Joe Popp's 1994 Ducati 900SS SP Blog: October 2009

Nice ride down A1A

My 900ss is finally getting up to snuff and I will begin taking longer and longer rides. I drove down the famous A1A today and had a great time just taking in the gorgeous weather. It reminded me of when I was young and living in Jacksonville. My friends and I would head out to Ponte Vedra beach and just sit in the sand and drink beer. Those were simple uncomplicated times...I took A1A all the way down to St. Augustine, stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for a coffee, and came back up US 1. A nice pleasant ride. Bike performed flawlessly!

Pit stop in South Ponte Vedra.

Perfect weather for a ride.

New Sargent Seat

I got tired of my eyesore Corbin seat so I decided to update it with a new Sargent seat. It is a cool design in that it has a storage tube under the seat. I am staying in Jacksonville for about a year and Sargent is located right here so I figured I would buy the Sargent. I wanted to get the Corbin recovered but they ignored several of my emails so that gave me another reason to go Sargent. It was interesting looking in at the factory with all of the seats in progress.It was expensive but a much needed item.

New Sargent seat - looking good.

Gas tank sealing and other major work.

Mileage: 9448
When I last changed my fuel filter I had noticed that my gas tank had rust inside. This is a common problem of the 900ss from this vintage. There is always a solution and I found one with the POR-15 Cycle Fuel Tank Repair Kit. They make a special gas tank kit that includes all of the chemicals you need to seal a gas tank. I went ahead and ordered it and before it arrived I read the instructions very carefully. Drying time for the sealant was 4 days so I decided I would do a bunch of other work.

I ordered a good assortment of other new parts. If my bike was going to be down I wanted to maximize the downtime by doing other needed work. I ordered RTP teflon coated stainless steel clutch and brake lines off of eBay, the discontinued Cycle Cat DBR2 handlebars (mine were bent) from Oncycles, ProGrip Superbike Model 780 grips and new fairing wellnuts from Desmotimes, and stainless steel fasteners from Desmoparts for all over the bike. I also got the triple clamp powder coated from East Coast Powder Coatings. I also got a used gold clutch master cylinder from Wounded Duc to match the gold brake master cylinder already installed.

Sealing the gas tank took all day. Putting the various chemicals in the tank and waiting between procedures was a long but needed process, but I wanted to be sure it was done right. The instructions said to wait at least 96 hours, but due to my triple clamp being at the powdercoater's I waited double that which reassured me that the sealant had set up properly. I wanted to ride badly but when the work was done it was all worth it. My bike is getting closer to perfect each day...