Ducati Damage, much expense

No not me, a couple of other poor suckers. I was at Ducati John's
workshop today and he had a couple of engines on the bench.

So first up the guy with the 888 who ignored a rumbling noise. One of
the Mains had gone and that end of the crank was running only in the
alternator bush. It didn't like the degree of flex. Amazingly the
cases seemed to have survived.
http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/218121586

Next was the 749 track day rider, more used to 4's and revving the nuts
off it. The con rod let go and came out through the case, taking a
gearbox shaft with it for good measure. That one would cost more than
the bike is worth to repair.
http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/218123990

John is an amazing bloke, he has started racing an XR2 in classics.
Feeling it a bit undercarburated he had a bank of R1 CV's. They needed
the right spacing, so he had only turned lots of little ally bits and
linkages and changed the distance between each carb. Next were 4 curved
aluminium tubes to set them at the right angle, to be followed by making
a manifold plate and welding it up then mounting the carbs to the tubes.
Finally, of course, setting all the jets and airways to work with the
engine, and those CV's have holes which govern how quickly the slides
rise for a given amount of vacuum. Just the thought of said task(s)
gives me a cold feeling. He had complete confidence that he would have
it working perfectly in short order.

Fitting my Showa race forks and radial Brembos to the ST4 will be rather
boring and straightforward by comparison.

 

Well one doesn't really GAF how it happened but the Ducati limiters seem
to be set a bit on the generous side so add in a little bit of pick up
on the con rod face and Bob's you Cross Dressing Auntie. It doesn't do
to push the revs on stock Ducati con rods IIRC.

I used to spend happy hours polishing Beemer items to a mirror finish
then bead blast them. Never broke. The Ducati items didn't look
especially well finished. Ant will know more about it but some of the
749's were a bit fragile IIRC and I expect you can chip them and move up
the rev limiter. Stock 11250 already seems high enough for a large twin!

 

Launched 28 years ago.

How old does that make you feel?

 

The limiter on my 748 is about 13,500 and gets used regularly!
However, the limit on the 620 is a very hard 8,750 and it really
does stop going forward when that kicks in. Same on the Hypermotard
actually, although it's around 10k or so. It's caught me out a
few times with the front wheel in the air. *ahem*

The Termignoni ecu will push back the rev limit, but it's not
user adjustable. The 749/999 use the Marelli 5.9M ecu which doesn't
even let you adjust the fuel map (unlike the 1.6M used on the 916
and early ST4 models) hence having to buy a replacement ECU when
you fit fruity pipes. Remember that these units are still built
for the road and are subject to warranty returns, so they'll have
a good deal of cushion built in too.

Snapping the conrod is a pretty spectacular trick. I'm not saying
it doesn't happen but it takes a pretty major failure for it to
go like, especially at the fattest part of the link there. It may
have been a defective rod, the engine may not have been balanced
correctly, but I doubt it was revved too hard.

Still, all good fun!

 

Ho odd, I'm at Center Parcs near Nottingham & I saw an utterly mint Mk1
in the car park this morning. Aint seen one in years.

 

Don't fall off your bike.

 

Christ, I really hope my ST4s can handle a bit of abuse. With sunny dry
days getting fewer and far between the last couple of days of *sunshine*
has got me bouncing off the rev limiter everywhere. Even had my first
ever proper powered up wheely, although it was quite exciting I didn't
really have the confidence to push it higher or longer.

 

Like ****, that involves exercise.

Center Parcs is great for getting rid of the scum, but you don't half
see some wannabe middle class tree hugging shitshafts.

Also, why is it when live football is on in the sports area the annoying
cunts have start shouting at the screen, even if they have never seen a
football match before & they are nearly always women.

As there is no major footy on until 2pm tomorro I have booked 20 plasma
screens & 2 12 foot proj screens for the MotoGP

N.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Nige

Your definition of "scum" and mine would appear to be at odds.

 

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