What a damn shame that Ducati made the rear hugger out of crap plastic. It has now broken on me 4x. Consequently, hacked back together 4x's. What a pain. Not sure i want to fork over hundreds for a carbon fiber one either.
(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_E3nI7J8M6Iw/S6Zj_2cyshI/AAAAAAAAAtw/KbogTKiVgfs/s400/IMG_0182.JPG)(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_E3nI7J8M6Iw/S6ZkBLcrlbI/AAAAAAAAAt0/0XB2FF89wWY/s400/IMG_0183.JPG)(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_E3nI7J8M6Iw/S6ZkEPcV4VI/AAAAAAAAAt8/cCP5_4SWFcg/s400/IMG_0186.JPG)(https://lh5.ggpht.com/_E3nI7J8M6Iw/S6ZkG-jXnCI/AAAAAAAAAuE/5f3OjQYfc6k/s400/IMG_0188.JPG)
IMO, they make a lot parts out of platic cause most people replace them with carbon fiber. So it makes it cheaper for them, and since they assume your going to buy CF parts anyway, they jack the prices up on the CF carbon parts.
You can try plastic welding it back together.
get Aluminum
Is there a hugger and chain guard made out of Aluminum available? I love Al, which is what i used to patch it up with. If i had the time to make one several times before i got it right, i would make one myself. :)
I've never seen a broken one that didn't have a good reason to break.
What happened?
Quote from: ducpainter on March 21, 2010, 09:58:59 AM
I've never seen a broken one that didn't have a good reason to break.
What happened?
+1
it's not like the hugger sees anything but road crap or chain lube
That's a damn good question. I wish I knew. After a ride, even across town, ill look down, and sure enough it broke again.
I wish I had one of those gopro cameras with a mount, so I could video tape what the heck is going on. My best guesses are:
1. Plastic is somehow warping from heat from the exhaust muffler, maybe? It then gets caught into the rear tire tread and throws it up into the bottom of the seat, where it breaks the rear mounts.
2. The bumping around alone is enough to get the plastic to touch the tire tread and throw it up???
The thing is secured solid when I go. However, when I come back, it's ripped off somewhere somehow.
Quote from: ducpainter on March 21, 2010, 09:58:59 AM
I've never seen a broken one that didn't have a good reason to break.
What happened?
All I can say is I've had the crappy plastic one for 30K miles and it hasn't even shown signs of wear, never mind breakage.
Any radical exhaust mods or the like that might be suspect?
My crappy plastic fender has been bouncing around on NYC streets for 54K. A huge nail did take a chunk out of it once. Something's going on special with your bike.
would the hugger hit the rear of the bike if the suspension bottoms out?
what mods have you done on your bike?
What kind of shape is your chain in?
Do you have tire marks on the downside of the hugger? Could indicate bottoming out.
There's a bike here with 50K hard miles with no issue.
+1 to Howie and Nate's you have a problem that isn't caused by shitty plastic.
(https://lh5.ggpht.com/_E3nI7J8M6Iw/S6aRr0BP0pI/AAAAAAAAAu8/UUizt1qEqDI/s800/IMG_0190.jpg)
I think you're on to something. Check out the photo above? I did a short test ride, less than 10 miles. 5 miles to lunch. Unfortunately, i forgot to check it while there. 5 miles back but this time with highway speeds. That's what I had staring back at me when I returned. Fortunately, it didn't break this time but distorted the hugger out of whacky shape.
I still couldn't figure this mystery out. This time I had someone look at it with me to get a fresh pair of eyes. They had me sit on the bike and bounce around. They said that they could see how the hugger could now get hooked onto the muffler attach bolt head. Before, there was no physical way I could possibly move the fender up that high, and it didn't occur to me that my weight while bouncing around could potentially play a part.
That explains the vertical distance. Still doesn't explain why the hugger would move horizontally to snag. Now i need to figure out how to put a blocker over those bolt heads to prevent snagging.
Quote from: battlecry on March 21, 2010, 11:29:33 AM
Do you have tire marks on the downside of the hugger? Could indicate bottoming out.
Also, i forgot to mention, no marks on bottom center of hugger. Thus, at least it's not bottoming out on it. However, you can clearly see how it's ground out a huge part of the hugger on the left side, where it's been rubbing against the tire, when caught up.
Also, chain should be fine. Seems like it's fine to me. I just got this from a dealer who did a full inspection, etc. a month ago.
Do those cans move laterally at all?
Cans don't move laterally much. If i force it, maybe 1/8 to 1/4". However, now that the hugger is so distorted, if i bottom out the suspension enough, it looks like that alone would cause it to snag on that bolt head.
I need to find a heavier friend to help me. Doing this by myself, involves 69'ing the bike and trying to hump it at the same time, to see what the heck is going on beneath the seat. Hopefully, I can't be the first to have ever done this to their poor bike. ;)
Quote from: jc2ducati on March 21, 2010, 01:13:29 PM
Cans don't move laterally much. If i force it, maybe 1/8 to 1/4". However, now that the hugger is so distorted, if i bottom out the suspension enough, it looks like that alone would cause it to snag on that bolt head.
I need to find a heavier friend to help me. Doing this by myself, involves 69'ing the bike and trying to hump it at the same time, to see what the heck is going on beneath the seat. Hopefully, I can't be the first to have ever done this to their poor bike. ;)
pull the shock and use a jack to raise and lower things.
swapping out those hex heads for pan head fasteners might help reduce the snagging, as well
Quote from: teddy037.2 on March 21, 2010, 01:39:02 PM
swapping out those hex heads for pan head fasteners might help reduce the snagging, as well
I think button head would be a lower profile still.
Good idea T.
Pop the swingarm caps. 1/2" steel rod through the hollow swingarm axle and two jackstands will secure the bike and unload the rear wheel. You can then pop the other swingarm cap on the right hand side and use an allen socket to loosen the bolt holding the shock and the strut. Now you can lift the swingarm through its arc and see what is going on. You probably want to tape the socket, allen key, and extension together so they don't get lost inside the swingarm.
meanwhile
http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=33992.0 (http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=33992.0) good timing
you plastic could have been deformed from the beginning. then over time it got snagged. or when you replaced the exhausts... which do look too close.
MAS Engineering makes a beautiful aluminum hugger and front fender to match. I do not have one myself as they are a bit pricey. Somebody in arizona carries them. I don't remember the exact name of the website, something like azeuromoto.com
Quote from: accrocker on March 22, 2010, 03:26:47 PM
MAS Engineering makes a beautiful aluminum hugger and front fender to match. I do not have one myself as they are a bit pricey. Somebody in arizona carries them. I don't remember the exact name of the website, something like azeuromoto.com
Yep, pricey. They don't have pics of the shiny Al one, but it's the same $305.
(http://www.masengineering.it/para%20post.jpg)
http://www.masengineering.it/ (http://www.masengineering.it/)
Just remove it all together. It looks better and it is free,
I'd check your chain slack and wheel alignment. Are all the spacers on the back axle in the right places? Are you running a wider than stock rear tire?
Scott
looks like your hangers for the mufflers are too far inward and that when you bottoming out the suspension it gets caught, probably happened 1 time in the betginning and now its going to happen bc the plastic is so far warped nothing will fix it.
are those aftermarket muffler hangers?
there shouldn't be any marks on the bottom of the hugger bc remember its held in place on the swing arm so the tire should never hit it unless the top fo the hugger hits something and then its pushed into the tire, but by then its literally bottoming out bad on the bottom of the seat.
A poorly done tail chop breaks any inner fender I put on my Pongo... hit a bump and it smashes into the bottom of the bracket someone welded across the frame.
Back when I still had my Monster, I ran over a small board with nails in it, which instantly stuck into my tire, then was pulled up and took a big chunk out of the hugger. I had seen other huggers that had been chopped a bit, so that's what I did to mine. I made it five or six inches shorter and narrowed it a bit too while keeping similar curves to the original. It was still able to keep junk off of the rear shock and spring.
You might consider cutting yours down a bit so that it no longer contacts any part of your exhaust.