By this stage I realised the jigsaw I'd just tipped on my garage floor was a lot bigger than I thought. Like beginning any jigsaw you are desperate to find something, anything, that gives you a point of reference to start building from.
I fiddled around the edges for a while: I had the benefit of some old 916 spares stashed away and a 916 brake master went on to replace the bulky 851 unit which has the reservoir incorporated, it was probably no worse functionally but it was an ugly looking thing. A set of OEM 916 braided lines replaced the 25 year old OEM rubber lines. A 916 RH switchblock is slimline in comparison and the throttle 916 throttle housing incorporates a handy fast idle button which the 851 doesn't have. A lanyard kill switch also went on as cheap insurance.
But now what? It's hard enough finding decent OEM parts for these old buses, but good race parts are as rare as rocking horse poo. You can make all the lists and plans you like but unless the bits are actually available the plan is just a wish.
The first big piece of the puzzle to really fall into place was finding a set of rare period correct as-new magnesium Marchesini rims...in the UK. Just what the doctor ordered, although the the bank manager was in vocal disagreement, and nearly went apopleptic when shipping was factored in. Turns out the seller also had a matching set of SP cast iron full floating front brake rotors, and small Corsa sized rear rotor, complete with a sexy lil' 2 piston Nissin "competition only" caliper from an '89 TZ250. The billet under-slung hanger was also a nice improvement over the heavy cast OEM item.
So the bike was now a little lighter and in places where it would give most benefit: unsprung rotating mass. Progress!
The next small win was finding a Corsa (the Corsa was the Factory race bike of the time) replica "1 piece" carbon air box at a reasonable price. They call it a "box" but as you can see below it's more of a molded carbon dish. It doesn't seal against the bottom of the tank, but does create a slightly pressurised area vastly bigger than the ridiculous OEM airbox. Remember this was back in what was very much a carburetted world, where intake mods consisted of bolting on a set of flat slide carbs that waved in the breeze. The Ducati engineers weren't so much taking giant strides as baby steps into the world of ram air, pressurised airboxes, resonance etc
What's up with the "1 piece" airbox bit? The 851 has a frame cross brace that almost splits the throttle bodies. Earlier Corsa bikes had a 3 piece carbon unit to fit around it, but it's a bit messy. The later solution was to manufacture the air box as 1 piece, as per the above, and instead modify the brace to make it removable. So that's what I planned to do once the airbox arrived......
This is where things start to snowball. Kinda like HRC parts, Ducati race parts are rarely a simple bolt on prospect. No, it almost always entails buying other bits to make the first bit work or fit, and those secondary bits then need more unobtainable parts to make them fit...it requires some mental and financial gymnastics to plot the whole course of what at first glance seems like a simple mod.
You can fit the airbox by itself, but you still need to get air into it. The early bikes were a little crude, but obviously effective, this is Lucchinelli's '88 bike for the 2nd year of WSB:
But the later bikes had a much more elegant solution as they started refining a soon to be winning formula, a carbon fibre intake that incorporated the dash mounts and later on the front mount ECU:
Just in case you are wondering, no that isn't a speedo cable, it's for the cable driven tacho running off the end of one of the cams. Yes, electronic fuel injection and a cable driven tacho, it makes my eye twitch too....
So that means finding a set of Corsa carbon air runners.....which means the standard instrument pod doesn't fit....so you make an alloy copy of the (of course carbon) Corsa instrument pod...but then the OEM clip-ons clash with the pod...so you need zero offset clip-ons....then you need the special brackets that bolt to the runners to support the fairing etc etc. (insert heavy sigh here).
Finally all done, all mounted, but the black alloy instrument pod I manufactured that looked fine in isolation bugged me against the carbon, so another reach for the pocket and a carbon replica unit replaced it.
And you eventually end up with something like this once you've faffed around making hombrewed versions of all the special mountings that you just can't find these days (no, not my bike):
A pleasant side effect of the Corsa intake is that it also fulfils the function of the heavy steel front subframe in mounting the fairing, so that's another lump of weight clattering into the bin.
Thanks go to Peter at Oronero for doing me a great price on most of these items, what were slight factory seconds for him were absolutely perfect for my race application:
