Tell me about the Ducati 900ss

[rider33]

hot blooded, trash-talking, unforgiving and unfaithful- in other words
the perfect sports bike. You may not want to introduce her to your
mom but you will want to take her for a spin. And, signifiicantly cheeper
than a mistress.

[RonS]

I just sold a 95 900 SS/SP. Loved the bike but it had been thrashed before I got it and I got tired of working on it more than riding it. I'd love to find one in good shape with low miles that had been taken care of. The problems I had were all the common problems these bikes have:

Fried headlight connector.
Dead voltage regulator.
Various electrical gremlins.
Rusted out corners of tank.
Clutch slave tu.
Carbs rebuilt four times in a year by me as well as other individuals and never really were quite right.

All items fixed eventually but I didn't want to find out what the next problem was going to be. The problem is that I sold it to my nephew. That means I will still get dragged into working on it.

[rider33]

for reliablity we have Honda's,
for La Dolce Vita, we have Ducati's.
Remember, first the grapes must suffer..........

[Tweeek]

Originally Posted by rider33

hot blooded, trash-talking, unforgiving and unfaithful- in other words
the perfect sports bike. You may not want to introduce her to your
mom but you will want to take her for a spin. And, signifiicantly cheeper
than a mistress.

Eloquently put!! and I couldn't agree more. SS's are dirty, dirty girls that BEG to be ridden harder than any other bike I've been had the pleasure of throwing two legs over.

I forgot to mention the maintenance myth. My Ducati has proven to be more reliable than my 01' Hondah F4i. I replaced my belts every 10k miles for a piece of mind, and never had any issues. Belts take an honest 15-20 minutes to change, and are cake if you have common sense. Valve adjustments are not nearly as often as people have made them out to be, especially if you are used to streeeet riding an XR! I checked my valves every 6k and immediately adjusted if out of spec. I was pleasantly surprised when I only had to adjust the valves twice during my duration of riding; once the first week I got the bike, and then again right before I sold it. Once the 2V's have ~12-15k good miles, the valves have seat ed themselves into the head and most all deformation has taken place. The most difficult part of a Desmo valve adjustment is making sure you don't drop the closing shim collet into the head, and learning how to correctly measure the closing shim thickness. For the rear exhaust valve you need to take the shock off; I just hung the rear of the bike from rafters in my garage. Again, easy solution. Do NOT be scared of the maintanence. If this is an issue, I would gladly ride to Westby and give you some pointers!!

The only parts I had to replace was the inevitable leaking clutch slave cylinder; its an easy fix if you don't mind installing new o-rings, otherwise an aftermarket bit is ~$100. I also replaced my reg/rec @ 38k. Some SS developed cracks in the frame near the headtube. Make sure to look closely. I believe Chris's site (ducatitech) discusses this. When I bought my bike, it already had the frame replaced. The previous owner said Ducati replaced it with a new one, no questions asked, in 2004.

The road feel from my SS is far superior to my "modded" F4i. Perhaps its the steel trellis frame and the inverted forks... whatever it is, I had a lot more confidence in determining when the front was about to let loose on my Duc than my Honda.

[KSJEEPER]

I bought a new 900SSCR in 1996, and rode it for about 6 years. Never had a glitch of any kind. Agree with the earlier poster ; for me, the aesthetics don't get any better... I did do the dual headlight fairing, and carbon pipes. I don't know that I've heard a better sounding bike to this day.

Count on replacing the seat with a Corbin or something else. At least for my ass, the seat seemed to have been designed specifically to split me in half...

[Lettlander]

Originally Posted by rokklym

Thats a sweet bike! I love Monsters and dream of the S2R1000 every day! Yours would be nice too, but a little out of my budget.

I love it too. Lately tho' I've been thinking of parting ways with the 900 & letting someone else have some fun with it.

Kinda leaning towards either a DRZ400S or a KLX250S. A different kind of fun all together...

Someday tho' I would like to get a "square headlight" SS Ducati.

[NorCalslowpoke]

Stop talking so much about 900SS's!

I was just getting used to not having one.....damn you.

Someday there will be another in garage.....

Mine was a rare full fairing black one with a white frame; (one of 100 or so in the US).

I sold it to a guy in Texas....are you out there? sell it back to me....!

[Arch]

Originally Posted by NorCalslowpoke

I sold it to a guy in Texas....are you out there? sell it back to me....!

What was the buyer's name? My friend Larry bought one of those from a guy in CA a few years ago. Here it is upon arrival - in case the bike and/or packaging looks familiar...



FWIW, it's now in New Mexico in the hands of another owner.

[gasgaseffinfast]

Originally Posted by rokklym

OK, I know some of ya hate Ducatis so please keep your comments to a minimum. I've personally loved Ducatis for a long time, but never owned one. I've been noticing a few 94+ 900SS's around for decent prices and was wondering about the bike. I know they take more love to own but I want something with some character that I can take out for the weekend and tour around, and ride with the local bikers occasionally.
Are they decent bikes? Junk? too high maintenance?

The only reviews I've read of them were form the early 90's and they sounded like a good bike at the time.

it's a fun, inexpensive, fairly reliable Ducati with a great motor and huge aftermarket suppprt. you have to make sure the services have been done properly, especially the belts. i've owned a bunch of ducks, and i never liked the handling of the 900ss. although i still managed to put 18,000 miles on mine. the cantilever rear suspension is late 1970s technology, no linkage, so the handling can be a bit wobbly, especially in bumpy corners. but plenty of guys road race these bikes and love them, so they're certainly capable. and whatever you do, make sure any engine mods are geared towards increasing midrange power and torque, not outright HP. you'll never get great top end power out of this motor without ruining what it does really well - nice torqey roll on power.

[RocketJohn]

Originally Posted by NorCalslowpoke

Stop talking so much about 900SS's!

I was just getting used to not having one.....damn you.

Someday there will be another in garage.....

Mine was a rare full fairing black one with a white frame; (one of 100 or so in the US).

I sold it to a guy in Texas....are you out there? sell it back to me....!

all so you could get another Dual sport... sold a legend for thumper... shame, shame!

[NorCalslowpoke]

Holy jeebus thats it!

I recognize the polished rims, & cans! Larry was his name

I miss that bike, got anymore stories/info?

I remember sadly riding it to the drop off & taking photos of it being strapped/loaded.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Arch

What was the buyer's name? My friend Larry bought one of those from a guy in CA a few years ago. Here it is upon arrival - in case the bike and/or packaging looks familiar...



FWIW, it's now in New Mexico in the hands of another owner.

[snowrider]

I have a '95 900SS and I love it but I hate it sometimes too. It's amazing how bad this kind of bike can be if the road isn't very smooth. It's mechanical character is always a joy though. Lots of neat noises, open dry clutch, cam belts, desmo, etc... My front end happens to be too soft for me, and this bike puts all the rider weight over the front end like a full on repli-racer. This riding position seems punishing on the front end on a rough road. My DR does almost everything better than the Ducati except top speed/passing power and lean angle. That doesn't mean it always goes through curves faster with me riding it though. The DR's easier to push through curves, especially unfamliar ones, with the ease of late corrections and all that.
I'm going to be installing risers and a superbike bar streetfighter style to make it a more practical streetbike.
Oh yeah, the steering lock really is ridiculous, you have to Y-turn out of some parking lots like a car.
I ride the DR most of the time so I haven't even gotten to a valve adjustment yet on the duc so I can't really comment on reliability. I wouldn't worry about the reliability too much, but I wouldn't choose it if I wanted a sportbike to travel long distance on a lot.
In streetfighter mode I think it could have some real advantages on the street over a 600 four, but as it is it seems a little less practical except for the engine torque. Still, it's not much worse than a 600 repliracer at most things (makes less power though), and it is a neat machine.




Oh, hi Tweek. I have Tweek's old 900SS.

Originally Posted by rokklym

OK, I know some of ya hate Ducatis so please keep your comments to a minimum. I've personally loved Ducatis for a long time, but never owned one. I've been noticing a few 94+ 900SS's around for decent prices and was wondering about the bike. I know they take more love to own but I want something with some character that I can take out for the weekend and tour around, and ride with the local bikers occasionally.
Are they decent bikes? Junk? too high maintenance?

The only reviews I've read of them were form the early 90's and they sounded like a good bike at the time.

[Arch]

Originally Posted by NorCalslowpoke

Holy jeebus thats it!
I recognize the polished rims, & cans! Larry was his name
I miss that bike, got anymore stories/info?
I remember sadly riding it to the drop off & taking photos of it being strapped/loaded.
Cheers

I figured it was the same machine. There aren't many of the charcoal ones around. Hell, there aren't many of any of the early year models of this generation of Supersport. For example, the year mine was built, 1991, about 255 came to the States and many (some say most) of these US bikes were immediately shipped to Japan to satisfy their healthy gray market demand. In short, there's no way to know how many remained. For 1992, the total number built is said to have been 4305.

FWIW, your old bike fell into caring hands. Larry's a multi time CRRC/CMRA singles class champ and the bike was gone through pretty good. Sorry I can't find any better pics, probably somewhere on my desktop box, but here's a cluttered garage pic of the project on the stand and in process...


And here's what your old '92 looks like today...

[NorCalslowpoke]

Looks like it went to a good home

I'd be lying if i said that I liked the change in the body work. I hope he did not use the original body work (must be hard to find original black/charcoal body items). I guess I'm less interested in finding that particular 900ss, now that I've seen it.

I do like the black rims/brakes/chrome exhaust and I'm sure he tuned/modified it mechanically in a fine fashion.

Thanks much for sharing!!!!

Back to the thread.....I guess.

[Arch]

The mufflers are stainless Staintunes, and, btw, I agree about the paint scheme. If memory serves, it's Racetech bodywork, but I'd rather that things stayed stock looking. Mechanically however, the bike was much improved. Hi-comps, dialed carbs, etc, etc.