Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > Supersports: SS / SuperSport / Supersport 950 > Cracked Frame

[adk]

Be interesting to know if 600's suffer with cracked frames as much as the bigger engined SS's. Must be doing quite well to get one of those to wheelie - but I could be wrong!

[Steve B]

My 900 frame cracked at around 5 years and 35000 miles.
It was more of a hair-line mark in the paint on the top tube about 2 inches from the headstock, which I noticed after a good thrash back from Donington one evening.
The previous owner may have done the odd wheelie in the first 5000 miles, but it has not done one since.
I must confess to having done the odd stoppie or two, which does bend the rear shock lower mounting bolt and probably causes a fair bit of stress around the headstock area.

At 13 years old and 50,000 miles I treat it more gently these days, - heading to the Island tomorrow night for a few days to catch the Senior Manx GP, and maybe a steady?? lap or two of the Mountain course.

Steve

[Iconic944ss]

Cheers Guys,

Zig - I've never wheelied my 900 ever! About two inches of airtime over the mountain at Cadwell is the only time the front gets light with me on board.

Seems mine is a bit of an unusual failure so, I might persue it a bit more in case its something DUK might want to know about.

Red-Duc;
Crack near the steerer stop could just be paint cracking (hopefully) - Might be an idea to repack the lower bearing after any repair is done if you go down that route - might be an idea to ask you repairer?
I remember seeing it can be done with the bike intact and simply earthing the frame (Skidlids post? DD frame repair)

Good luck all - Frank

[Zimbo]

My money is on hard braking being the cause of most failures. I imagine that, under hard braking, twisting forces will act on a fulcrum at the bottom of the headstock, causing the tubes around the top to be in tension, and it seems the SS frame strength around that area is marginal in these circumstances, so some fail.