I took the afternoon off today as it was the first sunny day in about ten so a mate and I decided to take the bikes for a good old fashioned thrashing up and down the mountains. Is there a brake upgrade available for the 998?
Brembo radial brake master cyclinder is a good improvement but after that it gets expensive. Brembo front master cylinder 19 x 18 | eBay BREMBO RCS FRONT BRAKE MASTER CYLINDER RCS 19 FOR DUCATI (110A26310) | eBay
If you have stock 65 mm brake calipers as fitted to the standard 998 biposto and the 998S non replica\final edition bikes then you can fit P4/34 calipers and change the hoses, this does give a decent improvement but after that, and as above, it will get a lot more expensive.
If you fit radials, then you may need discs with a greater offset. ie from the 748R, 996R and 998R which had a 15mm offset. You cant do it all with a shim on the 10mm offset OEM discs. Other wise your speedo wont fit. If it does then the disc bolts will foul. I am currently putting radials on my 916 via my R&T Ohlins and have encountered this. I hadnt factored, when shimming, for the disc offset so now need new carriers or a set of 748R discs. ISR make custom discs to your specified offsets etc. As nelson says, the 1198 forks etc might be an easier route. 1198 discs have a 15mm offset but they have a 5 bolt pattern PCD, so my plan to use a spare set i had failed as I hadnt noted the bolt pattern difference. Yes I could use an 1198 wheel, but I have 5 spoke magnesium's on the 916. Basically everything costs money somewhere and sometimes you never notice the slight hitches until its too late. Doh! Now I have to wait a month or two until I have some spare money to get some new discs or carriers.
At a price, yes there is. Here's what I did; These are 1198S Ohlins forks with Brembo HP calipers and 15mm offset discs. I also did this; Here's a closeup; Whilst fitted to a Monster, these are 916 forks with radial mounts, Brembo M4 calipers and 10mm offset discs. From a braking point of view they are both much stronger than the 916 setup with the M4s having a fiercer initial bite whilst the HP have a more progressive feel - both setups offer as much braking as you want with just 2 finger pressure. Modifying the 916 forks was obviously cheaper than buying new forks but the Ohlins are a better fork so a suspension upgrade too...
Indeed and even if you ditch the speedo drive (as I did) then you may encounter the problem on the right-hand side - that by the time you've spaced the disc 5mm out it will be off the 'lip' of the wheel so that although held by the bolts there is no location onto the body of the wheel itself. I don't know how much of a problem this might be? but I wasn't comfortable with it (or the left-side issues) so I got 15mm offset discs. I could have used a 1098 model wheel/disc combination due to not requiring the speedo but I already had the 916 style 10-spoke Marchesinis and wanted to use them.
So the base model 998 just got 65mm calipers.Now I see why OP thinks there not so good.I found them quite frankly shite. As Red998 says get some P4/34 brembo calipers asap and a brembo radial brake master cyclinder.The difference will be like night and day.P34s secondhand off ebay and new radial mc should only set you back around £400. If you go radial prepare to spend big time as I forgot about disks and people opting for different wheel if running later 1098 5 bolt disks as well as radial forks.A simple upgrade can become a never ending spending spree to make it all compatible with earlier 916/996/998 bikes. Bootsam im in two minds about spending even more money on my bike and now I have all the bits needed to make the change not sure I can be arsed. As im told there is not a tremendous amount of difference from the set up I have now with brembo radial m/c and P4/34 calipers.Might list it all on fleabay.If I do you might be interested in these disks as I got them for the radial upgrade after computer said NO to my standard 10mm offset disks. They are Ducati brembo 15mm offset fully floating off a 748 racing bike so 6 bolt pattern and in good condition.
Some Aprilia's and KTM's also used the P4/34 setup so the calipers can be had for a decent price secondhand and if they are non "Ducati" that will lessen the price as anything on something like eBay which even nods towards the Ducati connection will instantly double the selling price in some peoples eyes. These people can help with custom discs and parts like bobbins etc. Welcome To The Disc Doctor.co.uk Custom Designed and Machined Brake Discs & Bike Parts.
I would snap these up @matt#corse but alas I am now skint after shelling out for 70mm headers for 1198 and radial calipers for 916. Unless you'd swap for a set of 1198 discs with only 5k mileage on them. I wont be free to spend until ive cleared my visa in approx 2-3mnths lol.
JoeC these are the brake calipers P4/34 you want to grab off fleabay if looking for a upgrade.Sooo much better but only fitted to some 998 bikes and 996R as standard.Great upgrade for the money.As per usual with ducati you will also have to spend some more money on new brake lines.
Lol Bootsam I know exactly how you feel.I often think a crack habit would be cheaper than upgrading ducatis.
I'll second that, the M4 calipers on my Monster are actually OEM Aprilia (you may know from the colour; Ducati use grey, Aprilia Gold, KTM Black?). I bought them from an Aprilia dealer who was having a clearout, new for £375, IIRC they're around that each from Ducati so even in a sale I doubt they'd be anyway near that, and other than the colour they are the exact same part.
I think the black ones on KTM's look nicer than the oe ducati grey ones.I purchased a few pairs from ducati brand new when monoblocks first came out on 1098.Turns out ducati had got the price wrong and underpriced by a big amount lol.That doesn't happen very often.You would think someone at ducati would have sussed they were charging less than new P4/34 calipers for new all singing all dancing dogs danglies M4 monoblocks lmao. I was shocked when I looked at monoblocks again 6 months later and they had gone up to around £700 for the pair from ducati dealers.
Soon(ish) i'll have the bits for sale. Ohlin forks spindle Wheel Monos Yokey pokey Cuddly toy 10,000 galactic credits.
As others have said the P4/34 calipers are a decent upgrade if you dont already have them. I did this to my 996 earlier in the year. I got a set of gold ones, which looked as new from an aprillia for £130 if I remember rightly. Mated these to some new HEL braided lines (748R configuration) and new fluid. Nice easy mod.
