Garage Night

So thanks for all the emails asking if we’re planning to do more episodes. The answer is yes. We’ve been just been quiet over the (northern hemisphere) winter because it’s just been too bloody freezing to hang out in an unheated garage drinking beer, spannering bikes and waving a camera about.

But we’ve all been busy with our own projects. I decided to paint the ugly front subframe on my Cagiva Elefant 750 and touch up the engine side cases and belt covers, which the dreaded ‘previous owner’ had allowed to get into a horrible state. That snowballed into painting the whole engine, which meant taking the heads and barrels off, so while I was at it I did the valve shims – finally conquering one of the tasks most feared by the Ducati home mechanic. If you have a two-valve desmo Ducati there are videos here and here that break the job down into a fairly simple procedure, complemented by a pretty decent write-up here (read carefully though – it does get a bit out of sequence at one point). Basically you just need to be methodical and stay on top of the measurements. And don’t drop anything down the oil return holes! Continue reading ‘It’s alive! Here’s what we’ve been up to lately’