Quicker steering?

Is there any way to make my M900 a bit quicker in the steering department. It's very stable and all that but I don't think it could be described as nimble.
Anyone tried mucking about with rear ride height?

If so, what did you do?

Ta!

[NattyBoy]

Yep..wind out there lock nuts on the rear suspension loop. Mine were wound right in, and as a result it understeered massivley.

Wound it a out a few turns and one hell of a difference (did it on my 888 too and same result). Front can get a little frisky but have just fitted a steering damper to sort that out for next season.

Check this link out for all the gen on adjsuting the rear ride height..http://www.ducatisuite.com/rearheight.html

Let us now how you get on M8..

Nat

Exactly what I wanted. Many thanks.

[pooh]

Proto
I have wound out about 10mm on the rear rose joints and also dropped the forks through the headstock 5mm it has made the bike turn in if you think about it but does not seem to have made it unstable in a straight line, well i don't think so anyway. Works really well on the track and seriously p---es of sports bike riders.

Ian

PS. I have'nt got a steering damper either.

[Desmodue]

Wound my rose joints 2 1/2 turns out from fully in

Whilst youv'e got the ends off, give them a good clean & grease

Didn't do anything to front of bike, but it's made it noticably better to steer

[mikef4uk]

On my S4 I increased the rear height by about 10mm,this helped a lot,i also put the forks through the yokes by 8mm (lowering the front) this made a HUGE differance,the bike then went exactly where I wanted it to,did`nt stand up when braked in a corner and was so good---I test rode an S4R and that felt absolutely ****e compared to my S4 I was very dissapointed untill I realised why,i bought the S4R and did exactly the same--arse up front down within 2 hours of picking the thing up!!--much much better

[Chris]

Raising the suspension hoop certainly will improve things, as will stiffening the forks a bit (mine as standard were very soft). Haven't tried dropping the forks as mine turns in just be thinking about it for normal road use (on the track a good hard tug got it to flip side to side fairly quickly too) but I do have clip ons which put a bit more weight forward.

With the adjusters, make sure that there is at least as much thread depth screwed in as the diameter of the bolt (I think 8mm but can't remember and it's cold outside). I think I have seen some extension pieces somewhere to put in if you want to go further (I wouldn't mind trying these if anybody can remember where I have seen them!). More rear ride height would be better than dropping the forks IMO as the exhausts ground out and I can't lift them any higher. High level system required, then I can try to ground the collectors!

[mikef4uk]

I tried that Chris before i dropped the front,did`nt seem to make the same (read drastic) differance that the front did,However I did have a high system fitted so that ground clearance was`nt a problem,Just lifting the rear did`nt seem to stop it wanting to stand up if braked into a corner like dropping the front did,Another strange thing was I went from the OE Michelin pilots to Pirelli evo corsa`s (lots of good deals as there now discontinued) and they slowed the steering noticeably when compared to the Michelins

In an attempt to get my M900 to steer as well as my Hornet (see other threads ad nauseum :p ) , I'm in the process of winding out the rose joints on teh swing arm hoop a few MMs. Bike is currently dangilng from ana engine hoist in my garage, poor thing.

Can someone please advise on torque setting for the bolts.

Ta!

So far:
removed rear hugger
removed bolts from rose joints
removed rose joints

The Ducati production line workers need shafting. No evidence whatsoever of any ant-seize, gease, coppaslip on any threads I've undone so far. Hugger bolts were decidedly rusty on the threaded section. Steel into Alum, nice! Imagine trying to drill out the front one. Rose joint threads rusty too. Not impressed at all. :mad: :(

Rose joints were fully in. Threads are M10 x 1.5. Threaded section of rose joint is 22mm long although first thread not fully formed, to be safe let's say 20mm of thread.
So I can afford to wind out the rose joints up to 10 mm max. Think I'll go 6 full turns, i.e. 9mm length adjustment and see what happens.

Anyone know the shock linkage ratio? My Hondas are approx 3 to 1 I think, so 9mm would lift the back end about 27mm or so on them. Hope it's not much more on the Ducati or I might start having side stand problems :eek:

[Dave in USA]

Originally posted by proto


The Ducati production line workers need shafting. No evidence whatsoever of any ant-seize, gease, coppaslip on any threads I've undone so far. <SNIP>Not impressed at all. :mad: :(


Welcome to the wonderful world of Ducati....My rose joints were seized & as the bike was 4 MONTHS OLD, had them replaced under warranty, they also set the rear up as described above (several times) ;)

Made a HUGE difference.

:burnout: :bunny: :burnout:

All back together. I'll let you know what I think after a ride to work tomorrow. Might even go out tonight :eek:

[Desmodue]

Before you reassemble eveything back together

wire brush the threads
check that the rose bush moves freely without any signs of grooving on it's surface

put coppaslip on threads
put grease into rose bush, there is a greasing point, but you will need a special cone shaped 'head' and a pump gun

failing that, work grease into bush by hand

just 'nip' lock nuts, no need for loads of torque

Thanks Chef. Did pretty well all of that. Sperical bearings in rose joints were stiff but not damaged or worn. Twisted them so that shell of bearing was exposed and filled with grease and oil as best I could. Cleaned up threads and packed threads with grease. I put coppaslip on the hugger screws.

Side stand is fine so can't have raised the back that much. Any dea how much?

All went back together pretty easily. Ended up winding out rose joints 6 full turns from full in. So should be out 9mm. Bolts went back through swing arm points easier than I expected. Could go another turn before I start to run out of thread so might do that next.

Took it for a blast last night. certainly better, but it was cold and wet and pitch black so didn't give it much of a test really. Steering deffo better but not in Hornet league yet. :p :p

Got it up to 180 kph on my local bypass and it didn't feel wobbly or anything so might have a play with the front end to quicken it a bit more.

Not really happy with my forks so I'm on the look out for some full adjusrtable USD jobbies off a 900ss if anyone knows of any.

[Desmodue]

Nice one m8

Some slight 'stiffness - resistance' to roll about in the sperical bush is NORMAL,

When it's solid or dead loose - it's knackered !

Can't help you with the side-stand, other than they are TOO SHORT to begin with

Well, having fiddled about with the back end by winding out the rose joints by 9mm or so, I thought I'd have ago at the front. So raised the forks in the yokes about 4mm (another ring showing on the Marzocchi fork outer).

Result? Much better. Bike handles very well. Worried about cold road and tyres, and no grip but still felt very good. Tempted to try a bit more. Bike starting to feel "nimble". More chuckable (hopefully not down the road!!)

On my trial run out, I got buried by a bloke in a Ferrari Maranello. Off a roundabout, I nailed it, managed to pull away a bit, but by the time we were approaching the ton he was back and then with me at 110 he just breezed on by. We then came to our senses and just trundled along at 100 to the next roundabout. :o Nice car!

At those sorts of speed bike felt stable, no shakes or wobbles at all. Would have gone faster if he hadn't slowed down and got in my way. :D Can't think these bikes need steering dampers on the evidence so far. Not yet anyway.

So next weekend, raise the forks another ring. :lol:

PS CK and Phoenix, have you read this months Bike mag? Have a look at the group test !! :lol: