im thinking of upgrading the cylinder on my 916...its got the original-no problems with it, but i wondered about the benefits of maybe upgrading to an oberon or something similar..any suggestions, and is it worth it? ive seen a few different companies, any recommendations as to the pros and cons? Cheers all
As it's a 916, you'll have the old style clutch slave which is a 25mm piston in the old design. If you fit anything larger then you'll start getting problems with clutch disengagement: dragging clutch, trouble finding gears, trouble getting into neutral, etc. You're better off fitting a later style Ducati slave cylinder (with the star pattern design) as this is still 25mm but has a 15% reduction in force and only a 17% increase in lever travel.
You could probably find a later type one on ebay for very little money, indeed, Ducati 1198 Clutch Slave Cylinder 848 1098 1198 749 999 748 916 996 998 | eBay these (star type) have an improved ratio over the original. Or, you could just whip out two opposing springs and see how it goes. Might be an idea to put new in tho if it's been laid up ..... still cheaper than a new slave. But the oberon is a nice bit of kit if you wanna munch £90 on a bit of bling ...
definite 'pro' if you suffer with tennis elbow etc as action will be lighter than original but removing two clutch springs (plus original spec springs) will make a great difference as you probably know* The main 'con' is the increase in lever travel that is inevitable and depending on the bore of the slave, can make action unacceptable to some. Choice is getting larger and the price has come down dramatically now units are coming from china (and a lot of them of good quality). These tend to go for around £45 -50 GOLD Factory Racing Billet Clutch Slave Cylinder Ducati Monster 900 750 620 800 | eBay whereas an Oberon (the natural choice of most) are around double. overlapped reply ^ with Greyman due to slow typing!
Oberon use a 29mm slave piston which will give you a 26% reduction in pull force and a 35% increase in pull distance on your original 916 ... good luck with getting that to work!
thanks for your input guys.... would it be possible to fit a later OE 1098 slave? ps: is the lever distance increased with all aftermarket cylinders, and has anyone fitted the 'factory racing' part/had any problems replacing the OE parts? Thanks again.
