[Darren69]

Originally Posted by Dukedesmo

Agreed as the springs are still held the same way - it's not like individual the caps move around.

I've got 'spider' retainers on both of my Ducati clutches primarily because I like the look, but there is a possible benefit with regards to if the bike goes down in that individual clutch posts are less likely to catch on anything or break off due to the plate spreading the load evenly?

I had the centre hub nut come undone on my 916 which had a carbon half clutch cover on it at the time. This caused the entire clutch pack to work it's way out of the casing and rather than the individual posts (potentially?) catching on the cover and ripping it off, the retainer smoothly ran on the cover for a while longer than it might have otherwise - until of course it cut right through the cover, at which point the entire clutch hub assembly ejected from the basket, lodged itself into the fairing and spat the cush rubbers onto the road.

However in this I case think that, maybe it got me a little bit further along the road than it might have if I'd had individual caps fitted??

I'm not convinced about these either. I think they probably masking the other issues with the standard Ducati dry clutch and in the event of an off having the posts joined together may actually contribute to them all breaking off, but that's theoretical.

What I can say is that the standard die cast clutch isn't the best. My own experience was following changing the friction plates on my 748 to the sintered type in the standard clutch and in doing so I created a bike that only I could pull off on, everybody else who tried to ride it would stall it a few times first. this was despite being warned beforehand that the clutch was sharp.

Even I used to get it to make that horrible squawking noise sometimes when I got it wrong. Anyway, I fitted a good quality aftermarket billet slipper clutch drum and ally basket and even with the same plates and all of a sudden its so much easier to ride. Easier to pull off and the gear changes so much smoother too.

The difference was night and day so I did the same with the S4 when I got that and I think the slipper makes more of a difference on that than it did on the smaller engine. To be expected really I suppose.

Maybe change the springs and even the pressure plate? I doubt that the spider is having an adverse effect but it's probably not doing much except add rotating weight. Anyway just my experiences.