| Ducati Clutch Plates
The Ducati dry clutch on most models use steel plates, hub and basket. It’s noisy and it’s heavy, compared to aftermarket units, but it’s pretty durable and the friction material lasts at least as long as aftermarket plates. So they're a good choice for replacement.
The reason that they’re noisy is that each time you shift, the edges of the plates hammer the fingers of the basket, causing each to deform, causing the gap between them to get larger, causing higher impact forces, and causing more rattling noise when the clutch is disengaged. So they get louder and louder until the plates and basket are replaced.
You’ll need to replace the plates when the thickness of the friction material gets too thin to prevent slipping. You’ll notice a little slippage first when starting-off in first gear, but when it starts to slip in top gear it’s time for a new clutch pack.
Depending on the mileage and the depth of notching, you will probably will want to replace the basket at the same time. A notched basket will be louder, but I’m not convinced that it makes it any more difficult to for the plates to separate when disengaging the clutch. But replacing just the plate stack, which then has to engage the basket notch pattern worn-in by the previous plates, will possibly affect your ability to shift smoothly.  |