Haha, cheap as chips my arse!! Went past a kitchen shop yesterday and saw a wooden spatula in the window for 70p. Bargain I thought, unfortunately my wife came in with me and I ended up spending £140 on a new kettle, an omlette pan and a set of knives. Most expensive 70p item I've bought for ages! Err, you may be overthinking this Simon - the problem is getting the calliper off the disk, the gap between the disk and the wheel rim is always going to be constant whether the wheel is in or out. Reading the post it seems it is possible to get the calliper off the disk but only just. Shame Ducati didn't do some joined up thinking and put an angled bango bolt in place which would make things much easier. Glad I've now done my pads so apart from a front tyre I shouldn't need to disturb the front end for some time.
Guys I agree with the comments that you can get the caliper off - JUST - with the wheel in situ. But raising the wheel (by removing spindle) or dropping the caliper (assuming the pipes have enough play) increases the tangential clearance between the banjo bolt and the wheel - see the 2 red lines. That was what I was trying to say
It does not really make any difference Simon as the main caliper body hits the wheel rim, so it's still got to be twisted off thus pushing the pistons back in before removal.
removing the axle obviously won't make any difference, nor will "dropping" the caliper, not even sure what that means. The only way to make it easier is to unbolt the disk, which is completely unnecessary
In the picture the bike has 5mm spacers, so it's possible to drop the calipers a bit. Not certain it will help tho: still has to get over the same size disc
when you are squeezing the caliper between the disk edge and rim the caliper mounts are right out of the picture
