[Ducati] Frame slider feedback

[Mark Hatten]

A couple of thoughts on frame sliders in general:

1)  They are "sacrificial" elements -- the are meant to die in a crash so 
the rest of your bike may live, so you shouldn't be upset if you have to 
replace one after a crash.

2)  No frame slider should be expected to protect your bike in a tumble. 
There's *way* to much energy taking place once a bike starts to tumble. 
I've seen frames bent, swingarms bent, wheels bent, forks bent, forks ripped 
completely off, etc., when a bike starts to tumble.  Even a low-speed (30-40 
mph) tumble tends to do a lot of damage to a bike.

3)  As they say with helmets, give me the details of your crash before it 
happens and I'll design the perfect helmet for it.  Every design is a 
compromise -- you want the sliders strong enough to hold up when sliding, 
but you want them weak enough to snap off when things turn ugly so they 
don't do even more damage to the frame/engine.

4)  Ducati sliders tend to be very long due to the narrow engine and the 
wide tank.  This leverage puts a lot of force on their mounting points.  If 
you use a engine-bolt mounted slider like Cycle Cat, they design their 
aluminum mounting bung to be strong enough to support the bike while 
sliding, but weak enough to shear when a force/impact is applied that is 
great enough that would damage the frame or cases.  Obviously, that's not an 
exact science.

I've used Cycle Cat sliders on my Superbike racebikes for a long time now, 
and they've served me as well as could be expected.  They aren't perfect, 
but nothing is.

To my non-engineer eye, the Axljak slider seems to be the best of the 
bunch -- mounted using the engine like the Cycle Cat sliders, but with the 
additional "outrigger" that bolts to the frame.  I might try those next 
go-round.

I think Alex Ortner did a lot of the R&D on the Cycle Cat sliders way back 
when, so he can probably weigh in with his insight on their design.


Mark Hatten
Wounded Duc -- Used Ducati Parts Online
Home of the "Loud Clutches Save Lives" T-Shirts
www.woundedduc.net
(Note the URL change!)
AMA Pro #352
AHRMA #52 (#1 for 2007)


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----- Original Message ----- 
From: <DESMOBOY at aol.com>
To: <Ducati at ducati.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 6:21 PM
Subject: [Ducati] Frame slider feedback


> Hello. I had some Cycle Cat through bodywork frame sliders that didn't
> overhwelm me when the bike took a tumble (I had to replace bodywork and a 
> frame
> slider). It looks like the following are in the biz:
> -speedymoto
> -axljak
> -motovation
> -woodcraft
> -cycle cat
> The  axljak and woodcraft design seems stronger but needs some space on 
> the
> frame to work. Anybody have positive results with any of these?  Thank 
> you.
> Rob
>
>
>
>
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