Lucky Phil

Some time today was spent resolving the side cover fitment. Since day 1 owning a V11 the fitment was rubbish which caused cracking around the mounts. Eventualy my LH cover front mount area lost a whole piece the crack extended so far. I dont know if this is typical( I suspect it is as I have 3 sets of covers and a spare airbox and the fitment seems the same) The RH cover here is a brand new factory unit and the LH is a freshly painted repaired one, both bought years ago awaiting their time in the sun so I'm keen that they dont crack. I'd be interested to know if the factory carbon covers fit any better because the Nylon originals are appalling. The only way around the problem that I could see was to elongate some of the mounting holes so the covers could fit without any loading at all. I achieved this and to assist with future longevity I machined up the heads of some aluminium 5mm button head screws I had laying around. I must say I'm not enthralled with the looks of the screws as i'd rather something small and discrete like the originals but I wanted some fixing area around the screw heads. I machined the buttons down from 16 to 14 mm head dia and took the roundness off. Like I said a bit too chunky but there you go. First image and this is whats required to make the LHS cover fit without any load on the mount points. Elongate the top hole 7mm. I mean this hole is nowhere near the right location. The LH cover didnt need any rework to this mount but required around 5mm elongation to the lower hole. Ciao

Yes I'm happy with the way it looks. Raising the tank seems not to have had a negative impact. I might leave the rack off, initially anyway as my wife cant get pillion for the moment. I only had it fitted as a really good pillion hand hold. Its a great looking engine that's for sure, a look that engenders a feeling that danger may exist here. Bit like a big radial aircraft engine. When you know whats thrashing around inside one of those thing its a little bit worrying and scary. Ciao

So I decided to defer the tuning fuel tank job, just a bad time to do it really when you need to ship stuff and fitted up the fuel tank instead to do a leak check. Popped the injector connectors off and did repeated pump primes to pressurise the system and fill the lines. All good except for an externally leaking fuel tap when in the open position. These thing really are a POS. My original one jammed in the open position and this one inexplicably decides to leak from the shaft seal when open. Anyway I got my old one that had jammed open which I had after that event reworked somehow and fitted that. Hopefully it wont repeat the same defect. I then moved on to fitting the airbox so I could attack the side covers. The side cover fitment really is horrible on these bikes as they eventually crack due to the poor fitment strain. Need to have a think about solving this as I have 1 brand new cover to fit and one reworked one and I dont want them cracking. Couldn't resist fitting the tank and tailpiec to get an idea what its going to look like. Ciao

Make fuel checks easier:) Ciao

Yes docc just for you A few other jobs ticked off today. Got my lower spoiler installed and made up the oil return line. Next job is to make up a remote fuel tank for tuning work. Merlin doesn't care about viruses, he's just happy his mummy and daddy are home 24/7 Ciao

Cant seem to play any video posts lately,even the ones I've previously posted.........must be the corona virus. Ciao

Correct, with a spongy feel. Lots of lever movement with little slave travel. Different to a rock solid lever that wont move at all. Ciao

So some progress. I've managed to get the front end back together and finish off the wiring. I painted the top triple clamp and gave everything a good clean up while I was there. I bought myself a stand which I should have done years ago as the one I have was a home made job from the previous owner and very dodgy and dangerous to use. I'm carrying too many old injuries these days to struggle with the physical stuff, when there are sensible options,so I dont. On its wheels. The braided breather hose is the next job to finish off. The Throttle bodies and TPS are set up but I need to source a fuel canister to make a tuning fuel supply so I can remove the tank and bench it and hook up a small fuel supply. After reworking the TPS and getting that working I bit the bullet and decided to buy a good second hand set of Ducati throttle bodies. So for about 130usd I ended up with a pair of near new side flow injectors,a TPS, a fuel regulator and mounting assembly I'll use on the remote fuel tank, plus a bunch of spare TB parts inc the pivot ball and some spare plastic fuel fittings that are worth around $45usd ea to replace with alloy aftermarket ones if you break one of the originals. I've now also got a single throttle body that I can use to clean side flow injectors which turned out to be quite an issue finding someone to do. Wiring Repainted top triple clamp Stand....German made! Ciao

I'd love to install a set but they dont make them for the pre 2001 models which was when they went from the old style damper rod to cartridge design and I'm not sure I want to risk the outlay without knowing if the earlier forks can be modded to suit. Ciao

I must say docc that I do like the southern accent. In that great Burns brothers docco on the Civil War there was a southern historian name Shelby Foote from memory. I could listen to him all day talk about anything. Ciao