Tim O'Mahony's 1978 900SD Darmah

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Sat May 22, 2004 8:17 pm

Here are some pictures of my restored 1978 900SD Darmah.

I first saw this bike on the showroom floor of Jim Woods Motors in Glendale, CA, in the early 80's. In 2001, I saw an ad for a Darmah for sale here in Seattle. I went and looked at it, and examined the documents that went with it. I was shocked to learn it was the same Darmah I had drooled over 20 years earlier in Jim Woods Motors! It had not been ridden much (only 6300 miles), but it had been transported all over the country in assorted moving vans and trucks. Then it sat outside in the Pacific Northwest rain for a year. While it ran pretty well, but looked like a nightmare. The paint was shot, dents in the tank, assorted scrapes, etc.

I took her home and immediately set about the restoration. I planned on about 4-6 months. 3 years later I was done! The first ride was incredible. The sound from the Conti amplifiers is to die for, and the torque and handling are really nice.

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Sat May 22, 2004 8:26 pm

The frame, swingarm, wheels, and tripletrees are powdercoated. I had Superdials in the UK re-silkscreen the gauges in white with black letters. The paint and all metal polishing I did myself, with decals from Phil at Road and Race. All new wheel bearings, chain, sprockets, tires and rubber parts. A set of Conti's from Phil. A battery, airfilters and other assorted resto parts from Steve at Bevel Heaven. Brembo restoration parts from Wolfgang at Columbia Cycle. Lots of advice and tips from the Bevelheads.

Still plan on upgrading the shocks and fork springs, but for right now, I think I will go for a ride.....

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Sat May 22, 2004 8:45 pm

Superdials in the UK did a fantastic job of re-silkscreening the faces for about $100!!!! They also do a really neat MHR gauge set that has Mikes autograph!

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Sat May 22, 2004 8:52 pm

The paint turned out great. I used Omni, which is a very inexpensive brand. I shot it in my buddies garage/spray booth. My gun was acting up, so I had to use a touch-up gun. That was interesting!

The hardest part was repairing the tail section, which had seperated and had several cracks. I used West Systems epoxy and 1/2 ounce cloth to repair the glass.

The original body was very amusing. Runs in the paint, pin holes, etc. I guess Guido is not much of a painter!

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Sat May 22, 2004 8:59 pm

The gold stripes were also a handful to lay out. The originals were hand painted, and are not symmetrical or consistent in their width. I think it would be near impossible to reproduce something that was originally done so poorly. One of the Bevelheads supplied me with the color code, a 1976 Chrysler Gold Poly, and it is a near perfect match for the original.

Sean · Post by **Sean** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:40 am

Tim,

That is a fine job.!

Mr MHr · Post by **Mr MHr** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 11:06 pm

You did a great job on your SD.
Quite amazing that it's the very same bike you saw 20 years earlier!
My MHR moved a lot as well by the origimal owner, who uncrated it himself in 1982. Did all of 2600km.
I like the idea of the steering damper you have there. I thought of installing one after taking my hands off the bars while pulling up to the lights. I'm wondering if they all get the shimmies like that.

Peter Mille · Post by **Peter Mille** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 12:11 am

Mr MHR,
The chassis of the MHR with starter engine, and larger battery is very bad, feel at the tubes, and you will notice the tubes behind the rear cilinder are half round=half strong, also the tubes behind the battery are smaller in diameter.
This was all done to host the larger battery for the starter engine.
In Germany there has been deadly accidents with this infamous chassis,
so it was banned of the road!!!
When I bought my MHR Mille new back in 1985, I noticed the shimmying you described as well, at was getting worse over time, I tried all kinds of different tyres, tyre pressure,adjusted the stem bearings, nothing helped!
At last I switched to a chassis for a kick start model, a Verllichi cromo 900SS competition chassis, with full round tubes, and now my MHR is fine!
I don't want to frighten you, but the chassis is realy bad, mounting a steering demper will only worsening things, just drive it carefully, slowly and not to fast in corners!

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:05 pm

[img]http://xs37.xs.to/pics/05283/IMG_3061[1].jpg[/img]

Time for an update!

Since completing the Darmah last year, I have put about 1,500 miles on it, and rode it to 4 different shows. At Laguna '04, it received 2nd place. At The VME Show and Shine '04, 1st place. At Laguna MotoGP '05, 3 out of 4 judges voted the Darmah "Best Of Sow" at the Moto Euro Concours. The 4th judge was the CEO/Publisher of Moto Euro Magazine, and vetoed the other votes. Still quite an ego boosting compliment!

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:08 pm

The Darmah is now sporting a complete Works/Bevelheaven suspension package that includes fork springs and Billet Tracker shocks. This has transformed the bike into the most amazing corner strafing machine I have ever owned!

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:11 pm

I also installed a "new" pair of beautiful Del Lorto 32mm carbs from BevelHeaven. The original carbs were in rough shape, and not working as well as they should, so a call to Steve remedied the situation quite nicely

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:14 pm

Here is a link to the photo album I created for the Darmah, if you care to see more photos. Thanks!
Timhttp://community.webshots.com/user/darmah78

Post by **BevHevSteve** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:35 pm

Hey Tim, as always, your Darmah is beautiful and thanks for the mention regarding my carbs. Just so you guys know, these are a pair of old style original PHF32 AS/AD carbs which rec'd my "Councours Restoration" treatment. I replaced everything with new parts except the carb body, float bowl and top cap which I soda blasted.

Also, for the low down regarding the judging, here are the factoids: We had several classes to judge and around 25 folks put in their votes in all catagories. These votes were tallied up and voila we have a best in class for each class.

Then myself, Larry, Nolan [both from Moto-Euro mag] and someone I didn;t know discussed who should get BEST OF SHOW. 3 of us wanted Tim's bike for the best of show, but 1 guy thought it wrong to give best of show to a bike that didn;t win the best in class. His argument seemed most valid so there you go. I did try my best though....

Thanks Tim for sharing.....

Peter Mille · Post by **Peter Mille** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 1:42 pm

@Tim, do you still trust those about 30 years old Campagnolo mags..??

tim61 · Post by **tim61** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 1:59 pm

Steve,
Thanks for the kind words. I hope nobody thinks I am spouting sour grapes about the Concours. Quite the opposite. I am profoundly flattered by the comments of the 3 judges who voted for my garage restored Darmah. Major stroke for my ego!

Peter,
This brings up an interesting subject. The wheels were in near perfect condition before I had them powder coated. They had only fade damage to the paint, no chips or scrapes. When I had them coated, the guy who does my powder coating said they were aluminum, not magnesium, as I had assumed. Since then, I have heard differing opinions as to whether they are mag or aluminum. If they are aluminum, I trust them as I would any wheel. If they are magnesium....well, that is another story, isn't it? Does anyone know for sure???

Tim

<-=- Club Bevel Heaven -=->

Tim O'Mahony's 1978 900SD Darmah

Tim O'Mahony's 1978 900SD Darmah

yes, real nice!

darmah