I didn't really want to drill another set of holes in the end caps.
I had done a quick eyeball comparison of my single Sil rivet band to the ones on my old Termi cans and determined that the hole spacing was different .. but by just enough to make it difficult to re-drill without the new holes clashing with the old ones.
However, thanks for spurring me out of my lackadaisical attitude and making me go and check that out more rigorously.
And so, following a quick fluster of my mother's old dressmaking tape, I know that ....
The six holes in the Termi bands look to be at 60mm spacing throughout.
The Sil band is slightly longer and for some reason its six holes are unequally spaced at 62, 67, 62, 67, 62mm.
In practice you could nearly enough line up a pair of holes at the centre or at either end, but the remaining four would either semi-overlap, leaving an oval hole for the new rivet ...or just be annoyingly close.
But at least I know, now.
And it begs the question .. what is the spacing on the bands on std Ducati cans ?
I no longer have mine to measure but I had assumed, for no sensible reason, that they were the same as the Termi ones.
Also, I'd rather not cut any more length off the can as it has already been shortened.
Originally I thought it had been cut down by quite a bit (it does look what you might call bordering on the semi-stubby) but having seen the innards, I'm not quite so sure now.
It turns out that the inlet and outlet bores are different sizes and the central perforated tube is tapered accordingly .. meaning that shortening is almost impossible because the endcaps would no longer fit.
So, maybe it's just had the original rivet holes trimmed off one end, losing just a centimetre or two on the length.
Anyway, if it was much shorter it would look like it had been stubbied "for style" .. and it's not quite that kind of bike.
It was quite noisy when I ran it last year, but I now know that was partly due to at least two thirds of the can having no wadding left in it at all.
