Read this thread with interest. So sorry to hear about your mishap; hope you get it sorted soon. In that pic on the roadside, it looks the most beautiful bike. I've never owned a 996, but still have my second 748. I have wondered how they would be in traffic, and imagine the gearing should be lowered a bit.
Thanks, I personally think the 998s is one of the nicest looking bikes in my opinion. It will look even better when I'm finished with it. I will get it fixed. I live in a rural area so traffic isn't a massive issue. Dropping the front sprocket size had definitely helped with making it more usable when riding at lower speeds.
Did you ever get your bike re-mapped? If you still need it doing give Sam a ring at Motohub in Stoke, he does a ride in ride out mapping service on the dyno or you can leave the bike and collect when done. Either way it usually takes a full day but you will notice the benefits.
Well that was a long 4 and a half years since I last posted. House renovation, moving to a garageless house, building a new garage, cars taking my time and money, painters taking forever to paint parts, etc, etc. I'm back on a mission to get this bike back together and on the road this year. In the last month I have got some of my parts back from the painter Really happy with how the parts have come out. The carbon parts look brilliant now with a coat of lacquer on them. While I had some time off over Christmas and new year. I stripped the exhaust and polished it. It took me a couple days to get it done but was worth it for the end result. I then started to strip the bike down to clean it. I wanted to remover the swingarm bolt to clean it and lubricate it. I made two stands up the bolt to the foot peg mounts. The swingarm bolt and lower shock bolt came out no problem. While I had the swingarm out I decided to try cleaning the engine casing. A combination of degrease, alloy wheel cleaner, green scuff pads and WD40 did the job. I then I used some silver paste on the swingarm bolt to keep it easily removable in the future and started putting the bike back together. The castings cleaned up really well. Wish I had photos of how it looked before. I'm going to swap out fuel filter, in tank fuel hoses, oil and tyres. The bike has been sitting, so I'm going to do the belts. Are exactfit still the belts to go for or should I get a set of belts from Ducati? Just finished painting, laying flooring and fitting 2 post ramp to my garage. So hopefully i will get the bike moved out so I have more space.
Managed to get a bit more done with the bike. I decided to replace all the fuel hoses, fuel filters and tank seal. The original hoses were rock hard so was definitely worth it. Then done the belts next. I went with a set of Exactfit belts. Then i finally got the bike out the house for the first time in 3 years and moved it to its new home. I was needing to start the bike to warm the oil for changing it and doing that in the was house not happening. I went with Motul V300 for the oil, a genuine filter ,cleaned the gauze filter and fitted new gaskets. I then stripped the calipers cleaned and flushed for fresh fluid and fitted a new battery. I wasn't sure the last time the plugs had been done so I ordered some. The new ones turned up without connector nuts which was a pain. I had to order some. I'm still waiting for the seat unit and nose from the painter. Hopefully I will have them soon and I can get the bike on the road.
Got a bit more done on the bike. Fitted all new fairing screws, grills and foam pads to the side fairings. I never noticed when picking the panels up that the nose cone paint had something stuck to it. I only noticed once I was fitting the screen. I have dropped it back off with the painter to get it sorted. I fitted up the belly pan and side panels on the bike to check the fit was OK. Everything fits up nicely so far. I'm still waiting on the seat unit to get painted. I hope to get them back soon. I got a set of S22's but unfortunately I don't have a front stand so I had to get creative. A couple of ratchet straps and hanging it from my 2 post lift worked a treat. Have the bike booked in for an MOT so I'm hoping that the painter get my panels back to me before then. Really looking forward to getting the bike on the road.
Got my parts back from the painters. Rushed back from work cause the sun was out to get the last bits on and see the bike in the sun light. I'm so happy with the finish on the bike. It looks amazing! Unfortunately the day i booked the MOT turn out to be heavy rain. Got to the MOT station and the rear brake light had stopped working. I managed to get it working with a bit of WD40 and chapping it. Then the horn decided it didn't want to work either. Playing with the connector seemed to do the trick. So that's it got an MOT. Got it home and in the garage to get her cleaned up. Unfortunately not all the jobs are done. The ride to the MOT made me remember how worn the clutch is on the bike. I had thought about getting a slipper for it but the way I'm planning on using the bike i went with an EVR 48 tooth basket and plates. Its on order and should be there when I get back my holiday. Then I should be able to get out and enjoy the bike if the weather is decent.
I retract my previous statement!!! Mine felt horrible to ride, I can only imagine what that feels like!!!
Actually rode OK, bearing in mind this is not the smoothest of bikes to ride anyway but I really didn't notice it, clutch was working fine, nice and progressive, neutral easy to find, even the MOT tester who is normally very observant didn't notice anything wrong. Was a tad noisy though...
They all do that sir! Some years back my neighbour came around when I was running my 916 which had a badly worn (though not as bad as my above pic) clutch. Nice fella but he had no mechanical knowledge whatsoever, he asked me if the bike was broken so I told him it was a diesel, he seemed happy with that.
