With the frame sorted for the junkyard dog project (749R + 999RS = 799RS) I finally got to play with a lil' treasure that I'd been offered some time ago and initially intended to put on the 749R.
One of the real "sweet 'n sour" parts of the 749/999 design is the swingarm. I dunno, it's hard to say this politely, but the earlier bikes with the grey frame, grey wheels and grey cast swingarm just leave me cold.
The "same" bike ( '03/04 base model above vs '05/06 S below) with red frame, black wheels and Chuck Norris-tuff boxed/fabricated swingarm is a much sweeter proposition, :
A year or so earlier I'd seen a black boxed swingarm come up on a Ducati forum at a very fair price....only to miss out by a matter of minutes. All good, I didn't "need" it as such, I'd just seen a crew in the UK modify one to give more like 999RS geometry (RS swingarm is a tad longer), so I was just keeping a casual eye out if one became available at a price that I could afford, to maybe do something similar.
But a few months later the absolute gentleman selling the swingarm contacted me out of the blue: he had another swingarm, this one being a much rarer breed, made by Febur.....was I interested? At +20mm longer than OEM, 1.8kg lighter, and very kindly offered at a great price (for what it was), I gladly accepted:
Interestingly the Corse Factory/RS (and similar, such as Bursi) swingarms are all braced on the underside of the 'arm similar to OEM, where the Febur is quite different and braced on the upper side. The photo's above look a bit weird in comparison, almost like it's upside down, but it is actually shown as it would be fitted.
FYI, I collected a big dollar Bursi swingarm on behalf of a friend in the UK. It physically pained me to pack it up and send it off but you can see it is the polar opposite bracing philosophy to the Febur unit:
The Febur mightn't look quite as tough as some of the other (more expensive) options but given the spec and parts included like the underslung caliper hanger I was absolutely stoked. There was no issue fitting it to the 749R...but the thought-worm of building a bitsa out of the parts strewn around my shelves had started wriggling around in my head, so I held off.
So here we are, the only problem with installing it on the junkyard dog was a couple of missing pivot bearing bushes, and being a blank sheet build I didn't have an original unit to pinch the bushes from. So I unbolted the 749R 'arm and machined copies of the steel OEM bushes, only in titanium (I tell ya, I have a real love/hate relationship with this stuff, and I'm definitely leaning towards the latter when it comes to machining):
While I was busy turning solid into swarf I also turned up some alloy spacers to replace the steel units on the other side of the swingarm:
Hmmmm, I've seen cockroaches that weighed more than what these were saving but what the hell, it only took me a couple of beers to knock them out.
It would take 5 minutes to bolt it to the frame at this point but that wouldn't really accomplish much, I needed to sort a shock to secure it in position rather than just leave it dangling like a broken branch. It's not often I'm prepared (you kinda knew that, eh?) but there is an exception to every rule and I had a rebuilt 749R Ohlins shock/link etc on hand....who'd have thunk it?!
Remember here the 749R Ohlins shock has a shorter stroke than the 999R or 999S Ohlins equivalent (56mm vs. 71mm), much stiffer spring and damping, and a flat rate linkage vs. progressive rate. Horses for courses, the progressive setup is more forgiving on the road where the flat setup is the duck's nuts on track.
Having said that, I'd had ongoing problems with chewing up rear tyres on the 749R and it had taken me a while to figure out what I thought was cold tearing was actually hot tearing. Looking back it's amazing I lived with it for so long but it was quite track specific so with the the bike out of action, then the main culprit (Wanneroo Raceway) closed to bikes, it fell off the radar for far longer than it ordinarily would have.
Sorry, not the best pic, but this is about as good as a tyre would ever look heading home after right-hander heavy Wanneroo, most looked worse:
But realistically I was only getting out for the occasional trackday, not racing, and mostly just buying used take-off rubber, so I'd either just flip the thing (the beauty of Pirelli's) or head for counter-clockwise Collie and I'd get by....until the next time.
Online discussion from some experienced 749R racers/tuners was pretty universal in concluding the OEM shock spring, at 120Nm (12kg) was too heavy/stiff, overworking the tyre. Even riders the calibre of Doug Chandler riding a 749R in AMA Formula Extreme only used 100 - 105Nm spring rates (info kindly supplied by Mark Sutton at Ducshop).
As luck would have it a contact was offloading a box of surplus Ohlins springs from a workshop clearance which, even allowing for shipping, were crazy cheap.
So, the OEM spring = 120Nm:
Amongst the springs in the box were a 105Nm and a 97.5Nm. The old bastard looking back from the mirror didn't even remotely resemble Mr Chandler so I pumped for the 97.5Nm:
Another (piss poor) reason I hadn't played with springs earlier was the assumption I'd need the shock spring compressor I didn't have, a situation my credit card rectified once the springs arrived.....only to realise I didn't bloody need it! The first shock, Ohlins or otherwise, I've seen where you could just slacken off the collars to remove the tension on the spring, slip off the lower spring perch, and it all falls to bits: too easy!
See the shock ready for spring removal below:
Obviously the swingarm pivot goes through the 'cases but it was easier trial fitting without the engine in the way:
Add some frequently fondled titanium M12 x 250mm engine mounting bolts I had intended to use on the 749R:
...and the 999RS engine settled into it's new home:
Oh yeah, that "wine" bottle on the bench there is actually my first crack at making hard apple cider, made using fruit from the remnants of the apple orchard on our property. Pretty bloody good for something packing a 7% alc/vol punch! After celebrating the 749R/999RS "housewarming" (it would be rude not to) the wobbly boots came out for the walk back to the house, lol.
