Couldn't agree more. Brook's been brilliant all the way through. He's one of those unbelievably productive people who seems to live three lives at once. A great guy all around. I thought my bike was running great in this first start video after I installed the engine, but shortly after, Brook showed up at the door to tune it up and to ensure I knew how to do it. Very pleased to have decided to hand it over to him! (edit - reposted this from the correct account)
@@martinsowerby7922 Nice! He told me a couple of months ago or so that someone had ordered one and he was building it. I'm guessing that's you. You'll have to do some vids and get it into a magazine for review.
@@robax Hi bud, yup that's me, plus my mate John down in Essex has ordered one too. Brook is building them at the same time. I have gone with Conti exhausts not the 2 into 1, and conventional forks and rear shocks, plus 18 inch wheels, it will look and ride killer. I hope to get it into some mags over here. keep safe bud
@@martinsowerby7922 2 of them even.. that's excellent. I would agree on the dual pipes. 2 in 1's always make a bike look anemic on the side without the pipe.
It's running beautifully and sounds awesome, it's been my dream bike since the 80s when I was a teenager pumping fuel over the holidays down on the Great Ocean Rd at Apollo Bay and every now and then one would rumble in for a tankful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Matthew. This was my dream bike as well back in the late 70s to early 80s but I only ever got to see them in the magazine test reports. In fact, if I think about it, this bike I have now might have been the first one I ever saw in person... there's an odd thought. I never thought I would actually have one, and I dread the day when I have to sell it (or crash it!). After this video I did plenty more work restoring details and tuning it up. Plenty of videos on my channel with all of that. I recommend this short video for some great sound - about halfway through: ua-cam.com/video/S38yuwbjAz8/v-deo.html
Hey thanks Shon. Much appreciated. I've got plenty more long-winded rambling videos to come. I've been waylaid by a project building myself a proper garage workshop. Should have done this decades ago. If I'd done it before I bought this 900SS, I wouldn't have had to rebuild it in the foyer of the house! I'm going to start with a video just going over the workshop and then I've got two jobs to do on the bike.. brakes and a fork kit. Thanks!
@@Ducati900SS Looking forward for these videos! SD900 has been my all time favorite bike ever since I was 8. I finally found one ans snatched it as fast as I could. Is there anychance you could give me a few suggestions? I'd be glad to chat if you have Facebook or anything. Cheers!
@@iShonKo The best place to hang out is the Vintage forum at ducati.ms. The Facebook bevel groups also have plenty of knowledgeable people, but posting there almost always turns into a drama. I'll keep an eye on the forum. I need to get back there anyway to post some updates..
You've got that running beutifully- i dont have a bevel one but belts and got that running well as well. It is an absolute pleasure to own, ride and maintain these Ducati's
Thanks for the comment. I've since done a complete rebuild of the carbs and also new custom cables, a cable elbow on the rear, and careful cable routing. This, and syncing the carbs, has made a significant difference since this video, where it was completely un-tuned and un-synced. I'm surprised it ran as well as it did and without any setting up. However as I have nothing to compare it with, I always take any improvement as a great result. And yes, it's a joy and a privilege to ride. Never even thought I'd own one until I did!
@@Ducati900SS hey there amazing build, and great your riding it, a racer friend of mine just finished a 75' , don't know where you are, were in Canada, good fella to know when you need bits and advice.. I've got two, 10, monster 696, and a 01' st4 916.. anyways took some pics this afternoon you may want to see. (shoot me an email address if u can) here's some Canadian Ducati nostalgia you must see if you own one of these.. it's so terrible it good.. lol ua-cam.com/video/YC6KM_IZiCg/v-deo.html I'll apologize in advance for Mr Cronenberg, cheers ..
@@planegaper Damn... what a bizarre clip! Never seen that one before. Main redeeming feature was the completely accurate description of the bike. I'm in NZ and the best place to catch me is on the Vintage forum at ducati.ms There's 3-4 of us in there with the same year 900SS. This video here was the first startup after a complete engine rebuild and it was unsynced and unadjusted, other than just guesswork. It ran so much better than before on this first start, but after a proper adjustment it finally ran as it is meant to run. Just for fun and interest I've been doing fuel ratio tests the last few weeks on my channel here. I decided to do this after rebuilding the carbs, which is also on the channel here. I've got at least one more run to do and then I'll settle on the final jetting, which I can already tell is going to be rich-ish.
@@Ducati900SS attempting a post re build startup today, though it has run before on the new engine, someone fiddled with this one and we could not get it going.. seems to be in the fueling.. i'm sure it'll get sorted out ..tried to bump it on our little side street, anyone over 50 would pass by, stop, back up to see if it really was what they saw, and soon we had a traffic jam .. glad the film was new to you, this guy went on to do "The Fly" and a few other body horror epics. He was some sort of Duc fan boy, my friend that built the 900 has some pretty good stories about the guy..
@@planegaper When I first got this bike it would always pop and then flood itself whenever I tried to start it. If it didn't start first kick, it would take 15-20 minutes of dry kicking to get another beat out of it.. and then it'd happen all over again. I used to only test-ride up hill so that I could roll-start it again going down. That issue was mainly due to faulty Bosch ignition units, which yours might not have if it's earlier. Bright blue header/s would also give that away if it has been running sometime previously. Let's hear what you find out when you get it going.
Regarding the spark at 0:32 that had me briefly worried about a kickback - Reading the Sachse manual, I see that the unit releases a spark when no engine movement is detected for 5 seconds. That appears to be exactly the gap between my first kick and that point.
Thks Mate. A small point , but one I had been puzzled about.... Still working on my kick action , impressed by your ability to start it with both legs on the ground. Can do it when cold, not hot. May need another Brook tutorial on kick starting. (Or perhaps one on the VeeTwo site. hint hint..)
@@flanderstf heheh Definitely don't go by my kick start action in this video! This was the first kick after the rebuild and I was still in fear from the way it used to kick back previously. These days I tend to start it as if I were starting a dirt bike. I have trouble holding the throttle and kicking it whilst standing on the side and now find it much easier to be in riding position with the bike off the stand. I would never have done this with the old ignition, but now it never kicks back so it's fine. I think I still have a bit of video of Brook starting it from the very bottom of the stroke after he came over and set it up, which was after this video above. He was showing me that it took little more than getting it past tdc from any position to start. I'll see if I can dig it out.
A well running bevel driven Super Sport is akin to heaven on two wheels. For years I've cited my 900 as better than sex - I mean it is flawlessly fabulous on those mountain roads sprinting from apex to entry. They can idle pretty slow too when they're set-up right with no lag in response to throttle input. There are a lot of bikes I've never ridden but if anything better exists I haven't encountered it yet :-)
It is beautiful to ride when when it's running well. This was the first ride and it actually ended up much better than this after Brook came and showed me how to sync the carbs and set up the idle. I reckon it's something every rider should know as it affects that low-throttle riding so much. I wouldn't have picked it up without being shown. I'm getting new cables made at the moment specifically to make this adjustment more consistent. I bought 2 choke and 2 throttle cables from bevhev but they were a waste of money - all completely wrong. The lesson for me there was that one should get cables made up by hand, giving the fabricator the carbs, throttle and choke lever to work with... and of course the desired length.
Also just FYI for detail fanatics - In the clip I mention the Sachse ignition module is one stage 2. Brook set it to stage 5 when he stopped by after this video and set it all up. Compared with 2, stage 5 applies 5-6 degrees more advance by around 4000rpm and then stays there. All of the stages differ in how fast they ramp up and where the peak is reached. The main difference over the stock unit is that the Bosch had just a couple of fixed advance values.
Sounds good. Just a tip though...try to avoid letting your kick start lever fly back like that. They will eventually crack, and I know from experience, they are very expensive to replace
Yes, that has been a worry. I was definitely being timid on the start here as it kicked me real hard with the previous ignition and I didn't want to risk my leg again on the first start after the rebuild. You can see me making a concerned comment about the pop on the second kick. It's all fine now though and I'm confident kicking it all the way through. It even starts with the lever all the way down and only a few degrees left.
we made a custom one from billet steel, had to modify the case to clear the bend, but it's in destructible... wish they would take a hint from Dneiper , and put a big bloody foot pedal on it..
Great to see you on the bike. I hope it will be my turn soon. Before I put my old MHR away, I had none of the issues you described; was Brook Henry able to describe exactly what was wrong and what he did to fix the bike? I think you should leave the duct tape on the tank; the rest of the machine is way too shiny. Have a great time with your Ducati!
Thanks Kashikoi. That tape is there protecting the beautiful paint job from my zipper :) We didn't bother trying to fix the original ignition but he did confirmed, as I also found, that there was no advance at all. I had him install a Sachse ignition at the end of the rebuild as I had had enough of the old one. I kept the Dyna coils from the previous setup as they are cleanly mounted, look good, and work well. The engine also had a vibration problem. He found that it had had incorrect pistons installed and the crank was well out of balance. It's certainly butter smooth now. I then gave him free reign to rebuild it as he thought appropriate and so it got a full going over. He said he thought it was mechanically quite noisy and it's definitely quieter now. Everything feels better.. clutch, gears. Very happy with the outcome.
@@Rick-uu5yo (edit: used the wrong account again to reply. Posting this reply again) Yes, I still think one should be able to make the original system work just fine. So long as the pickups and pickup wiring is on good order, and the coils are obvious and easy to replace, then it's just down tot he Bosch boxes. The problem with those will be getting a replacement that isn't also faulty. I would not be surprised if there are dud units everywhere after all these years. I also studied the Sachse installation PDF and one has to be prepared to pull the clutch cover repeatedly to get it right. That could be a real pain and I'm glad I had Brook sorting that out for me. As for my bike.. I got the required insurance yesterday and am off to get the warrant of fitness tomorrow. It's a little late in the year now, but I'm definitely going to be heading out for some rides.
Hi Max. Well... after deciding that my ultimate bikes was a 900SS way back in about 1980, I just waited for 35 years to get one. But seriously, after deciding against all other bikes, I just had to sit and wait until the right one showed up on the local auction site here in NZ. It took about 2 years. There's always one or more available depending on where you live, just search 'Ducati 900ss for sale'. But be wary - once you know all about the bikes, you realise that many of them are conversions or 'bitsas' (bit of this, bits of that). That may or may not be fine, depending on the price and how it has been done. If you find one and want a comment on it, just send a message.
Brook Henry is the number 1 bevel man, you will never get a better builder than Brook.
Couldn't agree more. Brook's been brilliant all the way through. He's one of those unbelievably productive people who seems to live three lives at once. A great guy all around. I thought my bike was running great in this first start video after I installed the engine, but shortly after, Brook showed up at the door to tune it up and to ensure I knew how to do it. Very pleased to have decided to hand it over to him!
(edit - reposted this from the correct account)
@@Ducati900SSHe is a great bloke, spoke to him yesterday, he is building me one of his Imola Evo 900's and I cant wait for it to land
@@martinsowerby7922 Nice! He told me a couple of months ago or so that someone had ordered one and he was building it. I'm guessing that's you. You'll have to do some vids and get it into a magazine for review.
@@robax Hi bud, yup that's me, plus my mate John down in Essex has ordered one too. Brook is building them at the same time. I have gone with Conti exhausts not the 2 into 1, and conventional forks and rear shocks, plus 18 inch wheels, it will look and ride killer. I hope to get it into some mags over here. keep safe bud
@@martinsowerby7922 2 of them even.. that's excellent. I would agree on the dual pipes. 2 in 1's always make a bike look anemic on the side without the pipe.
What a Family I myself had his Son Ben rebuild my 2000 748 it's never run better, Enjoy your now reliable engined 900SS , Steve
It's running beautifully and sounds awesome, it's been my dream bike since the 80s when I was a teenager pumping fuel over the holidays down on the Great Ocean Rd at Apollo Bay and every now and then one would rumble in for a tankful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Matthew. This was my dream bike as well back in the late 70s to early 80s but I only ever got to see them in the magazine test reports. In fact, if I think about it, this bike I have now might have been the first one I ever saw in person... there's an odd thought. I never thought I would actually have one, and I dread the day when I have to sell it (or crash it!). After this video I did plenty more work restoring details and tuning it up. Plenty of videos on my channel with all of that. I recommend this short video for some great sound - about halfway through: ua-cam.com/video/S38yuwbjAz8/v-deo.html
I my humble opinion.. the 900 SS Desmo is the Best Looking and Riding Sport bike from the 1970s..
Best bike in the world, pure music from them contis. Wish i still had mine.
The sound and the grunt make it so awesome to ride!
Absolutely stunning bike. Love your videos and nice seeing your attention to detail taking shape into this amazing machine👍
Hey thanks Shon. Much appreciated. I've got plenty more long-winded rambling videos to come. I've been waylaid by a project building myself a proper garage workshop. Should have done this decades ago. If I'd done it before I bought this 900SS, I wouldn't have had to rebuild it in the foyer of the house! I'm going to start with a video just going over the workshop and then I've got two jobs to do on the bike.. brakes and a fork kit. Thanks!
@@Ducati900SS Looking forward for these videos! SD900 has been my all time favorite bike ever since I was 8. I finally found one ans snatched it as fast as I could. Is there anychance you could give me a few suggestions? I'd be glad to chat if you have Facebook or anything. Cheers!
@@iShonKo The best place to hang out is the Vintage forum at ducati.ms. The Facebook bevel groups also have plenty of knowledgeable people, but posting there almost always turns into a drama. I'll keep an eye on the forum. I need to get back there anyway to post some updates..
You've got that running beutifully- i dont have a bevel one but belts and got that running well as well. It is an absolute pleasure to own, ride and maintain these Ducati's
Thanks for the comment. I've since done a complete rebuild of the carbs and also new custom cables, a cable elbow on the rear, and careful cable routing. This, and syncing the carbs, has made a significant difference since this video, where it was completely un-tuned and un-synced. I'm surprised it ran as well as it did and without any setting up. However as I have nothing to compare it with, I always take any improvement as a great result. And yes, it's a joy and a privilege to ride. Never even thought I'd own one until I did!
@@Ducati900SS hey there amazing build, and great your riding it, a racer friend of mine just finished a 75' , don't know where you are, were in Canada, good fella to know when you need bits and advice.. I've got two, 10, monster 696, and a 01' st4 916.. anyways took some pics this afternoon you may want to see. (shoot me an email address if u can)
here's some Canadian Ducati nostalgia you must see if you own one of these.. it's so terrible it good.. lol
ua-cam.com/video/YC6KM_IZiCg/v-deo.html I'll apologize in advance for Mr Cronenberg, cheers ..
@@planegaper Damn... what a bizarre clip! Never seen that one before. Main redeeming feature was the completely accurate description of the bike. I'm in NZ and the best place to catch me is on the Vintage forum at ducati.ms There's 3-4 of us in there with the same year 900SS. This video here was the first startup after a complete engine rebuild and it was unsynced and unadjusted, other than just guesswork. It ran so much better than before on this first start, but after a proper adjustment it finally ran as it is meant to run. Just for fun and interest I've been doing fuel ratio tests the last few weeks on my channel here. I decided to do this after rebuilding the carbs, which is also on the channel here. I've got at least one more run to do and then I'll settle on the final jetting, which I can already tell is going to be rich-ish.
@@Ducati900SS attempting a post re build startup today, though it has run before on the new engine, someone fiddled with this one and we could not get it going.. seems to be in the fueling.. i'm sure it'll get sorted out ..tried to bump it on our little side street, anyone over 50 would pass by, stop, back up to see if it really was what they saw, and soon we had a traffic jam .. glad the film was new to you, this guy went on to do "The Fly" and a few other body horror epics. He was some sort of Duc fan boy, my friend that built the 900 has some pretty good stories about the guy..
@@planegaper When I first got this bike it would always pop and then flood itself whenever I tried to start it. If it didn't start first kick, it would take 15-20 minutes of dry kicking to get another beat out of it.. and then it'd happen all over again. I used to only test-ride up hill so that I could roll-start it again going down. That issue was mainly due to faulty Bosch ignition units, which yours might not have if it's earlier. Bright blue header/s would also give that away if it has been running sometime previously. Let's hear what you find out when you get it going.
Regarding the spark at 0:32 that had me briefly worried about a kickback - Reading the Sachse manual, I see that the unit releases a spark when no engine movement is detected for 5 seconds. That appears to be exactly the gap between my first kick and that point.
Thks Mate. A small point , but one I had been puzzled about.... Still working on my kick action , impressed by your ability to start it with both legs on the ground. Can do it when cold, not hot. May need another Brook tutorial on kick starting. (Or perhaps one on the VeeTwo site. hint hint..)
@@flanderstf heheh Definitely don't go by my kick start action in this video! This was the first kick after the rebuild and I was still in fear from the way it used to kick back previously. These days I tend to start it as if I were starting a dirt bike. I have trouble holding the throttle and kicking it whilst standing on the side and now find it much easier to be in riding position with the bike off the stand. I would never have done this with the old ignition, but now it never kicks back so it's fine. I think I still have a bit of video of Brook starting it from the very bottom of the stroke after he came over and set it up, which was after this video above. He was showing me that it took little more than getting it past tdc from any position to start. I'll see if I can dig it out.
@@flanderstf Sorry for the double post - I keep using the wrong account to reply!
@@Ducati900SS no probs, but am even more impressed with your ability to kick the bike with it OFF the stand😁. Typo?
A well running bevel driven Super Sport is akin to heaven on two wheels. For years I've cited my 900 as better than sex - I mean it is flawlessly fabulous on those mountain roads sprinting from apex to entry. They can idle pretty slow too when they're set-up right with no lag in response to throttle input. There are a lot of bikes I've never ridden but if anything better exists I haven't encountered it yet :-)
It is beautiful to ride when when it's running well. This was the first ride and it actually ended up much better than this after Brook came and showed me how to sync the carbs and set up the idle. I reckon it's something every rider should know as it affects that low-throttle riding so much. I wouldn't have picked it up without being shown. I'm getting new cables made at the moment specifically to make this adjustment more consistent. I bought 2 choke and 2 throttle cables from bevhev but they were a waste of money - all completely wrong. The lesson for me there was that one should get cables made up by hand, giving the fabricator the carbs, throttle and choke lever to work with... and of course the desired length.
I have ridden over 200 motorcycles.. and I agree with you 1000%. The 900 Desmo SS rides great and looks fantastic... Silver and Blue
Also just FYI for detail fanatics - In the clip I mention the Sachse ignition module is one stage 2. Brook set it to stage 5 when he stopped by after this video and set it all up. Compared with 2, stage 5 applies 5-6 degrees more advance by around 4000rpm and then stays there. All of the stages differ in how fast they ramp up and where the peak is reached. The main difference over the stock unit is that the Bosch had just a couple of fixed advance values.
Fantastic! What a classic...
Sounds good. Just a tip though...try to avoid letting your kick start lever fly back like that. They will eventually crack, and I know from experience, they are very expensive to replace
Yes, that has been a worry. I was definitely being timid on the start here as it kicked me real hard with the previous ignition and I didn't want to risk my leg again on the first start after the rebuild. You can see me making a concerned comment about the pop on the second kick. It's all fine now though and I'm confident kicking it all the way through. It even starts with the lever all the way down and only a few degrees left.
we made a custom one from billet steel, had to modify the case to clear the bend, but it's in destructible... wish they would take a hint from Dneiper , and put a big bloody foot pedal on it..
Stunning.
Great to see you on the bike. I hope it will be my turn soon. Before I put my old MHR away, I had none of the issues you described; was Brook Henry able to describe exactly what was wrong and what he did to fix the bike? I think you should leave the duct tape on the tank; the rest of the machine is way too shiny. Have a great time with your Ducati!
Thanks Kashikoi. That tape is there protecting the beautiful paint job from my zipper :) We didn't bother trying to fix the original ignition but he did confirmed, as I also found, that there was no advance at all. I had him install a Sachse ignition at the end of the rebuild as I had had enough of the old one. I kept the Dyna coils from the previous setup as they are cleanly mounted, look good, and work well. The engine also had a vibration problem. He found that it had had incorrect pistons installed and the crank was well out of balance. It's certainly butter smooth now. I then gave him free reign to rebuild it as he thought appropriate and so it got a full going over. He said he thought it was mechanically quite noisy and it's definitely quieter now. Everything feels better.. clutch, gears. Very happy with the outcome.
@@Rick-uu5yo (edit: used the wrong account again to reply. Posting this reply again) Yes, I still think one should be able to make the original system work just fine. So long as the pickups and pickup wiring is on good order, and the coils are obvious and easy to replace, then it's just down tot he Bosch boxes. The problem with those will be getting a replacement that isn't also faulty. I would not be surprised if there are dud units everywhere after all these years. I also studied the Sachse installation PDF and one has to be prepared to pull the clutch cover repeatedly to get it right. That could be a real pain and I'm glad I had Brook sorting that out for me. As for my bike.. I got the required insurance yesterday and am off to get the warrant of fitness tomorrow. It's a little late in the year now, but I'm definitely going to be heading out for some rides.
Where did you find this bike? I've been looking for a while with no luck
Hi Max. Well... after deciding that my ultimate bikes was a 900SS way back in about 1980, I just waited for 35 years to get one. But seriously, after deciding against all other bikes, I just had to sit and wait until the right one showed up on the local auction site here in NZ. It took about 2 years. There's always one or more available depending on where you live, just search 'Ducati 900ss for sale'. But be wary - once you know all about the bikes, you realise that many of them are conversions or 'bitsas' (bit of this, bits of that). That may or may not be fine, depending on the price and how it has been done. If you find one and want a comment on it, just send a message.
""I hate you! All you've done is make me want one even more !!"" So thankyou very much.....cheers from the UK.
heheh.. I felt like that for 35 years until I finally got one. Don't wait too long! (edit: I've posted from the wrong account again. I'm the owner)
thanks mate, always loved this bike, my pal has the Hailwood Replica. so I hate him as well lol.