The 'handles' under the riders seat on my biposto 999 seem a bit scrappy and I'd like to tidy them up. They seem to be finished with paint but with tape on the face. Is this the standard arrangement and does anyone have any suggestions on how to smarten them up?
They look like hollow backed black plastic on the parts diagram too. The ones on my bike are solid and give the impression of being painted wooden blocks. I wonder why? It's only had one previous owner and there are no other obvious bodges. Could the plastic ones be weak enough to have got broken?? How odd...
The parts catalogue calls them handles. This is what you mean? 2003 Ducati 999 Front Seat Side Cover Guard | eBay
Have just posted a pic in the gallery. They are the plastic originals (I don't know how I got the idea they might be wood) but seem to have tape on the outside face, maybe because the plastic became shiny with wear, although the bike has only done 10,000 miles. I guess the thing to do is try peeling the tape off to see what's underneath, perhaps...
So... It turns out that the 'handles' have been filled with some kind of very tough resin filler and are now solid. The line that looked like the edge of tape was the slightly proud edge of filler that must have been used to repair splitting of the plastic, so it seems the split has been cut out and filled, then sanded back and painted. I have sanded back further to get a flush finish and sprayed with satin black. It looks pretty good now. It still seems pretty odd though, especially when both sides are the same...
Does anyone know where to buy these in carbon? I have seen a few pictures of them but can't find similar ones anywhere.
Carbon ones would be lovely but pricey, I'm guessing, as they'd need to be pretty strong and it's a fairly complex moulding. The Allen bolts were looking a bit rough, so I sprayed them up with smooth silver hammerite to make them more presentable but what I'd really like is stainless. Does anybody know if you can get them? Unfortunately, they are not standard bolts, so it's not simple.
I had no ideal I had any handles. What are they for? I have had my bike for 8 years and never missed them.
They are an infill below the seat/tank junction but if you are heaving the bike around, as I do when I'm putting it on stands, they do make a convenient 'handle' to grab and they are listed as handles in the parts diagram.
Although they were sort of ok as they were, they still weren't right, so I took Exige up on his kind offer - so many thanks to him They are pretty robust, so I really can't understand what happened to my original ones to need repairing, unless someone slung a strap under there to suspend the whole bike from...
Now I understand. Once I was able to compare directly my handles with those kindly supplied by Exige, it was clear that mine had been pared away till they were flush with the seat all the way to the tank, which entailed removing the outside facing wall of the moulding altogether. This had then been restored by filling the whole thing with resin and sanding it flush and painting. The stock handles protrude at the front of the seat by about a centimetre. Maybe the seat has been narrowed at the front too. I can only imagine that the previous owner had short legs and this was a way to make the bike more comfortable for him.
