Spaggiari leaning it over

Post pictures of your [pre-1985] Ducati racebikes along with a description here.
machten
MHR / S2
Posts: 478
Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Re: Spaggiari leaning it over

Post by machten »

OK Bruce....Good enough...If you'd like to come, you're in. If you'd like to emigrate to Oz, you're also in. (you just have to bring the bevels to qualify and wait until you take me on ride or two around your neck of the woods - and not when that snow and ice is around!!!)

Kev
User avatar
abmartin
SD900 Darmah
Posts: 323
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 5:08 pm
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Re: Spaggiari leaning it over

Post by abmartin »

D'accord Kev. That gives me plenty of time to line up a bike. I'm just putting mine away for the winter but you can come over anytime between May and October. I live in a beautiful area with lots of good roads.

Bruce
1979 900SS
Fredericton, NB
Canada
Ray O'Donohue
Parallel Twin
Posts: 119
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:11 am

Re: Spaggiari leaning it over

Post by Ray O'Donohue »

I'd suggest re "hanging off",that in those days it was as often as not a matter of riders simply finding themselves doing it as much as consciously deciding to give that method a try,It certainly was for me,on a GT750. For the very fast but short entrance right hander turn 10 at Summit Point the technique quickly became to hang off the side to an extreme while pulling very hard on the left handlebar,because otherwise that big long s.o.b. wouldn't turn,and once you got it levered over(via the front contact patch),it still wanted to straighten up and go straight.Once starting to exit,I would put my left hand under the left side of the gas tank and hoist myself back into the saddle,gassing it hard, as it straightened itself up.I bent the handlebars without a wreck, racing that bike,and it took all the strength I had to ride it at anything near what it was capable of.I had NO faith in the front end on low-speed turns
Conversly,I should add that going downhill into turn 5 was a wild exercise in those days for most bikes.When people crash on what is essentially a straightaway with a little dog leg,it's a rough track. There, a Ducati was pretty much the best handling bike,and that legendary hyper-stability was a great advantage.A guy told me recently that I always looked like a disaster about to happen on the way down that hill,but I had in fact found that you could just gas it and let it eat.All that wheelbase,rake,trail,and crankshaft and clutch inertia would take you on down there in a reasonably straight line,even tho the wheels were in only intermittent contact with the pavement!
Last edited by Ray O'Donohue on Wed Nov 13, 2013 9:18 am, edited 4 times in total.
Ray O'Donohue
Parallel Twin
Posts: 119
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:11 am

Re: Spaggiari leaning it over

Post by Ray O'Donohue »

Looking back nowadays as an "armchair only" rider,I now know of about a half dozen things I could easily have done to improve the handling on that beast.A softer front end,for one thing,would have helped.And we talked about cutting the steering head off and bringing it back,but that was not easy and I didn't have the nerve to do it! Well, it's a lot of fun to remember and think about.
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