I have lost about 20Kgs 44 1lbs off my road bike. Here is how I did it. Weight SAVING are also listed in brackets. You will note that most of the lost weight is rotating weight. Liams rule of thumb: 1 kg of lost rotating weight = 3kg of static weight in lap times. So while 140 grams saved on the pistons sounds immaterial mulitple the weght savings of the rotating stuff by 4 to get an understanding of the true effect on lap times. A crude way of contemplating this is: All the engine rotating stuff needs to be acclerated 2.33 times rotationaally + 1 times longitudinally when you accellerate from 3000RPM to 7000RPM Items like wheels are accellerated 12 times rotationally +1 times longitudinally when increasing speed from 20km/h to 240km/h. In addition you get a massive reduction in gyroscopic forces and your suspension will find it's job much easier to do with a much imporved unsprung weight/sprung weight ratio, You gain, gain and gain when you reduce the weight of your wheels. The bike now feels incredibly light to flick into corners. The biggest bang for buck weight reduction (and performance) on any motorcycles is light weight wheels. Even putting the lighter weight narrower 3 spoke or 5 spoke OEM wheels from the later Ducati SS bikes provides a massive improvement in handling and accelleration. The later model narrow 3 spoke wheels are much lighter than th original wider spoke 3 spoke wheels than people realise, (nearly the same weight as teh Marchesini 5 spoke wheels). Suprisingly the main reason I swapped the components was for reasons other than weight savings. Static weight stuff Ultrabatt UB600 Lithium Battery with Built in BMS (4Kg!) I wanted a never go flat battery. FastBikeGear custom 2 into 1 exhaust with Spark MotoGP style slipon (4.3Kg) I wanted the increase power and torque from a 2 into 1 system. FastBikeGear 25mm hollow front axle conversion kit (??) I needed this to fit the Marvic wheels. Rotating weight stuff Marvic Penta II Magnesium wheels about (8Kg) Yes done for weight saving! NGR superlight alloy clutch plates (480 grams) I wanted a quieter clutch NGR superlight Alloy clutch basket (675 grams) I wanted a quieter clutch Alloy clutch hub (453 grams) cush drives in original hub were stuffed Note I subsequently fitted a complet NGR slipper clutch (a thing of beautey to ride with) and lost even more weight. I dwanted a slipper clutch. Lightened flywheel 1kg I wanted a faster reving engine Alloy rear sproket ( ??) Only one I could get to fit the Marvic Magnesium sprocket drive Marvic Magnesium rear sprocket drive (heaps) Needed this to fit the Marvic wheels. Light weight forged pistons (140 grams) Wanted higher compression pistons for more power. Dave you may be familiar with Pukekohe race track. I have a 1600 CC road legal and registered race car that has recorded lap times of 1.07 around Pukekohe. Compare that to the lap times of the V8 supercars and GT3 Porches. The secret is that our series winning Sylva Striker weighed just 500Kg when it set those times. Since then we I have fitted a Magnesium diff head and hand built lightweight wheels that weigh just 5.5kgs each to it. I am confident that next time I take it out these two changes alone will drop 2 seconds from it's lap times.
Not correct most light weight slipper clutches such as the NGR Slipper clutch used by many of the top reace teams weighs even less than the lightweight non slipper alloy clutches. The weights for all the clutch components can be found on our web site FastBikeGear, Importers and Distributors of Motorcycle Accessories
When they were available I downloaded all of the SuperSport parts manuals for the injected models since 2000. The alloy swinging arm was fitted as I said to all 900SSie and 1000SSie. The parts manual also shows the 800SSie as having it fitted for 2003 only. All 750 Sports or Super Sports, 620 Sports and 800 Sports and Super Sports other than the 2003 SS had steel swinging arms. FYI the sexy sculptured swinging arm was introduced in 2002 on the 900SSie and all subsequent 1000SSies. It also had Ohlins rear shock and ride height adjustment. I have a 2001 SSie and my son has a 2002 SSie. If anyone wants a copy of the parts manuals (I have most of the other models as well) just drop me a line. Barry
Apologies Billywiztheelder, you are correct, got confused after looking at a "Sport" in a dealer listing, listed as an SS.
You are confusing weight and mass. Everything has mass, weight varies according to gravitational pull. Air is a mixture of gasses, all of which have mass, and therefore on earth weight. In different gravitational fields it weight would change but its mass remains the same. Every hole therefore has weight as its filled with air, it's just that the hole and the air it contains is lighter than the metal it is in place of. Ergo your slipper clutch would be slightly lighter in a vacuum where the holes would no longer be filled with air........
Pablo I haven't put it on any scales but when I add up the weight savings it should be about 18 to 20kg lighter than a standard F.E but the big thing is that instead of loosing weight off static items such as sub frames or fairings the vast majority has been saved off rotating items.
Steve I may have got this wrong as I assumed the Ducati Corse clutch used the Ducati standard alloy hub? Steve the NGR pressure plate is 241 grams the standard Ducati ones from that era are 321 grams. If the 888 Corse uses an alloy basket and alloy friction plates (as opposed to the very heavy steel plates used by bread and butter Ducatis in the 90's) then these items will be of similar weight to the NGR slipper clutch items. The standard steel basket weighs 1120 grams an NGR alloy basket complete with steel finger support band weighs just 445grams. A standard all steel clutch plate set weighs approx 1450 grams an alloy set weighs just 927 grams. So if the 888 was originally equipped with an alloy basket and plates I am guessing the Corse one will only be slightly heavier than the NGR one so far, due to having a slightly heavier pressure plate? Now to the hubs where I could have made my mistake. I may have made the incorrect assumption that the 888 Corse uses the standard Ducati alloy hub which is actually very heavy because it also incorporates the rubber Cush drives and the very (bizarrely) heavy cast steel drive plate that plugs into the use drives. I have some NGR alloy (non slipper) direct drive race hubs in stock that are actually 637 grams lighter than the standard hub assembly because they forgoe the rubber cush drives and the steel dog. Did the Corse 888 hubs forgoe the Cush drives and steel dog drive assembly and use something similar to the NGR non slipper hubs? The NGR slipper clutch complete hub assembly is heavier than these NGR race hubs (but not by much) and is still very much lighter than the standard Ducati alloy hubs incorporating the cush drives and steel dog drives. Items like the bearings and ramps weigh only 0.5-3 grams each. The whole assembly is surprisingly simple and incredibly light. The weights for each component in our various clutch pacakes is listed in the product description for each item on our web site. Steve my apologies if I have incorrectly made the assumption that the Corse 888 uses the standard heavy Ducati hub in it's clutch? If it does the NGR slipper clutch will be significantly lighter than the Corse one. If it doesn't then the NGR slipper clutch will be only slightly heavier. Just one final point which we all know but sometimes overlook, a light weight basket is far more important to performance than a light weight hub because of where the mass is saved. Steve thanks for the discussion and info.
Howdo Liam, Do NGR do anything for the wet clutch minority?? Totally agree rotating mass is where to lose it - in totally I think I've whittled away 35kg so far.............couple more to go and I think that's as far as I'm gonna go.
Sorry NGR make nothing for the wet clutches. Here is a pic their Ducati dry clutch hub. It's 1 pound of butter lighter than the standard hub.
Sorry too bump an old thread. I am hoping for a casting vote on the weight difference between 3 spoke Brembos found on most SS bikes and the 5 spoke Marchesini, found on the 1000DS and the 851 it seems? Are they the same 5 spoke wheel and are they lighter than the Brembos?
Funnily enough, I acquired these at the weekend. Certainly feel pretty light, even compared to a set of GSXR750 K7 wheels I had in the garage: I'll weigh them and then weigh the 3 spoke brembos once they are stripped of discs etc
A few years ago I got the chance to weigh all these wheels and the std brembo's on the pre '98 SS's were the heaviest, next we're the later brembo's on the SS/IE's then the five spoke marchesini's. They also made the 5 spokes in magnesium which are lighter still as we're the MK 1 superlights marvics... A few other things were noted at the same time I did all this and that was the differing weights of tyres, huge differences... Hope this helps ; ) Ian.
I am viewing a 1000ds next week. The Marchesini wheels that came with this bike are made of what? Magnesium?
The stock 5 spoke marchesini wheels on a 1000ds are just aluminium. Only the after market marchesini's are magnesium. Henk!!!
No, they'll be alloy. All the standard wheels apart from the MK1 superlight's were alloy. I've got all the weights written down somewhere so could dig them out if you're interested...
Ok so as this thread is ressurected, as well as the 5 spokes in the pic in my earlier post, the following is also being done: Wheels 5 spoke wheels Supermono Fairing and Seat unit - no lights, for daytime MOT only Alloy front subframe losing front and rear of loom, l/h swichgear and ignition SES Clip-ons. SES Rearsets Racefoam seat Cored high level silencers to be carbon or ally sleeved.. Still on the list(when funds allow): Ally rear subframe Battery Engine work (god knows where that will lead us..)
Nice list.... why is the battery not at the top? Better starting and a couple of kg saved quite cheaply, isn't it? Also how does the alloy rear sub work? You chopping the frame and welding new mounting points on it?
