Went to attempt an adjustment of the rear shock rebound damping on the standard Showa shock fitted to my 848 evo, and realized that Ducati in their infinite wisdom have decided to mill an access slot in the swing arm in such a position that this is impossible. WTF! Add to that, my recent discovery that it takes about 8 hours work to remove and swop the rear shock over, all because there isn't enough clearance to pull the shock rearwards as the frame brace tube interferes by about 5mm. Whats going on, anyone else dealt with these issues, and how did you eventually adjust the rebound damping?
When Alpha Suspension did my 1198S (Ohlins) he had a custom tool to reach the adjuster through the hole. From what I remember it was a length of narrow steel tube with an Allen hex in the end and a handle at the other end to turn it.
I find it hard to believe that Ducati has milled the slot in the wrong place, although it seems they have. If the slot was 10mm towards the front of the bike it would be perfect! I'm very pissed of with Ducati for this, definitely enough to put me off ever buying another Ducati! @Ian I did indeed fit the TTX, but got so fed up trying to get my setup right for me, I made a decision to remove it to enable a spring rate change, whilst I am waiting to hopefully pick up a second hand spring. I put the Showa back in for research purposes ( another 8 hours work ffs) Very much enjoy riding another bike of mine, a Triumph Sprint, which seems to be my favorite bike atm, quickly going right off Ducati because of these issues.
Sounds a bit technical Chris, I'm intrigued. The beauty of the TTX of course is both rebound and compression is very accessable, you can even adjust both with one hand whilst riding the bike! I have considered drilling another access hole to facilitate adjustment through the swing arm web, say 8mm?
Is it not possible to access it at an angle using a long thin hex key? I'm sure when my suspension was set up that's all they guy used, although he did comment on how awkward it was to get to.
Never buy a duke because of a rebound adjuster, sounds a bit extreme. Can adjust mine with a decent quality ball end hex no problem. If you drop the exhaust collector the shock comes out no problem. It's only because it hits the exhaust that the swinger doesn't drop low enough allow removal. The whole lot can be out in 45 mins.
Spoonz I was a bit over the top with frustration there, of course I love Ducati's really. I don't think I'm being unreasonable though to expect a hole designed to allow access for rebound adjustment to be in the correct place. If Ducati had put a swage in the horizontal frame brace the shock could be removed in 10 mins! I'm sure you are faster and more experienced than me, but if you can remove my shock in 45mins I will eat my own head! The rear wheel needs to be removed.The termis have to come off, the fiddly exhaust valve bracketry gubbins off, and then it's virtually impossible to wrestle the mid-pipes off as the Lambda sensor severely restricts the movement necessary to pull the pipes off. I don't have a decent quality ball end hex, I will get one and try that. Thanks for the tip.
when I had my 1098s I ended up boring an access hole through the web ,it then allows perfect access for set up. there was a thread some time ago on this subject.just lift the chain up and drill away,make sure the swarf is cleaned up and doesn't end up all over the chain.
The adjuster does require the key is inserted at an extreme angle granted. There must be some method in their madness I'm sure. Honestly the shock removal can be done in 45 mins, I'm just an average wielder of spanners. You can leave the termi's in situ. Just remove the springs and loosen the straps and they slide backwards but remain in situ. If you use a spanner on the servo motor you can turn it to get enough slack to disconnect the cables from the servo without much dismantling and leave the cables on at the exhaust end. There is no Lambda on my Collector, not sure if that is an evo thing if that is what you have. Having slid the termi's out the way and removed the servo wires and the couple of bolts, the collector is free. Then it's just the top and bottom bolt for the shock. Removing the bottom shock bolt is the hardest part I find. I have to use a key that has a strong magnet to slide the bolt out. The whole setup shock/linkage is very clever really. So many bikes run the linkage under the shock and the bearings last 5 mins before filling with water.
Good tip with leaving the Termis in situ, I will try that next time, as well as turning the servo motor to give some slack to cables. The really bloody awkward thing however is the Lambda sensor which is fitted on my Evo. It sticks up vertically from the collector box preventing/ restricting rearward movement so it's virtually impossible to withdraw the box from the pipes' spigots. To remove the sensor requires undoing the wiring otherwise the 4 wires would get damaged! All very frustrating and totally unnecessary as there is absolutely no reason why the Lambda sensor couldn't be fitted in a slightly differing orientation which would make collector box removal a doddle.
