Ducati Darmah. A touring bike with Karma

The Ducati L-twins roundcart meanwhile are legendary. But how to assemble such a difficult round body block? That just took 10 hours. And bookkeepers don't really like that kind of work. A worthy successor had to come. But it still had to resemble The Original as much as possible. The 860 GT did not bring Ducati the hoped-for success. There were even people who thought he was ugly.

The successor to the 860 GT, the 900 SD Ducati Darmah was certainly not a successor to the SS Ducati's, but a fast touring motorcycle. And touring motorcycles are less 'sexy' than sports bikes. However? The machines were therefore not dragged out of the showrooms. Meanwhile, Ducati Darmah's are officially recognized as greedy.

The inclination to invest goes so far that Harm Heuvelman of classic Ducati specialist Back to Classics from Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht was even allowed to bring one into showroom condition for a customer who had had the Ducati Darmah as a boy's dream. So sometimes dreams come true. 'Costs something. But then you have something.'

A beautiful name

In terms of naming, the Italians had shown their best side: In Hinduism, "dharma" means behavior considered to be in accordance with rta, the order that makes life and the universe possible, and including duties, rights, laws, behavior, virtues and "right way of life." Plus of course a tight steering frame and good brakes.

A better, simpler block

Technically, quite a bit had been done to the Ducati Darmah. The crankshaft bearing was modified, the machine had standard Desmo heads and shifting on the left was no longer possible with a clumsy improvised 'detour' from the right that was used up to and including 1976. Also a significant improvement: The Ducati Darmah had a Bosch instead of a Ducati ignition system.

The improvements to the Ducati Darmah block were also used in the king axes of 1978. And where the frame was largely identical to that of the 860 GT, the bodywork was completely redrawn. Leopoldo's Tartarini's design seemed to have pretty good sales opportunities in 1977. The instruments came from Nippon Denso. Behind the tank and the buddy the Ducati Darmah had a crazy 'ducktail'. The rims were beautiful, gold-colored magnesium Campagnolos. By the way, only 900 Ducati Darmah were made with those wheels.

Quite a good start

The start was promising. 1977 was the year of some detail care and in 1978 the Cerianivork was replaced by a Marzocchi. Speedline became the new wheel supplier. In 1978, the LaFranconidem press was also replaced by Silentiums, and in that year the Dikke Duc also lost its kickstarter definitively.

The 'block with its angular crankcase lids, which were drawn by Giorgetto Guigiaro of Studio Italdesign, which was still based on the' round crankcase blocks, was made technically simpler and easier - and therefore cheaper - to produce. Initially, the L-twin inhaled through 32 mm, but from 1978 the heads were also ready for Ø 40 mm gas plants.

Beautiful, original specimens are scarce

Quite a lot of Dharmas have been - because they were not expensive used - converted into something much sportier. In the meantime, almost original copies are quite scarce. In 'the trade', at specialists, these bikes are pretty much at their top with a mille or ten for a technically good and optically neat copy. And compared to what a 750 SS has to fetch these days, that's change.

And buying such a Duc from a company that understands these bikes is the best thing you can do. A well-maintained and respectfully ridden Ducati Darmah can simply remain good for 100D km.

Because with these Italian powerhouses it is very important that maintenance is done regularly and by professionals. When viewing 'in the wild', take a connoisseur with you.