Lucky Phil

About 25 years ago Pete a mate of mine worked for the Australian Ducati importer and they had a SS in the workshop that on pre delivery wouldn't extinguish the LOP light. They pulled it down until they found that one of the crankcase galleries hadn't been drilled all the way through. They finished drilling it and replace the big end bearing which were actually fine but did it anyway and put it back together. That Ducati went all the way through post assembly testing and running and the engine on the Electric back drive rigs Ducati used in the day for 20 min before installing in a chassis with no oil pressure. The very same friend when he worked in Warranty for a large Japanese importer was also involved in an Australia wide recall along with a team from the factory in Japan for incompletely drilled oil galleries in the heads of one of their 250cc 4 stroke dirt bikes of the day. Un crate the bike, pull the head check for damage and replace with a new head if damage found or finish drilling the gallery and re assemble and re crate. The team went round Australia pulling new bikes apart for a month or so. I've got quite a few of these anecdotes after years of knowing people at importer level for several makes, lol. Broken drill bits on computerised machining stations is the usual reason. So your hypothesis may well be true or at least worth investigating at the time. Phil

An often overlooked defect with regards to steering issues is wheel bearing condition. To check the front wheel bearings you need to get the weight off the front wheel and remove both brake callipers so you can check for movement at the rim without any incumbrancers. I had a Ducati ST2 that steered really badly and attributed it to a worn front tyre but it was shot front wheel bearings. Phil

It's a race exhaust header setup Scudd. Fast removal and install fitment and some latitude in fitment. Looks cool on a road bike. Phil

The thing that amuses me is perfectly demonstrated in Micks images. You take a motorcycle and then put car wheels, tyres and suspension on it to try and make the silly thing half way decent dynamically. Why not just go buy/build a Lotus 7 kit car or something. At least it will go around corners like it was on rails. I can 100% guarantee the outfit shown looks a lot better than it rides esp at low speeds like car parks etc. The steering would be killer heavy at those speeds. I once had a short ride on one of those Spider 3 wheeler things and was shocked at the heavy low speed steering. I mean heavy enough to need power steering. I also remember the sidecar guys at the races in the 70s and 80's banished to the far side of the pits like leapers. One walk through their area looking at water pipe frames and cobbled together everything and you knew why they were there. Modern racing outfits are now some weird 3 wheeler race cars you sit on. Same weirdos still race them. Phil

Sidecars, good lord sidecars. All the worst aspects of a car and a motorcycle rolled into one and then made even worse. A case of less than the sum of it's parts. The sidecar is what the poor working class in the early 20th century bought to attach to their motorcycle to transport the family because they couldn't afford a car. They were a poor persons transport band aid and nobody worried about the obvious dynamic shortcomings which not only make them suspect to operate but also destroy the motorcycle itself mechanically. A motorcycle chassis isn't designed to cope with side thrust loads so the mechanicals take a beating and you end up with chassis cracking and high wear on everything including the driveline lugging around the extra weight. The advent of the Austin 7 or Baby Austin, in the early 1920's, an affordable car that the working class could afford killed off the sidecar manufacturers almost entirely and with good reason. Phil

Ducati dry clutches were always their weakest link. Phil

If you have a true expert then you don't need a machine. The guy at the automotive paint shop supplies I use mixed this 2K for my bike. I took him the old alternator bracket off the frame and he matched it by eye. No machine not even using a spray gun just his skills. It's as close to perfect as you can get. In the image is side plate and front frame I painted myself with the original lower frame member for a colour comparison. The colour match is perfect but my spraying and the deep richness and gloss 2K gives straight off the gun is the only difference. These people are rare these days unfortunately. While I was waiting my turn there was a car restorer before me that was having some metallic silver paint matched to the original wheel colour for an old Alfa. Once again he nailed it and the restorer told me this is the only place he sources his paint and matching because the guy is the best there is. Also the front frame compared to the original paint on the main frame back bone.

Unless you ignore Ducati V twins. Phil

These VIN systems all sound very precise and logical and a useful "standard" but the reality is they are not. There has never been a hard and fast international "standard" VIN system. I've been here before even for my Supra. The VIN on the Supra and all the other Au cars not just mine doesn't 100% correspond to any known VIN system. Bits and pieces align but a lot of the digits don't. If you do research on the VIN numbering system it's anything but an international "standard" over the last 40 years. From the shop manual for what thats worth. Phil

The first point is the Ti mufflers have large volume and the crossover style makes a difference. Contis were the original Ducati Supersport performance mufflers. They had a louvered inner straight pipe and no packing material. They would sound like a Ducati on your Guzzi but with a softer sound (less sharp crack) due to the softer cam timing of a BB Guzzi compared to the Desmo cams.

Elegant. Sensible airbox Phil

Something got lost in the translation. Phil

Not as many as you. Phil

I think different secondary pipes to get the higher angle. Phil