Featured Return After A While Away To A 888

I can give you all of that. I always like to supply a drawing anyway, irrespective, as annotation on cad is a pain in the nuts, and never sit normal to the viewer when you spin it around.

As for what I'm after, well, lots really. I'm reverse engineering old bike parts into 3d for archive as you can't get the bits anymore, and the suppliers won't make them - harris for example on old turn of the century rearsets, which I was hoping to get a small production batch run off and put up for sale to see if there's any mileage in it.

I've got some 999 rearsets I'm doing the same exercise on, and i'll be doing the same for some 900ss DP ones at some point. Other than that, you know the usual stuff, things that can be manually milled into a small bar like grooves, holes and the odd pocket.

I was thinking of getting a small lathe and drill press / mill, but the small ones are just rubbish and I don't have the physical space for a nice bridgeport or colchester student, and a decent cnc is not even in contention this side of a lottery win.

That sort of stuff.

 

Lovely bike - congratulation!!

Handling can be sublime on these, but it takes a bit of set up. The eccentric on the rear rocker affects ride height and leverage on the spring. You also have the adjustable rose joints on the rear hoop to lift the back, and of course dropping the yokes down the forks a fair way (but not too far as the tyre can foul the front cylinder). Ducati spring rates can be a little "off" too Similar principles to the 916, just slightly different execution. For me, having the wheel set back in the swinging arm and running a 180/60 Supercorsa SP was excellent, but it fouled the rear hugger.

 

Does it still have the original crankcases? If yes, check these on cracks around the main bearings. The roller bearings destroy the crankcases when the engine runs regularly in high revs... Was a main issue of the SP5 engines.

 

Mostly they used the ST-cases for a rebuild in those days.....
So it's important to check the enginenumber stamped on the crankcase, that tells everything

 

When it's a 888 SP5 crankcase, it should always start with ZDM888W4. Strada's have ZDM888W4B stamped as far as I know. You should/must also see the Elephant-logo on top of the case in front of the vertical cilinder.
For example the 900-engines of the Supersports start with ZDM904xxx*xxxxxx*

 

The Corse 888/926's greatly improved the handling by fitting 25mm offset yokes and longer swinging arms.
The later the model the longer the arm with +25mm being the longest.
I modified 3* ST4S swing arms to fit 851/888's this lengthened the arms by 20mm, but this mod' needs a shorter shock.
Maxton modified a Corse Ohlins for me shortening it by 25mm, fitting an alloy outer body and internals to suit so that it had the same travel as the longer shock.
*The other 2 were supplied to well known Ducati race teams.

Steve R

 

Crankcase cracking was a major problem on all the 851/888SP's and Strada's that had been revved over 10,000rpm too often.
The problem with the SP's and SPS was that they made their peek power at around 11,000+ rpm and the case weren't designed for those sort of revs being based on the air cooled F1 engines design.
The later ST4 cases incorporated all of the lessons learned from the 851/888 and 926cc race programme, these involved strengthening ribs and bolts places changed to improve strength and reliability.
I've used late NOS ST4 cases for my 851/955cc motor.

Steve R

 

Which certainly equals to SPs and Stradas that were tracked, right?

I mean, who, in their right minds, would frequently hit 11.000 rpm on road use with a D4?! I have never exceeded 10.000 rpm with my 916 SP3 on the road, and even then, I was being utterly « reckless », as the Americans would say…