Inside a sorted Ducati twin

As might be expected given the appearance of our test machine everything has been well and truly sorted. It’d be naive in the extreme to expect something as special as a 43-year-old bevel twin to be factory fresh. The bikes are never cheap and the following is an overview of what’s been fitted and fettled in order to deliver a bike as good as this. For the engine the list is impressive, scary and/or expensive depending on your viewpoint; 36/38 stepped big end pin, silver plated needle rollers, stainless steel conrods matched to within one gram, main bearings, seals, third, fourth and fifth gears converted from six to three dogs, additional seals to the fourth gear output shaft, V2 Alloy strainer insert, Kevin Bracken modified crankcase, rear bevel tower converted to four holes for better oil return, SS pistons from Old racing Spares of Italy, rebore by Nigel Lacey, valves and K-tec guides, seats recut to three angles, revised oil feed returns to heads, needle roller conversion to rockers, rear camshaft hole plugged to enhance oil distribution, lightened clutch and flywheels, Ducati ST2 rotor magnet, aluminium V plate behind flywheel, revised oil sealing to clutch cover and magnetic sump plug. On the chassis side we have a powdercoated frame, swingarm bearing mounts line reamed along with replacement bushes, new swingarm pin, replacement wiring harness with relays for horn and hi/lo beams, rubber sealed wheel bearings, fork seals and 10 wt oil, Spondon front caliper and matching master cylinder, braided hydraulic hoses, fresh paint and plating plus stainless steel fittings, and Honda VFR800 coils that are good for 16,000rpm. If that sound like a lot of dosh that’s because it assuredly is but this is the price you pay to run one of these machines. Today we affix iconic status to round case Ducati bevels, yet in reality this wasn’t always the case. To quote Shakespeare “all that glisters is not gold” and this was often the case. The bikes were essentially hand-built but on an industrial scale in the 1970s. If it fitted and the bike ran okay with no obvious noises then it was good enough. The potential was there but not always realised and by the time it could be the belt drive machines were already prevalent. Owning an early Ducati bevel twin was, is and never will be cheap but many would argue the experience is priceless. We at CMM fully concur with that mind-set!