Coming up to a year now since i bought my 1198, so thought it was a good idea to explain a little about the bike, recap on the ownership and just generally throw up a few sunshine photos. May last year and i stumbled upon my bike in the classifieds, it had the Corse Se looks, but without the price tag, and a decent spec list. The seller was knowledgeable about the bike, trading in mostly touring/adventure bikes, hed taken the Ducati in p/ex from a customer who 'couldnt live with it'. I liked the sellers honesty, and viewed the bike - it was clean and had good history, new belts, new sprag clutch, new battery, lot of work done at ducati under recall (engine casings, gearbox etc) so a deal was struck. This is the day i picked it up...the tyres were 5 years old but the outer third had never seen tarmac, i guessed it had been used pretty conservatively. So after a few weeks getting to know the bike, i found a myriad of issues. Hot starting was non existent...hence the recent new starter and battery i guessed. MPG was useless, 50 miles to a tank was becoming frustrating and i was worried about the damage that was causing. The bike was also unpredictable - the clutch was notchy, the power delivery had huge holes, it was basically impossible to use in anger. I started to investigate: It became pretty clear the fuelling was way out, so after a long chat with a few different companies, the bike was dropped at JHP ducati. A fair amount of investigation later, and we found the power commander 5 had been fitted with the additional 'autotune' kit, but with only a single lambda sensor (but individual cylinder fuel maps). The conclusion was the autotune kit was reading only one cylinder and having a small meltdown, wreaking havoc with the fuel map. JHP removed the autotune kit, added some lambda bosses and mapped the bike from scratch. Next problem however, we found my termis had cat converters within the silencers - we decided JHP would remove these and repack the cans, i guess it is now 'open pipe' as such, but it did the job, finally mapping up nicely. I also had a STM slipper fitted with the 48 tooth clutch, at this point i just wanted the bike to be right. The difference, was absolutely beyond my imagination. The bike was now super smooth, but utterly crushing in the midrange, i just didnt stop grinning for weeks. I finally found what the fuss and hype was all about with these bikes! I managed to get some miles on it toward the end of summer, a few nice days in August: And then a late October trip around South Wales / Gloucestershire The bike has been faultless since, i fitted Exige cables last month, as im taking it over to Germany in late June/July, and trying to just address any known weak points. So any more pointers welcome. But in summary, what a machine, i absolutely love it, and also hats off to JHP, who from start to finish were superb! Looking forward to a full summer with it now, hoping to get around as much use from it as i can!
Yep, i quickly changed my mind from short term experience, to long term keeper. I think it will be a very long time before i change it for anything else. Haha, i think brutal is the right word. The bike gets better and better the quicker and more committed you are, which is a bit of a dangerous dance. I just try to keep the bike moving, the only other option is to heat wrap my limbs.
I used to wear a 4x4 square of that heat mat over my calf. Placed inside one of those surgical tubes. Worked a treat.
Some leathers like my dainese and ‘in’ boots dont have leather on inner thigh cookie. They have that stretchy stuff. I only really became aware of heat when i out full 70 on her. On oem it was fine.
Generally I’m getting around 70-75 miles before the fuel light, and then it takes around 11 litres to refill, so probably has a gallon left. So id say 100 miles ish is maximum range, furthest I got was 95 miles and was preparing myself to push. This is mainly B roads and spirited riding.
Mines been a lot cooler since the cats came out the silencers actually, I dont know if that was due to restriction or the generally very poor fuelling set up though.
In my experience you can get 25m when light comes. I would recommend you use 20m as your limit as i was on fumes. I agree with cookie, 90m on a tank.
The heat thing is interesting, mine definitely wasn't as bad after a remap because it made the mixture richer which seems to lower temps, I think it's the really lean burning that creates the heat. Also the Cats as mentioned by their very nature are designed to be more efficient the hotter they run, so having them sat behind you doesn't do many favours.
Cracking bikes, love mine to bits. Often toy with the idea of something newer but don't think I could bare to part with mine. I recommend swapping out the standard footpegs with something grippier, as the stock Ducati ones are super slippery.
How do you find your Sargent seat? is it a huge improvement over the stock seat? I just won one on eBay but I've never used one. I had the Ducati Performance neoprene one on my last 848 and it was grippy but that was it in terms of improvement over stock.
1098R pegs are the best if you can find a set. The DP race seat is the best. Most comfy oddly enough (i had sargent and its no where near as comfy)
