Recent content by brad black

400ss was a japanese market model. they made 350ss for the italian tax break up to 92 maybe, and 400ss until 97 i think. there's a really cool ss junior japanese model of the 750 sport/1990 900ss style - two piece 16" marvic/akron wheels, floating cast iron discs. our learner law was 250cc...

late 2017 a customer rang and asked if i wanted to buy his 400 monster - he'd been taken out in a local shopping strip by a u-turner. broken femur and type 1 diabetes from the trauma, which is nasty. lots of damage on both sides. too old to go on our written off register, and the insurance...

in late 2012 i bought this 400ss. 1 of 20 bought into au in 93. it was cheap. always be wary of a cheap ducati. ranking high as one of my more stupid purchases. should have walked away on sight of the rusted out tank. anyway, dumped in cash, etc. bought some f1 fairings and a super cool...

st3 is coming along. gates carbon drive has been updated and is now a totally useless pitfa ime. i use n-track tuner. it's by far the most durable app i've found.

in chronological order of my ownership. 850gt with eldorado graphics in my favourite colour. falloon obviously wasn't impressed with it - it's in his book, uncredited (he pushed it out of the showroom into a park across the road and photographed it one day while i was out at lunch) and in...

well done. rear frame is cool.

so it got too cold here to paint in my factory, and i took some gears to a gearcutter to see if he could make some +1 / -1 to vary ratios. so there's no chance of the engine going back together. but i did get the pistons back with 1mm deeper valve reliefs so i can try some different cams if i...

you're such an over achiever.

it's little casting flash and unevenness that was hardly noticeable before. probably won't notice it so much when it's on a bike, but it's getting that far that's the issue.

just occurred to me that i have to get a roadworthy certificate on this even though it's going on a club permit (historic) and i might have an issue with the exposed clutch stuff. hmmmmmm. might need to talk to some people about that - it's pretty unique and to start off as all std i need a...

got my cases fully masked up, which certainly takes some time. etch primed and primed the engine covers, then vht flat blacked them. very thin coating overall i think - stuff that didn't really appear uneven as beadblasted raw aluminium is visible now. i'll see if i can live with it. maybe...

interesting effect.

i've often thought of things like that, but generally my ambition outweighs my talent and there's an inevitable redo.

steveo? thanks for the pics - the ntv is way too dark. decision made - i'll just go with what i have.

is it darkish grey or a bit off silver? i want something that's a touch darker than the aluminium colour, but certainly not grey. hard to find good photos of it on something. their nu-cast aluminium might be what i'm after. probably just have to buy a can and spray it on the same piece of...