[Ducati] New Monster 695 sliding back wheel - HELP

[Devin Hosea]

Fellow Ducatistas,

I took my brand new (70 miles on it) MONSTER out this morning for a spin in
35 degree weather.  After riding about 40 miles, I thought the tires were
warmed up, and I had exceeded the 100 miles odo reading needed to get the
plastic off the tires or whatever.  So, I started to take some curves at
some speed and with some decent lean.  The first time, my rear tire slid
about 3 inches and then grabbed again and I was fine but my heart was in my
mouth.  I stopped, checked the pressure, checked the tire, it looked
properly worn in, and it was warm to the touch.  Hmmm.  So I tried it again,
at a little less speed with more lean, and it happened again, this time only
an inch.

Then, I couldn¹t get it to do much sliding the rest of the ride (another 50
miles), but I was being intentionally cautious as I did not want to ruin my
day with a low side crash at 50 mph on a road in NJ farmland.

Here¹s my analysis:  This is a new bike; incredibly responsive throttle,
with great, near perfect suspension.  As a result, it really shifts weight
from tire to tire depending on how you sit, when you break, AND MOST
IMPORTANTLY, whether you are accelerating or decelerating.  It¹s like a
speedboat ­ when you¹re accelerating, the front is up in the air, and when
you are decelerating the front is down, and the back moves up in the air.

I think I went into some of these curves still decelerating, not using the
break, but simply ³engine breaking² by rolling off the throttle (not
changing gears either).  The Monster is so responsive, that when you roll of
the throttle, it doesn¹t coast, it starts to actively slow down ­ brake,
really.  Here¹s my plan:

(1) Make sure to get ALL breaking (anything that slows the bike) done BEFORE
the curve, and gently accelerate through the curve, to keep the weight
firmly on the back wheel ­ so, it won¹t slide.

(2) Hit the curve at a lower rpm, in a higher gear, so that if I can¹t
maintain gradual acceleration (sometimes hard in tight curves), at least I
won¹t be decelerating -- in other words, take advantage of the fact that the
bike does not ³grab² the engine so hard at lower RPMs (assuming you are in
the right gear)...does that make sense?

(3) Move my weight (180 pounds on a 380 pound bike) back on the seat.

Basically, I wish that my bike did not decelerate rather abruptly when I
roll of the throttle, but rather decelerated gently.  That way, it wouldn¹t
shift the weight to the front wheel, which I think is the root cause of my
back wheel sliding ‹ too little weight on it in the turn.  I had no problems
when I was accelerating out of the turn, it was only in the beginning of the
turn, when I was probably still slowing down.

Which raises 

(4) Pull in the clutch and coast into the turn ‹ but this seems risky
because re-engaging would be breaking in a turn, a big no-no, as it would
eat up the available traction to me.

What should I do to keep plenty of weight on my back wheel and prevent
slippage while cornering?  Is gradually accelerating through a turn much
more important on a ³high performance bike² than on the crappy old Honda I
rode in college (where I could pretty much do whatever I wanted and it would
never slip in turns)...and back then I was a much more aggressive rider.

Thanks for any tips here,

Devin

PS) Another question for anyone with a 695 ­ why is the gear ratio in 1st so
low?  I can do 25mph comfortably in FIRST.  But getting started took some
getting used to.  Even my instructor at MSF noted that the 695¹s first gear
was more like a normal bike¹s second.  Can you replace a gear with a new
sprocket with more teeth?  I would like to have a nice low first gear...


On 3/5/07 6:30 AM, "ducati-request at ducati.net" <ducati-request at ducati.net>
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