Mercenary Garage - Custom Bike, SciFi & Punk Engineering Blog: Project Superlight

Showing posts with label Project Superlight. Show all posts

Tuesday, 23 December 2025

Superlight/Superscura

Mercenary Garage Custom Motorcycle Workshop 1992 Ducati 900SL Superlight Mark Mk 1 Yellow Marvic Composite Wheels Vintage

To my eye, the 1992 Ducati 900SL Superlight is a contender for most beautiful motorcycle ever built.

On its release in 1992 the motorcycle magazines raved about it's beauty, character and handling while decrying the cost (In the UK the 900SL sold for £8,000 while a GSXR1100N was £6,500).

For me, it was love at first sight. But this was a machine so rare that I never expected to even see one in real life and so I determined to build a really nice replica, one day.

However, somehow I ended up owning one. About 20 years ago I became custodian of Superlight #474, a first edition model in red, with the desirable Marvic composite magnesium wheels.

I don't know thing one about being a custodian and the Superlight no longer resembles the beauteous yellow creation in the above pic. It now looks like this...

Mercenary Garage Custom Motorcyle Blog 2025 Mercenary Superscura 900SL Superlight 1000DS Matte Black mad Max Sprint Bike Drag Racer WIP75

Mercenary Garage Custom Motorcyle Blog 2025 Mercenary Superscura 900SL Superlight 1000DS Matte Black mad Max Sprint Bike Drag Racer WIP15

It is without doubt much Lighter, and with a 1000cc Dual Spark motor it's a bit Superer. But like they say, the years have taken a toll...

Last year we hatched a plan to race the thing at the Glemseck 101. However, it wasn't a very good plan and the bike wasn't finished in time and we didn't go. So for 2026 we're hatching a new plan. Hopefully this one will be better.

Watch this space...

https://www.mercenary.ie/search/label/Project%20Superscura

#MatteBlack #SharkEyes #DucatiSuperlight #Ducati900SL #Ducati1000DS #DucatiSprintBike #DucatiDragRacer #DragSuperlight #DucatiSprintRacer #Superscura #MercenarySuperscura #DucatiSuperscura #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage #Glemseck101 #Glemseck2026 #RocketRaceClub #MercenaryEngineering #PunkRockEngineering

Mercenary Garage Custom Motorcycle Workshop Mercenary Garage Custom Motorcycle Workshop 1992 Ducati 900SL Superlight Mk 1 Marvic Compund Wheels Yellow First Edition Bike Yellow Minnion Banana GIF

mercenary garage Superscura Sprint Bike psychobaric weirdness wacky racers muttley-dog-laughing

Saturday, 8 March 2025

Drag Superlight

Remember that one time MERCENARY went drag racing on the Ducati 900SL Superlight? Plans are afoot to resurrect this little monster soon...

Mercenary Garage Design Dublin 8 Custom Motorcycle Workshop Ducati Superlight Drag Race Ireland Bike Bishopscourt October 2016 Pic Noel Feeney

Image - Noel Feeney

#DucatiSuperlight #Ducati900SL #MercenarySuperlight#MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage #Glemseck101 #Glemseck2025 #RocketRaceClub

Sunday, 27 September 2020

Superlight Rearsets

So some stuff has been happening in the workshop. The Mk1 Ducati Superlight that I've owned for the last sixteen years, the one that every year since then I've said I'm going to restore, is finally in the process of getting restored.

I blew up the motor a couple of years back but manged to procure a write-off Multistrada 1000DS which donated its fuel injected motor to the cause. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but a little more research would have revealed that the there are two types of swingarm arrangement employed by Ducati, and the Superlight and the Multistrada are different in this respect.

It will take a bit of engineering, but I can modify the 1000DS motor to accept the Superlight Swingarm. But it's a bit like that old joke about a traveler asking a stranger for directions - I wouldn't start from here...

Anyway, the project is underway and the plan is to make the thing as light as possible, hopefully around 160kg, accentuate it's sweet handling and to make it comfortable and easy to ride. To this end I fabricated a set of footrest assemblies that are about 40 mm lower and almost a kilogram lighter than stock.

More to follow.

I made a nice bit! Trick carbon fibre gear shift rod with stainless Heim joints.

New footpegs. These are probably going to get knurled.

The finished carbon shift rod weighs 13 grams.

Right hand footrest assembly in situ. The hangers will be powdercoated gloss black. The other bits will be polished.

In the middle of all this, the power switch on the lathe packed in, which caused some consternation. This is the replacement.

Wiring the thing up also caused some consternation.

The workshop, finally tidy for the first time in four or five years.

Images Mercenary

#Ducati900SL #Mk1Superlight #DucatiSuperlight #FootrestAssemblies #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Wednesday, 2 September 2020

Mercenary Social Media

MERCENARY is on Instagram.

That's not really news, MERCENARY has been on Instagram for quite a while but like most other social media, never really took it all that seriously.

But given the way the world has gone in the last couple of years, and the way social media has exacerbated the world's problems, MERCENARY is opting out of some social media platforms.

In short, fuck Facebook. And fuck Twitter. Every time I go on Facebook there is some bullshit waiting to irritate me so I make changes and it finds new ways to aggravate me. That's not a bug, that's a feature. So fuck you Facebook, I'm out.

MERCENARY has permanently deactivated its Twitter account and will be making a strategic withdrawal from Facebook over the next week or so.

If you are one of those people who follows us on Facebook and visits this blog by clicking through posts, you won't be able to that soon. We hope you will stay with us here, maybe by bookmarking https://www.mercenary.ie/

Or like I say, MERCENARY is on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mercenary_garage/

Marking out a regulator/rectifier mount for the Superlight 1000DS project. The regulators on the SL and the DS are the same external dimensions but the SL uses a steel adapter to fix to the frame. The adapter weighs about 100 grams so I thought about remaking the it in aluminium but decided instead to delete it altogether and make a tab to bolt it directly to the frame.

I was gifted this gearknob in the early noughties for a Baja Bug that I was building. The Baja got sold on before it was completed and at some point the gearknob found a new purpose in life. Or death, so to speak.

The collective noun for titanium bolts is a 'Fortune'. This is a fortune of titanium bolts, originally destined for the Fantic project and now redirected to the Superlight 1000 DS. The Fantic project hasn't been abandoned, just postponed.

I found this enormous fuse in the 1000 DS wiring loom and burst out laughing. It reminded me of those giant Smarties and Kit-Kats that appeared a while back.

The throttle bodies off the DS motor. I dismantled and cleaned them and replaced the fasteners with stainless ones. Then subsequently replaced the stainless with titanium and the two threaded bars the hold them together with aluminium ones. I think I saved about 50 grams. Maybe 40.

This was the world's skankiest Superlight 900SL when I bought it in 2004. It almost certainly still is. I've spent the last 16 years making it lighter but never really addressed the skank. It's undergoing a rebuild with a 1000DS motor and another weight loss program. Watch this space...

Ducati Superlight 900SL Mk.I #474 top yoke - The Multistrada igniton barrel bolt's up but is very heavy so it probably won't be there at the other end of this project.

This is where MERCENARY stores its essential fluids. One for petrol, one for diesel and a matte black one for Drakar Noir.

Vintage African Ivory Lucky Frog has found a new purpose as a tool chest knob.

The workshop empty and (fairly) clean for the first time in about four or five years.

#FuckFacebook #FuckTwitter #SocialMediaPolicy #Apocalypse2020 #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Thursday, 11 June 2020

Superlight

Image Mercenary

#DucatiSuperlight #Ducati900SL #DragBike #MotorcycleWorkshop #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Tuesday, 11 October 2016

Bishopscourt Drag Races

So the MERCENARY Superlight went drag racing last Sunday. Nothing broke, blew up or fell off and it ran a 12.5 at 106 mph which was what we were hoping for, so it was a pretty successful mission!

The chassis worked great, it was docile on launch and stable at speed and the brakes were more than adequate. All we really wanted from the motor was that it stayed together so we could test the chassis so that was good too.

So the plan now is to lose some more weight (bike and pilot!) and to fit a turbo and develop the motor for next year.

A big thanks to Trev for driving and coaching and thanks to Noel for pit support and taking all the photos.

Pics by Noel Feeney

#DucatiSuperlight #Ducati900SL #DragBike #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Sunday, 9 October 2016

Longer, Lower, Lighter

The MERCENARY Ducati Superlight ready to race...

#DucatiSuperlight #Ducati900SL #DragRaceIreland #BishopscourtDragRace #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Friday, 7 October 2016

Drag Superlight - Foot-pegs

So I installed the (very) rear-set foot-pegs last night and they work nicely. There's a couple of small things left to do this morning and then it should be ready to race.