Ok... Here goes. **Deep Breath** In October 2016 I had a fantastic trackday at Donnington on my ol' girl. (the picture is from cadwell, Anyway....) Doing an outside pass on a ZX10 was pretty brilliant although it was apparent it lacked in the straights, I could do ok in braking making up for lack of performance with balls. Eventually balls turned into massive massive - holy s**t I'm never going to stop - brake fade, I decided my beloved Thruxton had to go. I always loved the movie Tron Legacy and the Sport Classic since I was young (Still waiting to get the container home though) .....Until I noticed the price. Being a 21 year old student cash was an issue so I wanted an older style bike with modern performance, Which is apparently quite an expensive style with Norton, loads of custom builders and Ducati catching on. I got around £5000 for the Triumph which is just under what I thought it was worth, Turns out noone whats to buy a bike with melted rubber on the edge of the tyre after a trackday...Who Knew!? I turned my attention to Ducati as I've always loved twins and 'character' (massive vibration) to my bikes, I also loved that even though big cylinders really aren't great in terms volumetric efficiency the Italian engineers in Bologna are stubborn enough to stick with it even though their GP bikes are all v4's (until now!) Funnily enough after that Trackday at donnington I went for a weekend with my Girlfriend in bologna, It must of been a sign! I was looking at 749's because they handle very well, have a decent upgrade in power and most importantly in brakes! Also I think you can fit a 1198 engine in the frame, But primarily they were one of the cheapest Ducati's you could get thanks to whole.. they look exactly like an MV f4 thing. Marmite anyone? So it was settled. I'd get the cheapest 749 base model I could find for £2000-£2500 and use the rest of the money for the project. A month or so later I arrived home with this. Literally the other end of the spectrum. S**t. £4600 "400 F**king quid. four F**king hundred quid to do this whole project, What the f**k did I do that for the tank cost more than that!" Hmmm.. Thinking to be done.
I soon figured out that ANYTHING with a Ducati badge is worth alot of money £50... So sold all the stuff I didn't need; And made up quite a bit of cash, Amazing that tank was for sale again on gumtree a few weeks ago and the guy used the same picture! aha (Don't get it the fuel pump is on its way out as I noticed whilst on the dyno..) Which leads to the start of the actual build, All the backstory BS done. (I think)
Or ‘how to rip of eBay buyers with stuff that doesn’t workK thread Go for it matey. Is it done or you starting the build now?
Initial aspirations. I wanted the bike to look as much like a sport classic as possible, with an exhaust system similar to that of a Zard Trofeo. An of course it had to have that Gorgeous front fairing; (that is the fairing I SHOULD of bought with the air intakes) From Airtec Streamiling for around $270 I think Luckily Redmax Speedshop in England make a lovely fibreglass replica tank; http://www.redmax-ducati.co.uk/dirt...MONSTER-ST-SS-ETC/p/26215519/category=5793166 For an absolute bargain Price of £400 which is a work of art.. more about that later. Last but not least I really wanted this tail unit, Which make escapes me.. Imola style anyway; The price or where you get this has been lost in my brain so hopefully someone can advise..
Give him some credit He hasnt posted loads of "How do I take this off?" Threads. We have an ex student with a masters in mech eng start at my place of work. Showed him a torque wrench and he didnt know what it was. He could work out the curve of a banana but couldnt peel one.
Redmax is Steve Hillary, ex-Ducati Dr Desmo and original owner of Motorapido. Good guy with dress sense of the 1960’s and sideburns to match lol
Its either a 848 swing arm to make it look pretty but more likely the later model 'wskb' swing arm. I'm lucky enough to have access to my uni's online library and found a case report on torsional rigity on swing arms which amazingly had compared that early swingarm, the WSBK ones and a one from a desmosedici. That early one really isn't that great!
Yeah I'll have a look after the new year when I'm back in, I really like to put numbers on things rather than it just being 'stiff' or 'soft'. but big companies obviously never ever publish research unless its 'old tech' for them
OK then: That's great you didn't use heavy wire wheels just for the looks, and it must be said that it's possibly the fastest SC-style Ducati around, I like the rear 3/4 shot best: That OK @final_edition ??? @Cream_Revenge I think there's a reference to you in there somewhere too mate... don't hold back CR!
