Resurrecting the Ducati 996s

[Rttoys]

Although I’m the 3rd owner, I have a long history with this bike. It’s my baby and I’m never getting rid of it. it’s a 1999 Ducati 996s. Only (roughly) 200 were made that year and 600 made the 3 years of its production. I have #5 out of 600 total. I use to ride it on the street, then kind of parked it. It’s not really street friendly at all. Back then, Ducati was strictly a race bike. commonly known as “the Ferrari of motorcycles”. They would take their race bikes and put lights on it to sell to the public for street use. If you are not running it all out, it just won’t run right.

to make a long story short, when I was looking for a dedicated track bike, I had one sitting in front of me, but I didn’t want to “hurt” it. After some thought, I figured, You know, it’s mine, if I mess it up, it’s my fault. Let’s put it where it supposed to be. I tracked it at the late Texas world speedway and circuit of the americas. She has long legs and needs to stretch. Short tracks are not her game.

well, about 5 years ago, her Italian bitchyness arose and didn’t want to go over 6k rpm when I was at COTA. Parked it and ran the 300. Well, I have a quest to run certain tracks to say I have ran them. I have less than 10 on that list. Since I’m not working, this looks like a good year to knock a few off the list, starting with Barber motorsports in Alabama. In June I’m making that happen. The track day organization for there requires you to take beginner level, unless you have a race license. I have my CMRA license for 8 years now, so I can run expert. Sweet. I plan on running the 300 ninja, but want a backup, since I’m traveling so far for a 2 day event. Not to mention, it’s a longer track, the 300 will be fine, but a bigger bike will be better, so let’s get the “Italian *****” back up and running.

to get me back where I was 5 Years ago, I need a battery and fuel pump. Then “fix” what I think was wrong from before. Then I can move on to fixing or prepping for the track weekend.

here’s what I’m working with. More to come ….

 

[Rttoys]

Here is mine and my buddy’s 996s’s

 

[Rttoys]

Can’t talk about my ducky without this. Me and my pikes peak crew member did a track day at cota Together. I was on the 996 and he was on a Yamaha fz8. Power to weight was almost identical, so it was all “skill” on who passed who. Volume down for language

 

[Rttoys]

First thing is a battery and fuel pump. The battery is toast and the fuel pump is locked up because of our great gas we have. The battery I use is smaller than the original Because the original is a huge 25 year old lead acid based that can spill over in high lean angles, plus is heavy. The upgrade battery I use is sealed, smaller and lighter with the same cca and such.

 

[comegetjoe]

I had a hot wheels of this bike when I was younger. I didn't know the production numbers though, this is a neat story. Absolutely stunning.

 

[Scott Geyer]

I bought my 2001 996 new. BST Wheels were a great performance upgrade. I will also never sell it

 

[Rttoys]

It is by far the most sexy bike ever made. When the 916 came out in ‘94, it was way ahead of its time in looks and performance and It completely dominated all racing series. the 916/996/998 has always been on my list of bikes to ride and would be awesome to own.

Let me backtrack the story a bit:

So in 1999 I was looking for a liter sport bike, because you know, bigger is better. Can’t be playing around with slow 600s, I need real speed. Which now I find ironic that I prefer a 300 over anything now, for track use. A friend talked me in to looking at a Triumph Daytona 955i. Where I worked, there was a triumph/ducati dealer a few miles away, so I went to scope them out and ended up talking to the sales guy, which happened to be the owners son. While looking at the Daytona there was a 996s on a rotating pedestal, in all its glory. I asked “how much is that?”. He said “about $25k out the door” the daytona was less than $10k out the door, so I’ll pass on the ducky. But one day I’ll own one. In the words of Wayne’s world “oh yes it will be mine”. I did end up buying the Daytona from him and over the course of several years, I went on a lot of group rides with the Triumph/Ducati crowd.

Fast forward to 2006 (I think, might have been 2008). I had stashed some money to actually buy a used 916/996/998. The S, SPS and R models are hard to come by, but that’s what I was aiming for. I had found a few here and there, but they were either hammered, fakes, too expensive or sold as fast as it was posted. I finally ran across a 996s that checked all the boxes, though. I called the guy. He says he has someone coming from Louisiana (about 200 miles or so) to buy it tomorrow, but he would love it if it was gone today. He’s about 40 miles from me, so when the wife got home from work we headed that way. I ended up making the deal and rode it 40 miles home straight through downtown Houston. Ya. Not exactly my smartest move. It’s highly uncomfortable, the mirrors are useless because of how narrow the bike is, it puts off a metric **** ton of heat and I’m riding an eye catching exotic bike, that most people don’t even know what it is (Kind of like seeing a ferrari or lambo in the wild). I get home, park it next to the Daytona, grab my chair and just stare at it. Wow. I finally have one.…….hhhmmmm. The license plates are only a couple of hundred apart from the Daytona to 996. Odd. I wonder……

fast forward probably a year or so later and I’m in the area of the dealer I bought my Daytona from, so I stop in. The son is still there, he recognized me and we get to talking. He asked if I still had the Daytona. I said yes, but I picked up a 996s. He said “you always wanted that one. What number is it?“. I said number 5 and the license plates are only a few numbers apart. He smiled. You know that’s the same bike on the showroom when I bought my Daytona. He said that’s the lowest number bike they have ever had so he remembered it well. So. I got the exact bike I wanted from 99. Like it was meant to be.

 

[Rttoys]

I bought my 2001 996 new. BST Wheels were a great performance upgrade. I will also never sell it

That is awesome. Beautiful bike. Love the wheels.

I have a ton of stashed parts, mostly chips like the Arrow, FBF and the single injector mod chip. The single injector mod really made the bike street friendly(er), but as soon as I put it on the track, it would fall on its face on the high end. I switched back to FBF for track use, as well as non ethanol fuel. It made a huge difference.

 

[Rttoys]

Mmmmmm parts

 

[Rttoys]

Fuel pump, filter, seals and such, plus the battery.

I have plugs and wires coming (wires are original). Spark plugs get weird. There’s stock Champion Plugs That I am not a fan of. This goes back 30 years ago when plug technology was just coming around. Many brands were evolving, but champion, accel? And Autolite were just the “cheap-os.“. What I would call lawn mower plugs. NGK is what all the jap bikes use, so that’s what I usually use. This time I will go with Denso. Now to get the gap correct Ducatis of this era are so temperamental and quirky.

 

[Rttoys]

Got to work on the ducky for a bit today. Put acid in the battery and charged it up. Then decided to tackle the fuel pump. Ugh. What a mess. The black tank on the bike is actually a replacement I bought about 8-9 years ago. I didn’t want to crash on the track and mess up the stock parts, so I found a tank to use while the pristine original one sits on the shelf. Well that was great on paper.

black tank: the pump was inop, so that needed replacing no matter what. When I pulled the sending unit the hoses were all “gooey”. Thanks ethanol.

on to the original red tank: decided to pull the sending unit and drain the tank to try and preserve it. Again the hoses were gooey, but also noticed the inner liner has come apart and the tank is rusting.

so at the moment I’m replacing the guts on the black tank and drinking about the red tank.

oh note: you pull the screws that hold the sending unit to the tank, then put the bolts into the threaded holes, crank down and that pull the sending unit out. Sweet

 

[Rttoys]

The tank is actually the cover for the airbox. When I pulled the tank, I noticed my “weekend fix” has lasted 11 years. This goes back to a ride we had after winning pikes peak in our division in ‘14. My buddy/crew member came down from Oklahoma to join us. He rode my FZ1 and I rode the 996. As I was checking it over I noticed the air filter was deteriorated. There was no time to hunt down a new one, so I “fixed” it.

 

[Rttoys]

I bought my 2001 996 new. BST Wheels were a great performance upgrade. I will also never sell it

You can appreciate this. Hell, had to be 10 years ago or so, a dude on craigslist was selling a bunch of carbon fiber parts. All brand new. I was only going to buy a few things I really wanted, but ended up with almost everything. Two key things were the headlight bucket and air intake runners. That reminds me. I have some other carbon fiber pieces stashed somewhere.

also note the aluminum coolant reservoir. Another awesome upgrade I got not to long ago.

 

[Ark :D]

You almost have me wanting to buy one...!

 

[Rttoys]

Carbon fiber is calling you…….

 

[Ark :D]

Carbon fiber is calling you…….

My wife would kill me. Then I'd probably kill myself while in the saddle.

Nope, I'm afraid I must stay a one-toy guy.

 

[Rttoys]

I have always had multiple toys, mostly because people break stuff and get rid of it cheap or free. I come in and fix it for next to nothing and put it in the rotation.

 

[Rttoys]

Ethanol

 

[Rttoys]

Still waiting on plugs, but the old ones will work fine. Changed the wires, since the others are original 26 years old. Put the sending unit assembly back in the tank, installed battery, filled some fuel and hit the start button…… she lives.

 

[Rttoys]

then another quirky Italian thing (there’s several). The rear brake is worthless and even at my level, the rear brake is not used, but it has to work to pass tech, so I gotta get it working again. I replaced the master years ago, but it was never right. It’s actually simple; reservoir is up. it flows down to the master, which has to pump up, over, down and around to the caliper. First, you have to dismount the caliper and put it on top of the rotor instead of under. Then you have to get the master up high enough than all fluid can flow downward. So remove master and caliper, attach a vacuum bleeder and get after it. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long to bleed with the vacuum going. Now I have a rear brake I’ll never use