mounted the new swingarm

We had a very - very- very good day today. The weather was awesome, the virago got fixed and we also mounted my new swingarm on the Duc.

Before....with the "old" verlicchi-swingarm

It was quitte a hassle to remove the swingarm without the mid-stand, but we were creative as always..

With the "new" original swingarm mounted...yeah

Fits the bike perfectly...

Still got some finishing up to do, and I havent had the chance to take it for a ride. But I think this one is a stayer.. :-D
The alu verlicchi swingarm is so incredibly light, compare to the standard swingarm. Nevertheless the great look of the standard swing is worth the few extra kilo's for me, as I'm not going to race with this thing anyway. :-D

We also worked on the virago today. The starter fix we did last time, didnt help so we had to demount the whole thing....Again!!
Anyway, we made some modifications inside the starter itself, by welding and fixating the inner friction-clutch-thing. We also plugged in some new bougies...
Surprisinly the Virago started up after not running for 4 weeks, and only with once single touch of the starter button..
We almost given op on this bike, the starter-systen just has given us so much trouble, but the bike itself is so very brutal and runs like a cannon ball. Anyways...its time for us to end the virago project. And now with the working starter, we can..
But first were going to do some fotoshoots with it. :-D

The virago

Verlicchi swingarm..

Turns out that the "ugly" swingarm of the Duc is actually a Verlicchi type, from the famous Italian custom frame-builder. Still I think changing it with the standard type will do the caferacer look some good.

The frame of the duc isnt all that rigid, its quite flexible. Puttin on the standard swingarm isnt going to improve this Im afraid. So I'll think I'm not selling the Verlicchi just jet, just in case.

 

We also took the virago and the duc for a little test run in the neighborhood. Because of the changes of the exhaust and the air filters of the Duc, we needed to adjust the carburettor jets, he has a nice drill for this. 

The Duc now runs very well, nice..

Tomorrow we'll be visiting the Rusty Gold Swap Meeting in Amsterdam, I'm planning to go on the Duc but its 70 km's.. , never dit more then 30 with the Duc....

I hope all goes well. I'll try not to loose too much parts on the way :-D

did some nice work!

Last week I had some time to do those last important things on the duc.
I received my tail light from Louis and I made a nice bracket to mount it together with the awfull license plate tot the back of the bike.
I really like the result.




Also made a ground plate for the buddy (to be..) Things are beginning to look "finished"... I couldnt resist takin the duc for a nice evening stroll.
The noise coming from the exausts is still too loud, still need to do something about that. But nevertheless it is very driveable.



A yes the air filters... did some really custom home made stuff action here. The cups are made of tea-filters (xenos) and I glued them (two component glue..) to the original intake-rings of the Dellorto carbs....sooo very easy... :-D

some new stuff

I removed the brackets of the headlight michiel gave me. Now I working on a minimalistic bracket made from little pieces of rod and some rings. I thing It looks really nice already. Might be slightly too fragile, but we will see how it holds.



Bought an old cx custom tank, (looks quite nice actually). I'm thinkin of using the rear/back of the tank, and use the round shape for back of the seat of the ducati.
Something like this..






Also fixed the inner helmet of the welding mask that michiel broke :-D
Used some parts of an old construction helmet.

Just an other day at the shop

Our first evening at the new shop...

Michiel has been workin on the intake of the Virago.
Next step is finishing the whole bike. Gonna need some putty to finish all the sheet metal parts.









I also made a start with the Duc. Mounted the clipons an the headlight. Also been experimenting with the height of the fueltank. I think it looks nice this way.
still not to happy about the "streetfighter" look of the bike. I'm trying to get the classy caferacerlook.

Nice parts..

Been to the swap meet in Hardenberg last saturday. Together with Michiel and his girlfriend. Also bumped into Lennard from Bubblevisor blog.

Found some really nice parts there. I can really make a start with rebuilding te Duc now.
Yesterday I tried to mount the tomaselli clipons. Off course the size of the frontlegs was just off. De diameter of the clipons is slightly to big.
Some pieces of pipe could fix this problem. still workin on that..

Rippin' of the ugly parts

Today I found some time working on the Duc.

I started with takin of the front..
Dont think I like the M-steering-bar. Some clipons would look better..still working on that.

The tank looks really cool without all the bodywork. I'm consider keeping this one.
But we'll see how things work out.