Trading Paint On The 999

So while I was out of town, the rebuild of the 999 got into full swing and surprisingly it was a rather painless process. Much simpler then the last time I dealt with the insurance company back in 2004 when the 749′s were stolen. This time around the insurance company cut a check for repairs in record time – though frankly I suspect this was a pretty easy deal in their eyes since after all it was a single vehicle accident.

The only real concern was just how big the repair estimate would turn out to be, because, as my insurance rep pointed out, if the estimate hit or exceeded 70% of the bike’s current blue book value the insurance company would declare it totaled. But that didn’t happen, as the estimate came in just under the magic mark… Though to be honest, I’ve got no idea what blue book they’re using since Ducati 999 prices are currently plummeting on the used market… But perhaps that’s a discussion best left for the Ducati-Superbike Forum

So the other day I popped over to Alex White’s shop on La Brea Ave in LA and counter-signed the payout check in order to get the rebuild process really started. As I type this, Alex is busy filling and parting a laundry list of bits for the bike. It is rather remarkable how many pieces one must repair or replace for a simple 20-30 mph get off…

Of course the list of parts that are required to repair the machine depends greatly on what that machine is being asked to do. It’s form follows function with a bit of purpose tossed in… In this particular case, after much deliberation, the old man and I have come to the conclusion that it’s time to give the 999 a new lease on life… It’s time to simplify it’s purpose in the garage.

So with that in mind, we’ve decided to have the bike reborn as a dedicated trackday machine.

That is to say, not a race bike, but a machine intended for enjoying the track — I have no delusions of grandeur here, I’m not a racer, and perhaps never will be one. (Though at some point I’d like to try chasing an amateur license but for a variety of reasons right now isn’t that moment). Therefore nothing is going to be safety wired and we’re not tearing down the engine or doing anything that is remotely headed down the path of dedication required to ‘go racing’.

Instead what we’re after is a machine built to mean something to us and not a lap timer.

Yet the decision to take a production street bike and turn it into a trackday toy still means a fair number of additions and subtractions. For starters a whole bunch of stuff is getting jettisoned, such as the mirrors, kickstand, and stock master brake cylinder (which is broken). The busted headlight assembly is also on it’s way out and will be replaced with a racing styled fairing stay.

However mechanically the biggest change will be a new clutch — and not just any clutch — but a brand new STM slipper clutch… Without a doubt this is the part I’m most looking forward to and frankly it was an easy call since the OEM stock clutch got pretty well torn up by the get off…

Cosmetically, a bunch of stuff is also getting swapped out. MotorMilt and I have never really been keen on the fact that the ’9 was a biposto. Now seems like the perfect time to fix that, so in short order the OEM biposto rear subframe will soon find its way to eBay and will subsequently be replaced with a monoposto tail. The stock fairings are also on the way out and will be replaced with a set of Catalyst Racing Composites which will be adorned with Dzuz fasteners for easy on and off of the plastics…

Of course the new bodywork has created a new question, since in effect we’re now staring at a blank canvass — What do we want the reborn 999 to look like?

A whole bunch of ideas have crossed my mind thus far, and quite possibly all of this could change yet again, but at the moment my thinking is that I’d like to do something tasteful, but Italian… Something that’s clean, but not blingy or poser-ish… One of the things that keeps sticking in my mind is that whenever I’m at the track and see other race-replica Ducati’s they almost always seem relatively similar. Most of the time they either follow the Bayliss Xerox look or are derivatives of the Marlboro GP look. Nothing wrong with either one, but I feel like I’d like to do something a little different… And in strange twist of fate, it’s a former project of ours that lead to the inspiration…

Last year we did a few short webisodes for the Discovery Turbo website under the name ‘Amazing Machines’ and in one of them we got a chance to take a Lamborghini Gallardo out for a spin. Obviously the car is great fun, but it’s only slightly out of my price range — well, actually it’s well out of my price range — what isn’t however is the color!

Most of the time Lambo’s are outrageously colored — that’s what they’re known for! — but in this particular case the car that they lent us was a brilliant gun metal gray and the image of the car has stuck with me ever since. It was clearly Italian, but clean. Simple. Glossy but not overtly showy. And I dug it. So at the moment the thinking is that we’re going to try and replicate that same color for most of the fairings.

But an entirely gray bike seems a touch dull, no? So assuming everything works out in terms of the rebuild budget, the plan at the moment is to do an Italian flag look (ok, ok, that’s not so creative, but alas it is an Italian machine!), only instead of the more atypical ‘hardlined’ racing belly pan looks, what I’d like to see happen is something that feels more organic and ‘swoopy’ without being a Nike swoosh… Perhaps that makes sense, perhaps it doesn’t. At the moment Matt Polosky of Color Zone Designs is mulling the scheme over and we’ll see what he thinks/comes up…