So the swing arm choice is about length and cost. Pretty much all Ducatis from 94 to 2012 shared the same engine mounting points along with the swingers pivot hole. trouble is by the nature of the engine shape the swing arm length to wheel base ratio is really short. As the years went on the swing arms got longer and longer from an original 748 998 ducati added 15mm for the 998RS and a bigger hub albeit unique to the RS, to the 1098 /1198 bigger hub and longer again. The 1098RS was even longer and even grew longer towards its end of racing, to the street fighter that was longer still. trouble was all the non RS swingarms struggle for tyre clearance particularly if you want to use the 200 tyres.. the cheapest answer is to use a street fighter swingarm for length with the eccentric nearer the front of the rotation you can then achieve the length of the RS arm. You do however need to modify it to get clearance for the tyre. The radius of the inside of the arm doesn't match the radius of the tyre. Its actually quite a simple job really, when you cut away the sheet ally there is a brace section in the cast bit that is in just the right position to cut back to..you then get clearance for a 200 tyre. The pivot sections are very similar to a 998 the right hand side being the fixed measure between the engine case and the inside of the frame, the left side is the floating side. You can make it like a 999 using 999 spacers and spacing the spindle part of the frame so you can then remove the arm without disturbing the engine bolts!! The rocker is a flat or linear rocker from a 1098RS this mates up with the ttx shock perfectly once you space it on its pivot correctly. Incidentally the rocker ratio is bang on that of a 998 RS with pretty much as near as dam it a ratio of 2.1 to 1
So to the airbox. We had a std 748R carbon top section of an airbox so decided to utilise that. You struggle for a decent bit of clearance around the front cylinder intake using this as std so i knew i had to modify this but first set about making a bottom section in carbon to eventually match up to the 748R top. here you can see the 748R top section, the 1198 throttle bodies and trumpets and the beginnings of a carbon base i made.
looks great considering it was build from your spares. Also loving what you've done with the exhaust on your monster mob andy thats one thing i feel lets all conversions down normally
The airbox base section almost complete ready for a coat of finish resin this bolts to the inlet trumpet bases so the throttle linkage is out side the airbox the lip seals against the base lip on the 748R airbox top.. holes for tips and injector wiring and a 998 style crankcase breather..
two halves of the airbox coming together utilising a rubber seal between them eventually like the 748R
As the std 1198 injectors sit in the plastic airbox top you have to make a injector mounting like the 748R. Due to the minimal space for the front injector the have to sit at a slight angle. But i remember the guy Tom from sweden did some calculations around the fuel spray pattern and the impact on power was nothing. in fact running it with the tank off you can see the fuel pretty much sits on to the top of the throttle butterfly. 998 crankcase breather and the air filters for ease..
That's a great project and interesting read, you certainly know your stuff Andy, just glad you didn't ask for the modded Streetfighter swingarm, that you kindly gave me a couple of years ago, back, it's certainly been put to good use . Hope you have better weather in Portimao than we did last month .
So finally got the shitter on to a dyno at RPM bikes, Iain Rhodes there a very helpful ducati knowledgeable guy and of course has his own dyno! Im running a microtec m197 ecu on this bike in fact all my bikes as they are so flexible and easy to set up with. Quite pleased with the results the old girl kicks out 156 and 85 of torque so should pull like a train..
