Ducati 748s Maintenance

I finally got up the courage to perform the 12,000 mile routine maintenance on my 2002 Ducati 748s. I've already done the maintenance on my 2001 Ducati 900 Supersport with a 2-valve motor, but the 4-valve motor in the 748s is much more complex and the maintenance is much more involved. In addition to replacing the cam belts and inspecting/adjusting the valve clearances, it is also recommended to pull the cams out of the heads to check the condition of the rocker arm faces and replace any that show excessive wear, which is a known issue for 748/916/996 Superbikes from 1995 to 2002.

I purchased all of the specialized tools that are required to perform the 4V maintenance from Desmo Times, and stripped the bike down to just the motor and frame. I worked on things a little at a time so that I wouldn't get too overwhelmed with it all. I was happy to discover that all the valve clearances were within Ducati's recommended specifications, however I found two opening rocker arms that needed to be replaced. :-( I should have the bike back together and back on the road within a few weeks.  While I have the bike stripped down this far, I'm also going to install a new custom aluminum coolant reservoir to replace the plastic one that is prone to bursting.

Motorcycle Track Day - 05/6/2012 @ MSRC

My second track day was awesome! :-) I was in Level 1 again with RideSmart at Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, TX. This was my second track day, and my first time at MSRC. The bike performed flawlessly, and I was doing pretty good myself. I was a LOT more comfortable on the bike and you can see from the photos below that I was able to lean the bike over farther and _almost_ touched a knee. :-) My instructor followed me around for a couple of laps and later told me that my lines and body position were really good and that I am good to advance to Level 2 at my next track day if I want to. I did have a problem with the belly pan scraping again on the sides with the bike leaned over farther, so I'm going to do some more trimming on the pan to raise it up closer to the engine. The video below is three of my best laps from the last session of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nykff7Vb950

My First Motorcycle Track Day! - 04/1/2012 @ ECR

Finally got my first track day under my belt! It was with RideSmart at Eagles Canyon Raceway near Decatur, TX. It was a LOT of fun, and I learned a lot about the handling of my bike that I would've never been able to discover on the street. I wish I lived closer to a track so that I could afford to go once or twice a month! :-)

The belly pan was dragging slightly in two corners during my first two sessions, so I took the bike to the guys from OnRoad OffRoad Cycles who were at the track and they got it setup better for me (my springs are still too light for my weight - what a fat ass!) and it was a much better bike on the track (no more scraping).

The video clip below is from a couple of laps from my last session of the day in Level 1. The Japanese bikes were passing me in the straight sections of the track pretty regularly. This clip starts as I'm exiting turn 6 and ends at the same spot two laps later. I chose to post this particular two laps because it had the least amount of people passing me. :-)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHcYf7Ivbt8

Motorcycle Track Days - Finished Project

Here are photos of the finished track bike project. I'm in Decatur, TX as I type this and I'll be on the race track all day tomorrow. :-)

Here is the bike with the street setup...

Here is the bike with the track setup...

Motorcycle Track Days - Prepping the Bike (continued)

After painting and installing everything on the bike, I just really didn't like the way the OEM half fairings look (no offense to those that like the half fairings on the newer Supersport bikes, they just don't look as good as the pre-1999 half fairings in my opinion). I kinda like the way the newer Supersports look with only the upper headlight fairings, but from the side it looks like something is missing and the bottom of the upper fairings sit several inches higher than the bottom of the tail fairings, which doesn't look aesthetically pleasing to me. I decided to fabricate some small fairing "winglets" that would install at the bottom of the upper fairings to give it a finished look and they would sit slightly lower than the bottom of the tail fairings when viewed from the side. I made a paper template of the shape I wanted and transferred the pattern to some 1/8 inch thick ABS plastic sheet that I ordered from Parts Express for only $8. Once I got two winglets cut out, I used a heat gun to form curves on both ends so that they would match the contour of the upper fairings. When installed they look similar to the Ducati Kamna super small race half-fairing, but at a fraction of the cost.

With the new custom half-naked look, I still felt like something was missing and I've never seen a full belly pan on a half-naked Supersport, so I ordered one from AirTech Streamling. When the belly pan came in, I trimmed it to fit the bike, fabricated some brackets to secure it to the bottom of the engine, and painted it once it was completely mocked up.

Here are the brackets I made along with close-ups of the belly pan mounted to the bike...

Motorcycle Track Days - Prepping the Bike

I've been steadily prepping the 2001 Ducati 900 Supersport for the track and I have a few updates...

Since the headlight and taillight aren't used at the track, I removed them from the bike and fabricated a headlight blank out of some thin aluminum sheet that I picked up from a local hardware store to cover the headlight opening and fabricated a bracket to hold my old unused OEM taillight lens in place in the tail. I covered both pieces with black vinyl tape rather than the typical blue painter's tape so they would blend in with the paint. I can easily remove the blanks and reinstall the headlight and taillight to legally ride the bike on the street if I need to sort out any mechanical or electrical issues without having to change everything back to the street fairings.

I want to use my GoPro HD camera at the track, so I fabricated a simple gas tank mount for it out of 2mm thick aluminum plate. The mount uses three of the gas cap bolt holes and positions the camera in a great spot for capturing on-bike video without getting in my way when I'm riding. There is also a small tether line in case the 3M adhesive pad fails.

Here is the view from the camera on the gas tank mount...

Stay tuned for more updates...

Motorcycle Track Days for 2012

With the lack of any autocross venues in my area and having recently acquired a 2002 Ducati Superbike 748s, I decided to convert my 2001 Ducati 900 Supersport into a part-time track bike so I could do some motorcycle track days to get my "racing" fix.

I still enjoy riding this bike on the street, so I didn't want to make it a dedicated track bike. The bike also has some custom bodywork and a custom gloss black paint job that I didn't want to risk damaging if I had an accident at the track (I've never done a track day before), so I've been slowly acquiring some used OEM fairing pieces (half fairings, front fender, rear grab handle, and tail sides), a used seat, and a used gas tank from eBay to use for the track. You may wonder why I didn't just buy some Sharkskinz track fairings, but its because the used OEM fairing pieces were much cheaper and I already had my OEM upper headlight fairings that weren't being used since I installed a custom HID projector headlight. The OEM fairings also break down into smaller pieces for less storage space when they're not installed on the bike. I went with half fairings to give the bike a different look and to potentially allow the engine to get more air and not overheat at the track. I'm also going to use my old cored OEM exhaust mufflers to preserve my beautiful carbon high-mount Termignoni slip-ons that are apparently no longer available.

I've also acquired all the necessary riding gear that is required for track days: one-piece leather race suit, back protector, riding boots, and gauntlet style gloves.

I still have to prep and paint the used fairings and replace the wood decking on my 5x8 trailer, but I'm hoping to be ready for the April 1st event with RideSmart motorcycle school at Eagle's Canyon Raceway near Decatur, TX. I'll post some photos of the bike with the new fairings once I get it finished, and hopefully I will be able to capture some good on-track video with the GoPro HD camera.

Stay Tuned...