Now I've gone and done

[Curtis in Texas]

Now I've gone and done it.
I have a 06 KLR which I dearly love. It takes me everywhere I want comfortably. It doesn't need to be washed, or pampered. It's a real mule.
But, I'm not here to extoll the KLR.
Over the last few weeks I've been watching the "For Sale" section on Adventure Rider Forum. My son has always had a passion for Ducatis and I really like the Elefant 900's looks. Since my sone, now 33, has ridden motorcycles with me since he was 1.5 years old, I wanted to get him into the Dual Sport Riding and off those Killer Crotch Rockets. He was a CMRA racer and retired when he got married. A Smart Move in my eyes. He and I both have nearly been killed on Sport Bikes.

Enough dribble.
Last week I found a 95 Ducati Elefant for sale and the guy selling it was getting desperate for cash. He has been going through a divorced and was nearly beat down. HE lowered his price a little more but no takers.
Having been there myself, I hurt for the guy. And, since I'd always thought it would be nice to have an Elefant I bought it. I'm sure I could have gotten him down more but, since I've been there, I decided not to haggle. A, kind of pay it forward deal, if you will. I had the money and it didn't make any sense to not try and help him.

Anyway, enough background. If you've been there with children involved, you'll understand.

I brought the bike home Wednesday night from California. What a long trip.
Here it is still on the trailer. (I took my KLR with us thinking I would get some time to ride the Pacific Coast Highway with my friend who went with me.) It’s still on there because I had to take it with me to my sons’ house for him to see. He insisted!
I’ll unload them into the shop as soon as it stops raining.

My plans are to tear it down and clean it up. The engine is strong, but it needs a new paint job, fork seals and brakes. The owner says it needs valve guide seals which I will address while the engine is out of the frame. A little TLC and this promises to be a stunning bike. The best part is it’s in primer and that means I won’t feel guilty about painting it my color.

From the pictures the owner posted up on the Forum it looked like a bad investment. He was up front with me about its problems, and things like new brake lines, fork seals and such are easy to replace. For someone less mechanical I can see where it would intimidate them. I’m happy with the deal. Happy with the prospects I have. And my Son is ecstatic that I will have a spare bike (at my house) that he can ride with me. We have already been daydreaming about our first dual sport ride to Arkansas. His wife is not real happy that he’s going to be riding motorcycles again, but his 3 kids love riding with Grandpa around my ranch on my KLR. So Deal with it little Missy!

I’ll be chronicling the rebuild as soon as I can get my Blog updated and will post up a link here for ya’ll to watch the progress. (Yep, I’m a true blood Texan) So stay tuned.
And just for grins, here’s a picture of what it looked like new. Disregard the name Cagiva, Mine says Ducati! Same bike, same paint, different name.

Stay tuned.
Curtis in Texas

 

[RedRocker]

Looks good, keep us posted.

 

[Curtis in Texas]

“95” 900 cc Ducati Elefant Rebuild Update

Before 11/24/08

Remember the picture.above gettting when I got it home for the first time still setting on the trailer on Thanksgiving Eve?


Flying Elefant (How I unload it off the trailer)

It took a little time but it's almost finished.
Today 03/01/09

Front wheel & fender (no more leaking forks and it even has brakes now.)

Front Forks rebuilt (Standing on the bench ready for surgury)

Naked Elefant

Headlight Cowling (gotta love the dual round headlights)

Body Work gets painted.

I even rebuilt the Givi Bag Mount to make them symmetrical. When I got it, the right bag was offset by 5 inches for the muffler and the top box was off center too. The left bag was rig up against the side cover.
Much better now!

The wife and I took it for a spin today, the first ride since I brought it home back in November.

Just a few things left to do. I have a Gustaffasen Windscreen for it that needs to be mounted. The stock seat is going to get repadded. And I have some new Ducati Decals to put on it along with some reflective pin striping. The handlebars need to be taller for me too. I may change them to get a different taper. I added braided brake & fuel lines and stainless bolts everywhere I could get to. The forks and brakes were the worst part of the bike when I got it, those have all been rebuilt.

It runs like great, and starts easy. Once I got it to prime the carbs again. Thought for a while I had messed up by running the carbs dry when I got ready to strip it down. But it eventually fired off. The Speedo and tach cables are still messed up. Oh well, it’s always something and these are small items.

Anyway, a little fine tuning and I may get used to having it yet. I really like the way it looks. The suspension is stiff compared to my KLR. But the KLR’s suspension has been really tweaked for a great ride. Not sure how to fix it where the Duc will ride like the KLR, but I’ll figure it out I’m sure.

That’s all for now. NOw it needs to be registered and insured in Texas and I can start riding it.

Curtis in Texas

 

[WhereTheHellIsJames?]

That's a good lookin' bike! So did you redo the valve guides as well? Also, did you strip and paint the frame, or just the bodywork? Either way- good looking bike, and I'm sure if it's like any other Ducati I've ever ridden, it'll be a blast. Just make sure to keep up on the maintenance!

 

[Curtis in Texas]

That's a good lookin' bike! So did you redo the valve guides as well? Also, did you strip and paint the frame, or just the bodywork? Either way- good looking bike, and I'm sure if it's like any other Ducati I've ever ridden, it'll be a blast. Just make sure to keep up on the maintenance!

I was led to believe it had bad valve guides when I bought it.
I checked it several times for signs of oil burning. But, since the plugs didn't show any signs of it I left them alone for the moment.
I did however find a sticking choke cable on the rear carb and repaired that. The smoke at startup has gone away so I'll keep my eye on it.
I originally intended to do a complete teardown and rebuild, but once it got a bath I decided to postpone that effort and see what else might be wrong with it.

The paint on the frame was in good shape so I just cleaned it all up and pressure washed the engine. Seems that the PO had ridden it with the fork seals leaking so long that it was coated pretty well. It looked a lot worse than it was once I got the gunk off. Yea, I usually don't get this lucky.:wings:

I think I may need to go to a lighter weight fork oil as it has a harsh ride with 10W even when ridden two up. Maybe my KLR with Emulators has me spoiled!

So basically we ended up spending an unbelievable amount of time cleaning the machine and painting the body work. Oh, and rebuilding & replacing the seals in the brakes and forks. I'll be addressing that seat this week. Then raise the handlebars and swapping in a set with a little more wrist friendly bend. I'm 6'2" and this bike is too short for me as it is.

I might add that when I bought this bike my intention was to remove the engine and replace it with a Turbo Diesel 3 cylinder motor I have, and stuff a Harley Tranny behind it. A Lot of success in Europe with this combo.
Now it looks like I'll need to find me another candidate.
Unless this motor pukes parts on me soon. Which is not likely!

Curtis

 

[1speed]

I remember when that bike was for sale on ADV Rider. It looked like more work than I wanted to tackle at the time. It seems maybe it was not as bad as the seller thought. You are doing a great job though and the bike looks fantastic!

 

[Curtis in Texas]

I remember when that bike was for sale on ADV Rider. It looked like more work than I wanted to tackle at the time. It seems maybe it was not as bad as the seller thought. You are doing a great job though and the bike looks fantastic!

Thanks for the props. I'm pretty happy with how it's come out so far.
I bought a Gustaffasen 17 windscreen for it, in smoke, and after it gets registered I'll add that and start cutting it down to where I like it.
Of course the seat will have to be addressed before I start trimming the windscreen.

All in all ,the bike doesn't leak anymore and so far I've not noticed NO oil consumption. (Been riding it up and down the FM roads out here near the Ranch these last few days.) The engine is really strong. Had the wife screaming "Uncle" the other day. It will accelerate like stink even with both of us on it.:bike_rider:

The wife did complain that the Givi Bags are too far forward for her liking, so I may redo the mounting brackets and move them back more to suit her. I'm hoping I can get her on this one more than the KLR. She loved riding behind me on the Sport Bike, go figure! Guess it was the leaning forward on me that she enjoyed. I just couldn't hold her and me up very many times during hard braking. So that's one of the reasons I went to Dual Sport bikes.

The Jury is still out as to wether this will be the KLR replacemant. It's got some tough competition. I've got the KLR right where I want it MOD Wise.

I'll try and get some better pictures of it in the next few days.

Been a little preoccupoed with an injured Aunt who is in ICU at the Hospital.
If your the praying type join us in lifting up my 88 year old Aunt Mozell for healing. A sweatheart of a Christian Lady, who didn't deserve this.
She was attacked by one of her Ram Sheep and left for dead. She would have faired better if she'd been hit by a BUS!

Thanks again guys.

Curtis

 

[Hayduke950]

Great job, man! I love the color. (I may be biased)

One of my favorite bikes of all time. Have fun with it! :bike_rider:


And good luck too your aunt! :Wow1:

 

[UnfrozenCaveman]

I used to ride (the 750ss Duc) around western Iowa with a guy who had a blue Elefant just like the Cagiva you've pictured.

He had a great time on the gravel roads that we have around here.....I stuck to the pavement

Great buy, great refurbishment!

KAA