Crap Plastic Parts

[jc2ducati]

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.

[He Man]

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.

[Raux]

get Aluminum

[jc2ducati]

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.

[ducpainter]

I've never seen a broken one that didn't have a good reason to break.

What happened?

[teddy037.2]

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

[jc2ducati]

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.

I've never seen a broken one that didn't have a good reason to break.

What happened?

[ducpainter]

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?

[Howie]

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.

[teddy037.2]

would the hugger hit the rear of the bike if the suspension bottoms out?

what mods have you done on your bike?

[Ddan]

What kind of shape is your chain in? 

[battlecry]

Do you have tire marks on the downside of the hugger?  Could indicate bottoming out.

[Popeye the Sailor]

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.

[jc2ducati]

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.

Do you have tire marks on the downside of the hugger?  Could indicate bottoming out.

[jc2ducati]

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.