Ducati NCR 900 Replica
When first becoming interested in Ducatis, as a young adult, l knew that a bevel drive twin was what I wanted. Until recently Ducatis' , in our part of the country have been virtually unattainable. So, I was raised on the Universal Japanese Motorcycle, with a single BWM for good measure. My desire to own a Ducati had not diminished, but it was on the back burner.
While on a construction project in Baltimore I purchased my first Ducati, from a small dealer in Dover Delaware. There were four new Ducatis on the floor and this looked like my only opportunity to ever own one, so I bought a 750.
I continued to look for a bevel drive Ducati and in February of 1996, I located it in Arkansas. Friend, Jeff Gordy and I immediately went and fetched it home.It was not the 1974 750SS of my dreams, but a very nice 860GT. The original owner had purchased it in 1978 and only 6,000 miles were showing on the odometer.
The bike I was really looking for was a 1974 750GT, which has the same basic look as the Super Sport, but without the high performance desmodronic engine and all of the fiberglass stuff that makes the SS so stunning. My original intention was to build a 750SS replica ( didn't have $25,000 for a real one ). It would be a bike that I could ride and enjoy and still make a BIG splash when I parked it.
The 860 posed a different problem. It was butt ugly, and in almost mint condition. I didn't like the way it looked, but it ran great. I want something that looks great too. Hence, the idea of the NCR replica was hatched. All of the parts to create a replica were available. The 860 frame is almost identical to the one used by NCR and the engine, while not high performance by today's standard, was strong and externally similar to the engine used on the NCR bikes.
A Little History
In the mid to late 1970's specially prepped Ducatis' were being raced in formula 1 and grand prix competition. Their main competitors were the big Japanese firms who had a significant horsepower advantage over the Ducatis', but their chassis technology had yet to catch up with the engines. The result was that Ducati were able to dominate due to an ability to produce very good and dependable engines married to exceptional frames which allow them to deliver every available horse power to the track.
Neponti Carachi Racing, NCR, was Ducatis independent race shop. They were located in Bologna, Italy, the home of Ducati, and were in the business of building one off racing motorcycles for anyone who had the dinero. A total of about 40 motorcycles ( no accurate records ) were produced for Ducati over a period of about three years.The model that I have chosen to work around is the 1978 bike produced for Mike Hailwood to race at the Isle of Man. Only four were made.
Mike won the Isle of Man that year and single handily rescued Ducati from finical problems that would have certainly brought an end to the company. After the race, Ducati built a commemorative motorcycle called the Mike Hailwood Replica. It was a street bike, based loosely on the Isle of Mann bike, and was sold until 1985 when the bevel drive engines were discontinued in favor of belt drive which was less expensive to produce.
The terms bevel drive and belt drive refers to the method used to operate the valve train in Ducati engines. Until 1980 all Ducatis' used a set of bevel cut gears to drive the camshaft over each cylinder. The precise tolerances required to properly assemble a bevel drive engine meant that the entire engine had to be assembled and shimmed by hand. It could take eight hours to assembled a 750GT engine. The SS engines might take two days.
The distinctive red, white and green colors of Hailwood's' bike were selected by owner Steve Winn for Castor Oil who was the teams primary sponsor. The colors are those used on the oil can of the period and have nothing to do with the fact that the Italian flag has the same colors.
The NCR Project
After purchasing the 860, I began thinking about what I would do with it. Ducatis' are something like kit bikes and it has always been rare to find one in stock condition, so I never had any intention in leaving the motorcycle as I found it.
The first thing I did was to call locally renowned painter, Ronnie Phillips, to see if he would be interested in doing the paint and body. I was really hot to get the bike back on the road in time for summer and intended only to install the NCR bodywork and paint it.
Somewhere, Ronnie seemed to lose his enthusiasm for the project 'cause the bike just sat in his shop. And sat. And sat. All that time I occupied myself buying parts and designing pieces to be used when he got around to really doing the job. We began dismantling the bike in September.
The fitting of the NCR body work was more of a problem that had been hoped. None of
the brackets provided by the manufacturer worked, so Ronnie came up with a much
cleaner mounting that allow for fast removal of the body
There were a lot of brackets and small parts that would require a good mechanist if
everything was to work as planned. We found him in the form of Donald Files of Pearl. Mr.
Files is retired from Vickers, Inc., where he worked for 30 years making tooling for the
production of aircraft pumps and parts used by military and commercial aircraft
manufacturers. His shop is located in his garage, where he pretty much makes what he
wants to, when he wants to. He is well known to the local street rodders who usually
provide more work than a retired man should have to fool with.
From my CAD drawings he produced all of the billet aluminum parts used on the NCR.
These included the front and rear caliper mounts, rear set foot rest, brake and shift
controls, swing arm pivot, instrument panel and uncounted spacers and shims.
Much of the time Donald was not really sure what he making, but followed the drawings
exactly and turned out beautiful, precisely made parts time after time. Without his
craftsmanship this project could not have been completed to the level of quality that has
been achieved.
With all of the machining and fitting of parts completed, Ronnie was finally ready to
paint...at last. The frame was sandblasted and primed with an epoxy primer and a single
stage finish, in beautiful Italian red was applied. We elected not to powder coat the frame
to insure a perfect match of colors to the body work.
In early November, when the frame was finally painted and the engine, forks, and wheels
installed, the bike was moved to my garage for wiring and the installation of stainless
steel brake lines.
In the 860 all of the relays were installed in the head light shell, which made getting to them a real chore. I decided to move all of these to the rear and located them under the tail. This left only four wires in the head light shell but required extensive modification of the wiring harness. The job took a couple of weeks.
One of my favorite parts of the project is the tail light. It is shaped to follow the contour of the tail section. The lens were cut from a 1980's Honda lens and bonded in place with resin. It was designed to fit flush with the finished fiberglass and really looks neat.
We had to make or modify both the front and rear fenders, because no such animals actually existed. The factory NCR's did not actually have a rear fender, but since I an going to ride this bike on the street, we felt that we had to have one. We fabricated the rear fender from fiberglass, in three parts which allowed us to maintain the racer look, but still have the protection of a full fender.
The front fender was more difficult. The NCR race bikes all had 18" wheels and factory type fenders are available, but they won't work with 17" wheels. I bought an original fender, cut it into two parts and added an inch in the middle. Then, after the resin set I cut 5 1/2 degrees out of the front and rear. This allowed the fender to follow the profile of the 17" wheel. Ronnie slicked it all up, painted it and it really looks great. I expect that I have more money tied up in the front fender than any carbon fiber fender available.
The NCR is all together now. I started the engine Christmas Eve.
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