750 Sport refresh

[Tweakin]

Hello from WA state!

So I have a buddy who had this parked in his garage for 15 years with only 8600 miles on the odometer. Picked it up today for a deal I couldn't pass up. Needs a good cleaning and rubber parts replaced but it's almost all there. Deleted airbox with dual 38 Mikuni carbs as well. Plan is to partially tear it down to really clean it up, replace all worn rubber bits and get it running again. After all, they are only original once. It is missing the rear hugger and the rubber on the mirrors is in bad shape.

I have restored/rebuilt many old Hondas but never a Ducati. I am sure I will have a ton of questions along the way.

[Andrew2]

Nice. Looking forward to seeing how it cleans up. You probably already know but don't start it until the belts are changed and definitely don't ride on those tyres. Keep us posted.

Cheers
Andrew

[Tweakin]

Yes, I did a quick start up just to make sure she would fire then shut her down. Once I started inspecting the bike it somehow turned into a complete tear down... This isn't too unusual fro my projects.

After that I picked up all the parts needed for a 17 inch wheel conversion this am so the bike took a bit of a turn from my original plan just to refresh.



I will soda blast the engine and a few other bits today to get them ready for paint.

Nice. Looking forward to seeing how it cleans up. You probably already know but don't start it until the belts are changed and definitely don't ride on those tyres. Keep us posted.

Cheers
Andrew

[Andrew2]

What parts did you get for the 17" wheel conversion?. I'm thinking I might go down the same path if the 16" tyres don't turn out to be good enough.

Cheers
Andrew

[Tweakin]

What parts did you get for the 17" wheel conversion?. I'm thinking I might go down the same path if the 16" tyres don't turn out to be good enough.

Cheers
Andrew

Mostly 900SS parts. This thread breaks down how to do the conversion.
http://forums.ducatipaso.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2698

[Andrew2]

Cheers

[ducinthebay]

Bike looks great. Rear huggers are pretty rare on this bike. Most people binned them as they were huge, and ugly. Haven't found a graceful replacement yet, as no other years fit, and the bolt pattern is odd.
I see you have stock turn signals, which is uncommon. Most of those get broken and replaced.
Those carbs are really nice, and should bring out the full potential of that motor.
Edit: If you add some 2" rubber elbows to those carbs, you can get the air cleaners up in that empty space under the tank, and it will help with the idle and low speed smoothness.
Pipes, I think, are F1 brand. Should be loud, but sound good.
The 17" wheel conversion is a grand idea, especially with some new modern rubber.
Looks like a great project.

Cheers, Phil

[Tweakin]

Bike looks great. Rear huggers are pretty rare on this bike. Most people binned them as they were huge, and ugly. Haven't found a graceful replacement yet, as no other years fit, and the bolt pattern is odd.
I see you have stock turn signals, which is uncommon. Most of those get broken and replaced.
Those carbs are really nice, and should bring out the full potential of that motor.
Edit: If you add some 2" rubber elbows to those carbs, you can get the air cleaners up in that empty space under the tank, and it will help with the idle and low speed smoothness.
Pipes, I think, are F1 brand. Should be loud, but sound good.
The 17" wheel conversion is a grand idea, especially with some new modern rubber.
Looks like a great project.

Cheers, Phil

Thanks for replying to my thread Phill, appreciate the info! I'm having a blast with this build so far and can't wait to see how it evolves.

[Tweakin]

Soda blasted the engine and resprayed it in VHT satin black. New stainless hardware and shipped the carbs out to be soda blasted and rebuilt. (I hate doing carbs). I have decided to not do a full restoration on this bike and take it a bit of a different direction. Since the restored value on this bike seems to be limited I figured I would make it the way I want to with out straying too far from its roots. I apologize to any purist out there and I get it if you would rather I restore.

[ducinthebay]

Wow, looks great.
As with all bikes of this vintage, you come to a fork in the road. One says go back to stock and make a museum piece out of it. The other way is to hotrod it, and make a fun bike that you like to ride. Easy to argue either path, but hotrodding the 750 Sport is certainly worth the while. Not many will shed a tear over a Sport not being returned to stock. Now, if you had an F1, I would say go back to stock. But the Sport? In stock form, it had lots of things that just weren't right. Put 17" wheels, upgraded forks and brakes, and you have a really fun light bike that will be hard to beat for smiles per mile. And you won't find another one at the local meet up spot. I, of course, went to the road less traveled and modified it. Still a great bike to go out for a ride.

Your work already is going beyond what I have done. So I'm real anxious to see what you do with the bike. Lots of ways to go, and good bones to start with. Keep us posted.

Phil

[Tweakin]

Started the mock up of the bike. keeping the front faring as is, including the square headlight. Slight modification to the tail and might remove the rear passenger pegs / exhaust hangers for a more modern approach with aluminum hangers.


Steering stem swapped on the 900ss front forks, this was easier than I expected using a little heat and my press.


Rebuilt the new to me 900ss rear shock and have been cleaning all the other 17 inch swap parts.



Carbs have been ultrasonic cleaned and in the process of rebuild.


Once the mock up is completed I will tear everything down and send the parts out to my powdercoater. This weekend I hope to get the new belts installed on the engine, new clutch and do a valve adjust to button up the engine.

[paso750]

Steering stem swapped on the 900ss front forks

aren't they shorter?

[Tweakin]

Steering stem swapped on the 900ss front forks

aren't they shorter?

the 900ss stem is about 5-7mm shorter than the 750 sport. Swapping the 750 stem into the lower triple of the 900ss fork allowed me to mount up the fork to 750 sport frame.

[paso750]

I meant, isn't the overall length of the 900SS forks shorter? Seeing an SS fork in a Paso, the front comes down quite a bit which can't be so good for handling.

[Tweakin]

I meant, isn't the overall length of the 900SS forks shorter? Seeing an SS fork in a Paso, the front comes down quite a bit which can't be so good for handling.

Got it, yes it is about 40mm shorter. I feel one of the problems with the 750 sport is the geometry. The lower front end should really help speed up the handling of the bike IMO. We will see, this build is going to be a slow process of trial and error. If I don't like the 900 front end once I get it completed I will move on to other options.