Back on the Duc

[jmducati]

Hello All,

I just got my 1980 Darmah 900ss back on the road. 12 years of moving it around my garage, waiting to find someone that would take on the project, finally came together and it is running... sort of. I originally found this bike in a shed, in pieces, with a lot of parts. We were able to bolt it all together, body work and a few ordered parts, and it fired on the first kick! Although this Ducati was rough, I road it everywhere and it usually broke down or had some type of issue. My favorite was that I carried a piece of 2x4 for a kickstand. The others that I road with, all Harley riders, used to mock me as I kick the crap out of it to start it, but when it started, it sounded like WWIII, and ran strong. I tried an retired Ducati mechanic, to help resolve the bike's issues, but when I got it back, it never idled again. I found that he replaced my Bosch plugs that I special ordered, but it still ran strong. After a year of riding it, the bike was then my hardship show piece in my garage and my other bike always ran. I moved to a new house and it looked cool in my huge garage, but again was moved around the garage as I gather more kids toys, etc. I was finally at a point that I either had to get this bike going again after 12 years or have to say goodbye and I finally met a shop owner that seemed very trustworthy. 10 months later, I finally picked up the bike and the shop owner admitted that this bike was a challenge and took a lot of time and effort away from the other customer bikes. He took this bike on as a favor and thought that it would be a great project, but turned out to be a nightmare. After sitting for 12 years, they did an awesome job, especially because he didn't charge for a lot of the work that he did. Anyway, as excited as I am to have it back, it runs horribly. I have been browsing through the posts on carbs and running rich and will have to try our some of the suggestions, but I am totally a novice at being a Ducati mechanic and afraid that the wrong adjustment could bring this bike back to the resting place of my garage again. Although I have dumped a ton of money into getting this bike running over the years, I really want to confidently ride it and show it off. It is not a show bike with all of the piece work and rigged parts, but it looks pretty cool and I love to ride it even though it beats the crap out of me. I am looking forward to sharing the good stories of this bike with you and thank you in advance for helping me and answering some of my obviously novice questions.

Take Care,
--Joe M

[BevHevSteve]

welcome aboard joe - you came to the right place... Enjoy your project, once you get things figured out, the Darmah is a great bevel drive to ride