Ducati Multistretta 1098S

[millemille]

Spendy to replace?

I've got a good spare pattern one on the shelf, bought as a precaution when the bearing in the alternator cover kept of shitting itself and taking out the windings.

I've also got a couple of damaged OEM ones, from the aforesaid bearing failures, that I'll send of to West Country Windings for repair.

The one that's in there is beyond repair.

[Skub]

West Country Windings sound like a handy place to know. There's a guy in the Kawa triples club who does all the stators for old bikes. The finished product is a work of art. From what I gather he charges around 400 quid for the pleasure.

[millemille]

All back together and running like a dream.

Went out for a couple of hours of steady riding this morning. Temperature was hovering around freezing so heated grips were working hard and no great speeds were reached, although once I'd added 25psi to the rear tyre pressure to get it back to where it should be, I gave it a bit more loud handle.

Ashbourne to Leek, Leek towards Macclesfield, turned right on to the A54, past Wildboar Clough and up to the cat and fiddle, Buxton to Bakewell to Matlock Bath on the A6 and then home to Ashbourne and coke and medals and MotoGP on the telly.

Happy days.

[G.P]

^^^^^ Good on you. Massive respect. Is that the longest run you've done on it?

[millemille]

^^^^^ Good on you. Massive respect. Is that the longest run you've done on it?

Did a couple of slightly longer rides around the Peaks before I toasted the alternator.

[millemille]

Having rather carelessly, the week before last, punted my Mercedes into the back of a VW Tiguan on the M4 link road at Heathrow airport and my insurance company rather unsportingly declaring it a write off* and having a supplier meeting I needed to attend in person last Friday the Ducati was pressed into service.

A 170 mile round trip to the delightfully named, but not delightful in the flesh, Oswaldtwistle.

All kinds of roads - Snake Pass to the M60 - and all kinds of conditions - near freezing temperatures to fog to sunshine to torrential rain.

Didn't miss a beat. No drama, no moments, superb.

Well, a few moments were had when you've got no traction control and monstrous power and it's cold and greasy under tire. But all very good humored, just wondering why the back end feels a bit skittish and the rev counter is going up a lot faster than the speedo.





*entirely my fault, trundling along away from the airport at about 40mph and coming across from lane 2 to lane 1 to exit and was paying too much attention to not sideswiping anyone and it was only when I pulled across and out from behind the lorry in front of me in lane 2 that I saw the stationary traffic in lane 1. Low speed collision, no one hurt, no air bags deployed, both cars were mechanically untouched, I drove mine about 500 more miles before the insurance company - in a very round about way** - got round to telling me they were writing it off as beyond economic repair due to the cost of the parts. Not surprised, bonnet & grille & headlights and lots of brackets etc. needed. The headlights need replacing as the mounting tabs had been broken off and they're a cool £1,000 each, but gutting as I'd just dropped the best part of two grand on servicing and fixing a boost leak on the damm thing.


** a text from Copart, the car salvage and auctions people, saying they'd been instructed by my insurer to collect my car.

[Supermofo]

Good news on the bike.

Not so good news on the car. Can't get my head around the cost of parts nowadays, but there you are.

[Skub]

I wonder do manufacturers price the parts to encourage a write off.

[millemille]

Good news on the bike.

Not so good news on the car. Can't get my head around the cost of parts nowadays, but there you are.

HID and intelligent dipping and wavelength/colour adjustment and steering, more processing power in each headlight than was used to get man on the moon...or something....

[Horse]

Can't get my head around the cost of parts nowadays, but there you are.

HID and intelligent dipping and wavelength/colour adjustment and steering, more processing power in each headlight than was used to get man on the moon...or something....

Plus the front of modern cars typically have radar and ultrasonic sensors too. Even a slow-speed nudge can be expensive.

[Count Steer]

Can't get my head around the cost of parts nowadays, but there you are.

HID and intelligent dipping and wavelength/colour adjustment and steering, more processing power in each headlight than was used to get man on the moon...or something....

Plus the front of modern cars typically have radar and ultrasonic sensors too. Even a slow-speed nudge can be expensive.

Surely these things only cost pence if manufactured in volume? They're probably the same (Chinese) unit on all the cars. Isn't it wonderful, we have all these aids that stop us damaging things, but then, if you do....the whole car is written off because of them. It's bonkers.

[millemille]

8 months or so since the last update on the multi...

The bike has been awesome, everything I wanted and more. The power above 7,000 rpm is epic, picks up the front and holds it in any gear.

Handling is as it was before, very fast steering, falls on its side, a bit flappy at higher speeds, equally at home pootling along as knee out hanging off or foot off supermoto style.

Done about 4,000 miles on it.

But, the last few rides it's started to have problems with shifting into 5th and 6th.

Fitted the service update to the selector mechanism and reset it using the proper tool, which seemed to make a difference initially and then it went back to being impossible to get it higher than 4th with any certainty. Not that this made a massive difference to my riding, as 4th is over 130 on the limiter....

Did some more investigation and had the idea that the problem may stem from excessive play in the shift lever pivot and too much movement in the selector shaft lever, because the lever clamp bolt that Healtech supply for the quickshifter strain sensor to fit over is only torqued to 6Nm (the oem bolt is torqued to 10Nm).

There's also, I thought, too much misalignment in the shift linkage, between the gear lever and the selector shaft lever. The linkage on any standard bike runs straight front to back, but the melding of a multi frame and 1098 engine means mine, even with spacers, has about 30 degrees of offset.

So I bought a new gear lever and pivot bolt and also a 916 selector shaft lever, which is cranked, to remove the play and improve the alignment. The plan was to recheck the selector mechanism alignment, which requires the alternator side cover to be removed, and fit the new parts and take a test ride this weekend in preparation for some mates coming up for a weekend of spirited riding next weekend.

And I dropped the oil in preparation for the alternator cover coming off...



Well, that explains the shifting problems. That's the remains of a gearbox shim.

So, that's this year's riding done. Drop the engine and full strip down to assess what damage has been done internally and figured out what to do after that....

[MingtheMerciless]

8 months or so since the last update on the multi...

The bike has been awesome, everything I wanted and more. The power above 7,000 rpm is epic, picks up the front and holds it in any gear.

Handling is as it was before, very fast steering, falls on its side, a bit flappy at higher speeds, equally at home pootling along as knee out hanging off or foot off supermoto style.

Done about 4,000 miles on it.

But, the last few rides it's started to have problems with shifting into 5th and 6th.

Fitted the service update to the selector mechanism and reset it using the proper tool, which seemed to make a difference initially and then it went back to being impossible to get it higher than 4th with any certainty. Not that this made a massive difference to my riding, as 4th is over 130 on the limiter....

Did some more investigation and had the idea that the problem may stem from excessive play in the shift lever pivot and too much movement in the selector shaft lever, because the lever clamp bolt that Healtech supply for the quickshifter strain sensor to fit over is only torqued to 6Nm (the oem bolt is torqued to 10Nm).

There's also, I thought, too much misalignment in the shift linkage, between the gear lever and the selector shaft lever. The linkage on any standard bike runs straight front to back, but the melding of a multi frame and 1098 engine means mine, even with spacers, has about 30 degrees of offset.

So I bought a new gear lever and pivot bolt and also a 916 selector shaft lever, which is cranked, to remove the play and improve the alignment. The plan was to recheck the selector mechanism alignment, which requires the alternator side cover to be removed, and fit the new parts and take a test ride this weekend in preparation for some mates coming up for a weekend of spirited riding next weekend.

And I dropped the oil in preparation for the alternator cover coming off...



Well, that explains the shifting problems. That's the remains of a gearbox shim.

So, that's this year's riding done. Drop the engine and full strip down to assess what damage has been done internally and figured out what to do after that....

Bugger!

[weeksy]

Nice update, even if not exactly what you wanted to see

[Skub]

Never a dull moment in special bike world. I hope there's not too much damage when you look.

[millemille]

A couple of hours work and we're here....



It appears that riding a highly strung special, made of a variety of Italian marque's parts, through the winter is not conducive to long term reliability.

I'm pretty sure the pink stuff should only be inside the radiator....



Not worth considering a repair, eBay will hopefully come up with a replacement RSV4 radiator and then Matt Bennet at Saxon Motorsport can add the same brackets as before. I'll ask his advice about some form of coating or treatment that could stave off the inevitable corrosion.