Rewarding when it comes to life. [now with pictures]

[DrDesmo]

Guys, use alumunum foil on the header.  You can also shape it so that it channels the oil into the pan.

Adam

[junior varsity]

Aluminum foil, GENIUS!

I can take pics, but with the clutch, all you see is less rusty plates. And with the alternator case cover / nichols flywheel, all that you see is the lack of oil slowly accumulating on the side of the oil sump.


Re: shipping prices - i had them combine the shipping of the clutch hub, basket, and tool into one box to make sure it all arrived at once and to save a few bones. Even with high shipping, the price is so far below the American vendor parts - even if they are VeeTwo parts - same part, direct from the manufacturer, cheaper by a couple hundred.

I didn't yet "NEED" to replace the clutch. It was, however, noisy as all hell, and since I was going to use the clutch holding tool to hold things still while I tightened the alternator nut (trick I learned on ducati.ms, bike otherwise moved under wife's wait and I was nervous about the penny in the gears {what if i lose the penny somehow?}), I figured I could go on and do the clutch too, because with the price exchange once can get the plates (from CA Cycleworks) and be at the same price as just the basket and plates (and have upgraded the hub too) if purchased domestically.

I normally would tell somebody who wanted to know about clutch bling that if you are going to spend for new basket, plates, hub, pressure plate, etc, might as well get a slipper - same price. Not true the way the exchange is currently.

They've got performance cams for all the various Ducati motors, and apparently were the supplier at one point (part ending with -212 I believe used to be the same as the DP cam).

They've been a pleasure to deal with too - I've also got a set of their lightweight, adjustable cam pulleys on the bike, and it was among the last available in anodized colors (gold) instead of just clear.

The clutch basket has the ring that goes around the 'fingers'/'tabs' to keep them from spreading at high RPM. Everything is incredibly quiet now. Almost too quiet. I'm impressed I could find neutral no problem, thought that would be a no-go for me on my first try. I did put the whole clutch back together once though, and look down and see an O-Ring staring back at me. While I used to end up with left over screws or such when working on my redneck-tastic Camaro - I simply hid the evidence and pretended like it never happened, I made sure to replace it on the Ducati. Lucky its an easy fix, there's just the cover bolts, the spring bolts, and then the mammoth nut.

The motor spins up much faster now. No additional trouble starting the bike with the lightweight flywheel as I read might happen. Still takes a two button pushes and a choke lever wiggle, but that's just the factory carbs doing their thing. You can feel more vibrations throughout the bike now, but its not really a bad thing, its not like the violent shakes an Old Harley has before they came with rubber motor mounts. Its more like you can feel the engine's pulse, if it were alive.

Haven't gotten to ride around with it just yet, because I have a rear brake line that's infringing on the rear wheel's real estate. The new rearsets put the master in a vertical position, rather than diagonal, and because its closer to the rear now, there is too much extra rear brake line. Kind of a real pregnant dog, since I just re-replaced the rear line with a new Spiegler line when I moved the brake caliper from the 6 o'clock factory position to the 12 o'clock position with a Nichols Billet caliper mount.

At the same time I replaced the sidestand on my bike with the 2000+ sidestand mount, and a billet CycleCat sidestand. The spring location on the 00+ sidestands is on the "bike" side of the stand, whereas my stand had the spring on the outside, and it made getting your toe under the shifter (reverse shifter) more difficult. I'm waiting on one more M10x25 bolt so I can have it mounted securely, and I need to pull the belly pan off one last time and trim it around where the sidestand goes, and the beast is back to full force (except now it goes to 11).

[junior varsity]

I can also take pics of the new german headlight from Desmoworld that has a clear lens. It came with the same chrome ring around it, and I had it powdercoated like the last one, so its just solid black. I purchased one of the DDM Tuning HID motorcycle H4 kits (I chose 35W so there was even less strain on the electrical, rather than 55W - seems plenty bright). It came with entirely too much wire, so if anyone could enlighten me as to where I could learn about wiring (cutting, soldering, heat shrink wrap, etc), I'd really like to fix the abomination of wires under the tank. Its truly horrific.

Adding more problems to the wiring is that I just installed a few wires from Powerlet - the Termin-8 system so I could move plugs away from the battery terminals, and a wire kit to power my ipod and GPS on the long upcoming ride from Dallas to Vegas. I usually don't listen to music, but wanted to be able to do Bike-to-Bike communication, so we (father and I) opted for the Autocom system. With it you can hook up Ipod, 2-way radio, GPS, phone, whatever. While that's all well and good, hooking these things up for a 9-10 day trip would only be good for about the first day or so, after that the batteries would all be dead.

I also upgraded the starter wires with the Powerlet kit from DesmoTimes. Extra beefy ground to battery, battery to starter solenoid, and solenoid to starter wires. Bike seems to fire more eagerly when starting now.

I want to learn to do wiring so I can do to mine a similar wiring treatment as Spidey's:


Pictures... tomorrow? I think I can get them up by tomorrow. Gotta dig out the Canon SLR, so the pics look decent, my Blackberry just won't cut it.

[pennyrobber]

Never even thought about foil. I thought I was so smart when I discovered the plastic bag method but foil is a whole nother level smartness.

[Slide Panda]

That's some slick wiring...

ATO, you'll have to let us know how the new bit feel once you can street it again. 

You've got me feeling inspired for some more tinkering...

[junior varsity]

I really thought gremlins would be lurking behind that alternator side cover, or that there'd be a lot of fiddling to get the clutch "right". Both were incorrect.

Toughest part of the job? yanking the old clutch basket off. Once the 8mm bolts were removed, I figured it would just pop off. Nope. One pair of pliers up top, one pair on the bottom, and lots of yanking. I'm sure there is an easier way, and maybe its because mine's a '99. It was a piece of cake. I'm excited to ride, like really excited now. I've tinkered with the clutch about as much as one could possibly do now, besides slipper.

Clutch:
- Brembo "GP" Billet Radial Master 16x18
- Evoluzione Clutch Slave Cylinder
- Spiegler line
- STM Pushrod Pin with captured bearing
- Stainless Springs
- VeeTwo Aluminum Clutch Hub
- VeeTwo Aluminum Clutch Basket
- Barnett Clutch Plate
- Titanium Clutch Spring Bolts - From Motowheels (Spares from Racebolts.com)
- Rizoma Pressure Plate and Spring Caps (and their washers below the caps)
- Rizoma Cover
- Titanium Cover Bolts (all 6, not just 4) - From RaceBolts.com

The only thing remaining is the vented Corse-style engine case cover. And back in the day, I was looking to score a BCM Billet one. But the guy I had contacted about it either doesn't work there anymore or decided my emails didn't warrant a response. Oh well, and no loss really, because SpeedyMoto is about to release their version. Oh goodie.

Here's my thoughts on the nichols lightweight flywheel install:

Its easier than the directions make it out to be. You do need some tools that make the job far easier. Once the side cover is off, and you've followed the directions up to the point where you'll be removing the nut holding the flywheel in place - use a clutch holding tool on the other side of the bike (there are several available on eBay that you screw in to the case where the clutch cover usually bolts, so its hands free - mine is the VeeTwo one, and it worked perfect for the job), then use an impact wrench. I can't really stress how much easier things are with one.

Want to change your sprockets? Impact Wrench to remove the nuts.
Want to change your clutch basket? Impact wrench to remove the hub nut.
Want to change your flywheel? Impact wrench to remove the nut.

In the land of "within the scope of my abilities" here's the short list:
- Oil Change
- Clutch. Dry is very easy.
- Flywheel. Be patient, have all the tools up front. The nichols jamb nuts are different size than the original nut! Do this with an oil change.
- Remove rear wheel and put different sprocket or rear brake rotor on
- Rearsets
- Rear brake mount, rear brake line
- Bleeding hydraulics - speedbleeders makes it easier than a mightyvac. kinda wish i hadn't bought a mightyvac now...
- Front brake lines / Clutch line - just as easy as the rear. measure using wire so its like the brake lines, look at the fittings (or how you want the fittings to go) and call up Spiegler. Its easy AND cheap, and you can add color. Mine are red lines/gold fittings.
- Minor electric work.

Things I deemed beyond the scope of my abilities (when they were done)
- Cam pulleys (because i don't know anything about belts, thought I could really screw something up if I did it wrong)
- DynaCoils. Maybe it was easy, I dunno - I let Alain @ Corse Motorsports in Nashville do it while the bike was in the shop. Still a hesitant about most electrics. I had a battery commit suicide mid-ride one time and spew acid on my pants and the frame. I'm still bummed about the paint discoloration. That, and being electrocuted once when working in an old house has me shy still.

I'm determined to learn wiring though. I'd like to be able to take a big pair of scissors, and just chop right through some existing wiring, run different lengths along the route I prefer, solder, heatshrink wrap, and be done. I'm just pretty sure its not so simple. Nothing is.

[junior varsity]

geez. this asshole said he would post pics, where are they?

[junior varsity]

Here they are:



I got a little aggressive with the new gasket from CA Cycleworks and tore it, so I used some red gasket maker from Autozone. It holds the oil in just fine and you can see a little bit of excess getting squeezed out from between the two. Probably didn't need that much, but I know better for next time.




The Dart flyscreen is going to have to grow on me, or its going to come off after the long ride. Maybe I'll like it better if I get the brackets powdercoated black to match the powdercoated headlight bucket and ring. Here's the Desmoworld Clear Monster Headlight, with the DDM HID kit installed.






New, Clean Barnett clutch plates, with new VeeTwo Hub & Basket. You can see the ring on the top of the basket that keeps the tabs together at high rpm.


Nichols Billet Rear Caliper Mount, Ti Bolts, Moto-Master Rotor


Nothing like a little crash damage on the engine case for character. That's the "gold" (orange?) Slingshot Racing Shorty Reverse Shifter, AG Hammer Rearsets, CycleCat Sprocket Cover, Evoluzione Slave, SpeedyMoto alternator cover, and STM Buttons. The Evoluzione slave used to be the same color as the Spiegler fittings and the STM buttons.

[Paegelow]

Dude.  Awesome looking bike 

[billruiz]

Wow. 

Awesome work!

[erkishhorde]

Too shiney. Needs to ridden. 

[zarn02]

Super-slick.

[junior varsity]

Too shiney. Needs to ridden. 

Ha, I got a little frisky with the degreaser and rags and such while working on it. It had just been on a very rainy adventure prior to the work:

[DucHead]

Dude, why in the make the beast with two backs would you want my bike when you got that one?

Beautiful! 

[NAKID]

Looks really nice man. Good Job. If the gasket material bugs you, just cut it flush with an exacto knife. (I use Surgical #11 blades)...