It only took seventeen years.

[DBDBrian]

Thanks all for the comments.
George, I rode my first Ducati at sixteen in 1961, my mates 175 Silverstone, pictured beside my 175 Mondial Sprint, and here we are sixty years latter, and I finally have a complete one of my own.
Hope it doesn't take too long to sort the reg number, and the weather is o/k, can't wait to get going.

scan0003.jpg

Ian and Colin,the external oil feed to the cam is a mod I carried out, hopeful a less tortuous route, I also made the bearing housing, with an oil seal for the camshaft nose.
I carried out a few mods while building the engine, another being machining the early crankcase, to take the later type clutch.

P1070306.JPG

Also made the banjo / bolt/ and pipe fitting.

P1040582.JPG

P1070194.JPG

The seat cover came from Brian Fox many years ago, when I refurbished the seat, I had a problem with the cover not having clearance with the rear mudguard, so I cut out a section, an restitched it by hand. But I think it would be quite a task to stitch a complete seat by hand. The badge came from Barry Jones.

P1040536.JPG

[Duccout]

So you cast and machined the bearing housing? I'm impressed!

Colin

[DBDBrian]

No it's not cast, i machined it from a billet, I got the cast effect by blasting it with crushed glass.

P1040476.JPG

P1040481.JPG

P1040482.JPG

[Duccout]

Fantastic! Have you considered making them to sell? Good cam caps are hard to find....

[DBDBrian]

Thanks for your encouraging words Colin, It's one of those situations where you don't count your time or the material. I think to produce them in any volume from a billet or casting, you would need to go down the CNC route, to turn them out at a reasonable price.
Having retired from a lifetime in engineering, I still enjoy the satisfaction of getting over things, in what I call playtime.
I also made the front fork shrouds out of a piece of alloy scaffold tube, is it any wonder it took seventeen years.

P1070788.JPG

P1070795.JPG

[Ventodue]

The seat cover came from Brian Fox ...

Now there's a name from the past! Foxy got me my Scrambler out of Italy, and I also bought my SSD from him - also more years ago then I care to remember

I lost contact around about the time we moved here. But he wasn't a well man then ...

Sweet work, there, Brian. Thanks for posting.

[Bevel bob]

Your bike brings back memories of my first sight of a 175 Silverstone in Bermondsey around 1960 , Stopped me agog with the sheer efrontery of the race styling and wild colours. Nothing like a BSA C12 !!. I lost interest in girls for 5 years.

[Duccout]

Is Brian Fox no longer with us? I bought a set of Contis from him about thirty years ago.

[DBDBrian]

As far as I know, Brian is still above ground and upright, I always used to have a chat with him and his wife Beryl at the VMCC Founders day meeting at Stanford Hall.
But the last time was 2019 as it was cancelled this year. When we were clearing up our jumble pitch, he pulled up on a Gilera to say he was having a look round.

[Duccout]

That's good to know; I wonder if he still sells stuff?