Quote:
Originally posted by Redruth My thoughts: London riding and Ducatis don't mix. In fact, traffic in any town is likely to bring out the worst in them, it seems to me. Buy an old 600 something-or-other for London riding and keep your Duke for showing off. (Sorry, somewhat grumpy as am just about to take bike to mechanic and fork out best part of £200 for new clutch) |
Hi Redruth, not specifically trying to prove any of your posts wrong after last night's post on technical and wine mixing .... but ... (you knew that was coming)
Ever since I bought my 996 a year ago I've commuted into London from Twickenham (around 15 miles each way) and never had a problem with the bike at all. The ride position isn't the best but the torque is great and I love monstering the irritating scooter riders that come up and stop in front of you at the lights by floating past them on the back wheel
I had a lot of the mods I made to the bike done specifically with commuting in mind because that was the only way I could justify the initial purchase to my wife. These were things like moving the torque and power down the rev range and making it make more of each! The 14 tooth front sprocket and lightened flywheel help a lot as well ... but the single best mod I've made for commuting would have to be relocating the levers to match the angle of my arm reaching down (thanks to Nelly for removing those basteward pins while it was being pampered). SO much more comfortable seeing as after doing this for 6 mths my left forearm was a match for the forearm of the Californian Governor!
The key I guess for me was making sure it was setup properly and everything checked before I put it through those stresses - cue a week in the Sigma Performance workshop with Neil Spalding.
As for the clutch problems Animal I was going to suggest a leak or perhaps a bit of air in the system? But I see Nelly is along to sort you out ...
[Edited on 12-8-2004 by tp-996]