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338 Posts
The plug in the picture was lost on a long fast ride back home two weekends ago. Wonderful ride and showed how nice a DB2 realy is at speed.
So I asked Bob and he said he could get it, if I could not find it at a local Ducati dealer. I tried but they are as useless as a bike with flat tires. So I tried another Ducati shop that had helped me in the past when every local shop was a two week wait +++. He could not help. I posted on line here and got not much help, I posted on line in Europe and got a few ideas. I posted on line with a Moto Guzzi group (My wifes bike is an SP1000) and got more replies in 4 hours than others gave me in a week. Shame shame.
I decided to slug it out because I did not have the time to ride but the time to look. I have a few machinist tools and used them to figure out it could be an 18mm fine thread (also some ideas from the Guzzi group and one guy who offered up a spare plug he has.) so I bought a 18 x 1.5 mm bolt and tested it. Seemed to fit, so I got a oil plug of the same size but it did not! WTF :think:
I had contaced the guy with the spare plug at this point to get his plug, even if I just use it to make sure what it is I have and send it back, it will be worth it. A machinist friend came over tonight and we found it could be a 18 x 1 or perhaps 18 x 1.25. Measuring threads in a small hole is not eazy and the dif between 1 and 1.25 pitch is also hard to see. Not only that but threads are not just simple twists on a rod. They can be VERY complicated and I would not put it past Bimota to have found the one thing we will all kill to get in the future.
I will beat this stupid little plug and I will post it here and all the other Bimota web groups I belong to so the next poor bastard can look it up. (Of course the subject line of Mission Impossible will make finding it just that.)
I'll let you know, but in the mean time if there is a machinist with a DB2 and that plug I would love to know the thread pitch on this puppy.
Andreas
Catimann

So I asked Bob and he said he could get it, if I could not find it at a local Ducati dealer. I tried but they are as useless as a bike with flat tires. So I tried another Ducati shop that had helped me in the past when every local shop was a two week wait +++. He could not help. I posted on line here and got not much help, I posted on line in Europe and got a few ideas. I posted on line with a Moto Guzzi group (My wifes bike is an SP1000) and got more replies in 4 hours than others gave me in a week. Shame shame.
I decided to slug it out because I did not have the time to ride but the time to look. I have a few machinist tools and used them to figure out it could be an 18mm fine thread (also some ideas from the Guzzi group and one guy who offered up a spare plug he has.) so I bought a 18 x 1.5 mm bolt and tested it. Seemed to fit, so I got a oil plug of the same size but it did not! WTF :think:
I had contaced the guy with the spare plug at this point to get his plug, even if I just use it to make sure what it is I have and send it back, it will be worth it. A machinist friend came over tonight and we found it could be a 18 x 1 or perhaps 18 x 1.25. Measuring threads in a small hole is not eazy and the dif between 1 and 1.25 pitch is also hard to see. Not only that but threads are not just simple twists on a rod. They can be VERY complicated and I would not put it past Bimota to have found the one thing we will all kill to get in the future.
I will beat this stupid little plug and I will post it here and all the other Bimota web groups I belong to so the next poor bastard can look it up. (Of course the subject line of Mission Impossible will make finding it just that.)
I'll let you know, but in the mean time if there is a machinist with a DB2 and that plug I would love to know the thread pitch on this puppy.
Andreas
Catimann