Here's some more info from Chris Kelley of California Cycleworks fame.

Frank, there was pair of FCRs on fleabay yesterday that came from a rack of 4. From the guys spiel it appears that he bought them and split them himself to fit a twin. It'd probably be considerably cheaper if you could do the work yourself but I guess once you'd added up the cost of the specialized fittings, machining and rejetting there wouldn't be that much of a saving.

Darren

Yes, as mentioned above, do check out your regulator; you'd be lucky if it's survived unscathed. Get the engine warm and put a multi-meter across the battery terminals. Make sure it's set to the 0-20V DC range. YTou should be seeing arounfd the 14V mark. If it never gets up above about 13V, regardless of engine speed, or if it can increase to over 15V, then I'd say your reg/rect was clapped.

Remember a brand-new and fully charged battery will start the bike and run the engine without a rectifier (or indeed a alternator). You wouldn't get far before it died on you, though.

Thanks moto
I did take a little run on it today. The Haines manual said that varying output from the lights would indicate a duff reg and as I don't have a meter to test it and the lights were stable I reckoned it was probably ok. Did about a 5 mile blat and put it back in the garage as the weather was changing. Mmm... I could have been lucky to get home! I'll see if I can scrounge a meter befor I venture out again. Thanks so much for your input.

Just in case Kefi - I hope this isnt needed by you (or me :barfy:).....

Regulator Rectifier for Ducati motorcycles: £35 start bid

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...6134 589&rd=1

the rectifier in the pic looks like an old one and not one of the 2(?) updated ones for the carbed SS bikes.

It's been truly gratifying to see such response. I wouldn't have imagined so much input. I'm gonna get it checked with a multimeter this week and hopefully armed with all your advise make the best of it. Cheers you Boyz!:burn:

All part of the spirit within the DSC :)

Good luck