The Full Brook Story…

It took about a year, but it was worth it. With some great support from #iconicmotorbikes I was very lucky to have legendary Aussie Bevel-Twin specialist Brook Henry https://www.facebook.com/groups/VeeTwo go through the engine of my 1978 Ducati Darmah.

I had spied the bike on E-bay back in 2019. It didn’t meet it’s reserve so I got in touch with the owners- the Stuart Parr Collection, and we made a deal. It had a very attractive low 6,650 mileage, the engine had it’s original Ducati factory seal, and it even came with a book that some Ducati aficionado had written glorious things about it. What could go wrong? Heh. Well, you know. Stuff.

After I had had my way with an oil change, all round brake rebuild, a judicious carb clean & rebuild, a marathon attempt at carb balancing, lots of convos with people like the very patient Steven Allen of Bevel Heaven and all the best forums, the bike was quite fast, sounded lovely, but was never really, really happy. It hated starting and would blow my ear drums out with sawn off shot gun like backfires. I could live with that to a certain extent, but then it started jumping in first.

I tried everything to address it but no go. That was it. Original engine seal be damned, the engine had to be split. But by whom? Not me. I’ve done a few 350LC’s but those were simple and direct. If it’s all stock, there’s no real fettling involved. Just replace everything, renew all the consumables, bolt it back together and it runs like it just came out of the factory. At least that’s my experience. This was different. The bike is almost 50 years old and your local dealer doesn’t want to know….

From the outside there appears to be some kind of sixth sense required to get every aspect of a vintage Ducati engine to work with one another. I needed a vintage Ducati guru. A specialist. A mench. A superfan of the marque. There was only one person I had heard of that fit that description: Brook Henry, so I got him on board.

But how?

Truthfully, ever since I got the bike I’d wanted to have Brook Henry go through the motor. It had clearly sat for 5 years in a museum with no sign of it having ever been ridden. Not a good thing for any bike never mind a Ducati. Rather than wondering step by step if I was doing the right thing it would be a worthwhile investment to engage Brook and get him to judge the integrity of it’s internals and remedy every issue and in doing so turn it into a motor I could trust. It would be like having Martin Scorsese direct your home video or Gordon Ramsay cooking your Christmas dinner. It would be the best.

For my Triumph, I had found a local highly skilled retired Ford engineer in the form of Frank Kays of Columbia,TN who turned the ’73 Tiger from a recalcitrant non-starter into a reliable, and believe it or not, fast, excellent example of British iron that doesn’t leak oil and even the turn signals work. Not everyone has to be famous, they need to be the best for the bike in question.

True, this engine still had the unbroken factory seal but that was nothing more than charming and no guarantee of anything other than the internals have not been touched in 46 years. A deep dive into the world wide web told me the Darmah engine had some known problem areas. The ignition was never designed by Bosch to be bathed in boiling oil because Ducati forgot to tell them that’s where it would sit. The sprag clutch (whatever that is) had a habit of disintegrating, the dogs on the soft as cheese first & second gears wore until they would no longer engage.

So you can imagine my excitement when I started researching Brook and discovered that he is not only familiar with these issues but he single handedly developed components that were a cure to most of the shortfalls. If I wanted something that was going to keep me faultlessly moving forward throughout the backroads of Tennessee then he was the man to call.

But Brook is in Australia. Western Australia which is even further, depending on which way you go around the world, because either way is, literally, around the world.

One day, high on caffeine and hope I took the first steps and tried connecting with VeeTwo (Brooks company) to see if they would send me a flat pack crate for me to return to them complete with my engine inside. They do that for customers in Oz, but would they do it for me in Nashville,Tennessee?

I was just going thru the motions really because I was sure the freight would be prohibitively pricey- and the dream would be quashed. But lo and behold not long after my initial e-mail the phone rang and on the other end was Brook calling from Perth, Australia saying he was going to set up shop at Iconic Motorbikes, Los Angeles for a week and if I could get the Darmah there he would set about sorting the first gear…and more.

Frankly I couldn’t believe how the stars had lined up.Before I knew it I had connected with Iconic and they helped get the bike on a trailer from Nashville to LA.

Once inside the engine, Brooks' experience told him that the mere 7,215 mileage the clocks boasted was, at best, a lie. How could that be? Aforementioned Ducati aficionado, Ian Falloon, had written a hard back book report about this exact bike. The sales pitch for the E-bay ad said: “A coveted Falloon report accompanies this bike and details every aspect of the machine thoroughly – it is summarized by Mr. Fallon as “One of the best I have seen”. But he had never looked inside.

With his 45 year legacy of looking into 100’s of bevel twin engines, Brook can read the signs. He said the wear was so extreme in places that he reckoned it might even been raced. It was clear that for a considerable length of time, more than the mileage suggested, somebody had regularly taken the engine to it’s limits and somebody somewhere along the line has been telling some pretty big porkies.

Once Brook had renewed or replaced all the worn components, (pistons, big ends, valve seats,) he finished off the project by adding upgrades, some of which he designed himself, replacing all the weakest links in the motor (cams, sprag clutch, a complete transmission, a highly regarded Electronik Sachse ignition etc) in order to make the motor stronger, faster and more reliable.

With the engine back in the bike ready for some fine tuning, Brook doesn’t need a laptop or a meter or even a mercury filled carb balancing gizmo. He uses nothing more than his ‘feel’ and a screwdriver to get the carbs, the valves, the electronics, to work in harmony.

With the engine ticking over he goes to the back of the bike and listens, then moves forward to the carbs for a quick twiddle, then with a couple of blips of the throttle he’ll return to the rear to listen to the exhaust note, and it’s rinse and repeat until he’s happy.

It was a real blessing to have such an expert work on this engine. It now starts first thing with no choke. It just needs a few twists of the throttle to have the pumps send some fuel down the throats of the PHF32A Dellortos prior to hitting the start button. Black smoke backfires, followed by a hasty retreat out of the garage in a waving of arms to clear the air, are a thing of the past.

Out on the streets it pulls like a train and then with a blip at each downshift through the very precise VeeTwo (standard gearing) 3 dog transmission, the Conti’s announce our arrival at the lights to settle into a faultless idle in anticipation of the green light which will allow us to do it all again until we hit the open road. There, the bike comes into it’s own, it’s long wheelbase lazily, but deceptively swiftly, swooping through the easy bends of the Tennessean back roads being careful not to decimate the 45mph speed limit. By too much.

On my second big ride out I came across a trafficless long straight and decided to see what legs this motor has. Imagine my surprise that when I really committed to opening up the bike I found that I’ve been going everywhere at half throttle and full throttle had the bike launch forward like a startled horse with the noise of the Conti’s being, yes, maybe a little too loud. The cacophony of their booming and the unexpected unprotected rush of the wind had me let off the gas at 70mph. That seemed fast enough for now. Am I too old for this? At 63 I’m still wringing the heck out of my RZ’s LC’s and H2’s. I think that with these street/track cams and blueprinted everything else Brook may have built me a motor that might be too much for me. I can do a ton all day long on the LC but to the inexperienced me, the Darmah feels like a tank unleashed with me a mere passenger along for the ride rather than an integral component.

Nevertheless, it’s early days and I look forward to getting to know the potential of each other better. Being in the position of owning a Ducati like this is pleasure in itself and having one that’s had it’s engine repaired, enhanced and most importantly reinstalled and carefully set up by Mr Henry: it all makes the bike literally a joy to ride. In fact, even though it feels like it’s taking ME for a ride rather than me taking IT for a ride, EVERY ride on the Darmah is now a joyride, in the old sense of the word and that’s why we ride, because it brings that scarce and intangible feeling of simple joy, every time.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/7255258951234318

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And that would seem to a typical Brit motorcycle journo place to end- but I daren’t leave you without revealing the full shopping list of tasks performed.

Brook Henry didn’t leave much untouched, including:

Complete cylinder head strip consisting of De-carbon of combustion chamber and ports. Removal of old seats and guides.

Measure and size blank valve seats and valve guides to suit.

Heat and fit seats and guides. Blend seats and ream guides. Cut seats to correct height and lap valves which included new Inlet & Exhaust Valves, seals, guides and seats and reconditioned opening and closing rockers.

New Top Bevel Bearing Sets

New Cam Bearings

New (Exchange) Top Shims

New (Exchange) Bottom Shims

Lap Cylinder Head Sealing Face

Rebore and Hone

New Piston sets

Clean and Deglaze Clutch

New Clutch Hub

New Vee Two Big End Assembly

Press and True Crank

New Main Bearings

New Gaskets and Seals

New Vee Two Sprag Clutch Upgrade Kit

New Oil Filter

New Oil Pump

New Dip Stick

New Pick Up Drain Screen Insert

New Gland Nut/Alternator Ignition Wires

New Complete Vee Two Gearbox 3 Dog STD ratio

New Set Gearbox Bearings

New Selector Drum Stop Plate

Second Hand 1st Selector Fork

New Front Sprocket

New Front Sprocket Nut

Reshim Crankshaft and Gearbox & Reassemble

New Output Bearing Modification (retaining screws)

New Starter motor modification

Drill Oil Drain to Gearbox

New Spark Plugs

New Re-Wire Alternator Output wires (PTFE wire)

Aqua blast (and where appropriate) polish all Engine Outers

New Manifold flange adapter Kit 32mm

New Gear Gazer

New Desmo Street/Track Cams

New Vee Two Aluminum Oil Filter Cap

New Vee Two Breather Tower

New Think Thrust Washer Conversion

New Complete Digital Ignition including Twin Fire Coil

Carbs Refurbished and completely rebuilt with new pump parts, seals, needles, jets and air filters.

And then Kento Kunitsugu, Iconic’s Consigliere, amazingly and patiently oversaw getting all these things done:

Wheels Removed and relieved of all the accessories such as discs, bearings, oil seals, tires etc etc and then Re-Powder Coated. (Why? Because front wheel had been partially stripped by a leaking brake caliper)

Detached fuel tank liner removed (it was floating) and new one applied/installed.

New Front and Rear Bridgestone Battlax’s and tubes

New Battery

New left and right Ducati Petcocks.