2006 MS2R1k

That's one less lap or minute I'll let you ride the Monster for . Pray you do not make further indiscretions .

 

My name's not Felipe. I have never been hit in the head with a spring, for one .

 

Just wait till you see me in my skins...

(aka my man-girdle).

 

Sliiiiiiiicks. That's how all Ducatis should look .

 

So I'm running out of excuses with this bike . Time for it to step up and be the ghettoest bike in Team MotoGarage.

As somewhat alluded to, I have been thinking about running the Monster in the Formula Xtreme Nakedbike class. It fits into NB Formula 3 (hereafter N3), which is the slowest class. Would battle with Hyo 650s and someone ran an M796 in N3 at round 1 at EC. The dudes on the Hyos can ride, though.... so I'm hoping the ability of the bike makes up for my lack of talent.

There are a few things before racing it that are needed. All the following race prep is being performed by MotoGarage.
What is to be done is as follows:
* New oil + filter + belt change.
Ducatis like fresh belts; they're fine to do 2 years of service if you aren't regularly thrashing it, but this beast has done many trackdays since the last belt change in Dec. So, another belt change is in order. This isn't expensive - bugger-all labour and the time-consuming part of the yearly services are the intricacies of the valve clearances (every 2nd year you do belts, since belts are off for the valve clearances anyway). Plus sourcing belts from the states means about $160 for a genuine set of belts from Commonwealth Motors, or just over half that for ExactFit belts.
I like to do the oil after every couple of trackdays. It's oil cooled and it FLOGS the oil something chronic at the track.
* Lockwiring the required things
This are things like the front and rear calipers... I could do it, but I just don't have time. With no radiator lines this is a bit easier, no lockwiring hose clamps . The other stuff to be lockwired are the sump plug, oil filter and oil filler plug. For this, I've bought pre-drilled sump plug, oil filler plug and a K&N oil filter. The sump plug on Ducatis is an absolute bastard to drill to lockwire - it's doable but aftermarket sump plugs are cheap and leaving the genuine one undrilled is desireable. The oil filler plug, again, is mainly to keep it original. The K&N oil filters are nifty with their little pre-drilled nut, and I got a cheap deal on it.
* New headstem bearings.
I ruined the headstem bearings down at PI, there's a nasty clunk in the front. Uh-oh! So new headstem bearings it is.
* Gain a bit of steering speed.
I had the turn-in perfect when the chain was nearly knackered and I had the eccentric adjuster hub at its lowest (raising the rear ride-height the most), plus about half the rear ride-height adjusting used. Will go the full ride-height adjusting rod and drop the front 5mm to try to gain the steering back, now I have stiffer front springs and the eccentric hub at its lowest (as chain is nearly fresh). As I adjust the chain out and gain height with the eccentric, I can back off the ride-height rod to keep the rear height static.
Yay for Ducati supplying a stock adjustable rear ride-height rod.
* Fit some auxillary engine covers
Not 100% necessary (as everything else on a Monster will hit the ground before the engine covers - checked this with Terry O'Neill) but I've got a set on their way. No need for a fully-enclosed bellypan, which is good cause there's not too many options for a nappy for a Monster!

With just over 30 days to go, I'm fair shitting my pants about this. But... I'm also excited. Probably not the best idea to take my road bike and race it, but you only live once and the bike always feels so much more alive on the track. It's a great streetbike, but... it gets that little bit more eager on the track.

Plus, it'll be winter... and I'm going to leave my stock high bars and the heated grips on it. So if I'm slow, I won't care: I'll be comfy .

 

It's not too bad, I find I can get full throttle on it when needed... I used a heap of full throttle at PI with the slicks on, that's for sure!

 

It ain't the bike but the rider.



Full image is EC 18/12 turn 2, rotated smaller one is PI 25/4 turn 3

The differences between those photos? Listed first are the upgrades made before the 2nd pic.
* Stiffer front and rear springing vs well adjusted front and soggy rear
* 87 rwhp vs 81 rwhp
* Uberbrakepads (EBC Extreme Pros) vs worn out pretty reasonable ones
* 6th gear vs 2nd gear (about to grab 3rd - fingers are on the clutch in first pic)
* VERY FAST ABOUT TO POOP MY PANTS vs OH LOOK YOU SURVIVED TURN 1, THIS ONE IS A PIECE OF PISS

and yet the positioning and lean angle is much the same. Not sure if I should be proud with my consistency, or lack of improvement. .

 

So, basically, I'm a numpty and I rooted a set of discs. Long story, wasn't on the bike at the time .

For my spare track wheels, I bought a second set of OEM discs from the states. This are good brake rotors, no problem with them: after all, they are genuine Brembos. But yeah, when it came time for replacement... I looked into a few options.
OEM discs / 916 goldlines: tried and tested, second-hand about $300US.
OEM discs, new: $450 US.
Axis uberawesome irons: $1200US.
But the Axis irons don't work well with the sintered pads I use (EBC extreme pro), and I really like those pads. The EPs work brilliantly with the stock discs, and they'll be the discs I use for spare wheels/wets/road use. I don't really feel like changing wheels AND brake pads at the track, so...
Brembo racing HP rotors: $600US.

These are full floating discs, so they'll rattle like a mofo. They're quite light (the axis ones are lighter, just): two of these discs weigh less than one of the OEM discs (which are themselves light).

After much swearing/cursing/straining by both myself and Brett at MotoGarage, we got the stock bolts out: Ducati used different loctite to hold the brake rotor screws in with than they specify. It's a common problem on my year S2R1k; I suspect the tech building the wheels just couldn't be arsed finding the right loctite. Since we rooted a few bolts getting them out, I need to buy some more bolts and fit these bad boys.

Wheels for slicks are in being powdercoated, so I'll bed these discs in over the weekend and then revert the Monster back to track spec for Wakefield on the 22nd of July.