Mot time for the Ducati 916 will it pass or fail

Its a worrying time when you have to take your bike for mot as there are many things that can fail the test. Some of the most common fails can be checked first. This could save you time and hassle of organising a retest or fix.

Tyres front and back on motorcycles should be checked. My personal view is that there should be at least 1mm all over. There is a difference to mot specification and the law which specifies the minimum tread depth. If in any doubt new tyres will give you confidence on the road. Also remember to run in new tyres.

Lights can be checked and made sure that they all work. Brake lights, low and high beam etc.

If only these two checks were carried out and headlamp aim. I wonder how many mot failures would reduce. In cars these two areas account for 65 percent of fails.
A high amount that could be avoided.

Two blogs on wordpress and blogger

I have a new blog on wordpress to see the difference in the two blogs and sites. Let me know if you think one is better than the other.
regards Vinnychoff

http://ducati916bp.wordpress.com/

Ducati 916 bp leaking oil from the clutch rod onto the exhaust

Pictures of my Ducati 916 and the oil that is leaking onto my patio. Not a nice sign to see oil leaking from the engine. Thanks to Harry who cleaned the oil first then on my way home I left the bike parked up on the stand to see if i could trace the oil back to where it was leaking. The exhaust has a small drop on it and from here I worked the trace of oil up to the push rod. Pushing the clutch push rod, I can see that fresh oil is leaking from the area. It was only a short journey of two or three miles.
Now back to the mannuals to see where the leak is from and if i can replace a seal or find out why it is leaking.
vinnychoff

Charging issues and how to prevent yellow wires burning Ducati 916

I have just finished my bike with some changes to the electrics and hope this will stop any issues in the future and warn me before I need to investigate.

First I have fitted a mosfat regulator rectifier which now when I check the voltage is charging around 14 volts. Before I had a regulator rectifier off a Suzuki tl1000. Although the connector block was a three pin and mine had two pins I was able to connect it together. This lasted about a year where I then noticed the wires from the stator into the plug was burning out again. So now I have the mosfat working efficiently. To warn me if the charging is out of specification I have fitted a led warning light that flashes fast if out of range and slow as it nears perfect voltage and is out when within range.

I have added a video to show the led where I have added it to the spare red charge light in the instrument cowl. The video shows it in operation and I have added a fluke meter to show the voltage.

Now I hope that the waterproof connectors and mosfat charging will last longer before I need to look into the charging again. Current mileage is 37404 miles and having owned the Ducati from 2002, there have been a few hiccups along the way.
With these two modifications I hope that I can catch any issues in advance.
Vinny

 

link to youtube. video of the led in action and the mosfat regulator rectifier putting out 14.4 volts

http://youtu.be/Dese-f7E9MI 

Pirelli Puncture nail in tyre

I was just getting ready to go out on the Ducati 916 and in my mind I know how tyre pressures can affect the handling so I used a old fashioned method of pushing my thumb into the tyre just to check the difference from front to back. The front seemed ok and as I pushed the back tyre in, it went soft. I pushed the bike forward and found the nail in the tyre causing air to escape. I have 120/70 zr17 pirelli angelst and 190/50 zr17angelst fitted.
It only takes a few seconds to check, even better use a guage to check cold tyre pressures before you set off.
vinnychoff

The pleasure of the open road

Today was my first ride out and it made me think that often I only try to write in the blog about fixs when one of the enjoyments of motorcycles is to get out and ride your bike.
It was a dry day and quite warm for this time of year just under ten degrees which helps confidence for grip on two wheels. I do enjoy opening the bike up and the noise of the termigionis bublling on throttle off and barking on opening up. Or when you are under a bridge and can hear the noise echo.
There are times when you have to be careful though and only yesterday I was talking  about the days of slipping on diesel on the road. Lately this seems not to happen so often as the price of diesel means many lorries or cars do not spill anymore.
I have in my history of riding bikes nearly fallen off twice due to diesel. On one occassion with a N reg honda 400 four approaching a s bend torwards a bridge the back end started to spin. As I kept the power on it spun from side to side but kept upright.
Another time when I was selling my W reg Suzuki Gs1000, I took the customer out for a spin and approaching the roundabout turned left and as I entered the corner started to loose grip. On both occasions this was approaching bends where i believe the fuel spilled. Both times were over ten years ago.

vinnychoff

ride safely

 Recently I have tried to stop the stator burning yellow wires. The plastic block connectors that burn. As in a earlier post I have done a bit of research and am working on a fix. Will update soon.

How to replace the speedo support cowling plastic on a Ducati 916

The light bulbs from neutral and low fuel had burnt the plastic cowling and when the neutral light was on it bleed into the low fuel warning light display. So I bought a new part 40740011A speedometer support from Mick. Below are the pictures and the steps needed to replace the speedo plastic cowling.
The most important information for me was finding that I needed a small screwdriver to undo the reset switch on the speedo. This was needed to remove the speedo from the cowling so it could be replaced.

The parts needed
A small positive screwdriver to undo the speedo reset
Clocks apart with the 4 8mm nuts taken off
Headlamp removed
Mirrors removed
Fairing zeus clips removed off top part of fairing
Picture of the clocks
Close up of the part to be removed.

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