Ducati Cucciolo

[salty_monk]

They have it mounted on a 50's ladies bike... If that's the route you're going then please make sure you post pictures of you on it!!

[pete]

They have it mounted on a 50's ladies bike... If that's the route you're going then please make sure you post pictures of you on it!!

Hahahahahaha no ladies bike for me Dan!

Checked out the Newsagent today and it looks like they must only have the later edition as a quick flick through didn't reveal any Cucciolo articles

So if you feel like giving it a scan I'd sure like to read it

[Tim Tom]

Hahahahahaha no ladies bike for me Dan!

You should keep an eye out for an older steel framed road bike for that motor. They can be found fairly reasonable compared to a modern bicycle, are dead simple, and look great. Nice clean lines.

Something like the pic attached would fit the bill nicely in my opinion. But I think it would be better to swap the bull-horn handlebars for something with a bit of rise.

[pete]

You should keep an eye out for an older steel framed road bike for that motor. They can be found fairly reasonable compared to a modern bicycle, are dead simple, and look great. Nice clean lines.

Something like the pic attached would fit the bill nicely in my opinion. But I think it would be better to swap the bull-horn handlebars for something with a bit of rise.

Yup, that's the plan at this stage Tim. Once the engine's running I'll be looking for a frame.

Ideally I'm hoping to find something of the same era if I can and there are ones on eBay every now and then for resonable prices.

And yeah, those 'bars aren't right at all! Ha

[salty_monk]

PM me your email. I'll try the quick way first & if you can't read it then we'll do it the slow way...

[pete]

PM me your email. I'll try the quick way first & if you can't read it then we'll do it the slow way...

You have mail

Thank you kindly sir!

[Tim Tom]

Hey Pete,

Check out this article on the Kneeslider. About fitting small gas engines to bicycles and going racing! It looks like boat loads of fun, and I figured you may enjoy it.

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2012/06/06/gasoline-engines-make-bicycle-racing-more-fun/#comments

Cheers,
Tim

[pete]

Hey Pete,

Check out this article on the Kneeslider. About fitting small gas engines to bicycles and going racing! It looks like boat loads of fun, and I figured you may enjoy it.

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2012/06/06/gasoline-engines-make-bicycle-racing-more-fun/#comments

Cheers,
Tim

Hahaha that's mad! Mad in a fun way though... that would be some fun indeed! Not sure the Cucciolo is really cut out for it though

[pete]

Ok, so last night I got the clutch out... and yes there's more rollers!





Then I made a first go at an engine stand:





Didn't really work too well as it didn't hold the engine stable at all...

But it held up enough for me to get the head off:



Tiny valves and a tiny piston!





I also ended up with these rollers from the timing gear:



I was a bit worried as the workshop manual says there's 26 but I only have 19... so tonight I put them in to check:



Phew!

And when I talk about the workshop manual, it's not a factory manual or anything like that, it's basically the BassCliff site for the Ducati Cucciolo and other variant's, so it's all been compiled primarily by one guy on the mailing list with contributions from a few others.

That means some of the info isn't relevant to my T2, and it also means there's a lot of missing info.

Hopefully as I find things like the number of bearings here I can pass it back for them to gather more info on them.

[pete]

And the other thing I did tonight was revision 2 of the engine stand which is still not ideal but a lot more stable:





I'm probably going to have to put some focus back on the 450 after tonight for a bit as I need to have a fiddle with the electrical connections under the tank.

[pete]

Finished the 450 wiring and got a little more into the Ducati tonight.

Pulled the two plugs on top of the crankcase. One allows you to make some sort of adjustment to the gearshift shaft and the other holds a ball bearing with a spring to make the positive gear shifts.



Then I discovered the cover over the idle gear was loose, so I took that off, and it's a little like the starter clutch on the GS':



And that left a grungy drive sprocket behind:



And a bunch of grime behind that, including some sort of metal seal that's in two parts, but I think it's supposed to be that way and isn't broken:



And I wonder if I can get a new sprocket? Those teeth don't look too flash...

[gremlin]

if you can not find a new sprocket, then you will need some one to cut that one down and take a doner then cut the teeth out and weld them on to the old one. the other fix would be to find some one with a water jet or cnc machine and make a new one.

[pete]

if you can not find a new sprocket, then you will need some one to cut that one down and take a doner then cut the teeth out and weld them on to the old one. the other fix would be to find some one with a water jet or cnc machine and make a new one.

Yes, thanks, that makes sense... I think resourcefulness and ingenuity will be key to getting these difficult spares...

[pete]

Had to do something a little positive after finding my 450's going to be off the road for at least a few days today, so did some more cleanup.

The countershaft sprocket is all cleaned up and safely in a container of its own:



Then I got the piston off and it looks to be in pretty good shape, just need to clean all the carbon off it:



Then I got what they call the inferior arms out, which are what actuate the valves via the pullrods and superior arms:





This nearly gets me into the gearchange mechanism, but I really need to get the crank out first so I can get some better photos of how the gearchange mechanism goes together.



One guy on the mailing list has requested shots of the gearchange mechanism in all three positions (low, neutral, high) so he can get his back together, so I really need to get as much space around it as possible.

Getting the side plate off the main crank bearing is the challenge though as it doesn't want to budge (it's on the left):

[gremlin]

i did a trick trying to decarbon a piston. i had tryed every thing i could think of but nothing would cut the carbon. till i tryed glass cleaner for a corn/wood stove. it cut the carbon fast and clean. the only thing that i had to do was oil every thing to stop rusting.