Featured Grab Yourself Some Popcorn. This Might Take A While.

No it was painted using a special high temperature paint by my local paintshop (AirFx in Norwich). They also painted the front calipers.

 

Front wheel speed sensor and shims fitted, using Pro Bolt M6 x 15mm flanged hex bolt, torqued to 8Nm.



Front mudguard fitted. Wheel speed sensor and hydraulic lines need careful routeing, as per the workshop manual, including spacing and orientation of the "fast clips" as Ducati term them.



Front calipers, DP air ducts and Stahlbus bleeder banjo bolts and dust caps fitted. Hydraulic lines torqued to 24.5Nm. Calipers will be torqued once the front wheel is fitted.



Gear position sensor cooling duct fitted. I had to order a couple of grommets for this part, which fit over the two metal studs on the sensor as they had split.



Before fitting the LH rearset, I added this extra titanium part from MotoCorse.







Dab of Loctite 243 and torqued to 10Nm, remembering to add the nylon washer behind the bolt head



LH rearset fitted, using Pro Bolt M8 x 20mm tapered socket cap bolts, torqued to 25Nm. A lot may wonder why I chose not to keep the Rizoma rearsets that come as standard with this bike, simple answer being I don't much like them, though they are nicely machined and a quality part.

 

Before fitting the RHS rearset, as the original rearsets were Rizomas, they use a different actuating rod, spring, brake switch adjustable bolt, locking nuts
and pin to the stock rearsets, which won't work with the Gilles. In anticipation of this issue I pre-ordered these stock parts that will allow me to build up the RHS assembly.



As mentioned earlier, I had to dispense with both the billet reservoir and reservoir delete fairlead cover, as there is no clearance between the collector pipe and reservoir in this position, which if fitted, the heat from the exhaust would probably end up cooking the hydraulic fluid. I may look at other options but for now I will leave the stock setup.

There is a LOT going on here, including having to route and cable manage the two rear lambda sensors, rear wheel speed sensor, rear brake line, brake reservoir feed pipe and brake light switch, so that they don't foul on anything and as best as possible keep them away from contact with the exhaust. Hydraulic line to the rear master cylinder was secured using a Racebolt stainless banjo bolt torqued to 24.5Nm You might also spot the Pro Bolt M6 x 10mm reservoir bolt. As this is going into a brass threaded insert I opted to use 5Nm as a safe bet, since there is no figure given for it in the manual.

You will also obviously see the collector pipes and the main rear upswept pipe that has an enormous diameter, to which will attach the loop pipe and silencers. More on those later. This system is contortuous to put it mildly and needs a lot of adjustment to get it to fit right with still more tweaks to do once the rear sections are fitted, the rear subframe is back on and the support bracket is in place.



RHS rear set secured using 2 x Pro Bolt M8 x 20mm bolts torqued to 25Nm



As can be seen, there is not much room to play with! Spriing has about 5mm of clearance to the collector pipe, so all good.



Just waiting on one more small part to complete the RHS lower wiring, with just the front and rear loom branches to wire in, but before that I need to mount both front and rear subframes. Speaking of which, I decided to make a small change to rear subframe, the reason for which will become apparent once the frame is fitted back onto the bike.

Before that though I took the opportunity to fit the rear hugger and swing cover back on, as access to the bolts is easier without the subframe in the way. All retaining bolts torqued to 5Nm and a dab of Loctite 243. Don't be alarmed by the "Easy Rider" appearance of the exhaust at this stage. It will make a lot more sense when you see the rest of it in place.



Now back to the subframe. A little masking off required.



Then two coats of Ultra High Temp paint later and they look like this.



Once dry and the masking tape removed, I could apply some Parabond to the heat reflective foil area on both frame members, before securing the Lieb Speed carbon covers in place with zip ties as the bonding agent fully cures (in around 24 hours). The covers are not only secured to the subframe by bonding agent but in fact by four other bolts on each side. The reason for the bonding agent is to ensure the central area of the cover is as close a fit to the underlying subframe and cannot lift away from the surface.







The reason for the paint application will become clear later. That's all for tonight. Early shift at work in the morning, so I will try and post some more updates, later this week

 

Yes I have seen those. I might fit one at a later date.

 

Yes, seems a little wasteful TBH.

 

OK so after much fenagling, I managed to assemble the rear subframe, complicated by the fact it needs to incorporate the Termignoni undertray, which at first appeared to not fit particularly well but after some deliberation and adjustments, it all worked out OK.

Here's the cross frame member that I had cerakoted "Glacier Black". I didn't like the stock zinc coated finish so that had to go.



Wit that in place and connecting the two halves of the subframe together, I could begin to assemble the undertray to the frame members. I had it clear coated to match the rest of the carbon parts on the bike. I am not sure why they placed the large hole where it is (into which you are meant to insert the supplied grommet), as it is in totally the wrong place for the DES wiring, so I will buy a blanking grommet instead to seal it up. As it happens they have moulded an aperture into the side of the undertray which is where the DES wiring will logically be routed. Termignoni supply metal spacers for the four main fixing points and stainless button head bolts. In addition you have to reuse 2 OEM bolts that secure the front of the tray to the subframe.



Here is the subframe fully assembled. All bolts torqued to 5Nm, since the stock figures, at least for the 4 main bolts, are for the passenger footpegs and do not need to be that tight, given they are only retaining a thin carbon panel. The same goes for the front two bolts. A dab of loctite on each and it's done





Next job was to fit the frame back on the bike. I used two new lower bolts and the top two are new MotoCorse ones, see later images. All four bolts torqued to 31Nm, which has changed from earlier models which used two different settings for upper and lower bolts.





The Moto Corse bolt/frame plug is made up of three parts. I did have to open up the holes in the carbon fibre cover as they partially obscured the machined hole in the frame, which would have made fitting them impossible.





With the frame now secured to the bike, it was time to make a start on the rear wiring loom.

This is where the DES wiring is routed. I will come back to this later.



A view from inside. Cross member M8 stainless locking nuts, torqued to 22Nm

 

So with all the wiring complete inside the undertray, the next headache was shoehorning in all the wiring in the tail compartment for the GPS, DDA and then routeing the separate loom section for the rear number plate light and indicators, as well as the Optimate charging lead. The loom splits again at the rear, to the rear light and diagnostics port, so those need to be routed under the undertail closing panel and are relatively easy to accommodate in the space available, as these are located outside the tail compartment.

Here's the undertray wiring completed. The loose connector goes to the fuel tank pump when fitted. I added spiral wrap to the DES wiring, so that it cannot fret against the carbon aperture in the undertray potentially damaging the wiring.









I might change out the spiral wrap for a black version before I call it done and fit the fuel tank, so that it is not so "in your face".