Be interested to see how you get on with the Brentune, these Euro 5 bikes are flipping complicated, I've seen people starting to map them etc with upmaps but not the long term results, like what happens after it goes in for services etc
Insurance time for me again. Bemoto increased my renewal. Last year was £460 this year £556! WTF. Cheapest I can find on compare the market is £260, so I cancelled Bemoto. It should be noted that the £260 quote does not include breakdown, leathers etc, just basic fully comp insurance, so not a completely fair comparison.
There is much hoohaa in some of the financial press I read, castigating insurance companies and brokers for increasing premiums by ridiculous percentages. I’m guessing some of the increase is to recoup underwriter losses but IMO, some of it is just lining mid men’s pockets. Hate to see what my renewal is going to be having had a write off settlement. Andy
Bit of an update, for those thinking about going for the Akra just do it! Worry about the credit card later There have been a few well priced Akra manifolds pop up on eBay from UK Ducati dealers so I bought one and got a set of cans from a dealer in Italy. Mainly for the savings but also due to lack of UK stock. It’s been far too cold over the winter to spend 10 hours in the garage so I’ve only just got round to fitting it. It’s certainly not for the faint hearted and I’ll admit I had to refer to the instruction manual now and again But, after 10 hours of spannering and a trailer trip to the dealer for the map upload it’s all done and it’s finished the bike off perfectly.
I’ve got the cans, and they sound epic, so god only knows what the full system is like! How much are the headers, out of interest? And you now need to get some carbon on there!
New Arrow cans fitted and here's a quick update on the Brentune system for those who are interested. As expected the tune gets rid of the error code re the exhaust servo being disconnected. Also, the fan now comes on at 95 degrees celcius which is way better for NZ conditions. Regarding performance, the bike has a bit more punch in that low to mid range area, where in my opinion it was a bit lethargic before the changes. I wouldn't say there's a massive power increase or change in the bike's DNA though. Unfortunately, I did have a problem with the 1st map they sent me. The bike had a very brief flat spot at around 5,500rpm, which was noticable intermittently, mostly in 2nd or 3rd gear. Brentune provided a couple of different maps, with the most recent one reversing some fueling changes that they said worked for NZ/Australian bikes, but for whatever reason, my bike didn't like it. I've only ridden the bike once since installing it, but the annoying flat spot was gone and the bike seemed great! Brentune answered all my emails straight away and listened to my feedback etc. They always provided a new map quickly (overnight), so it's good to know they don't just sell the product and leave you hanging.
Just curious, is the Akra map specific as to whether the db killers are in or removed, or is it a 'one size fits all' kind of map?
Forgive the self quote. It's from the final time I rode the bike last season and reminded me of what I was thinking back then. Anywhos, the riding season here is back. Or was. There's a chance of snow tonight but it'll get back to riding weather soon enough. In theory. Which means it's time to recap what all I did to the bike over the winter. That shouldn't take long because I never touched it over the winter. But a friend recently bought an Aprilia 660 Tuono Factory and I had to get this ready to go ride with him, so I ordered an EvoTech Tail Tidy and started thinking about a "comfort" seat again. I wasn't sure which seat height I wanted but decided to go with the taller version when I found a used one on ebay for about half the cost of a new one. It showed up in the original packaging/box and looks like new so I'm chalking that up as a win. If I decide it's too tall I should be able to sell it for what I have into it. I've only put about 50 miles on it so far and, um, well... I don't notice any difference. Which doesn't mean anything since it's been months since I rode it with the stock seat. I'll leave it on there for a while and then switch to the stock one this summer to see if I can tell the difference once I'm used to the bike again. Oooh, ahhh... red stitching! Seriously though it seems comfy, but I didn't mind the stock one either. Everyone says this seat is much more better, so I had to try it. Maybe it is, the jury is still out for me. Which leaves the EvoTech Tail Tidy. It seemed expensive for a license plate mount, but once it showed up I realized there was more to it than that. In fact I was impressed with the quality of it. Then I went to mount the license plate on it. Yeah... no. I'm pretty sure it works better with larger plates, but with the size of a Michigan plate and the shape of the EvoTech mounting surface do not play well together. The license plate bolts want to be where the EvoTech frame is, but not by enough you can just drill new holes in the EvoTech part. And the mounting hardware Evotech supplies isn't anywhere near up to the level of the rest of the kit. But no worries! I've got a lot of stainless fasteners plus a 3D printer and already made a plate mount for my Superlight. All I had to do was move a couple holes and print a new one. I could have printed up a little test template once I moved the holes, but no. It was a simple mod, go for it. Print the final part first shot. About 4.5 hours later I had my part. Held it up to the bike. Realized I hadn't figured in the size of the plate surround I wanted to use. Won't work. Oops. Back to the drawing board. Moved the holes again, things started to get more complicated... printed a 15 minute template instead of a final part (I'm not a COMPLETE idiot...) and found out it still wouldn't work. There were a few details I wanted to change but that would have taken longer, so I left them and came up with version 3. Printed another template. Good to go. Started up the print for version 3. Watched it start, then went upstairs to do other things. Checked in on it occassionally via webcam to make sure it was still printing. By habit I had turned off the lights when I left the room, but I could see well enough to know it was still putting plastic down and wasn't making a big blob of melted plastic. 4.5 hours after I started printing it (around 1am) I went downstairs to see how it turned out. Well looky there. At some point not long after I left it, the layer shifted. And then shifted again. As in somehow the printer was slipping the belt or something so the layers were getting offset, As in the part was worthless. Well not ENTIRELY worthless as it proved I had the holes in roughly the right places now but it couldn't be used for anything. Fine. Print another one. But first I was going to do a couple tweaks to the design as long as I had to reprint it. So now I'm at version 4. Which was actually version 11 if you go buy saved design levels but it was the 4th one to get prepped to be printed. I went downstairs, did a couple things to avoid having the layers shift again, fired up the printer, started the print. Watched the first few layers to make sure it was going ok. Figured out why it shifted the layers, no issue this time. Started doing other things downstairs, keeping an eye on the print. About an hour and a half into the print I noticed it working on a detail I had changed in the latest design. But it wasn't changed here? WTF? Check the computer. Yep. I was printing the earlier version again. Whatever. It'll work, there will just be some details I hope no one notices. And that's the TMI version of the story of how I spent 16 hours mounting a license plate to an EvoTech tail tidy after the tidy itself was installed. There's a crappy picture of tail tidy sans plate, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of me rambling on about spending entirely too much time on the mounting plate. Hang on a minute... Ok, quick shots but you'll get the idea. Small US plate: Backside details. Pay no attention to the print quality, surface finish wasn't great on this one but who cares, it'll get dirty instantly anyway. You should have seen the first attempt though. Isn't that how it always works?
Finally had the 1st service done and today was my first proper ride on it as I have moved to Devon now. The power delivery and when you get it above 8000 rpm it just sings. I always thought I would go for the akra system, but I think the stock system sounds amazing. Just saved myself ££££££. Any Memebership around mid Devon, it would be great to catch up.
My SF V2 just had its first annual service - I passed through 2K miles on the ride to the dealer. Cost was £301, which may have included a £15 charge for loaner - which was a Scrambler - and which was surprisingly enjoyable. When I got back on my SF after the Scrambler, it felt distinctly firm and lacked torque low down, compared to the Scrambler.
Has anyone tried ordering the v2 stickers for seat cowl? I've got a odd case - I found the sticker part numbers (in the installation manual) - they have 3 different colours in there so I ordered the black ones to match the colour of the other V2 decals - 43818081AB & 43818091AB. I've just stuck one on and it's not black, it's silver . I've double checked all the numbers on the packets etc etc and it looks right, the installation manual references Streetfighter v2 so i can't see the problem there either.. I perhaps should have realised before sticking them on, but these were not all 1 sticker as the original (which should have raised flags at that point!) so i couldn't remove the top paper to see the colour as all the letters would have lost alignment. Next decision is.. do I just 'stick' with it and put the other side on as getting them off will surely not be easy and could cause damage..
So, I did something that’s going to get me into trouble! A while ago I took the Trident 660 for a service at Triumph where I learned about the Street Triple Moto2, only 1530 made worldwide, all sold out and no chance of one. Obviously this made me want one even more I said to myself, if a white one becomes available that would sway me from the V2 so I set up Autotrader alerts etc, Thursday one became available and so the deal was done. luckily I had already removed the Akrapovic system for 2 reasons. As much as I love the sound of it, for my riding I prefer to be under the radar and the attention I got with it was too much and also the fact I’d dropped the best part of 4k on an exhaust which could be used as a deposit on something more constructive. I was seriously considering a VStrom 650 for crap weather riding to keep the Ducati pristine. After having 4 VStroms I actually enjoy them a lot, I don’t expect much from them but they deliver so much! They’ve offered me a OK P/X figure and I’ve put a for sale post together but I’m tempted to keep both over the summer and offload the one that does the least mileage next year. The PCP figures on the Triumph are fantastic, cheaper than a meal out, even at these interest rates! I do think the Nitron will outshine the Ohlins though!
Did anyone get the fullsix carbon 'short' hugger for the V2, if so, do you have a before/after shot to show how much shorter it actually is. Impossible to tell from the specs.
my mate got offered one from a deposit that fell through, so he picked it up this week. It’s nice. I have only had my speed triple RR a month or so but had I have not bought that I was going to test ride a new street triple RS
