Hi guys, My name is Lyn and I’m from South Wales. Been riding for 30 years and never owned a Duc, however I recently purchased a 94 Honda Fireblade street fighter and a friend with a 1198 gifted me some Martini 1198 track bodywork. I purchased 1198/1098/899 subframe, undertray, trims and fairing brace with a view to fitting the bodywork. The rear seat was no problem as I extended the subframe to fit the Honda but regarding the front fairing I have no datum as to where the headlight has to fit, hence my joining you guys’ forum. I’m not here to raid you guys’ part bins or try to score a bargain, I’m just after a measurement from someone with a 899/1098/1198 in the garage. I just need the height measurement of the front fairing brace bolts so that I can make progress here by modifying the Fireblade frame. Please excuse my request and not being a genuine Ducati aficionado but I figured someone here may be able to help a fellow biker. I’ve attached a couple of pics of my work. Please excuse the state of my garage as I have too many projects here! As purchased. Used and abused! ….and ugly as sin! Hopefully on to a better life with someone who can actually use his tools to create something different. I don’t think a crashed bike devoid of its bodywork doth a streetfighter make…. The vision. Some homemade bits on the lathe and welder. Now sporting a VFR single side arm… And 954 Blade USD front end. If anyone could spare me a few minutes and measure the height of the front fairing brace from the floor I would be eternally grateful. Cheers for reading Any feedback welcome. I suppose it makes a change from a 916 seat unit eh! Lyn
Good on you. Sorry I can’t help as don’t have an 848/1098/1198 but someone will help I’m sure. But only if you post a few more pics as you go.
Cheers guys. Good to see people like my vision. I have 30 years of motorcycle experience and have owned 30 different bikes, the majority of which are superbikes (Exup1000, R1 4XV and 5JJ, Gixer 1000 K3 & K5, Aprilia Mille R, CBR1000RR9, 4 x Daytona 955’s and a Speed Triple, 2 CBR900’s and the current Street Fighter and more) so I know my way around a bike and with an engineering background I know which way to hold a spanner I can usually offer some wisdom or experience in various avenues, so I’ll try and join in where possible.
Just measured my existing mounts and the bottom fixing with an imaginary line off the centre line of the lower fixing as per the ruler in pic 1 below to intersect with the vertical measurement at 765mm but I didn’t have 3 hands for the pic , they’re 8mm ID and around 15mm centre from the headstock tube whereas I suspect the 1198 is at least 35mm out from the headstock as the 1198 headlight mount slips over my mounts but they fall short of the Ducati holes by around 20mm. I managed to get the Duc mudguard to fit but I’ll need to make a lower mount. No big deal.
@Ducbird Might be a good idea to amend thread title to say help needed on 848/1098/1198 or something similar?
I just need a measurement from the lower bolt (or the upper bolt) centre (I know they’re at a 24 degree angle and 70mm apart but I’ve been working on the lower bolt for reference but I’d appreciate any help. Just drop a tape measure to the floor and with an imaginary line at 90 degrees across one of the bolts mentioned (as per the steel rule across the centre of the hole) give me the height where it intersects the tape measure. Out of interest the centre of my lower bolt is roughly 765mm high. Does that make sense?
Hi mate I’ve tried to get a line from bottom bolt to the floor but with the bottom yoke and tyre there it’s virtually impossible. Am I missing something?
From what I’ve managed to see, it’s 75mm from lower bolt centre to bottom of bottom yoke and 675mm to floor. Makes it 745mm. But due to things in the way as I said above I can’t be 100%.
Thank you. That’s not a million miles from my 765mm. I’ve been in the garage all afternoon trying to make it fit. I didn’t realise u til I offered up everything and then fitted the ignition barrel, there is pretty much only one place it can go as the barrel is up top and my lock stops down low. I had to dress the subframe to clear the barrel too but I think I can get this to work. The sole purpose here was to avoid chopping up the original Blade so it can always go back to original if required, and I think this is about the best I can do. I just need to drill and tap two holes now and I can get my frame off to powder coat. Here’s what I got. I used a profile gauge to get the internal shape of the subframe then transferred it to cardboard then 10mm plate then used a plasma cutter and linisher to follow my template. I then had to linish about 3mm from the width of my mounting tabs to centralise the subframe which I’m not too concerned about as the mounts are still there should I ever need them. Tapped my adaptor plate 8mm to take countersunk bolts. These will be thread locked and torqued up. I still need to drill and tap the last two fixing holes to bolt it up solid. Clearance so tight. May need to relieve it a little still.
…and here’s the result. Not quite happy yet as when I go to the ‘nip’ stage, it kicks a little. I need to turn a couple of spacers on the lathe, otherwise she’s there. I’m gonna trim down the ‘wings’ a little as it’s too long and I’m not running lower fairings, but it’s near.
Dropped off my frame and swingarm for powder-coating today and collected my refinished bolts. A few nuts not quite good enough but other than that I’m very happy.
