Winter Work

The Tornado has been occasionally running on two out of three cylinders for the past couple of months. Hoping it was dodgy petrol I drained the tank but that made no difference so I had to assume it was a corroded ignition coil, which is not uncommon. Replacing them needs a complete strip-down so I figured I’d do it over the winter. Also had some heavy-duty battery circuit cables to install, as well as fix the rear brake light, so I set about it dismantling the bike over a couple of nights and then whipped out the centre coil stick. Sure enough it was very corroded. The other two were not so bad, but I replaced all three anyway, and siliconed them in place to try and keep the moisture out in future. Fitting the battery cables was extremely fiddly, just because they are bulkier than the originals, but was glad to have got the job done.

Took the bike for a spin a couple of days later, only to find it still running on two cylinders 😦 Then I realised that the spark plug would have been ‘fouled’ (oily and dirty) when the old coil stick was not igniting the fuel, so I’d have to strip the bike down AGAIN and clean the spark plug up. DAMMIT. Finally managed to do that last week and also cleaned up the rear brake light contacts, so that’s working too. Learnt my lesson though: when the bike is stripped down, try to think if there is anything else that needs to be checked while you’re at it…!

New coil stick and power cables

Badly corroded ignition coil stick

dirty spark plug

Back in one piece…

New look Nelli

As well as the freshly painted carbon fibre fairing panels I recently bought another exhaust from one of the guys on the Benelli Forum. It’s a Micron can designed for a GSXR1000, but fits ok with a short adapter pipe. I like it a lot – it suits the lines of the rear of the Tornado really well. It sounds good too, and the AFR Tuner that I fitted last year will mean that the engine breaths correctly even though the gas flow will change slightly with the different exhaust: the AFR Tuner will adjust the fuelling to compensate.

I took a couple of iPhone pictures in the carpark at work. And then tweaked them a bit with Snapseed…

Snetterton Business Bikers Day

Tuesday after work I rode the Ducati up to Dave’s place in Barley, so that we could head off to Snetterton on Wednesday morning for this year’s Business Bikers Day. The weather was ok, although it had been wet recently but a fresh breeze and some sunshine meant there was no obvious dampness on the circuit.

Had a great time, gradually getting faster until late in the afternoon when I was just totally exhausted…! The bike went really well, felt completely stable in the corners – very confidence inspiring. There were plenty of faster guys there (and girls) – notably a guy in his sixties who was storming round on his BMW K1300, and a young lad who’s competing in the current British Superstock Championship. I also got passed by a one-armed man: he went up the inside of me at one of the tight right-handers and just threw it around the bend totally smoothly and under control. Slightly unnerving!! More pictures on Flickr…

Carbon fibre fairings

Laurence White recently offered some carbon fibre fairing panels for sale on the Benelli Forum, and since both of my lower panels had scratches or flaking paint it seemed a good opportunity to replace them altogether. The carbon fibre panels are also extremely light and strong.

They duly arrived and I checked the fitting before taking them up to Larry Frost at Illusion Racepaint, to be sprayed in that beautiful Benelli metallic green. I also wanted to leave some of the carbon fibre showing: Larry explained that this would work better if he didn’t use a primer underneath the green, but the finish of the panels was good enough to get away with not having a primer/filler coat. There are a few pock-marks if you look really closely, but I think the result is really stunning, and shows off the carbon as well as the great lines of the Tornado. The colour match with the tank is not perfect – it’s a little less yellowy, but I actually prefer Larry’s green if anything.

New and old fairings

Trial-fitting of the unpainted carbon fairings

Ducati Bling

I’ve just fitted some upgrades to the 999s: more for style than anything, but it’s also part of the fun of it to make your bike unique with some nice detail changes. I bought some carbon-fibre heel plates which are very light and complement the carbon-fibre rear hugger and exhaust guard.

Extending the black theme I also bought a new clutch pressure plate, stainless steel springs with gold alloy caps and an open clutch cover. Ducati sports-bikes are famous for their dry clutches (ie: not immersed in oil like a wet clutch) so it’s almost obligatory to show off the rotating clutch basket by replacing the standard cover with an ‘open’ one. Many colours and styles are available, but I wanted a fairly subtle combo that would suit the Mono Nero. Am pleased with the result!

Whilst I had the clutch apart I took the opportunity to clean the clutch plates and then wipe them lightly with white lithium grease – a tip picked up from a US Ducati forum which apparently makes for smoother get-aways… We’ll see if that works once the snow’s gone!!

Carbon-fibre heel guards

New clutch pressure plate, springs and ‘open’ cover

The original clutch cover

Standard pressure plate – not special…

Removing the springs

Clutch basket and plate stack

Clutch plates removed

Stack of clutch plates: ‘frictions and steels’

Cleaned and white lithium grease applied, left overnight

Reassembled with new pressure plate and springs / caps. Nice 🙂

New Moped

Smeeta drove me up to Bromsgrove, South of Birmingham on Sunday morning to pick up an immaculate Ducati 999S which I’d been unable to resist having viewed it the previous Sunday. We put the bits and bobs (paperwork, road exhaust & ECU, battery charger) in the boot of the Golf and Smeeta then drove off to do some shopping at the Bullring, in Birmingham, while I set off for home – gingerly at first…!

I have to say it’s even better than I expected: the bike feels light and nimble, whilst the engine is just a BEAST. It pulls smoothly but strongly and the race exhaust sounds amazing: a real ‘roll-of-thunder’ boominess at lower revs, rising to a sort of thudding metallic bark of epic proportions! If you’ve ever heard a World Superbike-spec Ducati accelerating hard out of a corner you’ll know what I mean.

The rear suspension is a bit harsh over bumps, and the underseat exhaust generates a lot of heat – you really don’t want to be caught in traffic for long on a summer’s day, but aside from that it’s actually quite relaxing to ride: the bucket-loads of low-down torque means that you don’t have to fuss about being in the right gear, you just roll on a bit of throttle and you’re heading for the horizon… It’s really quite easy to ride, and as happy lazing around as going flat-out.

And it looks gorgeous in black 🙂

A tale of two Italian Superbikes:

Fitting AFR Tuner

Very very latest news!! (26th March): The third Weekend in a row, and the job is nearly done 🙂
On Friday evening I wrapped back up the bike’s main loom, collecting up all the new wires for the AFR unit so that they would branch off the main loom at a single point, just under the saddle. Up early Saturday to wrap the AFR loom, and feed it through to the rear of the bike, before cutting the wires to the right length and crimping on some terminals which lock into the plastic connector block. A final circuit check with the Multimeter and it was time to hook the control unit up to my PC. After some frustrating errors accessing the COM port I eventually got it to talk to the AFR unit and had time to calibrate the throttle positions before calling it a day: job 95% done – just need to reassemble the bike…!!
Very latest news (24th March): She’s Alive! This evening I plugged in the new handlebar switch (wired up last night) and then connected the ECU, battery and popped the tank back on, and guess what? The little beauty fired up first time 🙂
Latest news (23rd March): I’ve continuity-tested all my new wiring with a multimeter and it all checks out, so the AFR Control unit should receive all the signals it needs to do it’s job. I just need to wrap the loom back up, put the battery and fuel tank back and then I can see if she runs… 🙂

New handlebar switch to select one of two available air-fuel ratio (AFR) maps:

Bike completely stripped:

Identified the wires I need to cut / splice:

Motty AFR Tuner control unit in situ above the fans:

New wires to drive the three fuel injectors from the AFR:

TPS and coollant temp signals spliced from main loom:

Handy solder-holder 😉

That’s all the necessary sensor connections connected to fresh wires to plug into the AFR Tuner

Wired up the new right-hand switch block:

With fuel and battery back in she started up first time 🙂

First ECU plug re-wrapped and it’s starting to look a bit tidier:

Just the new wires to wrap now and feed back to the rear-mounted AFR control unit:

AFR loom branches off main loom under the seat:

ECU connected back up:

Last bit of soldering to branch off two connectors from the main Ground wire:

Wires cut to fit and terminated ready for the Connector block:

All connected up and plugged into the PC to configure the Air-fuel maps and settings:

Fork Transplant II

A few weeks ago I removed the Maxton Suspension front forks from the Track bike and today I set about swapping them with the standard items on the road bike.
This required removing the upper and lower fairings, and the plastic ducting which funnels air from the inlets either side of the headlamp to the engine’s airbox and the rear-mounted radiator. I then jacked the front end up in order to remove the front wheel, before loosening the bars and triple-clamps and dropping each fork leg out in turn. The Maxton forks slotted back in easily, the headstock dropped 10mm lower than standard to improve turn-in, and the front wheel and brake calipers were then re-fitted.
With the bodywork off I took the opportunity to give the exhaust headers and any exposed electrics a coat of ACF50 anti-corrosion treatment. Washed the fairings panels and gave everything a good wipe clean before re-assembling. All went well until the very latest moment when I dropped the wing mirror, scratching the housing but thankfully not breaking the glass.
Eight hours in total and I now can’t wait to get out on the road and see what a difference it’s made.
The day ended with the best rack of lamb ever, on a bed of spinach, potatoes and butternut squash. And home-grown sweetcorn 🙂

The one-legged Alien look…

What it’s all about…

Bennetts of Barnsley

I booked the Benelli in for a service with the genius Russ Bennett and his team in Barnsley, South Yorks. They do offer a collection service but I was hoping for decent weather and the opportunity for a nice long ride up through the east of England. Needing to be there for 9am Saturday I set off at about 6ish in the dark and started up the M1, intending to head off into Northants / Leicestershire once it got light. Unfortunately the weather worsened as the day broke, raining steadily from Milton Keynes, so I decided to stick to the motorway and just get the job done. Approaching Sheffield the sky darkened and I ploughed through an almighty downpour, only for it to clear as I came off at the Barnsley junction. I parked up just as Matt was unlocking the showroom, and pretty soon they were at work giving the Tornado a full service. Russ had his eye on the Dymags I’d swapped from the Track-bike: (“How much do you want for them wheels??”).
He’s has had a hard time with the premises being destroyed by fire the previous year, and now fully renovated but awaiting the necessary insurance payments and re-launching in the midst of a pretty bad recession. Bikes are mostly luxury items and sales are down, as well as the servicing and repair business. The revamped showroom looks great though, and I was able to chill out in front of the TV in the new waiting room area, equipped with PlayStation and coffee machine.
Apparently the rare Honda CX500 Turbo (?!) is virtually a family heirloom, having been bought as stock by Russ’ Dad, and he hopes to get it back on the road at some point. It is apparently pretty rapid, but brakes and handling are limited, as you might expect from looking at it.
The work was done by about 4pm and Matt took the bike for a quick test-ride: he seemed pretty impressed with the handling (those lightweight Dymags) though he suggested a 180 rear tyre would make it turn in quicker. I was able to set off in bright sunshine, heading back through South Yorks, Notts and Leicestershire on some nice A-roads, with only one brief shower to dampen my enthusiasm. I pretty much caned it all the way back until it got dark nearing Northampton, where I stopped for fuel before heading home through Milton Keynes and down the A5.

The Old… Honda CX500 Turbo

…and the new: Benelli TnT R160

Fork Transplant

In a bid to get some more value from the pile of spares that is my track-bike I am planning to swap the Maxton Engineering front forks with the standard ones on my road-bike.

The Tornado’s forks are a bit soft and although fully-adjustable (I have stiffened them up with maximum preload damping) the stronger springs in the Maxton forks are noticeably more resistant to diving under braking. I may need to soften the damping from the track settings to absorb some of the bumps of our abysmal roads but it will be interesting to see what a difference it makes to the handling.

Last night I removed the Maxton forks from the track-bike. Am hoping to do a few miles this weekend before swapping them over, just to get a clear feel for the difference between the two.