[dietrichpfeifer]

Hey all, I'm still rolling around on my GT and have racked up about 43,000 miles, gettiing ready to do my 45k service soon. Just thought I would post up my most recent mod: Front fender slim down.

I have never liked how wide the stock GT fender is, and have been coveting the stock fenders found on Monsters for their slimmer lines and how they seemed to hug the tire a little better. A buddy gave me a fender to play with so I cut off the stock mounts and fabbed up some little brackets to use the stock GT brackets. I turned it around backwards so it would cover the rear of the tire more like the old bikes did. It's rattle canned black for now, but I have plans to paint the bike down the road, so that will be remedied someday.

I also just got done cleaning up the front head. Used brake cleaner, brass brushes, steel wool, an old tooth brush, and lots of elbow grease to strip the old baked and cracked stock crappy paint. Now it's finally clean (stock paint was melted and yellow/stained since about 10,000 miles).

Another quick freshen-up I did was order some new Termignoni decals printed on foil, purchased from an online vendor (found on eBaY I believe). The old decals were baked from dyno runs and track days and had got torn from bumping up against things. He did a great job and the new decals seem better quality than stock. Time will tell.

Here's a couple of pics of how my bike sits now...interested on feedback on the lines of the new fender.

 

[LA-DUC]

Looks good D. The Black fender is nice. Funny how those new stickers "pop" a lot more visually on the pipe.

 

[DGJ]

I dig it a lot. good work.

 

[goldberm]

fender looks slick. nice work.

...and if you could be so kind to indulge me...what seat is that? i like its slimmer look. and are those handlebars lower than stock?

 

[barfer]

Looks great, D!

 

[egrafx2006]

Looks great. Unique like the rest of your. 45,000, wow.

 

[GreyDuck]

As always Dietrich a job well done,I actually like the fender in black.

 

[Duccout]

Hi Dietrich! you don't have any fork guards; have you needed to replace the fork seals?

 

[redbcgraygt]

Lookin good your Termis look like you just got em. The bike looks great and unique.

 

[dietrichpfeifer]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

...and if you could be so kind to indulge me...what seat is that? i like its slimmer look. and are those handlebars lower than stock?

That's actually the stock seat that I cut down a little and had recovered by Sargent out of Florida per my design. They salvaged the rear panel of the stock seat to keep the lettering. It's held up great, just like the day I got it with over 30,000 miles on it. Seat is still too wide for my taste though.

The bars are aluminum "Superbike Low" bars by LSL. I have them rolled back quite a bit to reduce the reach and keep the grips even lower. I purchased them from Spiegler: http://www.spieglerusa.com/cfm/Handlebars.cfm?type=SuperbikeLenker

Hi Dietrich! you don't have any fork guards; have you needed to replace the fork seals?

I have not replaced the seals and have never run gaurds, no leaks at all. I simply keep the lowers clean after every ride per a suggestion I read from DucEditor on this site when I first got the bike. The forks are now showing some wear in the bushings though. I'm trying to replace them with adjustable showas, but that's another story/adventure.

 

[poolagent]

Nice job… the fender reminds me to the one Ducati Saarland is offering… but much more expensive.

If you are happy with the fork, why not just replace bushings, change oil and go for it!

 

[GTRossi]

cool - and subtle, as is typical of your mods

after stripping off the paint, are you gonna leave the head natural, or re-coat it?

 

[Riderjeff]

+++

Very clever and clean front fender. Looks about the same width as the DP chrome job.

 

[dietrichpfeifer]

Thanks again! Forgot to mention my uber-custom drilled out monster passenger pegs....soon to be powder coated matte black I hope.

Nice job… the fender reminds me to the one Ducati Saarland is offering… but much more expensive.

If you are happy with the fork, why not just replace bushings, change oil and go for it!

I looked forever trying to find a fender I liked and one day realized the Monster fender had the shape I was looking for. The Saarland one is nice too!

Well, I've never liked the stock forks. A long time ago I did adjust the preload with a spacer to get my sag to about 30mm and changed the stock 7.5 wt oil out for 5wt and that helped a TON...but it still sucks pretty bad. The damping is horrible and has too much brake dive with the 5wt, even though that's what it took to speed up the fork enough to take the edge off the bumps. I was going to rebuild them and use heavier oil on the compression leg (left leg handles compression damping, right leg handles rebound)....but if I'm going to put that much work into them I would rather start with fully adjustable forks.

after stripping off the paint, are you gonna leave the head natural, or re-coat it?

Just leaving it bare. When I pull the heads eventually to replace the valve guides I'm going to finish the stripping on both heads. Would love to strip and polish the engine case covers also, and even get rid of the battleship grey of the case. I have several parts on the bike that are bare and don't seem to have any trouble with corrosion around here, even with the occasional rain, mud, California trips, etc. Just buff them up with some Wenol metal polish once a year or so.

 

[poolagent]

Well, I've never liked the stock forks. A long time ago I did adjust the preload with a spacer to get my sag to about 30mm and changed the stock 7.5 wt oil out for 5wt and that helped a TON...but it still sucks pretty bad. The damping is horrible and has too much brake dive with the 5wt, even though that's what it took to speed up the fork enough to take the edge off the bumps. I was going to rebuild them and use heavier oil on the compression leg (left leg handles compression damping, right leg handles rebound)....but if I'm going to put that much work into them I would rather start with fully adjustable forks.

This could be a good choice… and a cheap deal!

http://cgi.ebay.de/Ducati-1000er-Mo...aftradteile?hash=item4a9cdb9fa8#ht_500wt_1182

I'd ask the seller if he ships to the States

 

[Libertarian]

This could be a good choice… and a cheap deal!

http://cgi.ebay.de/Ducati-1000er-Mo...aftradteile?hash=item4a9cdb9fa8#ht_500wt_1182

I'd ask the seller if he ships to the States

Hey hands off, those are mine

 

[dietrichpfeifer]

Hey hands off, those are mine

I'm watching them tooooooo..... Despite my name, I can't speak German....so I used google translator and was able to ask him if he would ship to the US. He said "The dispatch with DHL would cost 65.00 EUR! Of course, I would be willing to send the fork towards there!"