum I paste the link to their location with image tags. But unless I'm mistaken I can't do that here? Kind of a bummer because for a lot of things I know where they are on my site, but not whichever hard drive they may be on at home... Hmm... I just clicked the "Other MEdia" option and found I coul dpost links, but they have to be from an https source... I never upgraded and am still at http so probably not gonna work. Oh well...

Considering they show a video of it on a dyno and describe it as being strapped to a Dynojet I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's rear wheel HP... ? Not that it matters, that's pretty low for a 1.7L engine in 2021 no matter where it's measured. And as long as I'm being bitchy... they claim "We strapped the Softail Slim to our in-house Dynojet 250i dyno, recording horsepower and torque measurements..." yet a Dynojet measures neither torque nor horsepower. Being an inertia dyno it measures the time it takes to spin up the roller and calculates the rest. And now that I've blathered on about all THAT, I see the video is now of a Ducati Desert Sled, so disregard the video comment?

@Earache Hey! Those look familiar... I still haven't tried printing them in flexible material but I'm getting closer... Here's the set I printed for Earache. Not sure why he chose this color but I don't judge...

I'll take a pass on this one... I haven't ridden with snow on the ground since I lived in Indiana. That's been over 20 years now, still have snow here, don't feel the need to ride in it!

Nah, it's not that bad. You just have to get the stepless plane on the crank/central shaft pair right first, then build from there. So all you need is time. And of course shims. And the tool to pull the bearing cups to replace the shims. And remember to install the central shaft before putting the case halves together. And then set the stepless planes on the cams. And don't go back to tweak the main gear later cuz if you do you have to redo everything above it. And make sure you get the timing right, keep in mind the timing dots only line up once every six revolution. That assumes you aren't changing the cam timing, which you really should do because from the factory they're notorious for being off. And to change the timing you'll be offsetting the gears from stock settings, both top and bottom. Which means the factory timing dots won't line up anymore. Break out the timing disk. Youll probably want to add your own dots when you're done, though who knows if they'll stay there. Or if the next guy to work on it will know what they mean. But other than that it's pretty much like using a chain.

CAMCHAIN? We don't need no stinkin cam chain!

When I click on it, it sends me to my YouTube page and I don't know which video it's refering to. Being age restricted doesn't narrow it down enough cuz of my propensity for, er, um, never you mind ya twats!

I'm so confused... I think I missed how this started cuz I haven't got a clue what you lot are going on about. And now that I've typed that I realize I don't really want to know!

I don't recall my first bike experience, it was a dirtbike of some sort. Before that there were minibikes but I don't recall the first of those either. I do recall my first streetbike ride though. I was in highschool, summer of '78 probably. I had no interest in street bikes, I wanted a dirt bike. But I was at a party and someone had a 350 Honda, I think it was the four cylinder version but I'm not sure. In any case I took it out and while coming down a hill it developed a bit of head shake, which for some reason I thought was kind of funny. By the time I got back I wanted a streetbike, and that was that. I remember one early dirt bike ride. Trying to do wheelies in an alley by my house. It was like an 80cc something or other and it started to go over backwards. I went to put my feet back to catch it, but the kickstart went up my pant leg (fookin bell bottoms) and over I went. oops. Even earlier than that, I recall two mini bike rides. Our neighborhood had a hill that led down to a short stright and then a 90 degree left turn. I had it wide open down the hill and the straight, and went wide on the turn. Up into the lawns, hit a hill, and just as I was cresting that a buddy came walking out of his house to see me airborne in his front yard. Landed it, rode it out, and back onto the road. Oh yeah. He thought I was just that good but the entire thign was dumb luck and me being to scared to bail. But the bad ride was... I'll back up. My mom didn't want me on any form of bike. So the mini bike rides were A) borrowed rides and B) secret. Until the day that we headed down the road Iived on. My dad was out mowing the lawn. I figured screw it and just kept it pinned (not like that was all that fast) and rode by. Of course he saw me. That one ended my mini bike riding.