Ducati mk3 restoration

Personal project encompassing the total restoration of a 1974 Ducati single, a beautiful bike often cited as having the most beautiful engine ever designed.

Ducati today is renknowned for their v-twin and v4 racers, GP winning machines that are the pinacle of road-going performance, but the company has a long history of building race winning machines going back more than half a century. Back then it was small capacity high revving OHC singles that made their success.

The lineage of ducati singles runs directly from their early 125s on to the 450s and 500s that marked the culmination of the line. The development of these bikes was overseen by Fabio Taglioni, one of the greats of motorcycle design, who was chief engineer at Ducati from 1954-89 and was also responsible for the incredibly succesful 90* twins of the era, such as the mythical 750ss.

Ducatis of this vintage are now rare and often times collectible, usually having been produced in small numbers in the first place.

Coming from a family of motorcycle riders with a strong allegiance to italian metal, it was only right that this machine got its due attention.

This project was started during covid while time was freely available, I had previously worked on several bikes and many many cars, but this was the most substantial project to date. Due particularly to the design of the bevel drive cams, these engines require substantial shimming in various places to achieve the proper tolerances, relatively straight forward when you know what you're doing, this type of operation requires very precise measurements and careful thought thats not always neccesary for the plug-and-play mechanical asssemblies of modern vehicles.

After completing the engine rebuild (without vapour blasting - something I now regret!), the frame was powder coated along with the swing arm and assembly could begin.

The aim of the build was to keep things relatively period correct, so a twin disk fork was sourced and polished, providing braking superior to the original leading shoe drum.

The paint scheme was borrowed from the 750ss of the same era.

Rear sets were custom made in stainless steel.

The silencer is a Ducati performance item from a later 900ss, modified slightly to work with a 350 downpipe.

Wiring is all custom made and kept as minimal as possible.

Wheels are high flange akron in 19f and 18r.

Once finished, this bike was shown in various local classic bike shows.

P.S. My favourite piece is a points cover that I made from the bottom of a water bottle which just happened to be the exact same diameter

Client: Personal

Location: Somerset, UK

Date: 2019

Role: Designer, Project Manager, Mechanic