Ducati Multistretta 1098S

[millemille]

Not on its wheels yet...



...as I'm still waiting on the rear shock to come back.

In a true definition of irony I, as the engineering director of a hoses and fittings business, am waiting on the hydraulic hose for the remote preload adjuster to be made. The hose that I could get made in a matter of minutes, but because it involves opening and bleeding the hydraulic adjuster I thought it would be easier to get Nelly to do the swap and now he's being messed around by the hose company he's gone to.

Started work on the wiring loom. OEM looms are hateful things, and 10 year old looms even more so. When you strip the sleeving and tape off every single individual cable is covered in sticky crap and the cable routing and jointing is utter dogshit...

[MingtheMerciless]

What you want for cable cleaning after you've pealed the tape off is the IPA based gel/solution telecoms cable jointers use. It cleans sticky rubbish off in seconds, pour into a cloth liberally (not in a tight confined space or the Pope and a giant blue polar bear will offer advice) and then wipe the wiring down and all the sticky stuff gets removed, repeat again and then clean the wires off with the hand wipes you use for getting grease/dirt off your hands whilst working in the field.

[millemille]

What you want for cable cleaning after you've pealed the tape off is the IPA based gel/solution telecoms cable jointers use. It cleans sticky rubbish off in seconds, pour into a cloth liberally (not in a tight confined space or the Pope and a giant blue polar bear will offer advice) and then wipe the wiring down and all the sticky stuff gets removed, repeat again and then clean the wires off with the hand wipes you use for getting grease/dirt off your hands whilst working in the field.

I've been using Isopropyl Alcohol or Loctite SF7063 on the basis that they're what I've got in the factory.

"Pope and giant blue polar bear" LOL

[MingtheMerciless]

I've just spoken to a mate who's an ex jointer, the stuff is called "DeGel"

[Mr. Dazzle]

"Grafitti Wipes" are also really good at it IME. The ones with the little orange bumpy dots all over ' em.

[millemille]

Still not got the original shock back, so I bit the bullet and ordered the latest in MotoGP, anti-squat technology, rear suspension supporting device....



...which allowed me, with the aid of the forklift, to get it back on its wheels and start putting it back together.



...and get the harness - now with all connectors identified and labelled and stripped back - laid out in place and work out what needs moving where...

[IOU0]

Oh, italian spaghetti!

[Skub]

...and get the harness - now with all connectors identified and labelled and stripped back - laid out in place and work out what needs moving where...

That right there scares the schitt outta me!

[weeksy]

3 cable ties, job done.

[Couchy]

3 cable ties, job done.

3 ?, one spare yeah ?

[Beancounter]

3 cable ties, job done.

No yellow 'n' green insulating tape?

[Horse]

3 cable ties, job done.

No yellow 'n' green insulating tape?

Says the man who had yellow and black gaffer tape holding the TDM fairing together

[millemille]

Got the shock back yesterday. Having a few days off work, bike included, as my daughter is visiting and then it's road trip time on Saturday.

Heading to Abergavenny to see a mate who's a top notch fabricator so he can knock up a new battery and electronics tray.

[millemille]

Spent the day, yesterday, in deepest darkest Abergavenny.

The Ducati basking in the sunshine outside the workshop...



..and the fruits of our labours....





..battery and electrics tray and fuse box mounting adaptor. They'll be off for powder coating this week and now I know where everything electrical is mounted I can crack on with the loom.

[millemille]

Has anyone who's had a frame painted bought new VIN stickers?

Need to get one for the Ducati, Ducati UK not helpful at all. There's a guy on ebay who says he can produce any VIN sticker but he wants £120. I've got a sticker manufacturer I use at work that I can speak to, but wondered if anyone's got a recommendation?

[Couchy]

It’s looking great mate

[millemille]

Not a particularly brilliant week, in terms of progress....

I've got an outbreak of shingles (a regular occurance for me, when tired/stressed/run down as a legacy of chemo from my bout of lymphoma many years ago) which means I've been careful to not overdo it this week.

Carbon fibre guy has slipped by about 10 days on having the airbox ready.

The tank is back from being bead burnished to stress relieve it and it now doesn't fit as it did before, the stress relieving has done its job...but a little too well. So that needs some looking at and, I suspect, some application of brute force and ignorance to pull it back into shape.

I also noticed, when I was unloading the bike from the van after the trip to Wales last weekend, that the front tyre would come into contact with the swanky carbon fibre belly pan before the forks were fully compressed. When the radiator and oil cooler were installed it had been tight between the front tyre and them on full compression - with about 5mm clearance - and I'd assumed that the belly pan hugged the front of the oil cooler. But it doesn't, so I've cut away the middle of the top section spanning the oil cooler and made a new mounting bracket to pull it back further. A bit of tidying it up where I've cut the carbon and it'll be good to go.

Having a fucker of a time getting the new Oxford heated grips (which were what was on the bike when I got it and heated grips plus hand guards - carbon fibre now, natch - are sooooooooooooooooooooo good) to stick. At this rate I'll be hammering 6" nails through the bastard things....

I've lost one of the mirrors, which have the front indicators built it, and I'm fucked if I can find it anywhere. In the normal way of the world, as soon as I order a new one I'll find the missing one...

The lovely fabricated fuel pump shroud has had to be brutally attacked with an angry grinder as it was fouling the exhaust when fitted, that's waiting on being welded up...

Nothing much happening next week as I'm out on site overseeing first fit of a new sander project.

[millemille]

I spent most of last week supervising the installation of this...



..our latest sanding system, to one of these....



..one of Network Rail's Stoneblower On Track Machines.

So didn't get to do anything on the Ducati until this morning. Went over to work and dragged the bike out into the sun....



Got the shock in and fitted the chain...



..and I was turning the chain over by hand to check for any tight links I couldn't help but wonder why it was very notchy as it moved and why was there loads of red flakes on the outer side plates?

Ah bollocks!





The 530 chain doesn't clear the inside of the frame. Oh well, I'll strip the bike down in the morning and cut away the inside of the frame and fabricate some capping plates to weld in. It also gives me a chance to sort out a few niggles I had with the frame and add a boss for the steering damper reaction arm - getting rid of the clunky clamp the original kit uses - and some more bracing around the headstock.

[weeksy]

Oh arse

[millemille]

Oh arse

As one of my fellow directors says "the only people who don't make mistakes are the ones who aren't doing anything...".

It's not that big a deal really; a couple of hours to strip the bike down, a couple of hours to fettle the frame and make the parts needed, a couple of hours to weld them in and then hand it over to the powder coater. And it offers the opportunity to do a couple of other jobs on the frame.

The bike will be back to where it was before this came to light in two weeks, which aligns with when the airbox is due to be ready so it's not holding the project up.....at the moment.