Ducati Riders

[redridinghood]

hi.. posting this on behalf of solomon.. hoping more ppl could come for this mini meetup.. also.. sols bday.. =)

 

Sol-ful Ride To Emerald Park

 

Date: 18 June 2005 Saturday

Time: 1900hrs

Place: Emerald Park Condo, Indus Road

Mito rider Solomon's birthday

 

 

Attendance

1) lacrimosae

2) muser (would love to meet even earlier than that to hang out)

3) Divine^ponytailz (Lido Macs, 1800hrs anyone?)

4) redridinghood

5) kron

6) speed16

7) obitrok

8) Mars - free food ^^

 

Pending

1. Wild i (Depends if I get my bike back on Saturday..servicing it)

2. armyboy (Mine's at KC too! Mike really took his time...)

3. lioncat (if i can get off work early and bike can start)

 

 

everyone's welcome!

[ktkt]

Originally posted by redridinghood@Jun 17 2005, 04:32 PM

hi.. posting this on behalf of solomon.. hoping more ppl could come for this mini meetup.. also.. sols bday.. =)

 

Sol-ful Ride To Emerald Park

 

Date: 18 June 2005 Saturday

Time: 1900hrs

Place: Emerald Park Condo, Indus Road

Mito rider Solomon's birthday

 

 

Attendance

1) lacrimosae

2) muser (would love to meet even earlier than that to hang out)

3) Divine^ponytailz (Lido Macs, 1800hrs anyone?)

4) redridinghood

5) kron

6) speed16

7) obitrok

8) Mars - free food ^^

9) ktkt - yeah... free food... hmmm.....

 

Pending

1. Wild i (Depends if I get my bike back on Saturday..servicing it)

2. armyboy (Mine's at KC too! Mike really took his time...)

3. lioncat (if i can get off work early and bike can start)

 

 

everyone's welcome!

[NoLogicOne]

Originally posted by ktkt@Jun 16 2005, 09:55 PM

Damn.... V-twins.... Didn't understand what abt it till I rode one.

Yeah....felt like riding an ALIEN when I first got mine......love the torque, but soon got used to it, not so overwhelm by it anymore

[ktkt]

Originally posted by NoLogicOne@Jun 19 2005, 03:12 AM

Yeah....felt like riding an ALIEN when I first got mine......love the torque, but soon got used to it, not so overwhelm by it anymore

Everyday eat shark fin will also grow tired lar....

(Not to mention mecury poisoning)

 

Think will put my 9x6/8 on hold first.

Dun wanna be slave to the bike.

(Went to Loois to inquire abt the Senna 916 and not for sale)

 

There's a 98 916 SPS (No. 5 of 1000) at Minerva going for 24k.

Mileage 9000 plus km. Bike is really collecting dust!!!

[Seven]

999 anyone???

[Guest nE0]

Me...

[sg_r1]

hi dukies... anyone has any info on harithmusa's 748? I am viewing it tonite.. hands super itchy about wanting to get a duke...

[LedZep]

Originally posted by sg_r1@Jun 20 2005, 10:52 AM

hi dukies... anyone has any info on harithmusa's 748? I am viewing it tonite.. hands super itchy about wanting to get a duke...

Someone somewhere said something about a 748 having crashed recently and being re-built with spanking new paintjob. I'm not entirely sure if it's the same bike.

 

Ducs are fantastic machines to own and ride, but just make sure you don't end up with a used lemon. Nonetheless, gd luck!

[sg_r1]

yeah... it was a bit dodgy when he said no test riding of the bike... but i was told that as long as the bike doesn't do a bunny hop and it's just slides.. it shld be ok...

 

then again.. does anyone knows how to avoid a lemon? he has seriously reduced the price from 14.8k to like 9k...

[LedZep]

No test-ride before laying down the moolah? That hardly seems fair.

 

I would think the decision to buy a bike should be quite substantially steered by the riding experience..... after all that is the whole point of it, no?

[ktkt]

Originally posted by sg_r1@Jun 20 2005, 12:35 PM

yeah... it was a bit dodgy when he said no test riding of the bike... but i was told that as long as the bike doesn't do a bunny hop and it's just slides.. it shld be ok...

 

then again.. does anyone knows how to avoid a lemon? he has seriously reduced the price from 14.8k to like 9k...

I also wanted to test ride the bike to see whether alignment is okay or not but refused.

Outlook wise, it looks okay.

Enginewise, sounds a bit "loose" but for a bike that age, I don't mind

doing an engine overhaul.

 

Only unconvincing/unsettling is the alignment of the bike.

If it's okay, i supposed it's actually a good steal.

If not, the frame alignment thingey would be something hard to fix.

[sg_r1]

yeah.. i agree with you.. i am not a duke expert but something sounds wrong with the engine... and i noticed that the fairing is not aligned properly... anyone has any thots on that?

[redridinghood]

heyz.. anyone game for yishun dam this fri nite? add ur names in e mito thread k?

[Guest nE0]

Well, I really don't wish to spoil his or anyone's sales, but when I view the bike I pointed out there were metal shavings all over the swingarm, chain and sprocket. Looks like something is grinding, and whatever it is its not good.

 

Oddly, owner and mechanic didn't seem interested in my observation.

[LedZep]

Not to mention the rather deep graze on the top yoke of the left fork.... hmm.....

[ktkt]

Enuff abt Lemons....

 

How's the 98 916SPS in Minerva showroom?

It look as if as it has never been started for a looonnnggg time.

[DucatiMan]

I know there are a lot of sportbike riders(Jap bikes) that dislike the elitist attitude of ducati riders; and i know that a lot of you dislike the fact that the eccentric italian beauties are inaccesably expensive and seem, sometimes, overstyled; i know that for a lot of you the lack of comparitive horsepower renders ducati's obsolete, making them survive on their looks and name alone; and i know that most everyone would agree that the reliablity issue make it a no-brainer when deciding between a jap-bike and a ducati--all that aside and all things even, try and enjoy this article, its well written.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

RUMBLE SEAT

A touch of evil (and Evel)

Ducati's 999R, a hyper-fast race bike for the street, has designs on your soul.

 

If you enjoy the wide-open freedom of a motorcycle, the wind in your face, the carefree, horizon-chasing moment, then by all means avoid the 2005 Ducati 999R.

 

This thing is misery on two wheels, a wickedly disposed and temperamental exercise of sheer mechanical narcissism upon which you assume a posture like it's flashlight inspection day in prison. Its 150-hp V-twin motor runs on damned souls and is lubricated with the fat of unbaptized children. All this bike wants to do, all it dreams about at night, is catapulting you over the handlebars or pitching you backward onto the streaming concrete so you make one of those slo-mo, Evel-Knievel-at-Ceasars-Palace death rolls in your fancy Italian riding leathers.

 

So plan your day accordingly: After riding this bike, you will need some time to unwind. Go for a Polynesian fire walk, perhaps. Play some "Deer Hunter" roulette. Or, if so equipped, have a vasectomy.

 

The 999R is one of a mutant species of vehicles built to meet the production-based rules of a racing series, a process called homologation. The American Superbike Championship requires that competing bikes must be largely based on series-production motorcycles. In order to make the Ducatis more competitive, the company has built a limited number (500) of 999Rs, which are, in fact, pitifully disguised racing superbikes with just enough street-legal spit on them to pass DMV inspection. The badge on the carbon-fiber fender is that of the factory racing operation, Ducati Corse.

 

Made of steel, titanium, carbon fiber and sadism, the 999R is as close as you are going to get to a grand prix motorcycle, and unless you are a fantastic rider with years of experience, you don't want to get that close. This bike will beat you down like you said something bad about its mother.

 

Look for my name in the annals of motorcycle glory. You won't find it. I am a competent but by no means expert rider. I accept this. Call me a wimp, a weenie, a wuss, if you are inclined to excessive alliteration. But this bike scares the pudding out of me.

 

So, there I was on Sunset Boulevard, puttering along in first gear with about 1,500 rpm showing on the tach, hunched over the handlebars. My sunglasses slipped down my nose.

 

When I took my right hand off the accelerator, there was the briefest moment of adhesion between my palm and the gummy rubber grip — just enough to goose the throttle slightly. The bike jumped like it had been poked with a cattle prod. Baaaa-WHAAAYH! The force of the acceleration whip-lashed my helmeted head, wrenching my neck.

 

This was the first sunglasses-adjustment injury I have sustained.

 

One sunny Sunday morning, I got up early, determined to take the bike for a proper stretch of the legs. Velcro'ed and zippered into my motorcycle fetish leather, I pointed it down the 210 West and wrung the throttle, working up through the gears yet shifting well short of the bike's howling 11,000-rpm redline. In the 20 seconds or so that it took me to reach fifth gear, the speedometer read … well, I'm not going to tell you what the speedo read.

 

The point is, the bike was just waking up, just beginning to shake its strange, low-speed awkwardness. The super-stiff springs and shocks, which burr and tremble on the patched concrete around town, went all velvety; the aero cowling, useless at 60 mph, threw the jet stream over my ducked head, creating a small pocket of tranquillity inside the headlong tornado; the engine — all chatters and clatters at low rpm — began resonating like a cathedral pipe-organ keyed with a Hallelujah chord.

 

My license would last about a week with this bike, maybe less.

 

So it is fast — top speed is about 190 mph (you didn't hear that from me). But it's also quick.

 

The fundamental ratio of performance machines is power to weight, usually expressed as pounds per horsepower. A Ferrari F430 with driver weighs about 3,300 pounds, a burden shared by its 490 horsepower, which the abacus tells us is about 6.7 pounds per horsepower. The Ducati 999R (dry weight of 398 pounds) weighs about 600 pounds with me on board, which means each of its 150 horsepower must move only 4 pounds.

 

It's hard for those who have not saddled a superbike to appreciate the sick, perverted violence of this equation. If you rev the 999R's engine to about 6,000 rpm, shift as much of your weight as possible over the front wheel, and gingerly slip the clutch for a couple hundred feet — and if you can hang onto it — the bike will accelerate from 0-60 mph in about 3 seconds. Your wits might take a bit longer to catch up.

 

But woe betide the rookie who fails to execute the full-power launch precisely right: The bike will be delighted … delighted, thank you … to wheelie over onto its, and your, back. Even in second and third gear, the bike's massive torque (at 8,000 rpm) will easily pull itself over your head in an asphalt full gainer.

 

Oh, and what's that smell? Why it's my roasting thighs.

 

The heart of the 999R (that is, if it had a heart) is the 999-cc displacement, liquid-cooled, V-twin engine. This has to be the most highly stressed engine in any street vehicle, producing 150 hp out of less than one liter displacement.

 

The technology that goes into this bespoke, sand-cast engine is the stuff of race engineering, but its essential feature — beside the ludicrous power — is the unbelievably low reciprocating mass. This courtesy of alloy pistons, featherweight billet crank and exotic and titanium-intensive "desmodromic" valve train — which is to say, the return action of the valves relies on an opposing rocker arm system rather than passive valve springs.

 

What does all this mean? The internal moving parts of the engine are extremely light, so they can accelerate and decelerate very quickly. Gas the motor and the rpm shoot skyward. Heigh ho, Silver! (or its equivalent in Italian). Let off the gas and the rpm and power plummet — which can be quite exciting if, for example, you miss a shift under hard acceleration. It would be very easy to be unhorsed this way.

 

As hard as the bike speeds up, it slows down even harder. The radially mounted Brembo front disc brakes are incredible.

 

But, again, the slightest misapplication of pressure on the right-hand brake lever — say, two fingers instead of one — and the bike will stop dead in its tracks, leaving you to sail over the carbon-fiber fairing like Buzz Lightyear.

 

The 999R is a very naughty motorcycle. However, I did learn a few tricks on the serpentines of the Angeles Crest Highway that made my time with the bike easier.

 

First, get all the braking done in a straight line; none of that fancy trail-braking into the corner that you see on televised Superbike races — you ain't Valentino Rossi and I'm certainly not.

 

Second, get off the saddle early and set up for the corner. The bike is far too reactive, far too edgy, to permit sliding off the saddle once you enter the corner.

 

Third, hold onto the bike with your legs; avoid putting any weight on the grips. The slightest tug can cause the bike to surge out of your control.

 

Fourth, stay in a higher gear than you might on a less powerful bike. Crank the bike over on the tire sidewalls and roll on the throttle and let the ludicrous amounts of torque pull you through the corner. Have no fear. The bike's racing tires have stupendous grip on dry pavement.

 

Fifth, use the force, Luke. As difficult as it may be, you have to trust this bike. The harder you ride it, the more stable and secure it feels. I practically stood the thing on its nose under braking and the tail didn't wiggle an inch. I flopped it over from rail to rail as hard as I knew how and the front end didn't even tremble. Pound for ornery pound, this has got to be the most dynamically perfect motorcycle in the world.

 

Yes, once you master the brakes, the stuttering dry-plate clutch, the splenetic throttle, the aching-back riding position and its overall rabid dog demeanor, the 999R can still be a traumatic life event. I mean, come on, it's a racing bike! It is to normal street bikes what crystal meth is to your morning coffee.

 

I have never been so relieved to park any vehicle unscathed in my garage.

 

And yet, I confess, I was a little sad to see it go.

 

*

 

2005 Ducati 999R

 

Price, as tested: $32,000

 

Powertrain: 999-cc, sand-cast alloy, V-twin engine, liquid cooled, desmodromic timing, four valves per cylinder six-speed transmission, multi-disc dry sump clutch, chain drive, 15/36 final drive ratio.

 

Horsepower: 150 hp at 9,750 rpm

 

Torque: 86 pound-feet at 8,000 rpm

 

Weight: about 420 pounds

 

0-60 mph: 3 seconds

 

Top speed: 190 mph (estimated)

 

Wheelbase: 56 inches

 

Final thoughts: Light fuse, get away.

[sg_r1]

oh yeah.. before i forget, thanks for all the help you guys gave with regards to buying a duke the advise was priceless.. thanks mates...

 

in the meantime, the search goes on.

[khairul]

hey dude, y not go for my 996. 18k . u can view it at minerva till mid next week. licence plate ft9394

 

u can call me for details 98447797

[ktkt]

Originally posted by khairul@Jun 23 2005, 11:04 PM

hey dude, y not go for my 996. 18k . u can view it at minerva till mid next week. licence plate ft9394

 

u can call me for details 98447797

I'll drop by take a look!

[ayuluv]

Originally posted by khairul@Jun 23 2005, 11:04 PM

hey dude, y not go for my 996. 18k . u can view it at minerva till mid next week. licence plate ft9394

 

u can call me for details 98447797

hmm.. price sounds ok to me.. haha..

[redridinghood]

yishun dam! fri nite! tmr!

 

meeting place: park at orchard cineleisure carpark.. meet at rocky master e cafe at e entrance of cineleisure

time: 11pm?

venue: dunno.. rounding or sth then end up at yishun dam and then supper at jalan kayu aft tt if everyone's game..

 

1. redridinghood-vivi

2. lightbolt75- godfrey 93361475

3. M@+r!X- andrew 98554161

3. xiongzzz-96654547

4. kron- andy 94876200

5. huinjianmin- nick 97979471

6. CMYRS- andre 91992019 (might not be able to make it)

7. dirtman - Glenn 90478375 ( For an hour or two)

8. Speed16 - Din 81332291

9. obitrok - ron 92214224

10. Macan putih - khai

11. Speedkills - Samuel 91060925

 

 

ayu! go leh..

[johntan]

Originally posted by DucatiMan@Jun 22 2005, 12:49 AM

I know there are a lot of sportbike riders(Jap bikes) that dislike the elitist attitude of ducati riders; and i know that a lot of you dislike the fact that the eccentric italian beauties are inaccesably expensive and seem, sometimes, overstyled; i know that for a lot of you the lack of comparitive horsepower renders ducati's obsolete, making them survive on their looks and name alone; and i know that most everyone would agree that the reliablity issue make it a no-brainer when deciding between a jap-bike and a ducati--all that aside and all things even, try and enjoy this article, its well written.

 

Final thoughts: Light fuse, get away.

Nooooo, I know many Duc riders who are real nice chaps... and YES.. I do want a Duc.. but my bank officer balks at the idea... coz I'd have to rob him... haha, so I get a psuedo Duc..a TLR

born again biker... guess what did it.. a Sunday, "Bro, help warm up my bike..(my brother's 916)" did me in.. big bug bit hard and won't let go.

Love the Duc...will dream about it till one day, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps..

 

In the meantime.. enjoy this vid.. big file.. 286MB... but nice....

These guys are thrashing around on a VTR, 916 & TLR... damn skillful riders... but I wouldn't wanna ride with them (mostly because I would have floundered in their wake and crashed out in the first 100m). They are good but Dangerous with a capital "D". The video is about 28min long. They break all the rules... racing on (very narrow dual carraigeway) streets and one of them was leaning so far out he actually clipped the wing mirror of an on-coming car!!!(that's at the 18:20min mark).. Followed too closely to each other (maybe for the video shoot?) they even totaled the bikes at a traffic light junction... crashed into each other.

But an entertaining video nonetheless, lotsa wheelie action.

http://chapman.promo-site.com/fichiers%20s...201000%20R.mpeg

 

If you can't get it, try this link

http://www.motorforum.be/viewtopic.php?t=11364

[ayuluv]

Originally posted by redridinghood@Jun 24 2005, 12:31 AM

yishun dam! fri nite! tmr!

 

meeting place: park at orchard cineleisure carpark.. meet at rocky master e cafe at e entrance of cineleisure

time: 11pm?

venue: dunno.. rounding or sth then end up at yishun dam and then supper at jalan kayu aft tt if everyone's game..

 

1. redridinghood-vivi

2. lightbolt75- godfrey 93361475

3. M@+r!X- andrew 98554161

3. xiongzzz-96654547

4. kron- andy 94876200

5. huinjianmin- nick 97979471

6. CMYRS- andre 91992019 (might not be able to make it)

7. dirtman - Glenn 90478375 ( For an hour or two)

8. Speed16 - Din 81332291

9. obitrok - ron 92214224

10. Macan putih - khai

11. Speedkills - Samuel 91060925

 

 

ayu! go leh..

oops.. paiseh vivi. haha.. saw it too late.. niwayz.. was bz too...

next time lahz.. sure go.. ~!

[Kr0n]

johntan: The video is hilarious! Thanks for it! Love certain parts of the commentary. Now the jap boys can see Italian quality for a bit eh? *cough* wide turning *cough* Heh and the TLR rider looked like he was hanging on to a chair or something while turning.