Ducati 848 Windscreen Change

When I got my '08 Ducati 848 Superbike at Christmas 2015, it wore the tinted screen shown in the pic above. Now, I am not a fan of tinted screens, no not one bit - but it seems that almost every bike I have bought has had one, installed by a previous owner. This includes not only this 848, but my '95 Ducati 900SS/SP and our '86 GSX-R1100.

Despite their undoubted utility in helping keep sun off the instruments, I've always thought that tinted screens were pretty tacky, and I replaced them immediately with clear ones.

In the case of the 848, the stock clear screen was included in the sale, but it was scratched and I didn't want to remount it on the bike. I also wasn't enthusiastic about $pending hundred$ on a new stock screen from Ducati... so I had a look on eBay and found a brand-new double bubble screen from a Chinese vendor for less than $30 including shipping. It had to be worth a try at that price!

The screen took quite awhile to arrive but when it did it looked good, quite thick and substantial. Then I went to mount it and discovered that I needed a Torx screwdriver for the windscreen screws. No problem right? WRONG... nobody in town had a T7 Torx driver for a sensible price. So back to eBay again and a set of T5-T8 Torx drivers were on the way from China to my house, for less than $5 all in.
 

So last weekend I unbolted the stock screen and had a go at installing the new one. The Chinese replica fit well, the only flaw was a partially drilled mounting hole that was easy to drill out myself. Installation was a bit of a pain though...

There are two screws at the very front of the screen that you have to be really careful with, as the rubber nutserts can easily fall down into the nether regions at the front of the bike. I held onto them with long visegrips as I undid them, but it was impossible to hold them from behind when installing the new screen. I ended up supergluing the nutserts to the screen itself. This worked a treat and allowed me to thread in the Torx bolts with no problems. I figure if I need to change screens again I'll just carefully peel them off, or failing that, buy new nutserts.

I can't see wanting to go back to a tinted screen though. To my eyes the clear stock item looks so much better. Not sure it'll block as much breeze though as it's a lot lower than the tinted job. I haven't licensed the bike to go for a ride yet so maybe I'll update this post once I do.

Nice, eh?

 

Oh yeah... while we're on the topic of mods, I added a nice carbon fibre front fender as well. I love carbon and I think it looks pretty sharp :-)

UPDATE: I had the bike out for a ride a couple weeks ago, with the new clear screen. I didn't notice a real significant difference from the old one. Still a torturous riding position, but an amazing ride :-)

Spring Awakening

"Euro ride height" is a term that's bandied about a lot in car enthusiast circles. The thought is that North American cars come riding higher from the factory than cars sold in the rest of the world.

Be that as it may, the fact is that Volkswagen GTIs of the last several generations have had ridiculous stock stance. Never mind two fingers; you could nearly put your whole fist into the gap between the top of the tire and the fender on my previous MKV and my new MKVII GTI.

MKV on stock suspension and 17" wheels

MKV with H&R Sports and 18" wheels

I fixed this issue on the old MKV with a set of excellent H&R sport springs. Apart from some installation issues on the part of the shop (they cut the ABS and traction control wires when they got in the way of the install), the springs were great and performed admirably all the time I had the car. They looked fantastic - like the car should look - and tightened up the handling considerably with no apparent effect on reliability of the stock dampers. 

Anyway, once I got my new '15 GTI I fully intended that it be modified for "better low" as well. After researching the various spring solutions, I settled on the very popular combination of VWR Sport springs and ECS Tuning "flush kit" wheel spacers - 15mm front and 20mm rear.

Earlier this week I had the springs installed by a local shop, Speed Factor Racing (I'd installed the spacers myself when I changed out the winter wheels for summers) and wow, what a difference!

MKVII, spacers only

 

MKVII with ECS "flush kit" and VWR springs

 

Not only is the appearance of the car greatly improved (it now looks like it should), the handling is transformed too. This thing now corners absolutely flat, just the way I like it. Ride quality is always going to be somewhat affected, but it's not bad - firm but not harsh. Plus, the VWR springs are linear rate units that are promoted as safe for stock dampers, and that's important, since I have no intention of changing those parts out.

I love this modification. The next thing I need to do, though, is fit either a skidplate or a steel oilpan. The stock one is plastic composite and I wouldn't trust it on winter ruts. But that mod can wait a bit as I'm planning on enjoying the car to the full this summer! 

Props to Deutsche Auto Parts (springs), golfmk7.com forum user nicholam77 (spacers) and Speed Factor Racing (install).