1098 1098 R Restoration

Some of you may remember that I've had a successful year winning the Hungarian 1000cc Open Championship with my 1098R. At times, actually most of the time I felt like I was David fighting the Goliaths that are much newer BMW 1000RRs, Suzuki GSXR-1000s and Kawasaki ZX10Rs but even though my bike was almost 10 years old it was still competitive. It pulls like a train onto fast straights, better than a Pannigale 1299S in that regard and I could outbreak absolutely everybody else in the championship so they can keep their ABS ;-)

But now it's the end of the season and time to strip the bike down, fix anything that needs fixing, clean everything meticulously and reassemble ready for a new owner. The work is being done by my crew chief Malcolm Ashley who used to race Ducatis in BSB some years ago. Malcolm is a perfectionist and we are going to take photos along the way to record the work.

Here was the bike earlier this year at a practice session where I was trouble shooting various niggles that were left by the previous owner. During the course of the season I've learnt a lot about Ducati clutches and DTC, through trial and error, experimenting and correcting the problems that the bike came with to make it a winner.



and here it's on the bench beginning the strip down. Famous dodgy shelving in the background.





I will post more photos as the project progresses.

 

No. The engine and box is going to a local Ducati specialist to assess.

 

I don't know but it's hanging-on in there despite to obvious overloading

 

There has been progress this afternoon:





A hole was found in the front right corner of the airbox so that will need to be repaired. Could have cost me 1hp

 

The engine is out and is going to be stripped down by a local ducati specialist. Anything it needs it will get including a new gearbox.

The frame has gone to be checked for alignment. It had been crashed before I bought it and I had an off in the middle of the year also which bent the lugs attaching the rearset so everything will be straightened and then it will be powder coated in the correct Ducati colour.

Every single nut, bolt and washer will be cleaned up, the exhaust will be polished and any fairing damage repaired too.

Wheels already cleaned-up quite nicely:

 

More cleaning:

 

As long as it's nice enough to sell, that's my purpose. I will be racing a ZX10R next year.

 

Yes, a jammy one too.

 

A bit of elbow grease applied before it goes off to the polisher's with the rest of the pipes:

 

The fixings are back