Finally managed to get a decent test ride on my 899 having had the rear shock rebuilt by MCT. I have to say it's a big improvement, the rear end feels really plush now, I can feel the rear squatting just a little and soaking up the roadworks lines in the road where as before it just felt really vague across these surfaces and always questioned how much rear grip I had. As u can appreciate, this is not a general Ducati gripe! The 848 Evo although horrifically stiffly sprung had an unbelievable feeling of rear grip, this is what I've got back now with the 899. The cost was £222 all in delivered back and they turned it around in 2 days!!
Glad you are happy with it and big up yourself for posting about it so that other users can actually get some real world opinion on it.
Yeah, there are some reviews on another forum regarding it which is why I got it done. I would say it's very nearly Ohlins plush now which is a massive complement! It's firm but doesn't feel like the rear is skating around on the surface of the road.
Yeah, thought I would get away with riding in today but the roads are trashed! So some cleaning to be done at the weekend!!
Your used Ohlins will need to have all the electronic parts removed and replaced with manual adjusters etc, not a cheap option really, you'd be better off spending the cash on a manual TTX, or just getting yours revalved.
Depends on the used price and the conversion. Another option is Ktec. The rear just seems a bit harsh on the road.
I phoned MH Racing in Wiltshire who are an authorised Ohlins service/repair/sales place and they said it was a huge job, having priced it up before for a customer the conversion from electric to manual was about £500! I ended up with a Nitron shock anyway, but if I was going to look more seriously into it I would phone MCT or Firefox racing as I'm sure you can get it done cheaper than that. It's worth looking out for a second-hand K-Tech/Nitron/TTX shock as they do come up every now and again. It does seem that the £222 standard shock re-valve is pretty good bang-for-the-buck though.
Yep, it seemed to just be really vague over lines in the road etc, the biggest change now is all the subtle movements feel really plush. You can feel it squat a tiny bit under power and you get that really nice arse on a comfy cushion feeling. The Spring rate and damping is set exactly as it was, it's just that the oil is now flowing perfectly. The options are: £210 get MCT to rebuild the standard shock £475 ish, Nitron which may be better but depends on whether u need it. £550 used Ohlins £1000 Ohlins TTX/K-Tech I've had Ohlins on 3 of my previous bikes, it's great stuff but like everything it needs to be set up for you. The Sachs is set up perfectly for £210 and I'm only going to find the limit if I get doing tons of track days where I am sure it would over heat quicker and/or not have enough fine adjustment control. For road though, well I'm totally smitten with my bike even more than I was before.
It's the road-biased NTR R1 that is £480. This is the one I have. You can get it on eBay from one of their re-sellers or direct on their website. The more track focussed R2/R3 are significantly more expensive.
In a nutshell, it's really good. My thoughts/comments are on post 29 in this thread here if you wanted to take a look. http://ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/nitron-r1-has-arrived.39793/page-2 I don't want to hijack Phill's thread
My threads done mate it's cool, I was just putting it up so that if someone searched they could find some positive feedback for the revalve Nitron would have been my next call, yours looks great.
