New Member in UK

[Chris Bushell]

Hi I have finally got round to joining this site, after years of sticking to the UK Club sites.

Some of you may know me from the Moto Giro D'Italia, that I have entered in for the last 8 years.

I currently have about 19 Ducatis ranging from a 54 Cuciolo to an ST4.

Having restored a 74 750GT earlier this year, I had a moment of complete madness last month and bought a pair of 500 Sport Desmos, yes I know that they are parallel twins but they were cheap and complete!

My son and I are well down the road with teh 1st one a 77 registered UK model and hope to have it back on the road at Christmas.

Despite getting manuals and some help, we are having to reverse engineer how to put these things together properly, whilst writing our own workshop manual as we go. The Ducati one has some serious holes in it.

Chris

[BevHevSteve]

Hi Chris, glad to have another novice join the board ^>^

if you feel so inclined, once you get your 'book' written about the paralized twins, email it over and I will post it up in the MANUALS index so everyone else can benefit.

I kinda like those odd little Ducatis' myself but have never owned one of them.

I would suggest that you install proper plugs in the ends of the cams while you are working on them. I understand this is the reason they got a bad rap and generally seized on a regular basis.

Let us know how things progress - cheers

[Craig in France]

Hi Chris,

Glad to see you here!

If you've still got one of those 500s can you please send me an e-mail?

Ta

Craig (2008 MotoGiro, with the SCR)

[Chris Bushell]

It would appear that the main reason that the 77 model went down was loss of oil pressure as a result of the plugs falling out of the inner joints on the camshafts. The main bearings were on 2nd regrid and it had obviously been apart a couple of times!

We are going to put a modification into the cam shafts, based on the GTV engine that came with it. With this done there will be no way that they will be able to come out.

The GTV engine had an oil cooler fitted, that I am doing a swap with a guy in Germany for some of the missing parts, now it appears that they fitted restricters in the engine to force the oil through the cooler and then fed it in through the top of the head. Yet again a reasonable idea but implementd as a bodge! This engine, which did not appear to have been apart, had the oil pressure release valve hand tight and ready to fall out![/img]

[Craig in France]

Hi Chris,

(Thanks for the private message, btw).

Yeh, you're certainly on the right lines here. I used to have an explanation of exactly what was wrong and a fix for it; but having searched in all the normal places, I can't now find it - rats! But it was something like this.

I'll post a message to the correct bit of this Forum and see if anyone can provide an answer ...

Ciao

Craig

[bobnorton]

Hi all , I currently have a few British bikes and a running 250 nc mark 3, I have owned the 250 for a few years but only recently got it roadworthy, I dont live far from Chris Bushell ( thanks Chris) .I get out on the bike regularly and am still fine tuning the running. I get over to box hill and ride on the A25 when its dry!.