[Redbrit]

I gots a question: On well, every bike I've owned, the front brake & clutch reservoirs have always been level, if not with the bars in "straight ahead" position, at some point in the bar range. My idea was this let you easily read and adjust level of the fluid. On my MTS ('16 S) both tanks are angled down toward the front of the bike. There's no point in the range of the bars that this angle goes away. I thought that maybe they were just misadjusted, but I loosened the mounting screw on the clutch side, and it doesn't rotate. It's like the mounting tab is indexed into the bracket. I haven't take it apart to look, but are they installed wrong? I'll try to post pics if I can't sort it out.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Strega]

I can't speak as to why your reservoir tanks are angled down — but they shouldn't be.

Here's Brembo's guidance regarding brake fluid reservoirs from their High Performance Brake Systems Catalog.

2.1. Choice of the reservoir

The capacity of the reservoir must be such that when the brake fluid is between the MIN and MAX levels (with the cover in a horizontal position) the volume is at least equal to that required by the brake pistons in case of maximum pad and rotor wear.

2.2. Mounting the reservoir

a.The reservoir must be mounted on the motorcycle in such a way that with the motorcycle in a vertical position, the reservoir upper border is horizontal.

b. With the motorcycle in a vertical position, the MIN level indication on the reservoir must be higher than the master cylinder fluid inlet pipe fitting.

 

[Redbrit]

Okay, to see if this helps, here is the brake side reservoir:



And here is the clutch side:



And here is a shot of the bike head on:



I looked at the mounting of the brake reservoir, and there's no way to rotate it independently of the mounting piece. As I mentioned, the same appears to be true for the clutch reservoir. Looking at the head-on view, do the handguards look to be rotated downward farther than they're supposed to be? From the saddle the angle of my hands to the levers appears correct. If I rotated the levers/guards upward to level the reservoirs, It would seem that my fingers would be parallel to the ground, which I doubt would be comfortable or give a good working position.

Suggestions appreciated!

 

[Strega]

The handle bars are adjustable in rotation about the center stem. The reservoirs are fixed to the handlebars. So when you rotate the handlebars up to your preferred position, the reservoirs are then also rotated — they're only horizontal at one handlebar position.

 

[Redbrit]

Went back to the dealer and got the universal answer:
"They're all like that..."
:frown2:

 

[Wolverine1]

Went back to the dealer and got the universal answer:
"They're all like that..."
:frown2:

And it bothers you because??

Being that I work on bikes daily, I deal with this frequently.

Make the res level, adjust fluid height, return res to where it was and carry on. Easy. :wink2:

 

[ColoradoRider]

Unfortunately, the hand guard, lever, and reservoir angles are not independent. I wish they were. This is true for the '10-14 non-DVT generation as well.

Ducati could have easily used the standard Brembo lever clamp, and designed their own, separate clamp for the hand guards. This would have eliminated the proprietary, ugly (in my opinion) 4 bolt clamp, and made the levers and hand guards independently adjustable.

The hand guard design is just crap. Even the aluminum off-road kit (OEM manufacturer was Acerbis) ( ono longer available) used this mounting method, which sucked. They provided a really good, crash resistant, aluminum hand guard, but they were also angled down too much to most effectively block wind.

I digress and will stop ranting about that. One thing you might want to check out, if the reservoir angle bothers you, is the Rizoma reservoir mounting brackets. The angles are adjustable, but I am pretty sure they will not work with the OEM Brembo reservoirs. You might have to get their gawd-awful expensive reservoirs too. That being said, I don't believe that angle is dangerous if you keep an eye on the fluid.

Sorry if I rambled. It's late.

 

[SDRider]

Even if it was level with the bike on the center stand it wouldn’t be when on the side stand, which is probably where it will be most of the time anyway.

 

[Redbrit]

Even if it was level with the bike on the center stand it wouldn’t be when on the side stand, which is probably where it will be most of the time anyway.

It's not level a fair bit of the time you're riding, either. The time for it to be level is when you're checking the fluid or bleeding the system. The effective capacity is lower, the accuracy of checking the level is reduced, and the chance of a spill is increased. I take all of that as a given when they're cocked like they are. Add in that I don't like the way they look, and I've got two reasons to dislike the positioning.

But hey, it may just be me...