851SPECIAL

How this bike came to me

(warning, 5 mile story)

When I was 16, a friend showed up one day with a Ducati. This was the first time I had ever seen a Ducati, or heard a Ducati and from the first of each, I was hooked and hooked in a really bad way. His name was Sergei Sikorsky and he was the grandson of the famed Igor who invented the helicopter. Sergei was a German Russian and had jumped all over the globe before landing in Newport due to his love to sailing and when he landed so did his love for 2 wheels.

The year was 1996 and the bike was a Paso 906 which had been crashed more times than one could imagine. Sergei would tell me that this one was stolen once, only to be driven only 1000ft before the perpetrator squeezed too much throttle assuming it was a Japanese inline 4, wheeling it right into a car (this was common on Ducati's back then). I immediately asked if he would sell it to me, he immediately said no. After a year harassment, Sergei said "OK, I give" but he said he was going to go and ask my parents if it was ok. He did, and my parents said "we can't stop him" and so there it was, my first Ducati: The ugly duc, The Paso 906.

Two years later I decided I was ready to graduate to a "real" bike and what I needed was a "superbike". I found an 888 in Arizona with my name on it and this was the start of my 4 valve affair with Ducati. On one of Sergei's and my many rides of the era, we swapped bikes and he had his first ride on an 888. When he got off he was speechless, honestly didn't talk much for a few weeks, the 888/851 had a way of doing that to people. Many years passed (5 or 6) and I get a call from Sergei who was living in Arkansas telling me he had never gotten the 888 out of his head from that ride and that he had tracked down an 851 with a troubled past, asking if I would look at pictures of the bike and advise if he should or shouldn't buy it. The bike was a 1992 851 Bi-posto and it had a rebuilt title due to a crash at some point but overall it was in good shape, a very good and solid "rider" of an 851, at the price they were asking I told him to buy it and he did.

Three or four years past and Sergei landed back in Newport, a little older and a little less stable, the later of these constants would be the one that got Sergei in the end. With him he brought a handful of bikes, one of which was the 851, now broken with what was likely a bad fuelpump. At the time I had a shop and took the bike in but never touched it as I was too busy building all the other bikes at the time. When I closed the shop, Sergei and I moved the 851 to a storage unit and that was the last I saw of the bike, or him for that matter. From that point, I moved away and started a family, Sergei moved to a boat and started to unravel. Two years later the call came from a friend that Sergei had passed away from a tragic event. The bottom line is that Sergei did it his way and this was the end that was always going to be. Saddened, I remembered the 851 and put it way way back in my mind for a later date because at the time I was having kids and bikes were far from my mind.

Fast forward almost 6 years and I had an itch to find Sergei's old 851 and do something with it. A few of my friends tracked down the guy Sergei gave the bike away to and I started asking to buy it, only to be told no repeatedly (just like with the paso, same story, different bike, kinda the same owner). Every year or so I would reach out to the gent that had it and the answer was ALWAYS no, until one year (4 later) the answer was Yes. I grabbed cash and went to get the bike I had not seen in ten years. Here is where a normal person would say: No one would ever buy a rebuilt title Ducati, nevermind an 851 which is a complex bird: No one would ever buy an unmaintained, non-running bike from a basement after sitting for over eleven years without running. I ran, I didn't walk.

My first sight of the bike, my mind said "What the hell have you done!!!" The bike was in a basement, which was not weather tight, not climate controlled and certainly not dry.

Here is the first sight, I took a pic of my kiddo sitting on it, he was happy, I was not. The bike was a mess, the frame was rusty, the engine was losing it's clear coat, who knew what shape the damn engine was in.

Regardless, I paid the man his free money for storing a free bike that he got for being at the right place at the right time. In the truck she went!

The first thing you do is get it running

With any basket case, you ALWAYS get it running before you do anything else. After wiring the fuel pump correctly, she started right up. Two things I forgot: How much I love the sound these bikes make and: How much I love old staintune cans!

Teardown

One of the best parts of a project is the teardown process as it lets you see the state of things and on these old Ducatis, it also lets you see what parts they used from the parts bin to build these bikes. It is shocking how much and often things changed on these pre-916 bikes.

As you can see the bike was in bad esthetic shape, specifically the frame and motor casings and heads. The plastics were OK, In the end I only kept the tank, the nose and one side failing the rest was sourced from the used market.

Specifications

Frame and subframe: 1991 851 frame, 1992 subframe, modded from bi-posto to mono-posto. 
Engine: 1992 851, punched to 888
Tank: 1991 851
Front suspension: Ohlins 110MM radial mount from a Honda 1000RR Fireblade.  OEM triples, lower bored. 
Rear Suspension: Ohlins M900 with 888 hoop and rocker
Front Brakes: Brembo Radial master / Suzuki Hyabusa 110MM monoblock calipers / 748R/996R 15MM offset rotors.
Steering Damper: Ohlins Monster 
Rear Brakes: Ducati 999 Master / Ducati 999 rear caliper
Clutch: Brembo Radial master / YoYoDyne Slave
Wheels: Brembo 5 spoke aluminum
Exhaust: Silmoto full 50MM Spaghetti, carbon silencers
Tail: 1993 888 race
Nose and side fairings: OEM 851
Headlight: Custom carrier for Purpose built moto 4" LED

Frame replacement and Mockups

The tail of two frames... As some might know, a rebuilt or salvage title carries with it a lifetime blackeye of holding a diminished "value" in the market and in most states, a rebuilt or salvage title means you cannot register the vehicle. In this case, the 851 came to me with a rebuilt title which with Ducati usually means the bike was laid down and the insurance company totaled the bike due to the cost of replacement plastics. Usually a bike goes from salvage, then is rebuilt and a certified rebuilder gets a new title on the bike.

For me to do the work I was planning to do on this bike, I was not prepared to do so with a title that was not clear. Luckily a friend had bought a frame 15 years ago so I gave him a call and bought it.

One thing that is important to know is that between 1991 and 1992 Ducati went to a new frame design for these bikes which later carried in to the 888, Monster and ST platforms. A few differences between them:

• 1991 and earlier:
  • Ugly dropouts for the rearsets. These were covered by the early 851 tail plastics
  • Hand welded front tubes from the main frame to the steerer tube
  • The tank mounting was not hinged and cliped
• 1992 and newer:
  • Pretty dropouts for the rearsets. This made the rearsets longer and less good looking but better looking overall and allowed for racing to mount the rearsets higher off the ground.
  • Two cross member tubes on the lower frame rails that ran between the intake / throttle bodies.
  • Bent front tubes from the main frame to the steerer tube

Below you can see the two frames side by side, the upper being the 1992 and the lower being the 1991. Neither looked great!

The newer frames cost less to make due to the bent front tubes which were less stiff but they added some stiffness to the frame with the additional two lower cross members. My plan was to have a VERY stiff bike by having the old frame style with the welded front tubes and corner supports AND I added lower cross members. Below you can see the raw tubing on the lower section.

Early mock up of the drive line with 5 spoke wheels and ohlins fork:

Bodywork / Headlight Mockups

Once the driveline was someone in order, it was time to work on the body. The body is fairly standard OEM other than the race tail which is missing the cut out for the taillight.

On the headlight front, I opted to make a carrier to allow me to mount a round light in a square hole (yes there is a joke in there). For this my friend Jesse designed this in CAD and we printed a few interactions before getting it right. I sourced a Purpose built moto 4" unit from Australia which JUST fit in the square of the OEM glass reflector.

Engine Degrease and walnut blast

The engine had a lot of muck on it and a lot of the clear was coming off the metal. If I had the time I would have broken the entire motor down, blasted and re-cleared it but this was not that kind of job and I don't have that kind of time.

Dirty Engine:

Engine masking, prime, paint and stainless bolt kit install

Masked

Primed

Painted, unmasked and stainless bolt kit installed

Pre-Powder coating, post powder coating and early build up

One of my all time favorite thing to do is take a pre powder and post powder picture of a project. It shows a turning point in any project and moves you into a phase of fun, albeit a stressful one due to the fragility of working on something that has been freshly painted or coated. One thing to note is that I was running with an 851 rear rocker and hoop before I was able to source a proper 888 setup, so these pictures reflect that.

The early time during build up on these Ducatis is a lot of fun because all you see are the beautiful parts, not the ugly parts

Speaking of ugly, Here you can see what goes into these early EFI bikes. They are reliable and make great power but they have wires EVERYWHERE. Additionally the ECUs are quite large, in this case the 851,888 and early 916s were based on on the Weber / Marelli P8. Additionally you have the radiator, throttle bodies and Airbox to ugly things up.

Over time, you realize the fairings were good for lowering drag but ALSO for hiding all the ugly parts!

Here you can see the bike finally on two wheels (albeit temporary wheels!)

Tail fender design / build

One of the things I have always hated most about these bikes are the huge rear mudguard that the street bikes came with. These fought the tail cowl and muffler lines and ruined a great look, this is why race bikes always looked better.

My solution was to make a slim plate that would protect the underside and hold the ECU and Ignition modules.

The same after paint

888 rear suspension swap

When I finished the bulk of the work on this build, I put it down on the wheels and found the tail height to be all wrong. It was low, flat and was never going to turn well. I did some reading and realized I have forgotten the difference between the 851/early monster and the 888 rear suspension setups. The 851/Monsters were less expensive and could handle Bi-Posto ride wights while the 888 was fully adjustable and was 3/4" taller by default. The search started and I was able to find a NOS rocker and hoop in Italy (for not a small price I might add). Once the parts arrived I pulled the thing apart and redid the rear suspension.

The 888 rocker and hoop. You can see the hoop has a centered stand off and mounts inside the rocker, on the 851, this is double tabbed and the rocker bolts inside the hoop. If you look above in this write up you can see the 851 parts before and after powder coating.

Here is the suspension installed with the rear mud guard / underplate.

All the pretty parts come together

There is nothing better than getting all the body parts, wheels and little bits that make a vehicle look great.

The body work came to me better than I had hoped. Here I went with the 851 race number plates with nothing on the tail. The nose was painted to match the side number panels. The color I chose was Audi's Nardo Grey, which I am very fond of.

The Wheels were a nightmare but came in perfect.

The headlight and carrier were painted / powder coated to fit into the number plate on the nose as best possible. Additionally you can see the effort we went to allow the headlight to use the OEM lens carrier and mounting.

The Final Product

After many months and a lot of $$$$, the bike was done and man, I was Happy with it. Still am to this day! (I wrote this a year after the build)

One of the best things on this project was how well the modern Honda front fender played with the old styling of the 851!!! Most don't see it but over the years, the front fender has changed a lot on the Ducati SBKs and it drives a lot of the aging of the bike (IMHO).

Maintenance log

All Maintenance work was completed after the complete build in the Spring of 2023.

Logging of work

Date	Description	New / Used parts	Notes
10/08/24	Radiator replacement	New	China crap. Better than old OEM!
10/08/24	Coolant replacement	New	Engine Ice
10/08/24	Slipper clutch install	Used	Duc perf with barnett clutch
10/08/24	Clutch pushrod	Used	Replaced due to leak from older double o-rings
10/08/24	Fairing bolt replacements	New	Anodized Alloy