1966 Ducati Monza 250 to 250 SuperSport Conversion

1966 Ducati Monza Resto/Transformation

From Disco Duck to Mini SuperSport

OK, Here I go again - bear with me with this Blog stuff.

For some reason recently I have been unable to pass up forlorn, abused Ducati singles on Craigslist and Ebay. Two years ago it was a 1969 350 Scrambler. That one I stripped and returned to its former glory over the course of several months. I really enjoyed the process, and was very pleased with the results.  I documented that process here:

http://tedsducatis.blogspot.com/2013/03/1969-ducati-scrambler-restoration-hi.html

 As it turned out, I really did not have that much use for the finished bike, as I already had a modern dual-sport, as well as three other excellent road and track bikes. As a result, I sold that bike on Ebay, basically breaking even (you never include the labor in those calculations….) Of course I regretted it almost immediately, even more so now that the new Ducati Scrambler has come out, as mine looked just like the new yellow version:

Oh well…..

So, in my weekly cruise through the online offerings, when I found another single for sale that was located right next door in Atlanta, I had to go take a look. This one was more of a mongrel, with a very 70’s purple and green metalflake paint job, but it did run, and all the really important pieces seemed to be there. Maybe I should have looked a little closer, but I had stars in my eyes again….

So, we loaded it up and I had a new project.

 My first decision was what direction to go with the restoration. The bike was not by any means original. Besides the paint, it had no front fender, the rear was not correct, and the taillight had been hacked to fit. The tank, seat and sidecovers were all serviceable, but the apehangers handlebars would be going, and the original Radaelli wheels were pitted beyond repair and would have to be replaced or rechromed. At first I was considering doing a restoration to something like the original.  I found a couple of nice examples online.  Maybe something like this:

 Or this......

The problem with restorations that I have experienced are two-fold:  First, a bike is only "Original" once.  It is possible to replace originals parts with NOS ones, but in the case of old Ducati singles, some of those parts are simply unobtainable, or in many cases, made of "unobtanium", as in: prohibitively expensive.  In my case, while I love the architecture of the Ducati beveldrive singles, I was not a fan of some of the styling cues of the era.  As a result, after surfing the net for various versions and color options I decided to do a total transformation. The guy who sold it to me turned me on to an Airtech fairing kit that would transform it into a mini SuperSport, looking just like the famous “greenframe” supersport 750’s that Ducati offered in the 70’s. I found a couple of pictures online of bikes that had been done that way, and they were just gorgeous to me.  Those examples used a later widecase single for the donor bike, but after talking to the Airtech guys, I figured out that I could make it work for my bike also.  I knew there would have to be some serious fiddling to get that fairing to work, but I anted up and ordered a kit, anyway.

This was the goal of what I wanted to do:

SO, now that I had a plan, I started to tear the bike apart and start cleaning up the individual parts. The tank and sidecovers were in good shape, and the PO had indicated he might be interested if I wanted to sell them, so I reached a deal with him for those. Had a hell of a time taking apart the handlebar controls. The set screws were completely frozen, to the point that I had to drill them out in order to get the levers off. The studs in the forks for mounting the nonexistent fender had simply been hacked off flush, Those "easy-out" reverse drills for pulling broken bolts are anything but easy.  I broke several of them in fruitless attempts to remove the studs.  In the end, I had to drill all four of them out and retap the holes.

When I started to disconnect the wiring, the wires from the engine to the regulator literally turned to dust in my hands. I don’t know how it ran when I first saw it! I’m not an electrical guru, but these bikes have a pretty basic system, and I had labelled all the wires as they came off, and I do have the manuals with the original wiring diagrams.

I also took lots of pictures:

 

I got the chain, wheels and sprocket off without too much ado. Surfing Ebay again, I found some nice new shouldered rims that looks just like Borranis, but without the price. The last time I did this, I was unable to salvage the spokes on my bike, but this time, the old spokes came out with little fanfare. I soaked them in parts cleaner overnight and after a little steel wool they looked amazingly good. If I had not already ordered two sets of stainless spokes, I could easily dip them in silver paint and use them. As it was, I put them on Ebay to try to recoup some more costs…they eventually went to a new home in Australia.


Before:

After:!!

Got out my cheapo Harbor Freight wheel balancer and went to town with the lacing/truing process. I learned last time to be patient, and not be in too much of a hurry in the initial tightening process. I also took “before” pictures of the old wheels to help get the pattern right. Here again I have to give thanks to the internet and YouTube. There are all sorts of videos showing how to lace and true a wheel. I knew the basics, but the hints they include are invaluable.

I am at an impasse of sorts right now. I need to keep the frame intact for the time being until I get the fiberglass kit from Airtech. It is made to order, and they said one month, so it should be coming soon. I will need to mock it up and figure out what sort of brackets I need to bolt/weld on to support the fairing and seat. Only then can I strip the frame and head to the paint guy. AIso considered buying some welding gear and trying to teach myself some basics, but I think I am going to have to leave that part to the experts.

Well, against the advice of everyone I respect, I did get one of those cheap flux welders and have started practicing on some scrap metal. Pretty ugly welds, but they seem to be strong, and as one of the guys in my local Ducati club says – “My angle grinder is my new best friend.”

While waiting for the Airtech bodywork, I have been going over all the various components. I stripped the rear shocks, cleaned everything, painted the upper shrouds, and have them back together. That makes it sound like an easy affair, but there was much trial and error. I did a little research online about the best way to get them apart. People had made special tools to compress them, some quite ingenious jigs to hold them while you remove/replace the ball bearings and the collar that hold them. In the end, I was able to recruit my wife to insert the bearings while I compressed the shock, and it wasn’t too hard. Definitely a 2-person job, though….

I also disassembled the front forks, drained them, scrubbed the insides all out with a long narrow round brush, after they sat in degreaser for a day or two. There was not too much gunk in there, so I was happy to see that.

One fork, in pieces - notice all the sockets extensions it took to reach down inside the tube to get at the screw holding it all together!

I also pulled off the left side case cover to check the clutch. Pulled it all out to see if the plates were very notched or glazed. They also looked pretty good, so that all went back together. As usual, one of the little ball bearings in the clutch push rod assembly managed to drop out and roll under my workbench.  I'm sure Peter Egan has done a thesis on the probability of a dropped part to roll to the furthest, most inaccessible corner of a shop, and mine all stayed true to form and did just that.  Luckily I was aware of the possibility, so at least I noticed it fall out and got it back right before I reassembled the clutch...

.  

The wires from the stator were really badly deteriorated. All the insulation was cracked. I was amazed that it had been running without shorting out. I soldered in some new wires to the leads and them covered it all with heatshrink. I needed to lengthen them anyway, as the regulator was not going to fit in the original location, as the new seat did not have the vertical clearance, and I will have to relocate it to under the hump in the Airtech seat.

April 10, 2015

About this time I finally got the Airtech bodywork. Very nice stuff. The tank has fuel tap bungs as well as two mounting bolts. Now I can finally start to mock it up and figure out what sort of brackets I will need for the tank, seat and fairing. As it turned out, I was able to make simple angle brackets out of 1/8 x 1” steel to support the tank, and bolt them to the brace under the frame where the coil mounts. Ditto for the lower fairing “wing” support mounts. They were simple L-brackets and I was able to bolt them to the gusset behind the steering stem. I had already purchased a headlight/fairing mount from Airtech which bolts around the steering stem perfectly (with a little help from the angle grinder), and the headlight pokes out from the fairing just the right amount. Nice…..Still working on the details for the upper fairing wing mount.

When I started to mock it up is when  I realized that I had to adjust some things to make it look "right".  The tank was too angled if it rested on the frame, and the seat angled the opposite way.  Looked goofy and ruined the lines.  I had to make a bracket to hold up the rear of the tank, and also some cutouts to the seat fairing so it would sit level.  You can see how awkward it would have looked in these pictures.

Once I had all the brackets figured out, I sent the body work off to get painted.  Did some research on the original paint colors for the Imola bikes, the 750SS "Greenframe" and the later 750 and 900SS models.  Long story short, there are no single appropriate paint codes.  I took several pictures to my paint guy, and he found a nice metallic silver and mixed a perfect (in my mind) blue/green for the frame and lower part of the fairing.  Luckily he is one of those guys who "gets it" when you are trying to do something specific like this, and didn't just paint it some color he thought would look "cool".  Can you tell I had that happen to me once?  Anyway, the paint came out great.  It was not cheap, but it will definitely MAKE this bike.

While waiting on the paintwork, took the carb apart.  It didn't lok bad - it wa not all gunked up like some old carbs I have done.  Got a rebuild kit and cleaned everything up and put it all back together.  I THINK I have all the right pieces in the right places!

Meanwhile, I have been all over the net finding the little pieces II needed to put my baby together.  Since the bars were lower, I needed a shorter front brake cable.  Rear sets were VERY hard to find, and I had to suck it up and pay for shipping from Australia to get the folding rearset and folding brake lever I needed.  Also, a new shorter rear brake cable to fit.  Found a nice little round taillight on Ebay.  Also some cool adjustable Tomaselli clubman bars, so I could use the original handlebar mounts, but place them like clip-ons.  New rear sprocket and chain.  I can't count the trips to my local ACE hardware for dozens of metric, stainless bolts, fasteners, nylon washers, spacers, shims and the like.  Big thanks to several of the major players in the Vintage Ducati field:

Bevelheads mailing list
MotoScrubs
Steve at BevelHeaven
Road and Race in Austrailia
Guzzino
Eurotrash Jumbalaya - love that name!

So, now I was getting to the fun part, where you put everything back together.  I assembled everything for the obligatory "here's all the pieces" photo:

I didn't have too many problems during re-assembly.  Getting the front wheel on was tricky.  The Bridgestone tires I had were slightly wider than the original narrow tires, so there was almost no room to get a nuts on the fender studs, and I had to grind them down to the minimum.  Also had to play with washers and spacers to get the wheel aligned correctly, but got it right finally. 

The engine went in OK after a little fiddling, as well as the swingarm, shocks and rear wheel.  After mounting the rear fender, I had to fabricate a platform to mount the regulator under the seat hump, as well as more brackets to fasten the seat.  Eventually it all came together.  Mounted the gas tank and hooked up gas lines and battery.  Still playing with the brake light.  I have an inline switch installed, but the cable is tight, and it doesn't release.  Stay tuned.  At first the tail/brake light was really dim, but in the middle of the night I woke up and realized that the bulb in that aftermarket taillight was probably 12V vice 6V!  Amazingly, my local Autozone had a 6V 1157 bulb, and - Voila!  now I have a normal brightness bulb!  Last thing is to get the seat upholstered.

The seat is back!  SO it is pretty much done!

Still fiddling with control cables and routing...



  

She's a skinny bitch!



With it all together, I rolled it out into the driveway and put some gas in it.  It had run when I bought it, and I was pretty sure I had not messed up any of the wiring.  I did have spark, so I hoped for the best.  I turned it over a few times, turned on the key, jumped on the starter a few more times and Boom!  running!  I have to play with the carb a bit, but it runs and idles, shifts and goes!  For any of you that have restored a bike, you know what a great feeling that is to get to this point and have all your work validated.  So cool!

I think I was able to get the look just about right.  It's a tiny bike and is going to have trouble hauling my 210# butt around, but can't wait to try!




Update:

Finally found a print shop that would do some stick-on decals, and had them make up a couple of 250 SuperSport  ones for the sidecovers - that finished the look, and really confuses non-Ducati people - "I never knew they did a single SuperSport like that!?!"

Then I dragged it along to Talladega GP Raceway for a trackday.  There I discovered a couple of problems:  The seat is TINY, and I almost had to sit on the tail section to ride it without crushing my nuts!  Also, the original rear shocks were woefully undersprung for my svelte physique, and I  was dragging that underslung muffler on the right side without much effort.  That's my normal track-day bike - a 2004 Aprilia Tuono.  To say the performance of the Duc was underwhelming in comparison would be an understatement, but it was still fun!

Anyway, as a result of that track day, I got back online and found some aftermarket shocks that were slightly longer and sprung a little heavier, and also ordered a seat from some guy in Vietnam.  They had a seat that would fit a standard Monza frame, but because the mock SS tank was longer, I had him send it to me without the mounting brackets attached, so I could position it correctly.  So now I have a more comfortable riding position, as well as some better shocks.  The original ones, which I had cleaned up and painted, went to a happy buyer on Ebay, so everybody was happy!

SO, that was the final version.  Took it to Barber in 2016 and since has been to a couple of local Atlanta events, but mostly resides in my basement man-cave in the house we just recently built.

Thanks for reading.  Feel free to comment, and glad to help with sources for parts and info.  As usual, could not have done it without the help of the good people on the Bevelheads and Moto-Scrubs forums, and the usual suppliers like Steve from Bevel Heaven, Phil from Road and Race in Australia and Ebay suppliers like Guzzino.

Ride safe,  Ted