Well today i had the adventure of buying the wife a 749. Off down to deepest darkest Wales to pick it up, got there in good time and had a look around the bike.
Bloke was nice and had tonnes of history, receipts and all was superb... but the bike is a bit of a mess. Nothing major to be honest, it's fallen over in the garage i rekon, indicator has been repaired with superglue, a mark on the mirror and also on the widest point of the fairing. 10 mins with some polish and bit of touch up paint and i'll have that bit 100%.
Things like the sprocket and sprocket nuts are nothing short of a disgrace and a ball of wintery fluff. But the overall bike is sweet. Just needs some TLC.
Today won't see me getting anything done apart possibly from a few pics and maybe stripping a couple of the panels off to start the cleaning process. But it's a decent low mileage, full history 749 under there somewhere... just a question of getting to it
I've obviously got a couple of months before the wife wants to get out on it, so plenty of time to be cleaning and prepping it all nicely.
There's a 749 under there somewhere... now... where on earth is it !!!!!
later:
I have to say i LOVE Ducati's painters... they're bloody brilliant. I had the spare mudguard which has been abused and sitting round the garage of the previous owner for an eternity, didn't look nice at all.
30 mins later with some decent scratch remover and some polish and it's bloody immaculate. well... not brand new, but wouldn't look out of place on any 9/10 bike. I'm only hoping (and expecting) that when i get to the rest of the paint it will gleam in the same way.
later:
Well just a quick 30 mins later and a 6mm allen key and some of the right cleaning stuff and it's actually starting to look like a motorbike
Really easy with the right stuff and a bit of effort.
Off out now to do some work on an XR650 for SDF so progress halted for the day i'm afraid.
later:
HAd a spare hour and 10 mins while my little man was sleeping so stripped down the front end. Spindle had not seen grease in a decade LOL. Caliper mount bolts were yukky, but the heads stil are but threads nice and clean and a bit of Copperslip on them. Folr legs a bit stone chipped and covered in brake dust and winter garbage but not a lot i can do about the stone chipping at the moment but all cleaned up now as are the calipers. Just need to remount the front mudguard with some nice black bolts and i'm done for the day i think.
Got all the crap out from behind the wheel on the Rad cover and fairings back there while the wheel was out.
and later:
LAst pics with mudgaurd all fitted up.
Looking at the bike i'm slightly unhappy with it.. but some of that was my own fault for not checking it over properly with have my <3 year old lad with me at the time.
Couple of little things like broken LHS indicator, some marks on the LHS fairing where it's fallen over at 0mph once upon a time.
Underneath the fairing it's been 'botched' to make whatever happend at the time of dropping OK.
Luckily i paid very very good money for it so it's not all bad.
Battery is dubious at the moment and won't fire it up, so is on charge with decent charger. But the guy was good to his word and took the money off for a new battery.