The first look

Today I visited José and took a first look at the bike. When I came back i wrote an email to my friend Martin, telling him about my impressions: (translation from swedish)

Hi Martin!
Today I was over at Josés place to have a look at the DB2. What should I say? It's an awsome bike but I would say it needs a decent restoration before I am ready to ride it. Have you ever heard of someone loosing the complete rear brake including one quarter of the disc while riding a bike? Neither had I until today...

The fairings are in quite bad shape after a couple of crashes, and there are holes for crash pads. José has also cut off a bit of the fairing to give space for a reveresed racing shift lever. Both the front and rear carbon fender has cracks and one fastening ear for the rear fender has cracked from the swingrarm probably from vibration fatigue. The right forpeg bracket is cracked from a crash.

The thing with the rear brake can case some trouble since the bracket for the rear caliper is smashed and the aluminium hub for the brake disc is bent. I guess they are hard (impossible?) to find as spares, so I'll have to try to find someone who can machine them for me. The caliber shouldn't be much trouble since it seems to be found on some Moto Guzzis and Cagivas.

Some positive things is that the engine has Carillo rods and some kind of big bore kit (944 or 960 cm3, José wasn't shure) . The Öhlin rear shock was newly rebuilt by Öhlins.

There's always a question if one should buy a bike that needs this much of restoration or not. Obvioulsy this is not the sensible bike to buy, but much more fun than a mainstream SSie. I need to do some thinking and also take a real test ride.

I shure am interested, but there's a lot of buts.....

/Lars