Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 999 / 749 > Fitting race fairing - stupid numpty question

[HW]

Hi, I'm feeling a bit of a numpty right now. Just picked up my Race Products fairing and looked front end of the 749, and now completely puzzled as to HOW the original fairing comes off? I can see there is a hex head screw bottom of each side (behind where the lower panels fits to it). Fine, but what else do I ened to remove to get the top fairing off? There is a bracket that spans from the mirrors across the top of the headlight, does that stay with the fairing? If so then I guess I need to remove the instrument assy to get to the screw for that, but does that unit just pull off? I can't see that the mirrors come off the fsairing easily, no screws behind them like the ST had.

Also, I have been told (by Race PRoducts) that I reaolly ought to be taking the headlight unit off rather than try to fit the fairing over the top. Is that difficult? It looks like the fuse panel and instrument panel all fit onto that. I was hoping (counting?) on it being a fairly painless change to fit the track bodywork for trackdays but now I am not so sure.

TIA

[Lily]

u2u JPMercer (Freak) as he did this recently and can probably tell you in detail

[dickieducati]

well you definitely need to take the mirrors of first, just one screw. pull off the rubber cover off then unclip the wires and unscrew the mirrors/indicators. after that cant quite remember but i think its just 2 screws either side and off it comes. andyb has taken off his complete headlamp unit but dont see why you cant keep it if you need to convert back to road trim.

[HW]

Thanks for the (very) promt replies chaps (and chapesses) I will give Jon a call as you suggest Lily.

Henry

[Edited on 11-3-2005 by HW]

[revdecal]

the mirrirs are only held on by one bolt, it sits in the middle of the 3, the 2 on either side are locating bolts.

The upper fairing is only a few screws.
There are the 2 sitting aboce the front mudguard,under the air ducts. then you have 1 either side of the air intakes.

That is pretty much it, i really would'nt bother trying to fit it over the existing light assembly though (mission impossible)

For a really good fit you would have to remove the lights, which means buying a race screen brace and re-attatching the fuse box,clocks etc...

I saw that and bought a 'race' fairing from Ducati9 with the headlight cut outs.
Was not cheap at £500 but nearly as good as road originals.

To be honest, if you dropped it severly enough to wreck your headlights on a 749, you are looking at a near total loss anyway. It would have to be a barrel roll 'end over end' to damage them.

Hope this helps...see my finished pics (gloss black 749) for what it can look like once all done.

[pedro]

first remove the side panels,then remove the mirror units,easy done as only one bolt holds them,undo wires,to remove the nose,two bolts near air tubes,free the wires for the small screen bulb, job done.....race fairing you need to cut away a section in the race fairing,its the bottom part of the nose,its not seen,i bought a mini rotary tool from focus diy shop,(£15).it cuts carbon like butter.

[HW]

Ta very muchly ....


Henry (who is heading back to the garage to take anther looksie!)

[JPM]

Henry,

Bit detailed this so I'll try and make it as easy as possible, although I have an R, and I know the panels etc are different.

Remove Dzus fasteners from frame, should be two (hex) under the bike also, and one either side of the nosecone.

You can then pull the sides off, obviously watch the side stand etc, they appear quite tight round the nosecone because there is a rubber gromit holding everything together, but don't worry just pull.... hard!

The mirrors need to come off next and on mine there is a plastic cover on the underside of the headlamp which also needs to come off, there might be an odd bolt here and there also it'll be quite obvious really.

Now depending on the fairings and what challenge you're upto you have a few choices...

1. fit (if possible) the fairing which the headlamp assembly/bulbs in place, use the existing arms that held the mirrors in place to support the top of the race fairing

2. fit the fairing with the headlamp assembly, but remove the bulbs... this will leave pretty much everything in place

3. Replace the headlamp assembly with a race bracket, see here, you need to remove the whole headlamp assembly, this isn't a long job but several hours if I am honest.... you need to remove clocks (they pull off) undo the headlamp assembly from the frame, split the assembly so you can get to all of the internal wiring, this consists of some fuses, light connections and air pressure sensor. Fit the bracket, and run the loom back through this and re-attach fuses and pressure sensor.

If I am honest that would be the best way forward, but once it's on, it's on, I'm sure once you have done it you wouldn't want to be swapping back and two all of the time, not like the old 748/9*6/998 days (sorry chaps! )

Is your kit split into two? nose/side panels and a belly pan? check your airtubes on the kit, are they squared off? Hard to explain the race kit uses different airtubes and the stock airtubes butt up against the kit, so you have effectively 2 options, either cut the airtubes to suite the race kit, or cut the insides of the air tubes down from the nosecone, you'll understand what I mean if you cross that bridge. I opted to cut the bodywork down, which is pretty fiddly as it's quite a tight space to get to.

HTH

[Lily]

what he means is he opted for me to break all my nails and cut the bodywork down

It is indeed quite fidly !!

[HW]

Right, well I at least got the nose fairling off. The Race Products replacement would be a lot happier if it was going onto a race bracket, but in light of the fact that it's a "one way trip", I am definately not going to do that. I know I could change it back, but if it's not "easy" then it would sit in my garage for weeks while I get around to it. Not so good.

The stuff that gets in the way of the race products nose fairing is the top headlight housing. If you push and shove it does kind of coform to the various gubbins, but the sides have to be bent down to fit against the mirror mounting brackets. I can then just about get the bottom mounting point back far enough to be in the right place.

Question: Besides the obvious of trasmitting any shock straight into the headlight unit (risk I shall have to take), is there any argument against having it under tension like that? It might even end up tipped further forwards and down than the original in fact, as it does sit as high on the mirror brackets.