Welcome - I loved your post :-D I have a 1098S and elfin love it I also have a 959 I need to offload one.......bit of a dilemma....
I'm leaning that way. Have had a few issues in my 10 month ownership - it's in the workshop now for the clutch. Have had fork seal leaks/reg_rec/battery/fuel leak - most done via warranty from a great dealership, but it does raise reliability questions..... But I also love the look of the 959. And I'm tempted to offload both and get a v4S, but not sure I can justify the spend..... First world problems!
Ahhh , so it is the 1098 fork seals , check, and they need to be done again , reg rec check, 4 batteries check, oil leak somewhere on lhs check, oil blowing past the oil presure sensor electrical bit in mugello at the weekend, check , evidence of coolant spray at mugello on lhs..check but i bloody love it, the bastard of a thing. If you have the means, get rid of the 1098s ( well actually keep it) and the 959 and get the V4s, people say they are the best thing since toilet roll
I could sell both for approx £16K and then have to find another £5 for a newer V4S - not sure I could stomach it. The thing with the 1098 is, as you say, it's a fkn monster - the pull, the sound, everything. I feel special on it even though I'm no track demon (or road demon for that matter). Plus it's the last analogue one and all that, so maybe an investment of sorts. My initial plan was to use it infrequently and keep using the 959 as a daily, but more often that not I go for the 1098! I might force myself to go with that plan for now, but 'er indoors is questioning the viability of having 2 bikes (we all know about 'N+1' except her it seems :-O )
Get rid of her indoors Yes, I completely get you re the 1098 , no matter what hassle it has given me , which in fairness has not been a lot, when it is working , when you use it, when I get off and look at it I just get stopped dead in my tracks. It is just , well it's just jaw dropping . i keep saying i'll sell mine, my nephew asked me after mugello will i sell it, i said i'll have to sort it all to sell it....and if i do then it is all sorted , so then i may aswell keep it i think its a keeper
So. Mugello wasn’t even on my Radar, nothing was, I had done one Trackday in 2021 at Mondello Co Kildare Ireland 30.06.21 and I was hoping to get at least one more in but with only one track in southern Ireland the places sell out fast and weather is never guaranteed so you must pick and choose the ones you do book time off for. 17 July 21 I come back out of the sea where I was swimming with my daughter and I check my phone, a missed call and a text, Paul Motocraft “hey, give me a quick buzz when you are free” Hmmmmm? what can this be about? When we do eventually get to talk, he tells me Portimao in November is back on. que? Says I I had booked in 2019 a trip for Portimao in the April of 2020 but obviously covid 19 and other shite for me personally, hit the fan. I’d heard nothing since. So Portimao was on, queue many levers being pulled in my head by the rabbit at the controls. Right, so, okay and other very random stream of consciousness replies ensued, Paul obviously amazed at my grasp of the English language. Within the conversation Mugello was mentioned, and wows and oooos start being emitted by myself and I made an enquiry was there space on that trip at all, and it turns out there was but the trip was start of September, money was and is tight, but I promised I would get back to Paul that evening to confirm which trip I would aim for. I got back to Paul, confirmed my space for November for Portimao, 19th 20th and 21st on track, it gives me a chance to save, to get the tyres pads etc etc needed for a trip . I’m happy out, woohoo I’m off to Portimao. I get a call off my mate Graham the following day , we chit chat and he mentions his wedding , which has been cancelled 3 times due to covid , I am part of the wedding party I think I’m the bride so I ask “ so when is the new date ?” 19th of November Why is that ringing a bell? ….Ohhhh balls I say What? Oh feck I’m away that day/ weekend, I’m on track in Portimao Portugal that day Ahhh no worries he says, but no, he was my best man at my wedding , I’m not going to let him down. I get off the phone, send Paul a message, is Mugello spot available? Yes..Grand put me down for it. Okay, I’m off to Mugello. Merde. I have just over a month to get my shit together. Flights, booked, tyres, ordered, pads, ordered. I know the bike has an oil leak somewhere on the left hand side so it is a priority to try locate this and fix it as best as I can without having to drop the engine or send it to a shop. I find a bolt in the alternator cover that is spinning, that doesn’t seem to have sealant gasket in the area as the rest of the bolts and casing does, have we found the culprit? 2 longer M6 bolts are purchased, I offer one up in the hope that in the depths there are still some threads left, there are! So longer bolt and a few washers behind the head to make sure I don’t pull out the rest of the threads will do the job. I sand the area on the block and the cover to make sure I have a key for the sealant I use to bond to. Build up a few layers, offer up the bolt and washers, leave the bike to run up to temperature and check. No visible oil leaks..yay I’m a genius* The bike still has a battery/ recharge / starting issue, I make sure to pack the battery tender to ship out with the bike I fit the new pads, EBC GPFAX are not available, worldwide shortage on lots of items in every facet of life, so I go for the next set down, there is meat still left on the Brembo pads that are in the calipers already but Mugellos front straight requires the prudence of new pads. The rest of the bike, all the bolts get checked, some get removed and get some thread lock. 2 days before the bike is to ship out and still on its road tyres I decide to take the bike out to make sure all is ok. It fires up ( always nice) stand up, into gear ..bang, dead , hmmmm , fire it up, stand up, into gear …bang, dead , try it a 3rd time and FAAAACCCCKK this, do you ever notice that bike gear has a heating system, off the helmet, off the gloves off the bag, the jacket, the back protector. Wiggle the side stand switch , start the bike, up the stand put in gear and it stays on, ffs, it never had a sidestand switch issue before, what the hell. Anyway I head out to do an errand and on the way back in the pitch black on a national road in the middle of nowhere it stops twice. I do not need this. I book the day off Thursday, the shipping out day , to chase the side stand problem and get the slicks , Metzeler trackday slicks ( phenomenal) fitted . Sidestand switch problem is loom side so I snip the wires, join them with an electrical connector block, no solder/ solder iron here, it does the job. Now I just need the bike and myself to do the job at Mugello.
Flew out to Italy 2nd of September landing in Milan Linate, the group of riders going out for the trip all flying at different times into different airports. I flew with a chap called Mike who had booked the car for us. We shared the driving, luckily avoiding any crashes enroute, one major pile up on the opposite carriage way went on for miles, and any crashes in front of us we had the good fortune to be pulling off the road before we got caught up in the snarling traffic. We eventually arrived at our destination of Borgo San Lorenzo where our hotel was, situated 10 mins from the track. Track was open from 19.30hrs, we got messages from guys there, the gates were heaving with arrivals so we held off and grabbed some food . Upon arrival at the track the vehicles have been let in, the paddock area is teeming with vans, trucks, the Ducati Track Experience is packing up, V4s and V4 superleggeras being packed away with advertising and red carpets. We find our pits and our bikes on the stillages and get to work, helping where we can and getting at our own stillages to off load our own bikes. Loosening the ratchet straps on the front end of the 1098 it immediately tips over , I am in a kneeling position holding the ratchet straps near enough the very bottom of the strap at the stillage but I am keeping it from falling over, at present it is leaning further than I will manage on track but it still hasn’t hit the deck I let out a “ Heloooo” to anyone in earshot and a few bodies run over and assist and the ducati is upright again. First drama over Next drama doesn’t fall upon me but my travelling companion Mike, it turns out his key and helmet were not shipped out, he had dropped his V4 Speciale out to the trackday organisers depot for them to fit the slicks and bring to the shipping depot , and between the jigs and the reels, they forgot his key and his lid. Luckily one of the guys hadn’t made that day’s flight due to work, and he would turn up approx. 2pm on the Friday , calls were made and between trackday staff, Mikes wife and Louis the late flyer Mike got sorted Friday afternoon. So that was Thursday evening, everyone setting up their areas in the pits or also setting up or taking apart bikes . I literally brough the bare necessities, A new set of slicks that fast friends have used for 4 days in Portimao on bmw s1000rrs, so they should last me three days on my old 1098 , tyre warmers, stands and minimum of tools. Once i was settled i went out to the pitlane to soak up the vibe from the place . Friday up early, its sunny, a light breakfast and off to the track and get tyre warmers on and the throng of people from all over are called to the start of pitlane for the track brief, very impressed by the organiser , Bikerdays, the head honcho speaks to the crowds in 4 different languages , I understand none of them . The scene set out before and around me is unreal, blue skies, very high whispy clouds, green hills and mountains in the distance , tarmac and a pitlane exit and colours that I have looked at on a screen for years stretching up over a crest and around a bend are now here presented to me in real time, in real feel, in real sound and smell. This is going to be Epic .
I can’t actually remember too much about the first few sessions, after the pitlane brief we were all required to sign on, we were all given numbers and assigned into groups and given lap timers, and as is normal, dependant on your time you may move up group or be moved down all for safety. We all got busy in the pits checking things, putting warmers on adjusting tyre pressures etc. The garages are just a hive of activity, but it is a buzz walking from pit to pit and seeing the level of equipment people have brought. Ducati V4 Superleggera’, Ducati V4RS’, BMW HP4 race’, CBR SP’s , Rsv4s, just exotica everywhere. First session on, first flying lap, two Ducati 959’s are tramping up out of the last turn onto the front straight as the bikes get level to where I am stood there is sudden BANG ! and a cloud of smoke like something out of the battle of Britain, same engine note also , comes from the lead 959 and oil is spread from the a quarter of the way up the front straight and continues up past the start of the pit lane exit . The bike has shat itself in a big way and there are now other bikes, about 3, that are heading very very fast towards the scene, Orange lights flash on the overhead gantries within seconds of the incident then they turn to Red, fairly quickly track goes quiet, people are brought in at the pit lane entrance . The Track marshals are on the scene quite quickly and set to work cleaning the track of oil and detritus. Faaaack! It is not a front straight that you want to be running through a big puddle of oil, but the Marshalls have it cleared in no time. The 959 that shat itself belongs to a big mountain of a man with “Pat Cash” written on the back of his leathers , I find out why he’s called Pat Cash later , but his garage is full of Ducati’s as were a hell of a lot of garages but he is from Holland and they brought 4 vans and 12 bikes with them, Mugello shows me how serious track days have become. The Dutch garage below If I remember correctly, I’m out in the 4th group. I can’t remember if they had a Marshall lead us out, we get that in Ireland, a Marshall will lead you out for a sighting lap, no overtaking, getting yourself familiarised and tyres warmed up, it’s a good idea but as I say, I cannot remember if Mugellos organisers had this in place. Anyway I head out. I’m lucky in that I don’t get nervous on track, I don’t know if other people do or don’t but I don’t for some reason. I’ve also been going gym before the trip so I’m fairly okay cardio and strength wise , the bike and I have 3 days here and hopefully we are both up to the task. I’m not the fastest by any means but I have to say I found Mugello easy , the track comes to you literally, most corners have positive camber, It’s huge width wise and it just flows . The blast up the front straight that I have watched on tv for years in Motogp is long, you are tucked in* tramping on, feeding the bike gears and you get to the rise you cannot see over and you roll the throttle a little but as you crest you see the distance you still have left to the end so you are back on the gas and tucking back in, like anything it takes a few laps, a few tries to get this correct and once you have that part right you start playing with the braking distance .
At about 2pm on the Friday a chap called Louis appeared, having not made his flight on the Thursday due to work he was able to get a flight on the Friday and in that he was able to bring out the key for my travelling companion Mike’, Ducati V4 Speciale and his lid, fantastic now Mike was able to now come out to play Saturday morning, we woke to fog, thick fog. A look at the phone to get a weather report showed us sun with chances of rain, grand we’ll see how it goes. Off to breakfast where i see one of the rental cars parked a bit oddly , turns out some of the country boys didn't take nicely to being beaten back to the hotel from the track by another pack of culchies, so 4 or 5 lads lifted the little rental car from where it was successfully parked after its win, and the blocked the hotel entrance road for all the patrons . Some of the wild country men I think I got 4 sessions in, and you could see in the distance grey clouds rolling in, towards the end of second session the clouds have really gotten closer and I can see rain falling in the distance. My bike is on slicks, I have brought Road tyres also, Bridgestone S22’s (fantastic tyres) but I decide I’m not going to bother swapping from slicks to the Bridgestones , will see if the rain gets blown away It doesn’t, it gets heavier and heavier, some guys go out on wets and have the whole place to themselves, fair play to them. During those first 2 sessions my oil leak on the left-hand side of the bike seems to have gotten worse but as I looked about the bike the right hand side has decided to join in. what the actual fudging fudge It turns out the oil was pushing up past the oil pressure sensor on the right-hand side. I go about looking around the race service truck companies in the paddock to see if they have a new oil pressure sensor, they don’t, I get on the google phone to see what bike shops are around me, then I’m told the pressure sensor is a common part with Fiat cars so I start looking for car motor factors We stop for lunch and unfortunately the shops do too. It looks like nothings going to happen for a while, so I go and enjoy some grub and decide what I’m going to do Towards the end of lunch I remember the Dutch Ducatista a few pit boxes up, perhaps with them having 12 bikes with them, all of them Ducatis, they are a ducati shop , they have a 1098 in the stable, perhaps they will have a pressure sensor for me so off I head to them They are now down 2 959’s, they are cannibalising the one that blew on the first lap of the first day to put parts onto the second , the 1st bike has a massive hole in the engine casing, I can literally see inside the bike , unlucky for them but luckily the pressure sensor I am after is common across all the Ducatis, I offer my part to a chap he brings it over to another guy and the owner , Pat Cash, wants 50 quid for it. No wonder they call you Pat Cash. I’m back in relative business now swapping out the leaky part for a new part. Now I only have one leak, and I ignore the speed streaks of coolant marks across the casings on the lhs . Later in the day we get 30 minute sessions , a dry line is starting to appear from the legends that are out there on wets, the rain is stopping but there is no wind to dry the track and the sun is trying its best to break through clouds but it’s not winning . Having only had two sessions so far and obviously being awesome at playing motorbikes I decide I’m going out on slicks, I’ll stay to the dry line and do the best I can . ha ha ha ha Plenty of us attempt it , we ride out up the pitlane exit onto the main straight, the track is wet, it’s not raining but it is indeed wet , there Is a dry line, I have to cross the wet to get to it, I’m on slicks that have just come out of warmers, rolling over the wet tarmac to find a dryline and I’m not going fast enough to keep heat in them..because its wet. Yes I am a mong Up into turn one staying on the patchy dryline I make it around and up and as I head into turn one I get a front wheel twitch, I’m basically upright but io get a twitch and I see the rain is falling again on the far right handside of the track making its way towards the last long left hander , nope nope nope, I gingerly make my way around the track and come in at the back entrance of the pits. That’s it for today for me and Mike and many more But, the boys that stay out are having a ball, including the chap that is in the second bed in my room in the hotel, he’s on a BMW S1000rr, its his second or third time on it and I find out later that evening that he was out for the thirty minute session, on slicks, on the tiny sliver of a dry line and going through the sections that were wet with careless abandon and he was doing quite well . The forecast shows rain for the rest of the day so we pack up and get our gear off and myself and Mike head off to a shopping village about 30 minutes away Sunday we have to cut our day short as we need to leave about 4pm to make our flight from Bologna I think it was , so we only get 4 sessions , after the second session I get Kieran from Motocraft ( the crew that arranged the trip) I get him to look at my suspension ( he used to do suspension for Martin Finnegan for the road racing) and see if he can recommend anything, after some pushing and pulling and getting me to sit on and off the bike he has adjusted the front end and the rear shock I’m only going to have two sessions to play on it and whilst the front end does feel further away from me I decide to just press on and see how it goes I go 4 seconds faster Now it’s the last day, by now I know where I am going and I’m pushing harder and harder and the weather is perfect. For the whole weekend I know I only made three mistakes, thinking on it now I wonder were they all on the Sunday My mistakes were Front straight getting later and later and even later with my braking, focusing on my braking and the bike starts pushing the front as I’m braking, I’m slowing down but I’m still being pushed, I haven’t closed the feckin throttle fully. Silly billy Again front straight, completely tramping on, I see 288kmh on the clocks as I go under the Mugello front straight gantry and its as fast as the fucker will go, the rev lights/ change gear lights are doing a fandango at me but there are no more gears and the needle is bouncing, I even use the racing line where they go over the paint over beside the pit lane I suppose its not so much a mistake as nothing happened but I missed my usual braking marker and passed 150 I pop outta the bubble and I’m hard on the anchors at about 273kmh and I’m clutching blipping knocking it down the gears and braking as hard as I can and I make it around in no problem , not so much because of skill but as I said that track comes to you , it’s a big wide cambered right hander , in fairness I was delighted braking so hard, so late . And around the back into the last turn I was pushing my speed and braking distances there too On one lap I leave the braking very late and as I tip in a bike appears in my peripheral vision and I pick up the bike and for a second I target fixate passed the edge of the track, I’m looking at the huge tricolore lines painted onto the outer kerbs of the long left hander and the kitty litter beyond , but I get it stopped on the paint and get the bike turned left and look behind to make sure I can rejoin safely In my search for more speed and later braking at one point I send it, I push as hard as I can out of the last little flick flack chicane , I’m hard on the gas and I’ve discovered my own little braking markers around the circuit, a marshalls hut, a gap in tyre walls etc I’m heading to the big long last left to get as quick a run as I can onto the front and I decide instead of entering the turn in second, I’ll hammer the bike and leave it as last as I feel I can and bang it down the box to 1st, using more engine braking and the front anchors together In doing this , throwing the weight on the front banging her down to first , the back wheel is thrown into the air . See that Toprak, that’s me that is . It feels like I’m a foot in the air , realistically its probably just the gap of a flat tea bag but hey ho here we are. It really is a shame that this was my last session but planes have schedules and won’t wait for us. We need to get our bikes back on the stillages and hit the highway. more to follow
