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 endurance style tail to make it an f1/tt1 style thing like moto motivo do, but then sold the bodywork to some blokes i knew who were resurrecting an f1 for a bloke who was terminal, so more worthy than me. then decided to put the 400 engine into minnie the yellow monster for a play and so it all came apart.
then got powdercoated, etc, prep for reassembly. nutso cosmetic resto on a worthless bike - you know how it is. everything was done - all fasteners and fittings replated, speedo and tacho needles repainted, etc. got a cheap s/h single seat base from rudy in the netherlands and had to make up seats to go on it, so some things i hadn't done before. as it had black wheels i decided to paint it silver like a 900fe, matched to the st2 silver because i couldn't come up with another. couple of weeks after it was done a customer bought his paul smart in and i saw the colour i wanted. too late. custom decals from cutgrafix - std style, but black/gold instead of gold/silver. i rode it on a club plate for quite a few months, and played with the jetting a bit and it was a great little bike. very slow, but just fun. once jetted right it would run to 11 happily, and taking it there from a standing start through the first 3 gears was just hysterical.
advertised it for about what i figured i'd spent (7k), got 5 and a half. which surprised me - i was thinking i'd end up lower. mainly got rid of it because it's a pre 98 small block, and i'm over pre 98 small blocks for a few fairly minor reasons. and i have a couple more things to do that i liked a lot more, and as such this was just superfluous.