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...
A bit of an update -- I changed the FCR jetting to the recommendations made by Buzzer as a starting point (he's used these FCRs many times). I fired it up with the fuel bottle, as I am still "patiently" waiting for my fuel tank to get modified. Health and safety folks will notice the extinguisher bottle close by (there is a second one out of shot). As per last time, the bike fired up with two squirts of the throttle to activate the accelerator pump, and settled into a decent idle. I re-set the balance with the mercury sticks as I'd fiddled with the carbs since it last run. Part of what I did in the interim is order Rupert Paul's excellent wiring handbook for custom bikes. I realized I was trying to run a set of 30amp specced wires with too small connectors. Based on his recommendation I got a set of single wire connectors from kojaykat in the UK. They arrived in a very reasonable amount of time and did the trick. You can also see the tiny lithium ion battery at the back -- again, fired up the bike with no problems. This whole frame is so narrow front to back that mounting things was a challenge, but I think I'm done for now. Aluminum strap will be replaced with something proper later on. Maybe hard to tell, but someone got access to a cricut machine and is going a bit mad... The BMW fairing is painted and cleared, and mounted on the bike. I think it will evoke the desired retro vibe!
On another forum, I was told that I can only call my project a "tribute" -- not a replica. Fair enough. Right now I'm in the testing phase... my province allows riders to put short term insurance on their bikes -- no more than 3 times a season, for a maximum of 15 days/year. This is round 2 -- rode another 60 kms or so. After a longer 50km ride, came home and did some carb adjustments. I'm using a Dynojet kit on a set of BST carbs, but the only kit I could find was for a 750/900 -- this is a 680 engine (600 with an overbore). Running the dynojet "124" mains, their needle on the 3rd clip, and a 40 pilot. There is no airbox (just velocity stacks and foam socks), and the exhaust is a titanium 2-1 with small headers (36mm, I think). It was hanging up on idle after it was fully warm, so I turned the fuel screws out to 5 turns out... I think I should switch to 42.5 pilots. Any thoughts from the group? I took it out again and it was much improved... went for a coffee. Not the ace cafe by any means but the best we have here in Canada. A few fellas (riding a CFMoto and Honda dual sport things) stopped to chat in the parking lot. I was explaining the work I was doing with the carbs and I lost them both! Fuel injection... pah! I also am scheming about paying for a "proper" paint job. The rattle can white was a means to an end, and I'll have 6 months of winter to sand the fairing and seat back to the substrate and pay someone to paint it right... the only question is, what color? I also got rid of the clunky keyed ignition. It's been replaced with a rocker switch, which makes the bike very easy to steal, but it's not like I park it outside anyway... Sorry no pictures of me riding, but I may hook up my go pro to my helmet for a video. I can see why these were/are great bikes on the track. Even with my frankenbike suspension components, it handles fantastically. Looking back, I should have waited for an 800 engine (a 900 won't fit)!
