Hi All I bought my first Ducati - a 998 a couple of months ago. There is a small problem in that the upper fairing catches on the Brake fluid reservoir, it doesn't affect the steering, but has the annoying habit of knocking on the reservoir cap when braking on a bumpy surface. My question is : Is this normal and if so is there a cure ? (apart from fitting a smaller brake fluid reservoir). The upper fairing looks straight and the fairing support brackets do not appear to bent or damaged in any way. Cheers
Mine is only a couple of mm away on the 748, could the locating pin for the brake have been removed and the leaver twisted for comfort?? Steve
Thanks for the replies, as far as I know the bars are standard. I did consider turning the master cylinder around on the bars but decided this was not the fix.
Hopefully I have managed to attach a pic - you can see where the reservoir cap has been catching on the underside of the fairing. (crappy reservoir cap is on the list to be replaced). It's not a major problem, just annoying when braking on anything but a smooth surface and the fairing knocks on the cap. Otherwise I don't really notice it.
Could be the non standard "carbon" cap is thicker than the genuine Brembo item. I would just bend the mount a bit or rotate the reservoir if I were you.
They are always close at that point, are there any signs that bike has been dropped on r/h side? Sometimes rotating wing mirror strut (particularly if ant-rotate facility has been damaged i.e casting has small chunk broken away at base) can be enough to achieve clearance needed.
To add to above, if you don't think whole front assembly is symmetrical about centreline of bike then there is a small amount of adjustment achievable by slackening headlamp bowl brkt fixings. Again particularly relevant if bike has had a drop and landed on r/h indicator.
As above, is that a stock screen?, if not then that might be pushing the wellnut (which looks bigger than stock) down further. Clearance there is always very tight, a few adjustments might just about allow it to clear.
Also...what steering head angle is it set to? If it is on the race setting the reservoir moves forward and is closer to the screen.
I have had the same problem. In my case it was self inflicted. Because of my size and arm legnth I needed sleightly raised bars and swapped the bar clamps over to give a small amount of 'raise' rather than drop. Could a previous owner have done this to your bike. It is not imeadiately noticeable.
Thanks for the replies all. The bike is a basic 998, I didn't think I could adjust the steering head on this model. I will check to see if the bars appear raised. As far as I know the bike hasn't been dropped, the front end all looks symmetrical . The screen is an aftermarket 'zero gravity', not sure if it is any thicker than the original. I am looking for a standard screen to bring it back to original spec. I think I may check out all of your suggestions and get a standard cap for the reservoir as the current one is a bit messed up.
Quickest way to discover if you have an adjustable headstock is to look and see if you have two tapped fixing options at frame end of steering damper.
In that case it does have an adjustable headstock, the damper is in the rearmost position, I assume that is the road setting.
My 996 was the same, I just sanded the underside of the screen to give a little more clearance and moved the reservoir a little by bending the bracket. My race bike has a tiny reservoir for the brakes, basically a clutch reservoir. Works fine
If the screen has been changed that is what has likely caused the problem as even with a stock screen the clearance is minimal. Manipulate the bracket and you should be fine.
