The Zard has landed. - Ducati.ms

Treadmarks · Feb 28th, 2009, 8:00 am

I just had the batalax BT016s installed on thursday, and when I get home friday the Zard Penta slip on is on the front waiting for me to install it. Thanks desmoTony for the quick shipping and the good deal.!

The adventure multistrada ss skidplate should be here next week and I am still looking for the perfect handlebar that fits me and has 9" of real estate of both sides to mount all the factory goodies plus a few extra items.

Fresh out of th box this baby looked fine. Light weight, lotsa carbon and stainless steel. Instructions were kinda lame and not much detail but basically you remove the old one and put on the new one. How hard could it be?

Simce I just punched out my stock exhaust last week, I still had all the tools laying out to remove the factory unit. I had it stripped in about 20 minutes, and another 20 minutes to install the penta. The inlet that clamps to the factory mid pipe slipped right on but has no slits to help the clamp compress tightly. With the clamp tight and the rear mounting bolt secured, I was ready for a quick test sound. HOLT SHEIT this pipe sounds good. Much more mellow tone than the punched out stocker. Bike is very civil when you're just idling, but when you twist the throttle it sounds so "track only".

I gave up last night as i could not figure out how to make the supplied carbon trim bits fill in the gaps the penta left in the factory tail section. I will also have to fab up some sort of tag bracket that will let me use my new custom tag set up too.

All in all quite pleased with the purchase from Desmoworks and the service from DesmoTony. I will snap a few pics of the trim issues today maybe someone here has and idea that could help out.

Ride on!

webspoke · Feb 28th, 2009, 8:53 am

On my top guns, the side trim fillers were reversed. I swapped them side to side and everything fit great. I've read about this once before at least.

AXE · Feb 28th, 2009, 9:51 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by webspoke

On my top guns, the side trim fillers were reversed. I swapped them side to side and everything fit great. I've read about this once before at least.

Ditto!

You will love the Zards. Pretty soon you will add the header kit and she will bark!

Out!

Treadmarks · Feb 28th, 2009, 8:28 pm

Wow man the zards are da bomb. Just got back from a nice 30 minute test ride and they sound sooo nice. Just putting around they are not much louder than stock, just a little more deeper/more mellow. Get into the throttle an these babies bark big time. They don't sound as good when you're backing off the gas, but they more than make up for it every where else. Considerable power increase throughout idle to red line. Mid range pulls very strong now. Will adjust the throttle bodies and do a tps reset tomorrow.

I left the blinkers up high with the termi mount so I wound up scrapping the factory (zard) plate/blinker mount. I modded a left over uly tidy tail to use as a mount for my billet plate mount.

Wasn't too happy with the seal between the ducati pipe and the zard inlet connection.

Pros: Baddass looks, baddass sound, sweet looking welds, noticeable difference in power and great Sales/service experience from desmoworks.

Cons: Poor connection at joint, poor trim pieces. strong but useless (for me) plate mount.

bullet3z · Feb 28th, 2009, 10:46 pm

We need photos............

AXE · Feb 28th, 2009, 11:28 pm

Once you add the headers the sound you get when rolling off the throttle is great. I think with the cat, it just doesn't creates to much back pressure and muffles the sound. Also, the compression braking is much smoother with the cat eliminated. It make a nice difference in the tight stuff when rolling on and off alot.

I too modified the Zard tail kit to a minimum and it is much better. They come equipped to handle the giant Euro plates and stock blinkers. I run Motrax LEDs so I didn't need the bulk.

I installed my Top Guns as a slip on initially and don't recall a problem with the pipe connection, nor do I with the header. I do occasionally get the water dribling some black soot down the pipe, which indictes the seal isn't tight when cold. I had the same effect with the stock setup.

bullet, I have several pictures of the Zards posted as well as some sound clips, you just have to search to find them.

Out!

nemesisHM · Mar 1st, 2009, 1:52 am

I installed the penta full system a week or so ago, and then took it in and had the dp race edu, pcIII and filter installed today, and then spent a few hours on the dyno.. Wow, outside of just sounding bad ass, she runs like a dream.

Treadmarks · Mar 1st, 2009, 5:58 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by AXE

Once you add the headers the sound you get when rolling off the throttle is great. I think with the cat, it just doesn't creates to much back pressure and muffles the sound. Also, the compression braking is much smoother with the cat eliminated. It make a nice difference in the tight stuff when rolling on and off alot.
Out!

I have the LV cat eliminator, no flapper and the servo motor removed, DP race (slipon) ECU and O2 removed as well. So I'm pretty sure the only sound muffling going on is in the muffler it'self.

The decell with the punched out stock can was pretty baddass, maybe the zard will need to break in a little.

The idle seem a little loopy when first started, may need to check the air bleeds? Anyone else had to adjust the air bleeds after installing the zards???

Treadmarks · Mar 3rd, 2009, 7:10 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullet3z

We need photos............

bullet3z · Mar 3rd, 2009, 2:54 pm

I do not think there is another system out there that looks close to the same as this one. Am I the only one that thinks it looks like it came from a 999 or something along that line? I think it is a lot nicer than the top gun version.

How does it look from the side?