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Ducati 1098 Suspension Tuning

Monday, May 07, 2007
The new Ducati 1098 has really put Ducati back at the front of the Motorcycle design. The articles and pictures have been out for months but until the last few weeks not many were in customers hands.

The first SportbikeTrackTime event at Gratten, Michigan gave me the chance to tune and evaluate the handling and suspension of the 1098. This is the base model with Showa components and it is a great bargain.
Ducati choice to use Showa over Sacks Boge was a good one. The Showa suspension on the Ducati 1098 will work for most street riders and the occasional track day rider. The biggest complaint I have with stock suspension is that OEM's use light springs in the front and heavy springs in the back. It's a myth that a bike is set up for a 150 lbs rider or for a certain rider.

I am happy to report that the Duati 1098 comes with springs that will work with most riders. This is very rare and I really never see this from any suspension manufactuer. I was able to put a 190lbs rider on the bike and have plenty of room for whatever SAG number that I chose to run. This amount of adjustment will let the suspension work for many riders.
Once the springs were properly set for the rider I was able to move on and see how well the forks were going to shape up. On the fork rebound side the bike was able to be set up without running out of adjustment. Turning to the Compression setting the bike tuned up just well enough to get a nice feel and proper setting.
The rear Showa shock also has rebound and compression settings that were easy to work with. The rear shock had enough rebound adjustment to get the desired setting that I was looking for. The only week side of the shock was that the compression circuit ran out of adjustment before I could find the ideal setting that was needed.

To get the bike balanced the front forks had to be set soft due to the weeker shock compression circuit. The bike was set and ready for a few test sessions out on the track. Here is where the bike goes from a score of 9 to 8 out of 10. While it scores very high on my scale for OEM suspension the downside is actually due to the brakes on the bike.


The Ducati 1098 is equipped with the best set of brakes I have come across from a stock bike. The Brembo brakes are everything that a rider could dream of. It will take a lot of cash to better the brakes on the 1098. The Master Cylinders are Brembo production radials and the Mono block calipers will leave you selling everything in your garage on ebay just to be able to have a set.
Still this is the downfall of the Showa suspension. The High speed compression that is in the forks can't handle the force when those Brembo brakes dig in. The bike dives hard and bottoms out on suspension setting that should be set on the money for a perfect ride. So the forks have to set to compensate for the Brembo brakes. This results in a harsher than necassery ride.
So how does the 1098 get to a 10 out of 10 for suspension? What needs to be done? Well the basics and then some custom tuning will come into play. On the front Ohlins can supply the revalving components and a good tuner will be able to figure out the rest. As for the rear Ohlins is once again at the forefront. Ohlins introduced a affordable rear shock with High speed compression but there won't be many to go around because of the low price and high demand for the unit.
I'm sure that with a little work the 1098 will be one of the best handling motorcycle that a rider can put on a race course. After a little tuning this bike has showed that it is one of the best bikes available on the market today. the base model is a very good wise choice for parting between you and your money.

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