It's early February, 1999 and the long awaited ( for me ) 750 restoration is almost completed. I can hardly wait for the few remaining parts to arrive so that I can give it a ride. It'll be my first on any round case Ducati.

I guess you'd consider me an old fart by now...48. I've been riding for the past 35 years. In April of 1974 CYCLE magazine had the first article on the Ducati 750SS I had ever seen. I was then riding a Honda 750Super Sport, but with Ducati lust in my hart.

Now, in down home Mississippi you had Honda... sold my the local chain saw distributor. Suzuki, by a hunting and fishing supply/hardware store and Bridgstone, sold by another hardware company. Every drug store in town had a boy, on a Honda 50 Cub, to make home deliveries. Nary a Ducati dealers within 500 miles.

Fast forward to August 1993, Bike Journal International ( now Old Bike Journal ) had an article and pictures of Phil Schillings 750SS. Lust rekindled. However, now a bike that originally sold for $2,498 and worth $20,000. I should have driven the 500 miles in 1974.

Every night for a, long time, I studied the pictures of the SS and finally come to the conclusion that, if I could get my hands on a GT, I could build a 750SS Replica. It would be a motorcycle that I could enjoy, not just look at. For the next 3 years I searched for a suitable donor bike, then finally in January of 1997, thru the internet, I located the GT that would become my 750SS.

What a piece of crap! I found it resting in the corner of the owners living room. The room was filthy and so was the Ducati. The owner said that it would run, but had been sitting for about four years. It was complete, however and the price was right, so I loaded it up. On the way home I stopped at a carwash and put $5.00 worth of soap and water over it, but it was pretty much wasted money.

Having just completed the NCR bike, I was not ready to start a new restoration project immediately. In fact, I considered parting the GT out. At that time the parts were worth more than the whole. But I had looked for so long. ( Deep South is not Ducati Mecca ). With the installation of a new battery and sealing the tank to stop the rust, three kicks and it started. Over the next year, I'd start it about once a month but just wasn't motivated to begin the project. Then, in January of 1998, I located a set of 750SS bodywork, on the internet and the project was started.

Since the 750SS and 750GT are so similar, the project would be much more of a restoration than the fabrication project that the NCR replica had been. Other than the major differences in the interior of the engine, the use of a rear disk brake, minor brackets and fiberglass bodywork, the running gear is nearly identical. Nearly is the key word here. The SS frame is also narrower than the GT from the rear of the fuel tank back. There are also added mounts for the rear sets. and the triple clamp is different. The lower fork legs also differ in the area of the fender attachment bolts. None of these was really a problem. There are a great number of Super Sport parts available now in reproduction and a few trips to good friend and master mechanist, Donald files, would take care of the rest.

Some how I can never seem to find time to take pictures of these projects so that I can have a set of before and after shots. All of the pictures related to this story are As Finished. I would very much recommend anyone tackling a project like this to take plenty of pictures of the original bike and also detailed pictures of the disassembly. It could save the project, if you happen to be prone to memory lapse. The disassemble took all of about three hours. There was some extra time spent in putting the parts in baggies and identifying everything, but older Ducatis are very basic motorcycles.

After spending several hours studying photos of original 750SS and a little computer time with Autocad, I was ready to CUT THE FRAME ! Now, I'm here to tell you, anyone who intends to take a hacksaw and torch to his motorcycle is suspect of being mentally deranged, but I had the faith... and Donald Files. The SS frame is narrowed from the rear of the fuel tank back. This requires the cutting of the structural members along the top rails of the frame and moving everything in toward the centerline and narrows the frame about 3". All of the frame work below the top rails remain completely unchanged. This means that nothing you do here is going to affect the handling of the finished bike. It's just where you sit. Still, careful attention must be paid to the alignment of the rear sub-frame or the finished bike could look twisted and would not feel right by the seat of the pants.

In addition to narrowing the frame, almost every bracket must be removed and relocated. Some items, like the regulator mount and mounts for the rear master cylinder must be fabricated. The GT has drum brakes on the rear, but the SS was to get a disk brake and no provision for the rear master cylinder exist. I had made CAD drawings for all of these parts, but we fit everything up using the parts, just to insure that some small nuance had not been missed. The new mounts for the rear sets were also fitted at this time.

The swing arm, likewise requires some modification. The drag link for the drum brake will no longer be needed, so its mounting tab must be removed. Adding a disk brake to the rear requires that a locating pin be installed in the left tube. This will provide a stop to keep the rear cylinder mount from rotating when the brakes are applied.

At the other end frame, on the headstock, the mounting plate for the fairing must be fabricated and welded in place. It will cover the serial number of the frame, so you need to copy it down and re-stamp the number on the left side, rear engine mounting plate.

The front forks are unique to the 750 SS. GT forks have four studs for mounting the front fender, 750 SS forks have only two. Since this would be a dead give away to anyone in the know, we excised the additional studs on the lathe.

On close inspection of an orginal SS, it is evident that the tripple clamps were not made specially for those bikes alone. They were fabricated from clamps designed to be used with top mounted handle bars. The top mounts were simply mechined off. While the GT top clamp is still somewhat different, thats exactly what we did too. While all this cutting and mechining was taking place, other things were also in the works.

The engine ran so well, that it was decided not to do a complete overhaul, just a top end...valve job and rings. When we measured the cylinder bores they were at factory spects. I was really suprised at this and had expected to need to bore and install new pistons. The engine, after all, had over 29,000 miles. I did get a complete gasket set so that we could replace seals and have new gaskets for reassembly of the side covers.

Polishing of the side covers was entrusted to Russ Swain ( Julio ). I asked Julio not to do a chrome like polish. It had been my intention to restore the bike to a condition was like one might expect to find a nice unrestored SS, I didn't want to guild the lilly.

With the frame work completed, the frame and swing arm were delivered to Ronnie Phillips for his usual excellent paint job. Ronnie also painted the NCR Replica we built in 1996. The paint colors for these bikes are very hard to come by. Quality control in Ducatis paint shop was sub standard to say the least. It has been said that not two Super Sports are the same color. Even original parts on an unrestored bike can vary. The paint on the front fender may not match anything else , and so with the other painted fiberglass. I can personally attest to this, having inspected a number of original bikes, the color range is a mile wide. No factory paint codes are available.

Fortunately, I came across Steve Ross of Grafton, MA. Steve has an original SS that he has owned since 1976 and is now in restoration. Someone else had provided him with paint codes, but he had not actually seen them on a bike. Since I didn't have any numbers anyway, we decided to give them a try and they were perfect. The frame and swing arm were painted first. Then the black parts, fork lower legs and triple clamps. This allowed me to assemble the bike while Ronnie prepared and finished the fiberglass.

Assembly was straight forward and went really fast. Lanny Greenburg had already laced the Borranni rims with new stainless steel spokes and trued the wheels, new Metezlers had been fitted, so it was really a bolt up job. With the engine in the frame and the frame on the wheels, it was really beginning to look like an SS. With the addition of the newly painted fiberglass the bike has assumed its Super Sport personality. There are still a few parts that have not yet arrived so sadly, it make to Daytona this year. But it'll damn sure make to North Georgia.