I’ve recently dropped the oil on an 8 year old, 15K mile, Pani 1199 and noticed there were flecks of something in the oil. It’s only done about 1500 miles since the owner last changed the oil a year ago. When I pulled the filter I found this too. The bits aren’t magnetic. Could these be from a big end shell?
To me the bits in the filter look like swarf from a machining operation. Cleaved off by a sharp hard item like a cutting tool. I would have thought debris from a big end shell would be less uniform. Also, big end shells I am aware of (not ducati specific) are steel with a thin coating of babbit material for the bearing surface.
From the picture, it looks plastic. From my personal recent experience it doesn’t look like big end bearing material. The only two far fetched ideas I could come up with are either part of a bearing retainer or plastic from an oil container or other contamination from a previous oil change….
It probably isn't this but... when I was changing the oil on my 916 I emptied the waste that was captured back into the old containers. I used a funnel to avoid a mess and the funnel had a mesh filter. When I had finished I noticed a lot of oily curly bits like above which I assumed were metal that had come out the bike while draining the oil. Had a mild panic, and visions of big bills... on closer inspection the bits where black plastic and were from the oil waste container where it had been drilled/cut for the waste drain plug. Phew...
Doesn’t look too bad at first sight, Paul. I would be tempted to check the plastic water pump gears though. I think they were the same on the 1199.
