Got my “standard” 749/999(R) rod off @Nelson (ta!) today and immediately went tinkering in the garage. I reckon that I can cut it down a bit and still maintain the 243mm centres distance I have been using on my 749R. The threads are deep enough to ensure at least the same engagement as I have had with the R rod since with my 243mm centre length the rod ends protrude quite a lot with the short R rod. Time to come clean: I replaced the rod ends on my bike last week as they were getting a bit scuzzy. I replaced them with some from McGill Motorsport however the wait for the standard L/H thread Ducati alloy locknut was about 6 months. I ordered some steel locknuts from McGill (5 quid for 5). Unfortunately....I may have nipped one up a bit much and think I may have cracked the R rod! There is a teeny longitudinal mark about 2mm long at the edge of the rod on the outside. I cleaned it up with a fine file and emery and it disappeared. It was probably there all along but for peace of mind, I thought I’d rather replace the rod rather than have my suspension collapse on track. I will get the R rod NDT inspected at work to check sometime but in the meantime I will use the “cooking” standard rod.
What a fakkin palaver! Took my R rod off and compared to standard rod. As expected, standard rod too long by 40mm. Marks on longer rod show the depth of internal thread. I decided to cut of 15mm from each end of the long rod as I determined that it would mean the rod ends would be better seated in the rod, rather than sticking out so much as they were on the R rod. Cutting the ally rod was a breeze. Unfortunately, due to the depth of internal threads, the rod ends bottomed out before they could be screwed in sufficiently to achieve the required 243mm centre distance. Bollocks...didn’t have an M12 x1.25mm tap, LH let alone RH, so decided to cut 12mm off each rod end male thread. Seven, yes seven, hacksaw blades later, I had cut down the two threaded parts of the bearings. Put them all together and all looked great! Reduced the centre length to 241mm as I think It was like that a few years back. One last thing... Put the rod back on the bike...blimey it’s tight on the shock spring! Got a couple of mm space, now I know why the R rod is fat in the middle but then tapers to a parallel end - it’s to give clearance on the spring. Simples....
As shock compresses, the clearance increases. I reckon it’ll be ok even when it extends as I checked it while on the ABBA stand with no load on the wheel.
Got my R rod NDT Inspected today at work...no cracks! All the above was therefore a complete waste of time!! Now that I've cut down my rod end bearings, I need to get some more to fit back into the R rod. Oh I love it!!
@RickyX I'm in the process of looking at the 749 suspension and chassis setup as now I've started to learn the bike, I'm finding that it enjoys running wide into corners. I reacted to a couple of Andys posts on this thread thus bringing it back into the fore. I'm going to look over the dimensions properly, but I have two rings showing on the fork tops, with the yoke sitting on the third ring when viewing it from side on, and the tie tod at the back is around 280mm. I need to do a proper setup as I haven't touched it since I got it, so have no idea what current sag and settings are. I'll do a proper measurement when I have the thing out as I want to renew the rose joints - speaking of which, off the top of your head would you know if they're M10x1.5 or 1.25?
