[Sarbatche]

I've owned a 2001 748R for 3 years now, and for the last 2 it's been sitting in my carport in Guam. Military housing doesn't offer completely enclosed garages either. Guam is a tiny island in the Pacific just above the equator, which equates to a very humid environment. That much humidity leads to lots of metal oxidation. And strangely... mud wasps, which have an disturbing habit of nesting on my tires and exhaust piping.

Before I leave this duty station I will repair and refit this bike. Hence the build thread.

Only thing that I really have going for me: I'm a US Navy machinist with a complete machine shop and free raw materials at my disposal. Not such a small thing. A good deal of billet parts will probably be going onto this machine.

The end product will be a 748R with most all components tri-colored in the Italian fashion and themed with Washington State (home) in mind.

 

[Sarbatche]

Here are some of the original conditions and their problems.

The full bike, though slightly disassembled.

Calcium(?) build up on reservoirs. They're definitely getting replaced with custom billet.

Wasp nests in very inconvenient places.

Front fairing stays are cracked. Picture is of only one, but they're both in the same condition.

Slow drop on the side. Fairings need some work.

Brake lever handle is broken from the drop. Needs to be replaced... more billet!

 

[Artistimo]

Are you sure that's an R? The 01 748R comes with Ohlins forks and I think a rear shock too.

Good luck on your project! There's tons of reference and help on here. I saw someone else with a red one whose bike was on an island and had some of the same corrosion issues. He was running a restoration topic too if you want to do a search.

 

[94CobraR]

Should be fun to watch! Good luck!

 

[Mike_1324]

No oil cooler and nothing on the top tripple clamp????

Ta

MF

 

[mbevans]

It's definitely an R model. Its got the Ohlins forks and rear shock, plus the 5 spoke rear wheel.

Those look like Showa forks to me.....

 

[999rmvspr]

Those look like Showa forks to me.....

Look like SHOWA to me too.

 

[jamesmorgan]

ya, im no expert but every 748R ive ever seen has ohlins forks and a triple clamp badging of some sort naming it an R bike. and i hope those "free" raw materials arnt coming courtesy of the US Navy! although there free to you, we all end up footing the bill by the way of taxes. its also called fraud, waste and abuse, not to mention misappropriation of government goods.

 

[John]

Its no R bike. The rear shock is not an Ohlins either, its a Sachs, correct?

 

[desmo_pt]

It might be a 748R from 2000, they didn't had the ohlins suspension.

The best way to see if it has shower injectors.

Pedro

 

[Sarbatche]

ya, im no expert but every 748R ive ever seen has ohlins forks and a triple clamp badging of some sort naming it an R bike. and i hope those "free" raw materials arnt coming courtesy of the US Navy! although there free to you, we all end up footing the bill by the way of taxes. its also called fraud, waste and abuse, not to mention misappropriation of government goods.

Your right, I shouldn't say 'free' but rather waste. The size and scope of the machining I do leaves lots of billet scrap laying around in shapes not suited for further manufacture. But that scrap (i.e. end caps that are cut from large diameter barstock) are well suited to small, personal projects. The aforementioned scrap is otherwise tossed in the dumpsters because there's very limited room for material, and certainly no space for odd-sized bits and pieces.

It might be a 748R from 2000, they didn't had the ohlins suspension.

I had to check my registration. The bike is indeed registered from 2000 and not 2001, hence the Showa suspension (front and back). Oops. I am currently running frame/engine numbers through Ducati to verify the model.

No oil cooler and nothing on the top tripple clamp????

Hm. There isn't an oil cooler, is there? That's going to have to be fixed up then. The Ohlins steering damper was removed first, which is why nothing is hanging out on top of the upper triple. Pacific island humidity did a number even on the SS rod and completely gummed up the heim joints. Tomorrow I'll take the steering damper into the shop where I've got soft jaw vises to grip the SS rod so I can unscrew the heim joint and find a replacement.

 

[94CobraR]

My 2000 748R did not have an identifier on the top clamp.

 

[Sarbatche]

I started sanding down the front fairing. I've never worked filler/primer and paint on a glass surface before so I'm fairly anxious about the process. Couldn't get too far as I was toiling away without an orbital grinder. Just me and my hands... The weather also turned wet and I wasn't feeling the sanding process inside my house.

So I started work on some machining projects. The clutch cover is something easily replaced with billet. Had a bit of a problem getting the right measurements and angles for the bolts correct. If anyone thinks that they have better information on the angles between bolts on the cover, please let me know. The methods I was using are probably only accurate +/- 2-3 degrees.

Here's the scanned drafting attempt I made for the angles of the bolt placement on the cover.