After looking at what I knew to be an unworkable radiator/cooler setup for so long it was nice to have the real deal in place. In place, but (why is there always a "but" with whatever I do....?) there was one last issue to sort: the CDR Racing oil cooler had OEM style threaded ports similar to OEM:
...where the replacement Corse MB Motorsport oil cooler had un-threaded O-ringed push-fit style ports the same as the crankcases. So I needed to make a couple more of these adapters:
So I did....
....only to find the oil cooler ports are a slightly different size! 14mm OD instead of 16mm. I know, I know, brain fart extraordinaire, who doesn't measure something like that?! Gee, isn't it nice that I can still surprise myself.....NOT!
So there I was, alternately swearing and laughing at myself as I knocked up another couple of (carefully measured!) smaller adapters:
The hoses obviously need to become a tad shorter because of them, but the original shorter top hose becomes the perfect longer bottom hose with the adapter fitted, so I only had to shorten one hose:
I didn't have any suitable material on hand to fab the small retaining plates so that's a wee "glory job" for another day.
Alrighty, armed with my new superpower of being able to melt and conjoin separate pieces of alloy in admittedly rudimentary fashion, it was time to tackle the clusterfuck that was the dash mount/fairing brace. If you need a refresher course in "Inept Engineering 101" you can do some revision with my earlier epic fail here: dot-dot-dot-dash-dash-dash-dot-dot-dot. I'm not so pleased to report I passed that course with flying colours.....
A quick summation: after being mistakenly advised to purchase an AiM MXL dash, only to find it was completely unsuitable for the early CANBUS/ECU, I rectified that mistake with an AiM MXS, but soon realised it was completely unworkable with the Pierobon (Ducati Performance) race fairing brace. The plugs on the back of the AiM unit clashed with the main supports on the fairing brace, meaning the brace would have to be almost cut in half to fit the dash....kinda defeating the whole "bracing" ethos.
Worse, the Pierobon brace also clashes with the RS water tank, a tank integral to the RS cooling arrangement as demonstrated previously in the radiator debacle where the CDR radiator filler neck/cap clashed with the RH air intake duct: I needed to be able to fit that tank.
Now I'm obviously not too smart but even I could see that finding a workable alternative to the nice Pierobon fairing brace was key to sorting a number of problems at once, rather than tackling each problem individually.
There are some interesting options available, ranging from the super-sexy-exxy F0/RS fairing stay which incorporates the ECU and data collection hardware ($$$ => "gulp!") to cheap and cheerful ultra-basic "club-race" style arrangements. For once it is the latter, with a bit of a tickle up, that looks perfect for my application.
This is the "Motoholders" unit, and they don't come much simpler/cheaper or lighter than this:
My plan was to relocate the single rear dash mount lower to free up real estate for the RS water tank above it, and flip the front plate with the dual mounts around 180deg, to open up space for the plugs on the back of the dash...
...again, it's not pretty, but it's solid so that's job done:
Some inserts turned up for the anti-vibration mounts (Italian = "gummi", which is just perfect, lol):
A 2mm carbon plate back-plane cut to shape:
And if it was anybody else I'd be starting to think this just might work....but I'm well practiced in screwing myself over so let's not book the party bus just yet:
Let's see if I can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory....again:
Nup, looking good! The new clip-ons/carbon 'bars work a treat and have sorted the steering lock issue; I need to take maybe 2 mm off the top of the fairing brace frame mount for the water tank to sit perfectly, but I think she's a good 'un!
Ohhhh, hang on, I bet the fairing or air duct still won't bloody fit......
WOOHOO! BOOK THAT BUS, BABY!!!
I was feeling just a lil' bit cock-a-doodle-doo after that, and it wasn't easy taking a couple of snaps with a beer that refused to leave my hand, but this was the eventual state of play:
Note the fairing air deflectors are now fitted, a 5 minute job that took about 2 bloody hours! The fasteners are tucked away in the far reaches of narrow fairing recesses, so you need baby-sized hands with the strength of a gorilla and 4 joints in each finger, combined with zero flex in the pre-preg fairings it's an exercise in pure frustration. But it looks better for it.
Unfortunately the home-brewed 63.5mm exhaust doesn't play nice with the belly pan. The zorst is tucked in pretty close, but obviously not close enough, so the Termignoni RS exhaust is definitely going to get a run. I just need to find the stones to tackle that swingarm cut-out......I mean, would you trust me after some of the above? No, me neither.....
