Help! A motorcycle followed me home. Why does this keep happening?!?

As above the CL ad and loaded up to drag home.
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A little over three weeks later.

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Still some more to go but she's a rider.
Put on 35 miles tonight.
(A rather shiftless sort of ride)
Gas tank was ugly inside but scrubbed, boiled and electrolysis (ized) then cleaned blew cleaned scrubbed and blew some more.
I put on an extra filter then realized in addition to the stand pipe filter the petcock has a bottom filter. Think I know how that's going to look when I pull it in the morning.
It has a vacuum pot "in gear, fast idle" that will need some adjustment or maybe a cut out, cuz going down hills it eliminates engine braking. The next year Honda added a speedo based cut out switch to it so engine braking happens.
Two speeds and you can just leave it in second use the torque converter to launch unless you want "extra" acceleration at low speed.
kinda fun to go stop go with just throttle. Other than that it's like every other single cam Honda 750.
Took me three tries to get the carbs right. A bit fiddly but not super hard to in n out them. Accelerator pump took a bit of fiddling, to get all 4 cylinders squirting.
A PO had used silicone seal to hold the float bowl seals in to assemble, that didn't go well, but think i found all the bits n pieces of gooey that went all over.. I used a small amount of grease to hold the seals to assemble, which worked fine. Other than some 40 year old electrics trouble shooting (cold solder joints found and fixed) and the usual wake up drill of, brakes, fuel, points, lots of cleaning, touch up, rust removal, etc. no big issues. Gotta make the horn beep yet.
Now that it runs I ordered new tires, chain and sprockets, the right battery, and few other items. Camping trip bike? hmmm.
 
Dang Gary! You must be a wizard! I can’t believe you took that pile of grungy parts and turned them into a nice , functional bike in just three weeks! Amazing. :thumbsup:

So did you buy that Ducati? Have you ever worked on a Ducati and adjusted the valves? :yikes:
 
Dang Gary! You must be a wizard! I can’t believe you took that pile of grungy parts and turned them into a nice , functional bike in just three weeks! Amazing. :thumbsup:

So did you buy that Ducati? Have you ever worked on a Ducati and adjusted the valves? :yikes:
Hey I can work on a Honda! what could go wrong? :laughing:
 
DESMO:devil:, Sweet DUCK! Desmodromic valves are no harder to adjust than conventional sprung valves, they just take twice as long. You just have 2 rockers for every valve, an opener & closer. Set the tension on your closer first then set the openers with a dial indicator. The part that makes this hard to do at home is the shim kits can be a little pricey from Ducati.
 
For most people, the thing that makes Ducatis expensive is the labour charges for all that fiddly work. So services are expensive, and when the cam belt needs to be changed, the service is so expensive that a lot of folk choose to sell the bike rather than pay.
 
For most people, the thing that makes Ducatis expensive is the labour charges for all that fiddly work. So services are expensive, and when the cam belt needs to be changed, the service is so expensive that a lot of folk choose to sell the bike rather than pay.

That is so true. The cost of service is the one big reason I would never consider owning one. I see that time and time again on Craigslist here. Guys buy Ducati’s and run them until they are due for that stupid expensive major service and them sell them. There are 15 Ducati’s for sale right now in the Phoenix area and only one has more than 10,000 miles. By the way I test drove a HyperMotard 1100 once and it was an amazing bike. Personally, I’d rather have a Moto Guzzi or a BMW.
 
Just got it home, Went knowing the engine and carbs are "stuck" Borescope showed no rust, whew. Belts had been replaced just before lay up about 12 years ago. It's had marvel mystery oil in the cylinders for a couple weeks now. It was in high gear on a lift with rear stand, so the rocking the crank trick has been tried LOL. Guy was straight with me, running when parked. Some stinky gas in tank which is clean inside. Over all bike is pretty clean, minor cracks on RH side of fairing, driveway tip. Haven't noticed any rash.Got some ideas on a free up drill, breathless updates will follow, LOL Forks have emulators and springs, shock rebuilt. Front brakes still work, rear not so much.
Bob I'll bring it down, you'll have it figgered out and pretty in no time!.
Severely limited steering lock, would take 40 foot to turn around LOL.
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Um why is he grinning??? :laughing:
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Damn, @gggGary... You're hard at work.

If you're retired, I'm gonna say the old saying is true. "You work twice as much when you retire"

If you're not retired??? Holy balls do you have some energy! Sweet looking Ducati! Cool looking Honda too. Seeing it all cleaned up this fast makes me think the nighthawk I bought might actually see. Reasonable turn around as long as I don't tear it apart or gift it to my friend for helping me move! Lol
 
Just got it home, Went knowing the engine and carbs are "stuck" Borescope showed no rust, whew. Belts had been replaced just before lay up about 12 years ago. It's had marvel mystery oil in the cylinders for a couple weeks now. It was in high gear on a lift with rear stand, so the rocking the crank trick has been tried LOL. Guy was straight with me, running when parked. Some stinky gas in tank which is clean inside. Over all bike is pretty clean, minor cracks on RH side of fairing, driveway tip. Haven't noticed any rash.Got some ideas on a free up drill, breathless updates will follow, LOL Forks have emulators and springs, shock rebuilt. Front brakes still work, rear not so much.
Bob I'll bring it down, you'll have it figgered out and pretty in no time!.
Severely limited steering lock, would take 40 foot to turn around LOL.
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Um why is he grinning??? :laughing:
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View attachment 193111
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What I have heard of Ducatis a little older is that Mr trippel gG --has entered the " Danger Zone "
Reputation needing service after a Round the Block ride Adjusting . Valves - If desmodromic not sure if this is
true heard rumors of 1000 --1200 -- 1500 miles . ..
And skipping that ... the great " Sallad " in the motor can happen. No forgiving design
Not sure if that was a trash talk. But they have their followers and are sought after.
But needing more service the older they are.
This can be a valve job. And Parts can be expensive.
 
Who me?
View attachment 193114 Pretty bike, but beyond my meager skills! :laugh2:
:bow:You underestimate yourself....:bow2:
The ole' roll R down the driveway in 5th and dump the clutch simply revealed how old and powdery the tire rubber is. :rolleyes:
Guy had been soaking carbs in Pinesol. Prolly not the best trick in the book. Rinsed dried warmed and coerced a bit of movement out of the butterflies. The plastic flat slides not so much yet.
 
I'm always impressed as to how many treasures are hiding away in your country here your lucky if its half decent to what you picked up and hasn't been hacksaw into a bobber ( I hate that word ) especially if they show photos of a stock bike before then Frankenstein after. Well done on making a good clean bike out of that boot full :bow2:
 
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