Customer Reviews

Ducati Singles Restoration (Motorbooks Workshop)

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Now that you purchased that vintage single, what do you do? Is it worthy of a restoration, a special, or a parts bike? In Mick Walker's book, he walks you through some of the things to look out for as you evaluate a Ducati single for a project. He explains in great detail the intricate craftsmanship that went into these lovely machines (and some of their associated pains as well). But as any vintage Ducatisti knows, you need to acquire good parts and excellent resources while they're still around. If you're thinking of working on vintage singles (for the first time or for the n-th time), then this would be an excellent book to have. Why wait to pick up an excellent resource such as this? Maybe you're waiting for it to become rare, like some vintage Ducati parts and bikes, so you can pay a premium? I wouldn't and I didn't. It's an excellent resource.

There are many things to annoy the Ducati afficionado in this book - a lack of color pictures, and a lack of the gushing applause for the overall sex appeal and performance of the machines. This book is instead aimed at the brave who actually want to restore a single, and need to know the common pitfalls and problems associated with the bike. So it gets into the ugly details of where the designers went right, and where they went wrong, and offers helpful advice for fixes, straddles of the original design as well as how to keep the original design running (more or less). Needing pointers on the finer details of the restoration work is where this book works best. It is not exactly a restoration manual, but instead is chock full of helpful hints and ways to make yourself stop and think about what you are really trying to accomplish, and provides an excellent set of examples in order to get there; whether it's a cafe racer, a Sunday track bike, or a show bike. Like hanging out in a rustic, homey English shed shooting the breeze with fellow diehard Ducatisti, this book probably won't win you style points, but that's not really what it's all about.

There really isnt any competition for this book--but even if there were, it stands on its own. Great pictures, great, realistic info of the joys and sorrows of owning these classic bikes---invaluable.