A New Bike In The Stable - 2008 Ducati 1098

We recently picked up another bike: 2008 Ducati 1098.  A friend of mine was upgrading to a 1098S Tri-colore, and made me a deal that I couldn't pass up on this one. It already has a Termignoni full exhaust system with the Ducati Performance computer installed, as well as some other tasteful modifications.  This bike is a beast!  Lots of power, loud as thunder, and vibrates your teeth loose... just as a Ducati should be. :-)

We probably won't be taking this one to the track any time soon, but it would definitely be right at home there.

If you're wondering, this makes five bikes that we currently own...

Motorcycle Track Day - 11/3/2012 @ MSRC

I'm very happy that I was able to get one more track day in this year with RideSmart.  My wife just had surgery a few weeks ago, so she wasn't able to participate in this event. We were back at Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, TX with RideSmart.  I felt like I improved some more, and I finally dragged a knee! :-)  The day before the event, I picked up a set of used carbon fiber D&D slip-on mufflers from a friend in the DFW area to replace my cored OEM mufflers for track days.  The D&D mufflers are much lighter and smaller than the OEM mufflers, and sound a lot better (albeit louder).  The mufflers came off of an older Supersport ('91-'98), but I was able to get them mounted on the bike with a little bit of adjustment.  I've since cleaned the mufflers up and fabricated my own mounting brackets (last photo). My video consists of three different laps with three different camera views.  The first two views were earlier in the day, so they certainly weren't very fast, but it was interesting to see the different angles.  I think I like the windscreen camera angle the best as it works well with my mirrored visor and allows me to see my body position in the turns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ix8cStQy54

Track Bike Camera Mounts

I added a couple of new camera mounts to my bike for track days, and created a short video of the different angles going through the same sequence of corners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t8ijdsJ2vA

Track Bike Full Fairings

I was able to get the new full fairings painted and installed on the bike. It was weird scuffing up these perfect Senna gray fairings to paint them flat black, but it needed to be done. :-) As much as I loved the idea of a half naked bike with a full belly pan, I have to admit that it looks better with full fairings.

Motorcycle Track Day - 09/22/2012 @ ECR

Back at Eagle's Canyon Raceway for two days back-to-back with RideSmart.  My wife came with me, and even though she had no intention of doing either track day, we brought her bike with us on the trailer so that she would have transportation to and from the track as well as to participate in the parade laps on Saturday.  While waiting to do the parade laps, she was encouraged to sign up for Sunday's event on stand-by and they would let her use some rental leathers for free.  We both had a lot of fun, and she'll be attending track days with me going forward. :-)  Below are video clips of two of my best laps from each day, and photos of both of us. It's nice not getting passed as much as I did on my first track day, and as you can see from the videos I'm passing a lot more people now, but I think I'm going to stay in Level 1 for next season to make sure I can proficiently stay on the race line, continue working on correct body position, and improve my throttle and braking so that I can be more comfortable with passing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F23Zp3BVPww

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwWAEtEH9cI

Track Bike Belly Pan... I'm done with it.

I spent so much time and effort getting that belly pan to fit, and I really like the way it looks, but the damn thing got ripped off the bike while I was backing it off the trailer at Eagles Canyon Raceway on Saturday. The ramp folded down into a low spot on the ground and was steep enough to catch an edge of the pan... now its dead. :-/

The good news is I found a pair of brand new OEM full fairings that were being clearanced out by a Ducati dealer VERY cheap. :-)

Photos and video of the track day coming soon.

Track Bike Updates

I've made a few updates to the track version of my Ducati 900 Supersport, all of which have absolutely nothing to do with the bike's performance. :-)

I've had problems with the belly pan dragging at the track because it was mounted so low on the bike to clear the exhaust.  Since I'm not using the pan to catch any fluids, I decided to cut an opening into the bottom for the exhaust to fit through similar to the factory fairings. I also trimmed the pan and modified the mounting points to mount it up higher on the bike so that it has the same ground clearance as the factory fairings.

I also replaced the grey tank pad with a black version from the '99-'00 Supersports, added some TechSpec grip material to the sides of the tank, and recovered the seat with a new Sport Skinz replacement cover from Sargent Cycle.

Now the bike doesn't look so much like a piece of crap that was thrown together quickly with random used parts for track days. :-)