Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 999 / 749 > Oooo Me Clutch !!

[Jiminy]

Oh boy did I have a moment and a half this morning.
Fired up the 749 as normal (6 months old/2k on the clock) to head in to work - a commute of about 30 minutes.
Waited for her to warm up as normal. Took off down the road towards the junction with the the A316 in West London, pulled the clutch in and .................. absolutely nothing Ohhhhh *%^$&£@*?

All I can say is thank god for Brembo brakes. A certain sphincter muscle was oscillating to such a frequency that all the dogs in West London had gathered round to see what the fuss was all about !!

Hauled on the brakes, rapidly checked the rear view mirrors to see who was behind me - not that the 749 offers you much rearward vis - and managed to grind in to a halt. All safe and in one piece.

Clutch slave cylinder gone. Anyone else experienced this sort of start to the day ? Didn't expect it to happen on such a new machine.

It's on it's way to Daytona in Ruislip as I write. A seriously scary moment.

Jiminy

[KeefyB]

Blimey!
I thought all the dodgy slave cylinders had been cured from 2001 onwards?!!

[khu996]

You wouldn't have thought it would have failed so early. A bit scary

[Carbon749]

Scary stuff, you did well not to panic and pull up without binning it.

Think I'd be writting to Ducati and lodging a formal complaint ... this is a serious safety issue.

[DC]

Similar thing happended to me at the start of last summer. Difference being that I had an uprated slave cylinder.

I stopped for petrol and noticed some fluid hitting the exhaust. It seemed to be clear so thought cant be oil or coolant.
Looked around the bike for ages, couldnt see any leaks so rode of carefully. Keeping an eye on the engine temp etc, trying to limp home.

Then just getting into London, in heavy traffic, noticed that my clutch was playing up. Bingo! The clear stuff was brake fluid coming from the slave. You should have seen me trying to ride the bike through rush hour traffic with NO clutch!!
Thank gawd that Ducati make a decent gearbox!!!!

Managed to make it to a garage, get some more fluid and quickly bleed it,spilling tons of fluid everywhere! ( YUK) Thanks for lending me the rubber tube Mr garage man.

Got back and fitted the standard slave cylinder. Touch wood its worked ever since

DC

[Jiminy]

Sounds like a nightmare DC. All I can say is that I'm glad it happened to me within spitting distance of the old homestead rather than in the centre of London. At least I could organise everything from home.
I've lost a push-bike chain going round Hyde Park Corner before now and that was pretty hairy stuff - those old Routemasters are unforgiving when it comes to 14 stone (ish !!) of human.

And yeh I think Ducati will be getting a little note from me expressing my concern over this one. As I said earlier it could have been a whole lot worse.

Jiminy

[Edited on 10-3-2006 by Jiminy]

[duc daz]

that could have been nasty .well done for saving it