Sunday, October 28, 2012

trying out some options for mapping past trips.

perhaps this will do the trick


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Thursday, July 7, 2011

stripping down the Ducati 860

Of course, first I had to pull it apart.

This was about 30 years ago, some of the best fun and greatest frustrations I have ever enjoyed.

Pretty much all the bike is laid out here

and the beautiful motor,

Ducati 860 in clean trim

for a while I stripped off the fairing and other bits and made it as clean and simple as possible. the white seat cover looked really nice, although home made pannier frame still messed it up - not much you can do with this. the two into one made the right side particularly 'technic'.

Ducati 860 GT

My Ducati 860, originally in standard condition, then I turfed out the tank, seat mudguards, handlebars, side covers, foot pegs, mufflers, and a few other bits, got some new lugs welded on the frame for rear set pegs, with home made linkages. then made new guards from fibreglass by cutting and stitching some other scrap pieces to make moulds. the fairing, pipes and second front disk came from Eddie Lopez in Richmond, and Bob Brown rebuilt the engine - twice- the first time he left out a circlip and the gudgeon pin came out the side, broke the piston, bent the valves and conrod and scored the barrell. the second rebuilt left it with odd sized pistons and barrels (Brown found some second hand stuff to chuck in) until Eddie did some work and found the problem which stopped it idling smoothly.
The seat and tail piece was another hand made fibreglass one-off fitted around the old grab bar and shaped to the original rear light. New switches, grips and levers were added. The fairing indicators were from Alpha Romeo, the rear indicators from some off the shelf spares.
Eddie also found some aluminum Akron rims and re-stitched them to the hubs, painting the spokes.
pretty original and ready to go

first mod - still with the old seamed pipes and original guards

after a drop near the Arthur River in Tasmania

Second mod new guards Conti replica and 2 into 1 pipe, and home made lower fairing cowl


opposite side with a different painting idea