After 25 years, its time

Bevelheadmhr

Coast to Coast
DTT BOTM WINNER
In January each year, on my birthday, I decide what projects I'm going to work on for new year. This year, I've decided that its time for my 1981 Ducati MHR (Mike Hailwood Replica) to see the road again, after spending 25 years being a big ornament. I restored it back in the early 90's, since when its sat in my living room, only moving a few feet when the room was decorated.

However, its been kept 'dry'.. no brake fluid in the brakes, no acid in the battery, no fuel in the tank, just fresh oil in the motor. Since the engine is kick start only, every few weeks over those years, I would kick it over as I walked past, just to keep things moving inside the engine. All of which should hopefully have helped preserve it.

The old Ducati is still sitting in my living room, and it'll be awhile before it can be moved. But I've made a start by removing the master cylinders and callipers, they'll be rebuilt with new seals and pistons if needed. I've also bought a pair of new Avon AM26 tyres and inner tubes, to replace its Pirelli Phantoms, even though they've got plenty of tread left, but then they are about 30 years old. Though someone has already asked me for the old tyres for their restored bike..

I don't have a lot of time to work on my bikes these days, and with other bikes to finish this year, I don't know how long this 'recommission' will take. But I hope to have it done in time for my next birthday.
 

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Re: After 25 years, its time

A beautiful machine that I'm sure has sparked a few conversations in your living room.
 
Will enjoy seeing this come back to life. My uncle had one among his other Ducati's (750GT, 860, Dharma etc.) but it ended up in a local museum when he sold off some of the collection as he aged out of that riding position.
 
Re: After 25 years, its time

pidjones said:
A beautiful machine that I'm sure has sparked a few conversations in your living room.

The regular comment it got was... 'Your not married are you... ' ;D
 
The local bike shop had trouble removing the old rear tyre, as it was so hard and dried out. They had to put a tyre warmer on it for awhile before they could safely lever it off. I'd told them to be extra careful, as the wheels are known to be easily damaged. Going to polish all the alloy adjusters etc before fitting the rear wheel, then repeat the process with the front. Its been so long, that I cant remember if the bike is stable on its centre stand with the front wheel removed..
 
A race mate of ours had an MHR and he rarely rode it. It had become too precious, so he sold it. That think looked and sounded wonderful.

Lovely bike you are are starting with.
 
Slow progress, but got the new Avon tyres on the wheels, and made a start on removing the bodywork to get at the engine..

https://youtu.be/_6aOPUs86mo
 
With the bodywork removed, I can do some work on the engine, which looks pretty clean in the photo below, but in reality its covered in dust and the alloy that was hidden behind the fairing is dull and needs a good polish.

It'll be getting an oil change and with the fairing lowers removed I can access the coils, one of which I know has a problem, which I botched 25 years ago, so I can finally make amends.

The chromed cup between the cylinders (which should be black, but I chromed mine) is the cover for the oil filter. On the early Bevel drive twins this was the location for the points ignition. When Ducati went over to electronic ignition, they reused this area for the oil filter.

I've owned a many different bikes over the years, and this one, with its 900SS Desmo engine is my all time favourite. Its not that powerful these days, but its fast enough and it sounds glorious. Not just the exhaust note through the Conti 'silencers', but also there's a high pitched ringing that gets louder as the revs soar.. that's the sound of the bevel gears in the heads meshing at high speed. Then of course if you happen to roll off the throttle at night, you'll see a blue flame belching out of the bell mouths across your knee.

I'm looking forward to hearing it run again, I just hope there are no unexpected gremlins inside the engine after its long sleep.
 

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When I first restored the bike all those years ago, as I installed the wiring loom etc, I noticed that one of the low tension wires had broken as it goes into the plastic boy of the coil. There wasn't enough wire left to solder it back together, so I glued it back together with epoxy, knowing it was a bodge.

Now it was finally time to fix the problem correctly. Having removed the coil pack, I decided the damaged coil should be replaced. Though a new coil wasn't available, the same coil was also fitted to some Suzukis … GT25/380 etc. So given time I should be able to pic a used one up on Ebay.

But then the bike would be running with 40 year old coils, not ideal for a good spark. So instead I went out and bought a pair of new Dyna 5.0 Ohm coils which were supposed to be direct replacements. But they aren't as the mounts are slightly different. I'll have to make a new coil mount instead when I have time.
 

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