Binned it serious problem
 

So far
1yr old

1 clutch
2 subframes
1 new set off clocks
1 new sump plug

And yes its happend again, going down a dip in the road unbeknown to me the bike ground out .
1mile further down the oil had droped over the rear wheel and as i braked for the bend.Yes you guesed it one binned bike.
Just got back home curtesy of the AA and im not a happy bunny, good job for them Ducati Leeds is shut today :mad:
Apart from the bike and leathers im ok, whats the chance of a claim or at very least my bike sorting,As i say this is the second time its grounded (im only 12 stone) 1st time they replaced the plug and oil under warranty,This time its more serious and i could easly been killed
Whys the sump plug alloy and not titanium or at least have a guard, the S & R models are only affected due to the deep sump.
I want Ducati to stump up for this!!!

So why is it grounding out?
Surely with both front and rear springs pressed to the stops there should still be ground clearance??

Well youd think so but nope...:(

Even if both me 15 stonnes and the missus 8 stonnes jump up and down on mine together i cant get the fairing to touch let alone the sump plug??

I have had it once on a very steep/ tall sleeping policeman thingy though on the sump plug, when there was a wheel either side of the hump.

You took any piccies of where it happened? Or of the bike before its stripped??

What about the suspension settings, record those aswell, video it if need be to show its not completely slack.

How did you not feel the initial thump to the ground of the sump? And stop to look thinking that was hard?

Just a bit of devils advocate mate, that i guess youll come up against soon!

The plug is 1" below the fairing and the the ally is not thick, it only has to brush the tarmac and it grazes thru.
The plugs only about 5mm thick at the bottom, the road is an 80 mph crest which causes the bike to bottom out and there is a lot more force than jumping up and down on the bike

So you ground out 5mm of alloy at 80 mph on the road and didnt notice it? And you say "again" as if its done this before?

i know when mine hit the hump at walking speed it jarred all through the bike, and didnt break. Is the bottom of my 999r different to your 999s? have they altered mine because of this?

Hmm,suspension and ride height settings come to mind.:puzzled:
Ive not touched anything down on mine yet,apart from dropping it,but RedSeb has touched the fairing down at some time.:o(749S)
Glad your ok,I'd be very interested to hear what Ducati have to say.

The first time it happened was on a real undulating roat at about 50mph and virtually knocked the plug off, the first i knew was the oil light coming on (within seconds) i killed the engine and got it collected.
All the settings are factory stock as they work well for me, and beleive me you cant here the bike grounding,termis etc.
If i were you id check out your plugs for signs of scuffing as they bottom out before the fairing, I know the roads in yorkshire are rough but this should never happen under any cicumstance :(

is your bike a 999s monoposto or biposto

its the mono

hmm when i first bought mine last year i broke 3 rear number plates in as many weeks....
the rear end was compressing on fast corners and eating the rear number plate and the hanger...
i fitted a harder rearspring and never had the problem again
so far what ive seen is all the bike mags slate the monoposto and prase the biposto ive fitted the same spring as the biposto ( i do weigh 90kg dry though......)

Hmm,good point Nathan.
My bike was origionally a bip,so I'm using the bip rear shock.I have had the rear tyre touch the no. plate on a bumpy Norfolk road.(I've got the relocation kit)Have'nt touched anything else tho.

will be looking at mine tonight, have to say i have heard a scraping on track sometimes but assumed it was just my sidestand/footpegs which had touched down will see if the sump has touched too.

Will you all please, check your sump plugs and see if theres any sign of grounding and let me know, this is mainly the mono r & s models.
cheers
Karl

Did u ring Ducati today? What did they say?

Good luck.

Yeh iv spoken to the main man at Ducati Leeds, cant say too much at the minute, but he was very shocked to say the least and swears theyve not had any more in.
Apart from one in Ireland hes heard about and cant understand it,theyve picked my bike up today and the post mortem continues.
I let you know the results but i hope they do the honerable thing, as this could have been very nasty.
If there is a problem we need to know becouse someone WILL be killed .For it to happen once is once too much but twice :mad:

Karl.....got the same on mine.... just a few scrape marks in the casting.... not leaking any oil at mo.... hope you get it sorted ok.... keep us posted. :cool:

Looks like theres a serious problem here,that casing will ware thru, please keep an eye on it as its only thin and there no warning till it spits you off :o

thanks for the head up, Ive just checked mine and it's got scratches on the bottom of the sump and fairing, not bad as I haven't even run it in yet:flame::burn::burn:

Didn't someone mention a "fix" for this somewhere? I don't think they mentioned what it was though. Titanium bolt or a guard of some sort???

Changing the rear spring seems a bit extreme, especially if you're a 12 stone rider on a Monoposto. I would have thought that was smack bang in the middle of "average", not heavy!

The 05 bikes have a heavier rear spring, think it's 7Kg now over 6.5Kg on previous years.

Never happened on my 04 R, but saying that I have a 7.5Kg rear spring and the ride height has been adjusted (raised) by JHP.

As I only run my in track day bodywork (don't want to be damaging the carbon stuff) the bellypan is completely sealed, and the sump isn't exposed, there's no marks etc on the belly pan, so can only summise from that that I'm OK???

Sorry to hear about your accident RM.

Obviously, I do not know you, how you ride, your bike or how its set-up etc...but my 2p's worth...

Didn't we hear about a few people mentioning this some time ago?

This seems a bit odd to me. Everyone is right about springs/ride height etc that could obviously lead to the bike squatting excessively in a dip at speed or such like, but surely it should not be possible to ground the sump out like this?

Thats not a set-up problem in my eyes, that a DESIGN problem...

In this instance, unlike twinfans trials and tribulations with his brakes, where he/DUK where trying to work out exactly what happened as it was unclear, this case appears to be very clear. The sump has hit the deck.

If I were you I would be collecting as much evidence as possible such as taking photos of the location where it happened, making notes on your current suspension settings (springs/ride height/sag (with and without rider) etc), even trivial things like tyre pressures. Because you can rest assured that if they can, DUK will not accept responsibility, becase if they do, then they have a serious safety issue on their hands!

The harsh reality is that things could have ended A LOT worse...and I for one really believe in pushing large companies to get to the bottom of problems like this and if at fault, admit it!

...then again..the chances of that happening..oh look a flying :pig:

I agree here, you could of been killed plain and simple, you were lucky, the next guy might not be!

If this is a known issue Ducati will be playing the numbers game I guess, pay for one off's or do a recall for all bikes, whichever is the cheapest solution as ever.

Good luck, and get well soon

JPM have you ever bottomed your sump out, I havnt.

I think the personalising of the suspension is key here. To say Ducati have got it wrong, well it is a well known fact the rear 64 spring is too light for the majority.

Although that is the same as a 998 mono rear, the bikes weigh a similar weight, and a similar group of the public ride/own them.

I dont know of any 996r-998r deep sump models to have bottomed out??

Never done it on mine no, but my suspension isn't standard, different springs front and rear and ride height adjusted etc to match.

If it was going ground out it would of done it at the bottom of paddock hill I guess a few weeks ago, but no sign whatsoever

I guess the thing here is that a standard bike, on factory settings, with an average weight rider shouldn't bottom out.

Can't see why some do and some don't thugh, unless "Real McCoy" is a particularly hard rider?

Yes i totally agree. Ive got the enclosed belly pan on mine, If i dont get the angle of a ramp correct when loading in a van it touches then. My mates gsxr, same situation, no where near.

I've just re-read this thread and you say RM that your sump sits 1 inch BELOW the fairing. Is that correct?

Andy, you say that you ave never touched down your fairing let alone your sump...therefore are suggesting that your sump sits within the fairing...ie not the same. Is yours a deep sump model Andy?

So why did Ducati introduce this new low sump, wasn't it beacuse of another problem (oil starvation due to wheelies or summut!?!?)...is it a case of...lets redesign the sump, but not look at the bigger picture, such as fitting a stiffer spring or allowing for non-billiard table like roads???

Oh yes, deep sump model, but of course. track fairings enclose the sump. With the std fairings, the sump plug does hang down proud of the bottom edge.

Obviously lots of changes to the geometry on mine. As i said when i rode the 05 999 at Silverstone(yes i know billiard table........ish) It really did feel strange, lower and the bike sits flat. Although it was a bp so harder spring.

Guys this thread is from 10 mth ago ish, There was only me on the site that binned it but a few others have marks on the sump.

The thread has reamerged becouse its happend to someone else now, this aint an isolated problem around 10 per year are affected (ALL in the north) now were either hard ba$tards or the roads round here are crap :puzzled:

The outcome is the bikes get repaired foc after an inspection, The bottomline is you have to admit theres not a problem with the bikes and your bike will be fixed :flame:

The mod is done at Riverside where they cut the bottom of the plugs off and modify with flat plate, I spoke to them last year and they said a race team (monstermob?) had they same thing happen to the bikes running them in.

Think DM had 3 bikes back last year, Leeds sent out letters to all there owners asking them to check there sumps

:puzzled:

Although not having a 999 I do ride the same roads as RM and have experienced the same problem on many bikes. Every R1 I ever had in the past was absolutley battered to hell underneath ie lower fairing exhaust etc. and my 996 at one time looked as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to the underside of the exhaust!

Although a good bit heavier than RM I do see it as a problem, the first time I saw a picture of the deep sump engine I thought that it would be a problem for the kind of riding and the type of roads I spend my time on. I know fully well how easy it is too find yourself blatting along at high speed one minute and the next find yourself airborne for quite a while when you least expect it! There are severe humps and jumps in all sort of unexpected places in the Yorkshire dales and they do catch a lot of people out.

I dont really think its fair to dismiss in any way what has happened to him just because it has not happened to others. I know perhaps the bikes were not exactly designed to be jumping over great big humps in the road. But nevertheless they are sold as road bikes in Yorkshire to be used in Yorkshire!?

RM is probably the same as me in that he rides the same roads a lot and knows where the dodgy bits are and rides them accordingly. However sometimes I find myself on roads I do not know that well and even though I may be following a rider that knows that road you will find yourself taking unexpected jumps or compressions in the road a lot faster than you would like. I understand the comments about the roads up north being different to the roads down south.

I'm not saying its Ducatis fault but it is a problem that is quite dangerous.

999s '06 Bip
Just checked the plug and its about one inch proud of the fairing.
It's not scraped or bashed, but then again, not done any jumps on it.
The "plug" is a square plate held on by four allen set screws (?) - that right?

They've got them out quick :lol:

Very subtle Alan.....my 06:lol::lol::lol:

Twinfan, Alan is one of the Time Lords.;)

Oh yea of little faith.
Check out the photo of the reg document in the photo forum.(Premature...)

'06 baby, read it and weep.

Bet its allready depreciated..................:lol::lol:

Typo surely????

TF - I thought that, but all paperwork refers to 2006 manufacturing run.

Sump plug - is it the "plug" with the four allen screws?