1964 Ducati Sport 48 and Falcon 50

Sunday November 27, 2016

Got both Falcon and Sport put together. There are NOS wheels on the Falcon and the original wheels on the Sport. I am hoping to see them together as I have lots of extra parts.

Ducati Sport 48

Ducati Falcon 50

Sunday January 24, 2016

Getting a Sport 48 seat ready to be recovered. I bought the seat as a basket case on ebay and stripped it down, cleaned and painted the frame and removed all the old cover. The under support material is too hard to sew, so duct tape will hopefully hold it together. I just noticed that there are subtle differences between the Sport 48 and Falcon 50 frames. I'll take some pics and post them later. One thing I just recently noticed was that the Sport 48 is a single seater with the seat below. The Falcon 50 frame has mounts for passenger foot pegs, the Sport 48 does not.

Sunday January 18, 2015

Restarting the restoration projects. I have come to realize the energy required to get some inertia on these projects after I had not worked on them for such a long time. There are some subtle differences, aside from the obvious tank and side boxes, between a Sport 48 and Falcon 50. I am also finding out that there is a difference between US models and European models.

Here is a pic of the frame for the Sport 50. Not the short tube on top of the top frame tube - the Sport 48 tank has a higher channel than the Falcon 50 tank. There is a boss on the top tube for the spring required to secure the rear of the tank. The spring shown is not the correct spring - still trying to find it:

The Falcon does not have that boss on the top tube, but has a small tube welded to the under side of the top tube which secures the tank. Note the tabs on the Falcon 50 tank. These tabs are not present on the 250 Scrambler tank - other than that, I believe the tanks (Falcon 50 and Scrambler 250) are identical

March 30, 2014

I obtained a NOS set of Domino controls. I have seen both Domino and Ali Saker controls on the 48/50's. I suspect that the supplier varied since these little bikes were widely sold in Italy and not so much elsewhere. Here are the controls on the clipons and a pic of the Sport and Falcon 48

May 25, 2013

Some parts arrived from Itay for the Sport 48. A tool box assembly, clipons and a triple tree top. Engine was rebuilt by a master mechanic. I chickend out.

February 2, 2013

Working on 2 bikes, one will be the Falcon 50 and the other will be Sport 48. FOund some NOS parts and some other parts on ebay.

November 22, 2012

Here are the original rims - original CEAT tires and rusty Italian rims. The stamping (hard to see in the pics) is H. Barretta Milano

Found a set of NOS hubs and alloy rims - loks like these were Aprilia 1.4x18 knock-offs. Laced-up a front wheel and soon another rear wheel. These are going to look really sharp on the Falcon Sport 50. I use the method described in Tom Bailey's book to lace the wheels - step-by-step instructions.

April 12, 2012

Just got this bike, it is a really cool a 48cc 2-stroke Ducati. This is my first 2-stroke and although the bike appears to be in good shape, the con rod bearings are shot, so I am hunting for another crank.

Here are some pics of the engine before a complete tear-down. I removed the left shrod which does cover the jug: