'92 851, Street to Racer Diet / Transformation

[scottieducati]

I'm on my 3rd early superbike, 888 SPO, '92 851 which I always regretted selling, and the '92 I bought about 6 years ago to replace her. Problem was, I was riding them less and less on the street and always had a proper race bike for track so they were just sitting.

I'd accumulated a bevy of parts over the years, sourced from folks here and elsewhere... and two years ago finally decided to take her off the road and convert her to full time track and vintage race duty.

I just received one of the last bits to go on prior to this year, a Ballistic Evo3 EVX16/L-12 Lithium-Ion battery. For giggles I looked up the specs for my general battery of choice for older Ducatis, an Odyssey PC680, which has a shipping weight of... SIXTEEN POUNDS. The Ballistic I just received weighs 2.5 lbs.

So I started running some numbers:

Battery: -13.5 lbs.
Gastank (ETI): -6.3 lbs.
Alloy Subframes: -5-7 lbs. (I didn't weigh for comparison, but I am going to guess at least that F&R)
Magnesium Wheels: -15 lbs (approx, F&R)
Bodywork (Full CF): -10 lbs (approx, my old tail was a fiberglass solo tail w/ Corbin seat, it was *heavy*)
Exhaust (SilMoto Spaghetti Full): -5 lbs. (Not a ton of weight savings but I reckon at least this much over the system it replaced w/ stock headers).
Flywheel (916SP): -1.5 lbs (4 lbs stock vs 2.5 lbs)

I may be over / under some of these estimates but I feel safe to say she's roughly 50-60 lbs lighter than she was 2 years ago. I wish I'd weighed her in full street trim as I bought her. I will get her on the scales next time I'm at NHMS though, and report back.

Claimed wet weight stock was 462 lbs. (I have no idea if that is close to reality?), which would lead me to expect her to be fairly close to 400 lbs. at this point. She puts 92 of the finest Italian horse power to the back wheel, so the diet should help quite a bit!!

Anyone else have real weights of their bikes to share? I have no other light modifications, no titanium on her anywhere, no mag covers, etc...

[Mr.R]

Hi Scott,

I think your "guesstimate" is a bit on the wishful thinking side...

Here's the real world weight for my '92 851/916cc bike, it was weighed early this week for it's MOT road worthiness certificate...

It has full carbon-carbon/Kevlar Corse bodywork, huggers, belt covers, air box, "X" shaped air runners, headstock infills, 3 piece air box, ETI fuel tank, ECU covers, wheel adjuster end caps, 4.5 litre engine breather box/catch tank, rear under tray and gearbox sprocket cover.
One of Marvin's alloy early Corse dash replicas,
Electronic rev counter,
Corse gearbox sprocket,
Lightened alloy rear sprocket,
Corse all alloy clutch,
Lightened cush drive housing with Titanium pins and nuts,
Alloy rear sub frame and no front sub frame at all!
Ohlins FG9050 forks,
Ohlins race shock,
Magnesium outer covers,
Lighter engine internals,
5 spoke Ducati alloy wheels,
Light weight PFM race discs on the front and Moto Miester rear,
Lightened rear caliper bracket,
Billet Brembo GP calipers on the front and lightened rear gold line item,
Corse rubber seat pad,
Corse clip-ons.,
Corse rep' alloy 27mm offset yokes,
Alloy wheel spindles,
Alloy wheel bearing spacers and wheel spacers,
100% Titanium fasteners, also inside the motor,
Alloy flywheel,
Lightened SP alternator rotor, primary gears,
996 RS straight cut light weight timing gears,
Light weight race alloy rear sets,
Full 50mm thin walled S/steel Spaghetti system with carbon cans,
All the surplus frame lugs removed,
Corse radiator,
Speedo drive, speedo cable and speedo removed,
Rev counter drive and cable removed,
Ignition switch removed and replaced with a 2 wire marine toggle on/off switch,
Helmet lock and lug removed,
Radiator hasn't any fan or anything connected with a fan,
Cooling system thermostat removed,
Oil pressure switch removed,
Neutral switch removed,
Coolant over flow tank removed,
...and the list goes on and on and on...
It still has a full set of road legal lights and horn although they're somewhat smaller/lighter than standard items,
Full starter motor system,
Lithium battery,
Also a kick stand although it's a 888 alloy bracket one.
This's a short list of the work I've carried out over 20 years, I could write a small book on all of the work effort it's actually taken!

Now here's the surprise to some...
It still weighs 388 lbs fully wet with 17.5 litres of fuel.

She only makes 128 rwbhp at 9,200 and 76 ft lbs of torque.

I'm 100% sure that the original claimed weight for our bikes wasn't very accurate/set on the light side to aid sales.

So do you still think that your lightened bike weighs close to 400lbs?

P.S. Could/will I make it even lighter?
The answer is obviously yes, I have a short shopping/wish list...
1st finish my new 955cc motor that's finally on the bench which will save several more lbs, also adding a few rwbhp and more ft lbs of torque.
Get some lighter wheels...
Period but new Astralight's or 3 spoke Dymag's or BST 5 spoke carbons are all in the mix.
...and a longer swinging arm.
A genuine 888/926 Corse would be nice (but very hard to find, if not impossible these days?), so I might get Metmachex to make me one as they were used by Sports Motorcycles back in the day.

Steve R