Average life of a 900 ss engine
 

How many miles on average do the 900 ss engines go for before needing any major engine work

I dont think you will ever get a good answer to this.
There are 3 big variables:
Original build quality - we know ducati have had some very poor and very good periods.
Quality of servicing - oil changes at the right time make huge differences to any engine
Riding style - infrequent but fast and furious will wear out any engine sooner than frequent but sensible

and all of these have huge ranges with ducatis - even a badly built ducati will last a long time with a careful owner, and even a really well cared for ducati will need high maintanance when ridden by a d1ck ;)

My mate Mick has been thrashing his around Oxfordshire for the past 9 years without any problems.
The smaller version of the engine in my M600 has done about 26k miles and my 750SS has done nearer 35k miles

My fathers 900SS threw a rod after 26K miles. He maintained it well but did use it to the full limit of its abilities shall we say. It might also be noted that it gave out while on a track day at Pembrey, so it was being thrashed constantly for a long period.

My 1994 900SS has just had new rings and a bit of a freshen up at 49,000 miles.

But this was more of a "might as well do it while it is in bits" rather than any major mechanical problem, although it was smoking a bit when I thrashed it.

It has spent about half of its life in the shed unused and probably cursing me every time I took the 916 out.

But it is back on the road now and the 916 is probably pleased to be spared from the salty roads this winter.

Steve

there's a guy on the Ducati_SS yahoo group who has a 900SS with 122,000+ miles on it (yeah miles not kmh). Lots have 40K+ with no probs but similarly most with 40k+ talk about new rings and engine refresh.

Register with yahoo groups. Then join > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ducati_ss
and find lots of information on anything SS wise, particularly engines, pipes and slippers.

what do you mean by an engine refresh??

I've found that about 40K is the point where you might do some extra checking. They generally start to leak a little from the base and the valve guides can be starting to suffer from blow by. A compression test is going to be your best indication of where things are at. If it's really low or uneven it's off with the head/s and barrel/s, change the gaskets, belts, rings while you're there, check piston and rod clearance, and cleanup the valves and guides. Sounds like a lot but in general they are pretty easy bikes to work on. The only annoying bit is generally the rear pot gets hotter and can usually fail first, which is a bigger job to remove the head and barrel.

I know a 900 monster with over 40k on it - smokes a wee bit now mind but always starts, runs, gets thrashed etc :)