Lucky Phil

Yes thats me, my primary track bike is a GSXR1000 K7 (2007) I use that for Phillip Island and secondary Island bike is a Ducati 1198. My 2003 Ducati 1000DS at the small and tight Broardford track. The Suzuki and the 1198 would be too much bike there. My advice is to go for a second hand Japanese 600 thats had cosmetic crash damage and fit it up with race glass, good tires and a muffler. It will be a way faster track bike than you are a rider and will take a beating with almost zero maintenance. The very last thing you want to be dealing with on a track day is doing any type of mechanical work on the bike. At most some basic suspension adjustments. You want to be totally focused on the riding and enjoying the day not the bike and the best way to do that is with a Japanese bike, plus you wont be crying if you crash it. No emotional attachment,its just a tool. Just like a pro racer:) Ciao

I can recommend Harpers even for someone living on the other side of the world. Ciao

Yes Paul I have the Centy trumpets. I wouldnt mind trying a Centy airbox to see if it fits. I'm sure I could just use Ducati style well nuts to secure the side covers. I've got a few images of this V11 conversion and the airbox and trumpets look quite neat but I'm just not sure which way they have gone, modified V11 box or a centy box with mounts for the side covers which I do want to retain. I'm also not sure if the Daytona inlet trumpets are a different shape to the Centy ones and whether or not this would make using the V11 airbox easier. The part numbers are different. Funnily enough the Centy and the MGS-01 trumpets are the same part number. The MGS,Daytona and the Centy all have different numbers for the inlet manifolds but this may be due to the different colours,not sure. Any enlightenment would be appreciated. Ciao

Some of it has to do with "brand placement" you know that perception strategy that your brand is funky,sexy,classy,urbane or whatever the "creatives" in the marketing department think it needs to be. They dictate what your shop layout and look needs to be etc and the demographic you're aiming at and if you dont comply they ditch you no matter how good your history as a brand representative has been . Sorry you're just not part of our overall brand strategy going forward kind of bullshit. Dont get me started, opps I already have,sorry. Ciao

Yes its often more about the length of exposure time. I once had an engine that cracked a cylinder head through the cam feed oil gallery in the head and into the water jacket. Contaminated the cooling system with quite a lot of oil. A friend said to use sugar soap which is a liquid soap you mix with water to was down walls prior to painting. Worked perfectly and after a few brief stationary short runs of the engine and dumping and repeating the system was perfectly clean. I mentioned this to someone else though that pointed out that sugar soap had a component in it that rubber seals might not like which was fair enough but the exposure time was so short it never was an issue. Even if it had been the worst thing that was likely was a few new hoses and a water pump seal. I have no idea how I would have cleaned the system otherwise. Ciao

Good to know Chuck. Of course you could always just pull it apart and clean it out. What else are you going to do with you're life thats more interesting than working on a Guzzi:) Of course the concept that many times this error has been made is a bit worrying. How many people out there think a gearbox fill point is sealed by a simple rubber plug you can pull off with your finger nail. Ciao

What about the front subframe and gearbox mounts? Ones a six speeder and ones a five. The front subfame at the very least is different as the engine offset difference between the 5 and six speeds is 10mm. You will need a V11 front subframe or cut and weld the sport one and when Paul Minnaert did his Daytona 6 speed conversion I seem to remember a lot of rear frame modifications. Ciao

If you invest in a Wilbers rear shock they will tailor the damping and spring to your specific weight and riding style and you can also adjust the ride height depending on the spec you choose. Some other brands can be done as well if you buy from a suspension specialist. I wouldn't bother messing around with the stock rear Sachs unit considering the propensity for the eye end to fail. Not worth even spending the money on a spring and fitting for. By the time you've bought the spring and paid someone to fit it you'll be 1/3 the way to a brand new quality rear shock anyway. Ciao

Hmm, depending on how much 2 bottles is and where the level in the clutch housing came up too I'm not sure exposing the rear main and gearbox input seal to mineral spirits is totally without risk. Add to that washing lube off the gearbox input splines and I just dont know. Time will tell I guess and add to the accumulated knowledge here. I had the flap drive system apart on an Airbus A300 years ago and cleaned up one of the rubber boots that covered one of the drive shaft universal joints in some jet fuel ( basically refined kerosene) and was the horrified to see it had destroyed the boot. I've always been cautious with solvents on rubber products since. Ciao

Bikes are so cheap in the US, I cant believe it. Ciao

Well you could try tightening the clamp but its usually the hose thats split. As far as easy peasy goes I find them a total PITA to replace. Lots of wiring,cables, ignition coils etc to get around. Ciao

I've done quite a few klms around southern Germany and the problem was always focusing on the road as the scenery was so magnificent. Ran into the back of a Carabinieri in Italy for much the same reason once. Ciao

Great quality video, images and sound perfect. Well done you. Ciao

Well Pete, after I get the V11 up and running again I'll let you know what the single plate clutch feel like on a Daytona engine. I have no doubt i'll like the reduced mass as someone thats been riding and owning Ducatis for 35 years. Ciao

Anyone out there know where I can get some of these. They are a thin shim usually zink plated with industrial diamonds embeded in the plating. They are used these days between cam sprockets and crank cam drive sprockets for the modern engine system that uses friction drive for these components and deletes the keyways. What I need are 8mm ID and around 18mm od although the od isnt that critical. They go under the name of EKagrip or 3M friction drive shims. 3M have bought out EKagip I think. They're one of those things where you need to know the application they are used in and order accordingly as it seems no one stocks them as loose items by dimension. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/TIGER-TIGHT-FRICTION-WASHERS_110359856.html http://rosten-performance.com/products/engineparts-gasoline/rotating-assy-and-block-engineparts-gasoline/frictionshims/1-6-1-8-2-0-8v-ekagrip-crankshaft-shim/ https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/3M-Friction-Shims/?N=5002385+3290920153&rt=rud Ciao

Oh OK Pete, I re read your post and see my mistake. Sorry. Ciao

Here's a twin plate 6 speed assy. the single plate one looks the same except for the depth of the splined section front to rear. Here's the single plater Ciao

I didnt remove mine from the gearbox Pete but it looks like its the same as the single plater and I cant see any reason for it to be different. Famous last words of course. To me it looks like the single plater is just a shorter version of the twin with all the material taken off the front face. Ciao

The only difference I can see between the twin plate and single plate gearbox input spline drive that bolts to the gearbox input shaft is the depth (front to back dimension) twin plate looks like maybe 25mm of spline that interfaces with the clutch friction plates and the single plater maybe 20mm. So why not just surface grind that additional 5mm off the fwd face and bring the splined length fwd to aft doen to the single plate dimension. If it was softer material you could just chuck it up in the lathe and face it off but it will be too hard for that. Ciao

Why not just grind down the twin plate gearbox input spline? Now I've had my twin plate gearbox off the engine it looks to me like its a fairly simple task to surface grind it back to the dimensions of the single plate unit. Ciao

In the very early days of the Ducati 851 used to connect the intake manifold to the reg but they quickly dropped the practice. It was obviously designed to regulate fuel pressure to manifold intake pressure and bikes that used the reg sense port had different chips. I suspect in the end it didn't have enough impact on the fuelling to persist with. When I upgraded my 888 race bike to the quad injectors I also went to the vented reg. Ciao

I bought my first pair in 1986 for a DB1 Bimota. Catch up with Sandy who owns Staintune one or twice a year, last time was a just few months ago. Ciao

Riding schools,sheez. I've heard of this technique they pedal and wondered. So they want you to stop at the traffic lights/intersection in gear looking in your mirrors and if it looks like you're going to get rear ended then accelerate through the red light or stop sign into the middle of a busy intersection to avoid getting rear ended. Sounds totally illogical to me and relies on you being the first vehicle at the lights/intersection of course. Cant say I'm a fan of the stop and re start the engine technique either. Engines like to stay running unless its going to be idling for an extended period of time in a traffic jam. Ciao