Upgrade Madness - I Must Be Mental

Must admit that these days I would rather look at what I feel I was likely to spend on bolt on stuff and see if that bridged the gap to the next model up the food chain. If so then buy the better bike. A philosophy I have stuck with over the last 15 yrs or so, to the present day. (For me it would usually be exhaust systems and maybe a few small bits of carbon fibre like huggers etc, or the occasional cf tank ). Prior to that I do admit falling foul of the anodised tatt bug and making some very questionable additions to bikes.

It does seem that in the last couple of years the bike accessories market has come full circle in a similar way to the clothing/fashion industry over time. With them we have seen stuff like flares go out and come back in as "boot cut" and the push for retro feel t shirts and jackets etc.
We did all of the anodised stuff back in the late 80s/early 90s and then it disappeared pretty much.
The last few bike shows I've been at have had dozens of stands of shiny trinkets in various colours,
but very few items are a new idea or are actually more functional than the OE set up.

Being distinctly middle aged now, very little of this stuff does anything for me at all. But as many have said, each to their own. If we all liked the same things, there would only be a handful of bikes out there and developement would die.

 

A lot of folk think big, shiny, noisy, expensive, bright red motorbikes are kitsch anyway. And road bikes with stickers which imitate racing bikes are very kitsch. But do we care?

 

When I bought my first Ducati, a Pantah in the mid 80s, you were paying for all sorts of things it had as standard that people used to fit as aftermarket on their Japanese bikes. It had a fairing, clip-ons, rear sets, handled superbly (for the time). The brakes were Brembos and seemed very good (later they seemed less so..). It had Marzocchi suspension which were the dog's danglies. It was also very special, as you barely ever saw another one. So there seemed very little need to personalise it, or improve it.

As Ducatis have become more common, people now have to add a personal touch to get the thing to stand out in the crowd. I still think that that is the main reason for aftermarket accessories.

My 851 got a black screen - I think that was about it for personalisation.
The 916 ended up with a black and white paint job, but that was because my dealer dropped it at low speed when testing it. It also had carbon cans from day 1.
The 907ie was bog stock.

All I've done to the 999 is add the obligatory black screen, a couple of Ducati Performance stickers and changed a couple of bits of plastic or alloy for carbon. I only changed the fluid caps because the paint was peeling off the originals, and I changed the levers because the stock items really do let the bike down. I anodised the footrest hangers black because they look better that way - I'm sure the factory would have done it if they'd been really serious about the black version.

If I had loads of cash would I add more bling? No. The only thing I'd like to do is swap the plastic air intake covers for carbon ones. But I can live with the originals.
It's still a pretty special bike. You don't see many black 999s about - and that's how I like it. I don't feel the need to bling the thing up.

 

Deffo a bike thing. Can't even be bothered to buy an air freshner for the car to help it 'stand out '

If it wasn't for remote unlocking you'd spend days in Tescos car park trying to find your vehicle

 

Ducati like any manufacturer make these bikes to a budget and to make a profit .That means a lot of the OE parts can be improved.There simply is not a ducati out there I wouldn't improve given the budget.These improvements make for a lighter better handling better braking and much better looking attention to detail bike.

Here is a perfect example of just how much can be improved .

 

The ducati oe footpegs are shite end of.Bordering on not fit for purpose as soon as an rain gets on em .Ive always fitted DP rearsets but would rather go for Moto corse now.

When I replaced my knackered oe ducati clutch slave cylinder I was shocked when I took it apart.Another piece of cheap shit.No wonder grit gets in there and fucks them up.

 

There's slipper clutches and then there's slipper clutches. My S1k has a slipper clutch from the factory, I swapped it out for an STM slipper clutch and it's one of the most noticeable differences I've made to the bike (Brembo RCS Master Cyl was another). When you look at the difference in these clutches, when they are in pieces in your hand it's very easy to see which one is crude and "mass produced", it's also very easy to notice the difference between them when being used on track.

I'll find out how good the Panigale's slipper is this weekend at Almeria.

Davy

 

The crap footpegs thing is really annoying.
It doesn't cost any more money to make non-slippy ones.

 

Multistrada footrests are just fine, with or without the (optional) rubber inserts, even for those of us with rather large feet.

 

ohhhhh, Mr Stunt, you have overlooked the most important bestest, most desirable accessories!!!!

 

as soon as 1299 ones are available, im getting them!!! very classy looking, you saw it here first, (or somewhere else, delete as appropriate)

 

that was the point! oh, you knew that :-(