Blorton's Hyper Journal

So with the bike properly insured and plated, I set about today working on the suspension setup.

As delivered, the tires each had 20'ish pounds in them. No wonder it was wanting to fall over in turns. Additionally, the front preload was way too high and the rear was way too low.

So the tires are now at 32/36 per the manual as a starting point and the front preload has been corrected. The rear preload will have to wait until I can get the proper tools. (Speaking of which, the factory tool kit is awol. doh!) Even with that, the bike rides much better now and and I'll be fine tuning compression/rebound once I get the preload properly sorted.

I did get a nice surprise when I pulled the seat to install the battery tender harness - there's already one on there. So now I have a spare for another vehicle.

This bike already has the 2-1 termi on it, so the easiest weight loss has already been done. I pulled the passenger pegs yesterday and that was another 2lbs, 10oz off the bike. Future plans include an alum subframe for another 9 pounds and perhaps a lightweight battery once I decide how winter suitable I want it to be - which will be a decent amount of poundage saved.

There's been a lot of sudden showers around here, so I've stayed away from doing any real rides until the replacement for the slick rear comes in. I'll be heading over to Ducshop to have that installed and will be gandering at their wares at the same time. Their airbox replacement stacks sure sound good.

Sometime soon I'm planning to fab up a custom givi tailbox bracket to sit above the passenger seat area. Rather than use the optional factory luggage rack which has to be reinforced to carry anything more than pixie dust, I'm going a different direction and planning to use a tubular structure and a box just big enough to hold a helmet.

pics later.

Congrats on the new steed. Weight-saving is also an obsession of mine (17 kgs/38 lbs off my 1098S so far) so I for one will be interested in how much you can shave off your Hyper.
I saved quite a bit with my aluminium sub-frame, and by replacing the plastic under-cover with carbon - the plastic cover was quite thick to cope with the temp of the stock mufflers. I don't intend taking a passenger or luggage on the back of mine - I guess you need to research the strength of an alloy sub-frame before you plan attaching racks and luggage to it.
But a lightened Ducati is a pretty special thing.

I think.......no, I know Shenders can help you mod the hyper and spend all of your kids inheritance on the hyper. Sweet ride for sure.

Thanks guys - yep, Shenders has already helped, as has the BlingWhip. They were both very informative before I pulled the trigger on the bike.

I ordered the computer software kit for doing service work this morning along with an independent service guide. This should be interesting.

Edit: Pat, the termi on this bike is supposed to be worth around 15 pounds of loss, so that's not a bad start. If I were to win the lotto, there's always the sub 300lbs NCR bits.

I did the first mod today - just a tiny bit under Blingwhip's level, but it's a start.



Those would be GM door panel plugs from Advance Auto. Roughly a buck a pair and nicely covers up the holes from yanking nearly three pounds worth of passenger pegs.

In other news, any reservations I had about holding out on getting a power commander got thoroughly flushed today. Check out this power commander map for my exact configuration(termi 2-1 plus dp ecu and airbox lid) Yes Virginia, they do run too rich in places.:




I took the bike out for errand running today and I've now got a to do list:

1) The "mirror" on the bike now is going to get me squished. I've seen bigger ones in the wife's makeup kit. On this bike, the factory setup was replaced with zeta bar and guards with a token 2"x6" mirror on the left side and I need to do something like what bwhip has done. I'm flat blind on the right rear quarter. For someone who is as big on situational awareness as I am, that's not going to fly.
2) As warned, initial bite on the front brakes just plain sucks. I'm pretty spoiled since the stock setup on the 954 was awfully strong and linear. hopefully I can get this bike in the same ballpark or better without a complete parts swap.
3) Clutch engagement from a dead stop is about as unconfident as possible. I don't trust it at all for something like trying to do a gonzo left turn in a traffic break. I hear an aftermarket slave helps a lot....
4) Despite preload being correct, fork dive on any decent braking force is way out there. Since the stock spring is a progressive rate, that should be an easy fix. Ducshop has a great ohlins internals kit that I'd love to get, but that's $1500.....

A single sided pitbull rear stand came with the bike, but it's a pain to use and not nearly as stable as the standard spooled rear I used with the 'Blade. So I ordered the Motovation rear sliders kit that doubles as standard spools. It will come off quickly for any needed service work and make parking the bike a lot more stable the rest of the time.

Other than that, I'm loving how the bike rides and handles, and I haven't even wheelied it yet.

Did I mention it sounds totally badass too?

Oh, and I may end up going over to Ducshop tomorrow for fresh hoops. Let's see if I can manage to walk out without buying their trick intake kit.

Sounds like you're headed down the endless and costly path that modifying late-model bikes can lead us on. Rewarding though - as these bikes respond so well to these mods.
Are you going to use the rear footrest mounts to support your rear luggage rack? I've always employed these mounting points to take the load off the rear frame.
Hopefully the front brakes will improve with a change of pads - you will need to check the rotors for run-out, as these brakes should be good.
The clutch issues are well-known with the Ducati dry clutches. They can be fixed - the mileage the bike has done will be relevant. Since they went over to an aluminium clutch housing with aluminium friction plates, wear at the point where these plates engage with the housing (or basket) can cause these issues. The larger bore slave cylinder can help, as it spreads the take-up point over a wider range, at the expense of slightly less disengagement. If fluid is flushed/bled frequently this isn't a problem. Bleeding that fluid will be your first step if you haven't done this already. My dry clutch is now more progressive than when the bike was new.

Thanks, Pat. I hadn't even thought of using the passenger peg mounting points for the rack. That's an interesting idea...

On the clutch, the previous owner said the brake and clutch fluids were changed, but the clutch side looks a good bit darker. I'm planning to order a 29mm slave and will see how that goes. I'm already mapping out the parts list for the clutch blinging and will likely upgrade the basket at the same time. The bike only has 6200 miles on it, so there shouldn't be too much wear...

On the brakes, since the fluid is new and clear, I decided to try the overnight lever clamp trick to see if that helps. As soon as this rain stops I'll be able to test that out...

The clutch fluid needs changing more often on the Ducati than other (even Brembo-equipped) machines. Worth flushing/bleeding that first.

We've traded PM's, and I know you're considering some engine mods.

New plan - Quit messing around, bolt a supercharger to it and call it done.

Here's a nicely-sized example

This Is Not Photoshopped

LMFAO!

But you know I'd have to get one made out of titanium to keep the weight down....

There is a mob in Western Australia that do a supercharger kit for Ducatis. A bit more compact than the Camaro one..
They reckon it really gets them going. Not titanium though.

The Vee Two kit? I knew they did one for a Testastretta, but wasn't aware of anything for our air-cooled torque monsters.

Not that it would be hard to modify to fit. Hmm.....

I'd rather go with a turbo kit. There's a guy who's done one already and tried to drum up interest in kit sales, but didn't get much interest. It would've been at least 4k and that's blueprinted big bore territory... If I was going to spend that much, I'd just have ducshop do it up right.

After posting that reference to a supercharger I tried looking it up on their website. The company has changed hands since, and only seems to have persisted with one for the Harley V-Rod.
Whilst I think a supercharger is preferable to a turbo on an air/oil-cooled motor, I'm sure some more conventional tweaks would suffice, as suggested. Porting, intake and exhaust mods, Ergal cam pulleys, and general lightening.
Just removing the heads from the 1098 with this in mind as we speak, having done all the other things I just listed. Just re-seating/re-working the valve seats and ports on these things can make quite a difference. Will we ever be satisfied.?

Winter time there, eh? Prime bike project time...

Exactly. We don't have a high annual rainfall here, but we've had a fair bit of it in the last week. I'll keep riding the Elefant for my 'fix'. Can't go a week without a ride.

So I *finally* got around to installing some parts last weekend. Ducshop intake kit and some clutch bling. As expected, the intake makes the bike absolutely beastly now. A 1mm larger clutch slave and the brembo front brake master are still waiting to be put on.(fail!)

I'm planning to be in Tellico this weekend if anyone is in the neighborhood.

Did you clean up the manifold/throttle body mismatches while you had everything apart?

I bet it's got a nice intake 'honk' now.

Naww, I didn't mess with that part. I might ask Mark to look into that if I ever take it in for them to work over.

Yes, it's honks like mad now. I've only done a short ride for fresh fuel since the install, but it's interesting how the timbre changes dynamically based on load and is not just a linear oooAAAH with rpm as you might expect. Definitely room for tuning work now but am gonna hang off that pending a possible cam kit. For sure need to get the modified throttle tube.

Yeah, the intake change really transforms the bike. Glad you're enjoying it!