While I wait on various sundry parts for the scrambler, I got temporary certification for the TT replica and took it on some test rides. Approximately 90km worth of dead bugs on the fairing. Bike seems to ride as it should. All the consumables (tires, brakes, rotors, etc) are brand new, and the front brakes are bedding in nicely. Bike starts easily on the button. Being a 600-based engine (with a 680 kit), it is not fast by any means, but sounds good with the 2-1 and megaphone exhaust. For the little I've ridden it, it also handles great (being super light), with a very racey seating position. Like any project, the to-do list is never ending, from a valve check to fine-tuning the sprocket alignment. If the weather holds, once I get it back from our version of the MOT centre, I'll take it to a "cruise night" tonight.
I was able to get the machined countershaft sprocket back from my guy, so I thought I'd post a quick update. There is always something to "do" on a project like this... The eagle-eyed among you will see that I've moved the reg/rec for perhaps the 3rd time. I never liked it up high covering the belt covers, so I moved it again.... this time, down in front of the case on the left side. It still allows a bracket to mount the bellypan, and this is where the 848/1098 had the reg/rec mounted. It's in the breeze, so to speak, so should stay cool, partly covered by the bellypan. So I've plumped for a 4 cell antigravity battery, and fabbed up another battery box, tucked behind this ally sheet. Those are drilled titanium bolts that I will secure with safety wire and P clips. It was quite the job to machine down the face of the hardened front sprocket, but this allowed the front and rear sprockets to line up perfectly. Depending on the engine and the swingarm, each model of Ducati has a different length of primary drive spline coming out of the case. As I'm fitting an SS swingarm to a Monster S2R engine, the sprockets did not align. Thankfully there was a lot of "meat" on the CS sprocket to remove, and we're only talking 70ish hp here... More M5 ti bolts and some safety wire... With some thinking, I realized I had a leftover R90 front fairing and windscreen from an earlier cafe project lying around. It's a shame to leave it unused, and even a bit of a fairing might help, vs. a flat numberplate. Out came the orbital sander, and some primer and black. Once dry and cured, some clearcoat will seal it in nicely. I'll cover up the headlight hole with some lexan and use it for numbers. Hopefully the fuel tank gets finished soon!
Photo from the cruise night last week... about 300 automobiles, and around 10 bikes. This is a pic posted to the cruise night facebook page. I'm in the background (in the red shirt behind the safety marshal) trying to explain what the heck the bike actually is. Just out of shot is a bright yellow Ural sidecar unit. A few younger gixxerbrahs showed up, but parked far away from us old fogies. The bike did get some attention, but most folks walked on by. A tough crowd, as there are some custom hot rods with paint jobs more expensive than my entire bike...
