Ducati 900 GTS custom by René Waters

Ducati 900 GTS custom by René Waters

René Waters is a Ducati aficionado who lives in Medicine Hat, Alberta, about 3 hours east of Calgary. He runs the website Ducati Meccanica, an essential resource for anyone owning, or thinking of owning, an old Ducati. As you might expect, René’s own motorcycle is something special. It’s a 1978 Ducati 900 GTS that has been heavily customized, but in the most sensitive way. I asked René to tell us the story, so here it is, in his own words.

I happened into an exotic sports car dealership in Lake Forest (northern upscale suburb of Chicago). Just looking; I couldn’t afford anything in there. But they had two 900 SS Ducatis sitting there, making the cars look good. One silver, one black. They were beautiful, but just as out of reach as the cars were to a young guy. But those two bikes never left my mind: here was what happened when Italians built café-style bikes … perfection!

Over the years I customized a succession of Japanese bikes, every one trying to capture (and failing) what I’d seen in that sports car dealership. Eventually, about 12 years ago, my wife flat out told me that if I wanted a Ducati that badly, I’d better go find one. And so the hunt began in those pre-internet, pre-eBay days, and I tracked one down to the back of a liquor store in Calgary, Alberta. It was in a very sorry condition. I bought it on the spot, even though it wasn’t the bike I remembered from 20 years before—a GTS model, not an SS. But I knew it could be made into the bike that had haunted me for all that time.

This is its second resurrection in my hands. Once ten years ago, and this latest iteration, completed last year. I acquired the remains of a 2006 Paul Smart Replica that had been pretty picked over before I got it. I wanted the wheels most, and what happened next was the consequence of trying to make them work. Shoehorning a 180-series rear wheel into a swing arm designed for a 110 is no mean feat!

Once I had it down to the bare frame, the “might-as-wells” took over, and I started changing and upgrading everything. I ended up cutting off all the stock mounting points and building new ones to position things where I wanted them. I had to build a new rear frame loop to accommodate and mount a larger rear fender for the big rear wheel, and to fit the new solo seat. The front end was relatively easy. I changed out the Sport Classic steering stem for the one I was using already, and custom fabricated an adapter for head tension—as no bearings were available that would work with the new stem and existing head stock. New stops had to be fabricated to keep the upside down forks from hitting the 1972 GT steel tank. The seat is a repro of the original 750/900 SS solo seat, as are the side covers. Original Conti exhausts were sourced, and custom hangers fabricated which also position the custom rearsets. I replaced all the electrics with a custom harness and a bank of relays under the tank, running modern electronic ignition, fuses, lighting and instruments.

For the last ten years, the bike has been my daily rider. Weather permitting: I live in Canada, so winter is rough for motorcycling (call me a wimp). The shakedown ride was a 3,700 km round trip to Bonneville for the BUB Speed Trials and the vintage races at Miller Motorsport Park, Salt Lake, last September. The bike has approximately 180,000 miles on it, with two motor rebuilds that I’ve done. Possibly another before I got it. I plan on riding it plenty more.

I will be moving the horns from under the headlight to a less conspicuous spot behind the regulator rectifier, and I want to fix the angle of the rear tail light—I don’t like the way it points slightly downwards. So that’s the next job.

It’s now the bike I’ve always wanted, classic Ducati café good looks, fantastic bevel motor, and completely modern running gear: my take on what the new Ducati Sport Classic might have been. The redesign/rebuild took four months from teardown to first ride, and here’s a list of the mods in no particular order. All the work (with the exception of the powder coating and painting) was done by myself and a very good friend in his garage. There was no other outside work.

See more pictures of René’s beautiful 900 GTS here.

Source: Bike Exif