Building a Mach 1

[Merlin]

So my ambition is to build a Mach 1 ground up. I don't have a complete bike to start from, but have already sourced enough parts (Motor, ets.) to get started. Any thoughts out there?...good/bad idea?

[DesmoDog]

Depending on what you're starting with and how "accurate" you want to make it, you could either have a fun little project or quite the money pit... I prefer to start with mostly complete bikes, but of course you can do it part by part.

Authentic Mach 1 tanks can get expensive, along with the correct carb and other bits. The correct smooth style upper triple clamp will then require cli-ons, which will require the shorter headlight mounts, etc. If you aren't shooting for an exact copy you can have a bike that performs similarly for a much lower cost.

[Merlin]

I think as I move through the building process I will make some personal changes to fit the bike to my needs: that seems to be the best direction if I am not trying to make a museum bike. What about reliability? Will the vintage bike take more love and maintainance that it will provide drive time (once it is all dialed in)?

[DesmoDog]

It will require more maintanence than a modern bike but if you're building it from the ground up there's no reason you can't make it better than new from a reliability standpoint.

If you don't go wild with the porting and cam and don't ride it at 10,000rpm all day long there's no reason it wouldn't make a nice toy. Most of the problems I hear about are from people trying to get by with old systems... like 40 year old wiring, etc...

You should get signed up to the bevelheads mailing list if you're going to be playing with this stuff, there's a lot of info available there from people that have been riding these things since they were new. go to

http://www.ducatimeccanica.com

for more info...