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Our shed: Ducati 916 take 2
(by Guy 'Guido' Allen, September 2023)
It's two
steps forward and one giant pirouette backwards as we
try to get our Ducati 916 on the road
There's another 916 in the shed. You see
I owned one up to a couple of years ago and then, in a
moment of weakness, sold it to young Mr Harris.
It seemed to make him happy, so that's a
good result.
While I was still trying to work out why
in hell I sold the first, inevitably another popped up for
sale and drained the contents of my bank account and
whatever pathetic hopes my children may have entertained
for an inheritance.
Among the attractions, it is relatively
standard, with Termignoni mufflers and after market
footpegs/controls as the stand-out differences.
What really got my attention however was
the relatively early build. It's a Varese-assembled
machine from 1994 and sold in 1995. The short version of
the story is a fire in the Bologna paint shop forced
Ducati to move production of the early customer 916s to
the Cagiva-owned MV Agusta facility in Varese, and this is
one of the machines out of that batch.
Is it any better because of that? No, but
I like the story. And it has a little extra appeal since I
recently added an MV Agusta F4 Nero
to the fleet of money pits in an effort to make up our own
pair of Tamburini-designed toys.
Back to the Ducati. It was bought through
Brad's Vintage
Cycle Sales and the boss there was good deal with.
The motorcycle was as described and the exchange of
prisoners (my wallet for his bike) went pretty much as
planned.
It arrived with fresh cam belts, oil and
rubber. That was a few boxes ticked for getting it, a
fairly low-miler at under 14,000km (8700 miles), on the
road.
A little aside here: It had a couple of
visual give-aways as an early monoposto, including the
rear subframe in aluminium (soon replaced with steel
across the Stradas to accommodate the biposto variant) and
the giant P8 ECU under the tail. The latter was also used
by the likes of Fiat and was soon replaced with a more
compact system.
Slipping the Termi mufflers that came
with the bike through a roadworthy has become increasingly
difficult over time, though you can buy bolt-in DB-killers
for a lot of the company's pipes. However the mission with
this bike was to get it as close as reasonably possible to
stock – there are better options in the shed if I want
more power and speed.
So in a complete reversal of what
everyone did when these were new, I was carefully putting
aside the aftermarket Termignonis for the next owner and
replacing them with stock mufflers.
New sets can be found at around Au$1200
(US$760, GB£630) via Ebay, which seems fairly reasonable –
just beware they come in different header sizes. I've had
a very brief ride since they were installed and have to
admit they're good. There's a whole lot less aural theatre
going on, which is disappointing until you're trying to
slip unnoticed past a cop. It still performs nicely.
And here's the catch: The sodding
mounting brackets for the Termis were too big for the
stock mufflers. Stock parts can be found, and the source
we used was bike-parts-ducati.com.
Like a lot of these details, buying cheap and nasty
replicas off Ebay doesn't really work.
The pipes are a big part of the 'look' of
the 916 and it's critical they're sitting right. To
achieve that, you need two things: The right bits and
someone on the spanners who gets the whole idea. See
above, there is a host of hardware involved.
As for who was on the spanners, this and
the MV went through the hands of the good folk at Gassit Motorcycles, just up
the road from me. They were going to do the roadworthy
check anyway, so it made sense to get them to fine-tune
things. So far they've proved to be remarkably tolerant of
my tendency to swear fluently when it's announced that yet
another bloody part (supplied by muggins) doesn't fit.
Let's talk through that, shall we? I have
to admit to being surprised (and should know better) when
young Simon from Gassit rang to say the Duke wasn't going
to get through a roadworthy. The issue was the aftermarket
rider footpegs which, unlike the originals, are fixed and
don't swivel.
Subsequent investigation suggests there
is no rule against fixed footpegs (see the VicRoads
guidelines). No matter, I wanted to refit the
original pattern gear, anyway.
Another little aside: Why would someone
change over the footpegs? A crash is one explanation.
Though possible, the bike isn't showing that sort of
trauma. And these aren't rearsets, as the locations are
very close to stock. The answer I suspect is in the
gearshift, which is a very different design to and has a
lot more leverage than the stocker. It's a nice set-up and
I can see why you'd have it.
Another theory is these offer more grip
than the stock pegs.
Anyway, let's go and get a replacement
set of pegs and foot controls, shall we? Holy snapping
duckshit, Batman, you're talking something over Au$1100
(US$700, GB£580) for a new kit. Stuff that!
We tracked down a clean-looking used set
on Ebay for two-thirds of that price, so happy days, yes?
Err...no.
They were unquestionably Ducati parts,
but not for a 916. I've just opened up a return request
with the seller, and there's supposed to be a replacement
set on its way.
In the meantime, I've gone full-bore
ordering the (hopefully) originals through the new
parts mob. My previous experience was pretty
straight-forward and there is an Australian rep for the
service.
Somewhat optimistically, or foolishly, I
expected to be out and about enjoying the 916 by now.
However delays in getting bits, plus time lost with
mechanics and workshops hitting the rev-limiter all adds
up. That's just how it is and we'll get there one day,
soon. It's just that when you have a near-ready 916
sitting in the driveway, patience seems over-rated...
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