My 888 SP4

roby1kenobi

😁 😁

Ducati 888 sp4 n. 593

Only 600 were ever made of the SP4 to holomogate it for use in the world superbike series. They cost $40,000 new and, says a Kiwi enthusiast, "They were the angriest bike ever ... I love them ... they really are very special bikes with the best of everything, but it was the engine which dominated them. Talk about wild! They would not idle when cold, they hated going slow ie under 100km/h and unlike every other superbike, you had to show it a lot of respect. Ducati put metal plugs in the mufflers just to get it to pass noise tests!"

desmo57

Looooooooovely!!!! 😄

ducati dad

Blimey,that's clean.... nice one.

jacknipper

very nice 😉

soon some photos of mine with some racing upgrades 😎

Mr.R

Hi and welcome to the forum,

That's a very nice clean example, I've always thought the SP4/SPS's were the prettiest of all the 851/888's.
How long have you owned it and is the motor standard?
I notice it's got a non standard under-slung floating rear caliper, so wonder if anything else has been modified.

I think the Kiwi enthusiast got a bit carried away though...
All of the 851/888 SP's were homlogation specials, the SP4 had the same spec motor as the SP2/SP3's and the SPS was just a little more angry.

Steve R

griff851

That's a nice machine, you must be pretty happy about that. I thought the the SP4 and 5 shared the same motor, and the SPS had the under slung rear brake, where the SP4 had the normal set up. Mere details, all very nice and you lot all suck because you live where you can buy one.😁 On the other hand if I brought one I'd have never have built mine.

Griff

Mr.R

griff851 wroteThat's a nice machine, you must be pretty happy about that. I thought the the SP4 and 5 shared the same motor, and the SPS had the under slung rear brake, where the SP4 had the normal set up. Mere details, all very nice and you lot all suck because you live where you can buy one.😁 On the other hand if I brought one I'd have never have built mine. Griff

Hi Griff,

The SP5 had the same spec motor* as the SPS aka SP(4)S, the SP4 and the SPS's had the normal solid top mounted rear caliper.

*I'm not sure if it had the '91 Corse crankcases though?

Steve R

ripper996

Mr.R wroteHi Griff, The SP4 and the SPS's had the normal solid top mounted rear caliper. Steve R

Steve

What's the difference between a top mounted and a lower slung rear brake caliper on the SP4's or any 888's?

Mr.R

The Corse style lower/below the swingingarm mounted calipers are floating and have an anchor rod attached between them and the engine cases, in theory when you apply the rear brake the caliper wants to spin but it can't because the rod's holding it, so it pulls the suspension/wheel down into the track surface helping to prevent wheel hop and improving the braking.
In practice it hardly made any difference, so much so that the last customer Corse bikes did away with it.
It went the same way as the anti dive front forks and 16" wheels that at one time were fitted to almost every sports bike, but haven't been fitted for years now.

Some owners swear by them, but I think of them as 'bling' and added weight that's not needed.

Steve R

adie851

Rear brake ( floating)

Hi Guys,
steve's bang on with what he says ,basically ,I think it looks cool( the underslung floating brake ) , but really is a little bit of 'bling ' for the bike .

Cheers , adie851

ps Steve , Are you going to the DOCGB rally at the Severn Valley in May ?Cheers

griff851

I fitted one to my 1983 S2 and 1990 851. This is what I found. Before fitting the floating caliper, when locked up, the rear end would jump about making horrible chain slapping noises, resulting in a juddering effect. I fitted it and a lock up turned into a greasy hip drivable back end. So from personal experience there is a marked difference. Both have long black type, I think its a PS 11 on the 851.
I kinda reckon that the boffins figured out that by putting the smaller less grunty girlie man gold master cylinders on, the need to deal with the ease of locking up disappeared.
Having said that I have to get around to fitting my girlie man master cylinder and rearsets one day.
I have to tell you have ridden fair examples of almost every model produced by ducati from 73 till present with exception of early 750 and 900 Sports, 500 parallel twins, F1's, Paso's and early Tricolore's, 1198's, 1200 MTS's, and the Desmosidici. Desmosidici jaunt is coming up however. And I feel I can say that the small gold babies are limp wrist-ed with a fair amount of confidence. But I must also admit I have not been in a rear wheel lock up scenario on anything other than my own 2 bikes. So I do not know how the rear ends behave on any others in lock up.
So how do they? Anyone?

My personal feeling is that lock ups of any kind are detrimental to forward motion, and as such are to be generally avoided.
In fact of late just generally using brakes is being avoided. One of the joys of higher compression. Makes it a bit of a bastard for those chasing you and using your brake light as a braking marker. Twice now I've had guys fill up my rear view mirror with their face. Admittedly once the bulb had blown.😁 😁

Griff

RWG

Sp4

Oooooh, I am nursing one as we speak😯

Stokely

Welcome Roby beautifull bike, enjoy her😄

burtsp5

Brakelight Bulbs

griff851 wroteI fitted one to my 1983 S2 and 1990 851. This is what I found. Before fitting the floating caliper, when locked up, the rear end would jump about making horrible chain slapping noises, resulting in a juddering effect. I fitted it and a lock up turned into a greasy hip drivable back end. So from personal experience there is a marked difference. Both have long black type, I think its a PS 11 on the 851. I kinda reckon that the boffins figured out that by putting the smaller less grunty girlie man gold master cylinders on, the need to deal with the ease of locking up disappeared. Having said that I have to get around to fitting my girlie man master cylinder and rearsets one day. I have to tell you have ridden fair examples of almost every model produced by ducati from 73 till present with exception of early 750 and 900 Sports, 500 parallel twins, F1's, Paso's and early Tricolore's, 1198's, 1200 MTS's, and the Desmosidici. Desmosidici jaunt is coming up however. And I feel I can say that the small gold babies are limp wrist-ed with a fair amount of confidence. But I must also admit I have not been in a rear wheel lock up scenario on anything other than my own 2 bikes. So I do not know how the rear ends behave on any others in lock up. So how do they? Anyone? My personal feeling is that lock ups of any kind are detrimental to forward motion, and as such are to be generally avoided. In fact of late just generally using brakes is being avoided. One of the joys of higher compression. Makes it a bit of a bastard for those chasing you and using your brake light as a braking marker. Twice now I've had guys fill up my rear view mirror with their face. Admittedly once the bulb had blown.😁 😁 Griff

That makes me chuckle bringing back memories to when my ol man was in the RAC Car rallies many years back and to stop the car behind using your brake lights as markers to where the next corner was at night, they would fit a little switch so the nav could flick the brake lights off!!
Worked very well,😄 but i also agree with the compression engine braking, the multi japs do seem to get too close at times!
ATB Guy

Tony_Ducati

Mr.R wroteThe Corse style lower/below the swingingarm mounted calipers are floating and have an anchor rod attached between them and the engine cases, in thoery when you apply the rear brake the caliper wants to spin but it can't because the rod's holding it, so it pulls the suspension/wheel down into the track surface helping to prevent wheel hop and improving the braking. In practice it hardly made any difference, so much so that the last customer Corse bikes did away with it. It went the same way as the anti dive front forks and 16" wheels that at one time were fitted to almost every sports bike, but haven't been fitted for years now. Some owners swear by them, but I think of them as 'bling' and added weight that's not needed. Steve R

Am I correct in saying that the angle between the caliper attachment point, and the attachment point of the chassis (engine in the case of 851/888) has an effect on whether the suspension/wheel is pulled down into the track?

Somewhere in the old brain I'm also reminded of the fact/theory that by causing this "squat", it reduces the change of rake when you hit the front brakes.

Anyway, it looks cool, lowers the CoG and makes for something else to fail.

Which is why I did one. Too much for a Strada? It won't have 4 footpegs forever.

Mr.R

Just altering the size of the rear sprocket can alter the squat or anti-squat properties of the suspension, as can the ride height of the rear suspension.

The floating/underslung rear caliper was a blind ally that race bike developers went up, (similar to anti-dive front barkes) the last 888/926 Corse bikes did away with it, if it work/improved lap times they'd have kept it.

So IMO you and everyone else who's fitted one has bolted on extra dead weight to their bikes.

Steve R