Ducati Monster Forum

On the old board, there was a post about someone who will put a lexan/plexi window in a wet clutch cover.  I've searched and searched, but I can't find it.  Does anyone remember that post?  Do you remember who sold those covers? 

MotoCreations had such a product planned, but it would have been too expensive. I'm very sorry too :-[

The closest I could find is this thread   http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=13384.0

On the old board, there was someone who posted a picture of an after-market clutch cover for wet clutches.  If I recall correctly, you sent them your clutch cover, and they installed a window in the cover.  It looked like this:

http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1191 (http://www.streetfighters.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1191)

http://www.psycleworkz.com/shop/article_PW027/Bandit-_-GSXR-Window-Clutch-Cover.html?shop_param=cid%3D5%26aid%3DPW027%26 (http://www.psycleworkz.com/shop/article_PW027/Bandit-_-GSXR-Window-Clutch-Cover.html?shop_param=cid%3D5%26aid%3DPW027%26)

They're pretty common among the sport-bike bling crowd.  The company in that second link looks like they just have you send in your clutch cover and they install a window.  I emailed them to see if they could do the same on a Ducati. 

When done, it should look like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYBIdGMzGSI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYBIdGMzGSI)

Thats fine on a big 4 cylinder Jap bike with a flat cover, but the clutch cover on wet bike Ducati's is not a flat side cover.It is dished and getting that to seal would be a pregnant dog requiring extensive work which IMO would be too expensive and impractical.
If you want your clutch exposed you have two choices.Sell your bike and buy a dry clutch model or rebuild your motor and spend more on it than its worth.

CowboyBeebop,  Let's us know on what you hear back from Psycleworkz.

squidwood,  What model wetclutch Monster are you talking about?  It seems to me that the bike in that vid has a cover shaped very similar to the one on my S2R.

This guy did it for $75:

http://www.ducati.ms/forums/showthread.php?t=40085 (http://www.ducati.ms/forums/showthread.php?t=40085)

A little "DIY" for my taste, but it can be done. 

Here's a youtube vid of said Sportclassic running (close up of it at .35 sec in):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA-7UyGMYMg&fmt=18 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA-7UyGMYMg&fmt=18)

So no one from the old board remembers the post I'm talking about?

WTF? Sportclassics are dry clutch aren't they?

The more I think about it, the more I think this wouldn't be too hard of a mod to do.  Cut hole in case.  Machine a compression ring.  Cut the window from lexan (4 mil or so).  Lay down a bead of form-in-place silicon gasket, place lexan overtop, put compression ring on top of that and screw down the assmebly with loc-tite (the guy in the above vid says he used some nylon-threaded nuts, but I don't think that would be necessary, and I wouldn't want the chance of them backing out). 

Theres a few of DS1000 engines running wet clutch. Sport Classic is one of them. I think the Multi 1000 and possibly the 1100 is wet as well.

very cool!  it really doesnt sound too hard either.  My only concern is that the lexan may melt?  not sure what the melting temp of lexan is though. 


Now if you were going for a show bike.. maybe you could add some LEDs inside, though that could be kinda "ricey" but kinda cool. 

got to give the guy credit for doing that mod, seems to work fine and actually doesn't look that bad at all, since it seems that the oil really is not in the clutch area too much.

obbviously you better get it done right or else you are in a heap of trouble.  but if done right seems like something that might appeal to some people.

I did one on my bandit 1200 zuki.  Was pretty simple/easy, and looked good.

We did one @15 months ago with a similiar (to above) external mounted Lexan setup.  Fairly easy to do by the home enthusiast.

Then a 2nd one was done with a welded in aluminum bung to the sidecase cover itself to get the Lexan window to be flush mounted -- much more difficult and too much welding/labor to make happen.  Welding the sidecase cover itself was simple once we jigged it to keep from warping.

I did a third one which was an adaptation of the first one -- but with a CNC machined "dry clutch" looking cover over a plexiglass window.  I'll take a look and see if its at the machine shop still -- it was never installed. (it was done on a damaged / welded up wet clutch cover from a well known SoCal enthusiast)

Thus why we looked at casting new sidecase covers -- part cost was low, but the mold itself is stupidly insanely expensive and then still required CNC machining afterwards to get tolerances desired.  Problem is you need a LOT of volume at a fairly high price and I didn't see it that happening.  Looked at CNC machining each one, but at the time CNC shops weren't interested and bid them quite high.  Thus we parked the project.

I don't have the time currently with a backlog of larger volume projects happening, but if someone who had a CNC Mill had the time?

1) build an attachment jig (soft jaws) to properly hold the wet clutch sidecase cover
2) reference geometry the jig to position accurately on the mill
3) run a simple CNC program to mill out the required hole and attachment holes
4) provide the gasket and lexan for the enthusiast to install.

option: etch the lexan or plexiglass window with cool stuff!

Sounds a bit complicated.  I made a metal trim ring, cut a round hole, and sealed the lexan on top, bolted down with the metal ring (which also hid any imperfection from my cutting).

Took about 2 hours.  [thumbsup]

Do you have any pictures of your second and third efforts?  I'm not quite tracking  on what you did, but it sounds very cool.  For the first effort, how did you seal the lexan?  Gasket?

Also, instead of casting, did you ever think about CNCing the case cover (is that what you meant by "CNC machining each one")?  There was a guy at BCM that did that (the same guy who CNCed a whole DSS).  I don't have any idea what that would cost vs. casting. 

PM sent

(http://home.comcast.net/~dougzweb/cover4.jpg)

http://www.dougzcustoms.com/ (http://www.dougzcustoms.com/)

There you go  [thumbsup]

Awesome.

Draw a line, cut/grind it out, $70 later...whala  [thumbsup]

The zuki cover was thick enough to drill/tap, if the ducati one isn't, there will be another step involved.

CowboyBeebop - PM reply sent  [thumbsup]

TAftonomos - That looks awesome.  Thanks for the pic.

does the clutch make the "dry clutch" sound if its a wet clutch at all since you now have taken part of the casing away?

Multi 1000 is dry...1100 is wet.

Nope - it would not make the pennies-in-a-tin-can sound just because you cut the case.  Its still a wet clutch.