They moved up too black swingarm from 05 plate as ducati said its a upgrade from the grey one may have the same adjustments on the swingarm
Yep that is deffo an early swinger painted black, you can tell by the shape,and if it was a later boxy one you would have a red frame, if its on a 05 plate or later it is probably old stock.
Have to say I am not a fan of the later style black swinging arm as they are very bulky. Refinishing the grey one and painting it black looks quite nice. Dave your 749 looks lovely
I am used to all sorts of people taking a step back and taking in the view of either the 748 or 999, usually in petrol stations, usually with an approving comment or thumbs up. It can be young or old, male or female but is very regular. Today in a shopping centre car park a bloke walked over and stood there listening to the 999 ticking over with his hand cupped over his ear with a beaming smile. Just before he walked off he bent down and kissed the Ducati transfer on the fairing. WTF!
I think it's more the shape of the tank and that it's much taller than the road version. It makes the bike look much more muscular. The stance is very different to the road bike.
get a 999r on a nice country road you wont mind what it looks like because you will have the biggest grin ever
Have a 2003 999s for sale if anyone is interested. Only 12,500 miles, all keys present with FSH - major service done in July 17 (including belts and fluids). MOT until June 2018. In addition to usual 's' extras, bike has very good tyres and number of subtle extras including; re-painted black wheels, carbon ducati performance front fender, carbon hugger and side-fins, oberon clutch plate and slave cylinder, DPM rearsets, NGR fuel cap, MPL reservoir covers, pazzo levers and HID lights. Will also come with box of original parts (including exhaust), ducati tool set, ducati performance rear paddock stand and ducati 999 indoor soft cover. Any inspection welcome for well cared for bike. Priced at £5,950.00 but open to sensible offers....
I take your your word I was looking at my mates 999and I did say too. Him mine looks the same as yours there is no difference.
Yes but one was stiffer then other and I am not sure but there was slight weight benefit when adjusters were in place.
Ah I dunno I drill all the adjuster shit out anyway and replace with lightweight stuff. Last time I weighed em, they were same weight which surprised me. I don't remember what I did exactly but both arms either had no bearings in or both had all their bearings in. I had no adjusters on either arm, I was trying to weigh the bare arm to compare. Yes I think the reason the SBK teams wanted the alloy box arm was because it may have been stiffer but I guess it made it easier for the teams to modify...
I will try to look at the 999 design from Ducati's own perspective. I bought my 749S after testing a 999S on the Fuji Speedway racetrack. At the time I used to race for fun (without much hope of winning) in the Japanese equivalent of the Supersport trophy and in the Japanese Ducati trophy (with better results) on a 998R, tuned by Nagoya san of Team Foundation. The first time that I took a 999S for a test ride in Fuji, after less than 1 hour of laps and a few suspension tweaks, I knocked off .7 seconds from my best Fuji race time with the 998R with which I had plenty of confidence and specific track experience. It was certainly faster than the 998. Most professional riders (I am not) will agree on this. In my opinion, at the time, it was not so well received only because the 916/998 series were in a league of their own, above all "human" motoring and in the Pantheon of motorcycle beauty. Let's not forget that the 998 is, still today, arguably and quite possibly, "THE" most beautiful bike ever made in history. Not even a Saint can compare to God. The 999 was beautiful, just not as beautiful. At that time I met Pierre Terblanch a number of times, and we became quite close as he was into industrial design as well as motorcycle design. He later admitted that the "flat" angle (headlight to tail light) design decision didn't deliver as he hoped. The 998 has a nose heavy angle design that renders a more aggressive and "fast" look. Another designer with whom I collaborated later on for the Bimota design, Ken Okuyama (ex Pininfarina design director and creator of the Ferrari Modena, 430, California, F50, Maserati Quattroporte, etc), explained that Terblanche used a "non organic" design style. Pininfarina, and all car manufacturers, have done very extensive research and studies in design and have come to determine that certain shapes are more easily assimilated than others by the human mind because it can relate more easily to outlines that have biological contours. More round, less edgy. These are called organic designs. To try to explain what organic design is in motoring I could say that Ferrari has a more organic design than Lamborghini and that is why Lamborghini design (and Terblanche's 999) creates more impact: in a way it is less "comfortable". Non organic design doesn't pass unnoticed because it's more... "alien" to human nature and makes more of an impression. That's why it's harder to design an organic shape that impresses. We are more used and more comfortable with it. This is also the reason why organic design tends to age better, remains agreeable and lasts longer. A non organic shape is usually confined to its own period in time and goes out of fashion once it's past but is readily recognised as innovative or new. At that time Ducati sales were down and the main critique was that Ducati was just reiterating and refreshing an old model and used old technology (especially engine wise) while competitors were presenting completely new models and were more modern. The D16 was originally meant as the production top end replacement and not as a non mainstream production. Unfortunately Ducati found that producing that D16 engine would cost way too much for a non limited edition and were forced to come up with a simpler engine solution: back to the 998 twin that at the time was deemed obsolete... Ducati realized that the design would have to be really innovative to compensate for the "obsolete" engine. The Maestro (Tamburrini) was no longer available and the management made a conscious and studied decision to ask for non organic design and begun looking for such designers. In fact the first requirement on Ducati's new design tender to designers for their proposal submission was "innovative design that breaks away from the 998" as Pierre recalls. Pierre told me how Ducati managers were evaluating design submissions more positively if they broke off from the 998 lines. Bottom line the 999 lines were a result of market pressure for innovation. Make no mistake: the 999 is an engineering success and is faster than the best 998 with the same engine. But while the 999 is a better tool rationally, bikes are objects of irrational passion. Its unfortunate that the 999 is a Ducati, in the sense that its beauty is not appreciated because it had to address the impossible task of improving on a masterpiece. If it were a Bimota it would have had a much easier life. And, actually, that's the very reson why Terblanche was then considered very seriously by Bimota. As Shakespeare wrote in his Julius Caesar, after Caesar died, his myth was more powerful than when he was alive because it is impossible to kill a ghost. The 999 was a bit like the nemesis of the 998 and it's hard to play the part of the villain. Hail to the 999 a beautiful and exceptionally fast bike which only fault was that its job was to kill a myth.
