Can a 900SS take it?
 

I'm thinking of purchasing my first Ducati a 1992 900SS.
I'll service it, warm it up before thrashing it etc. Will it be able to stand up to regular full on caneing. I buy bikes to use rather than polish. I'll often do a whole tank of petrol in one go on my favourite roads pushing nearly as hard as when I'm on a track day.
I know it's not as fast as some of the other bikes I've had/have (R6, ZX12R, etc) but I will want to sample what it really can do. Suzuki's are the only bikes I've really had reliabilty issues with in the past and the occasional Yamaha has let go.
If these bikes are for pose value only can you advise which Dukes are upto the type of riding I'm likley to do.
A couple of mates have destroyed 748's and 996's but they don't give machinery any respect and are total abusers. In fact the only bikes that seem to hold together with them are Fireblades, Bandit 1200's and ZX7's.
So can the 900 take 30minute plus track abuse and wheelies if it has too?

I haave a mate that has a slightly later 900SS a 1995 model, he has had it for 7 years. He rides the wheels of it, hoists some stonking wheelies and baits owners of R1s etc on the local country roads.
Not sure if the 92 model has many differences to the later 95 model, other than knowing that Cylinder head studs were replaced at some point in the models history.

92 900 has some frame and swingarm issues I think. Wheelies are probably asking for trouble for both the frame and the steering head. Swingarm should be checked for cracking regularly. Make sure your cam belts are up to snuff. Otherwise, I would think you can really beat it silly.

Why go back as far as '92? For around £2k you should be able to get one of the last carb SS models (OK maybe not an FE) or early injection models. There's a lot of these bikes in the club, many of which get used on the track quite a bit.


[Edited on 13-7-2005 by phillc]

Unlike most other bike's Ducati's actually LIKE to be used-the harder the better. It's an engine designed for racing so use it. It's the people who just polish their pride and joy and then ride 25 miles to a pub on sunny sundays who have problems. My ST4S has done 25,000 miles now with quite a large portion of that mileage being done on long trips with 4-600 mile days. So far, 1 new clutch (at 18,000 service) and no new rockers-lots of tyres though.............

John

My 900SL has run back-to-back track days sessions on several days, running for 6x40 mins solid with an oil temp of 150 degsC. I also tend to ring its neck when out on the road, but it's difficult to put a bike through the same abuse it receives on track. Like MDB says, keep an eye on the frame around the headstock and the swingarm shock mount and you'll be fine.

My bro and I also used to ride 900SSs for a few years, his spent most of its life on the back wheel and never suffered. Again, keep an eye on head bearings, but the rest should be fine.

Like all bikes, the reliability of the bike is completely dependent on you treating it right. If I take my bike on track and its 32 degsC air temp, and I wring the nuts off it for seven sessions, then I'm pretty likely to change the oil before doing so again.

Personally I wouldn't have anything else, I love the 2v 900 engine. :D

Cheers,

Ali

Amen....

My SL is used almost exclusively on the track these days. Just about all I could ask for is another 10-15 hp...:devil:

Darren

Remember that the Battle of the Twins Ducatis were 900SS engines - a lot of them in 851 frames mind - but those engines were raced hard to keep up with the japcrap.
If you want them to rev out more you will need a smaller flywheel, but then you lose the midrange grunt.

I remember! I came within a gnat's chuff of buying that little black lovely you ended up with. I love my SL, but that's a special bike and I was a fool not to have snapped it up! Ahhh, hindsight.....

My current dream bike would be a 1000ie engine (big bored to 1082 by Sigma, Testarossa heads, slightly lightened flywheel, FCR41s - about 106bhp) in an 888 chassis (Mag marchis, brembo billets + master/cyls, painted carbon, ohlins R&Ts, penske rear)...... sorry, I appear to have gone off into a dream... :D

Ali

Personally I'm baffled as to why you would want to use an old 900 in this way. On a 92 bike I don't even think the suspension is very good.

If you do, though, you'll need to change the oil very regularly (as Ali says) - much more often than a 4-valver - because (obviously) the oil is doing the cooling as well as the lubricating.