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Chris' GT 1000
This 2007 Ducati GT 1000 had a very short life as a stock motorcycle. If I remember correctly the mileage was 640kms and that's where we started.
The current owner talked about possiblly purchasing one of the new Nortons on the market. He liked the idea of a classic looking motorcycle but with mordern technology. My response to him was, who's going to service it, parts, reliability and warranty? Why not stay with what you like? His response was, what are you thinking?
I mentioned a GT 1000 that I was going to be buying from the original owner. So, we talked about doing up the motor, a little bit. Of course, it was going to need wheels, brakes and suspension because let's face it, the GT 1000 has none of that. Remember the GT 1000 was the entry level Sport Classic.
The GT does have the perfect platform to start with, it's a Ducati.
Here's what the GT looked like before we got started
The GT had been dropped on the right side in the original customers driveway. The bluing on the muffler was because the bike was running a little lean right from the factory. Remember everything that comes into North America is set up to California emissions. Of course, it didn't help that the fuel filter hadn't been changed since new.
Here's the GT almost all stripped down...
When I sent the owner this picture I think his exact words were, "Oh, my God". Then I reminded him, that I still had to remove the headlight, headlight brackets and support, handlebars and triple clamps. Unfortunately I don't have that picture of just the frame and wiring harness on the bike sitting on my bench.
Come to think of it, we do hear that alot.
Quite often, a new customer will ask us if we will remember how to put everything back together.
Once all the body work, airbox, throttle bodies, motor, wheels, exhaust, suspension, swingarm, headlight, etc have been removed, we can start playing; this is when the fun starts!
The motor is back together and once again back in the frame. I didn't split the crankcases and so the bottom end is OEM.
However, the top has been massaged a little. We chose Pistal high compression pistons for some extra punch and larger valves to feed those pistons a little more. The valve seats were re-cut to take the larger valves and the valve seats were blended into the heads to make a nice smooth transition. Then I checked the valve timing to see where it was at.
I did replace the OEM flywheel with a lightened flywheel. It gives a nicer throttle response and more engine braking as a bonus.
The alternator and clutch covers were both stripped of the original paint and repainted a gloss black. The clutch housing was sent out first for some machining because I wanted to showcase the wet slipper clutch that was going to be installed.
A little sneak peak of the clutch housing...
Here's what the new clutch housing looks like. Now you can see why we wanted to show off the wet slipper clutch.
The machining was done by a friend in Airdrie, AB. The clutch housing did go on and come off several times before I was happy with the proper working clearances.
I chose Lexan glass for it's durability and flexibilty.
When it came to deciding what to do for suspension it was an easy choie. It had to be Ohlins.
I talked to our supplier in the States and this is what we came up with. Definitely, an upgrade from what was on there.
A fully adjustable shock to deal with all the conditions our customer will need.
When it came time to deciding on what to use for wheels, there were some important considerations. The stock wheels are heavy and they are very restrictive to tire choices. Well, there is only one choice, the Pirelli Phantom with a tube. One word, boring.
We wanted to be able to choose the kind of tire suited for the remake of the GT. That means picking a style of wheel that will work with the tire we want and not change the overall look of the GT.
There's all kinds of choices, from a forged wheel to a carbon fiber wheel from BST. In the end, we decided to go with Alpina wheels. They maintain the look we wanted, are a tubeless spoked rim, they come in a variety of colour choices, and look very cool. Plus, they are a lot lighter than the OEM wheels.
For brakes we decided that Brembo was the obvious choice. Particularly, the 4 piston 4 pad calipers off of the 749/999 Ducati. They look good, provide great feel and they're great value for the money.
As you might have noticed we are using Ohlins front forks. The carbon fibre front fender is off of a Monster.
For brake rotors we chose Brake Tech. They are made in the States, gave us the look we wanted and they work really well with the Brembos.
Here's what the alternator cover looked liked after it was painted. We also had the brackets that hold the rear passenger pegs and mufflers painted to match. The OEM brackets were a flat black.
The inspection plate and clutch slave are from Ducabike. Good quality and matched the colour scheme we were after.
The alternator cover was bead blasted first then cleaned of all casting marks before being painted.
The front sprocket cover is a Ducabike product with a carbon fibre centre piece. Plus, the hydraulic clutch line was custom made to match the new front brake lines.
So now you see how the bike is starting to take shape.
That's a full custom Staintune exhaust system on there. I actually wrote to Staintune telling them what we were doing and asked them if they would be interested in building some headers pipes for us. At the time they were only making mufflers for the GT1000.
About 6 months later we got an email telling us they were ready to be shipped. The one thing I asked them was to not mount the brackets on the mufflers. I told them we were going to be fitting some Ducati hard lugguage and I still wasn't sure where and how I wanted to connect everything.
The cam belt covers are made by Speedy Moto.
I had to move some of the wiring around to make sure it looked tidy and organized.
The triple clamps were also from Speedy Moto and delivery was around 8 months. The triple clamps are wrapped around Ohlins forks from a 999S.
We chose handle bars off of an S4R Monster. The handle bars gave us a little more of a rise, they are tapered and wide enough so that everything just fits naturally.
The owner likes a little more of an upright riding postion, so I asked the guys at Speedy Moto to make the handle bar risers a little higher than normal.
The front brake and clutch master cylinders are billet and from Ducabike. The ends on the levers are adjustable. Just had to make up a couple of small brackets to hold the small reservoirs.
I made up some Goodridge stainless brake lines and used a little heat to bend them in the direction I needed.
The last items we added to the handle bars were some Rizoma alumimun grips and Rizoma bar end mirrors.
Our customer likes to do Sport Touring on his bikes and we needed to give him some protection at least from the wind. The small Monster fairing seemed to fit and look right.
To mount the fairing, I used the brackets and support from the Monster, as well. I had to change some things around but it was worth the effort.
Fortunately for me, the Rizoma signal lights fit the headlight. Plus, we were able to put some of the extra wiring right into the headlight bucket.
On a GT1000, the horns are mounted on the lower triple clamp. I thought if I tried to mount them there, it just wouldn't look right. So I mounted them right behind the oil cooler. Lots of room there and out of the way.
When it was time to customize the seat, I had my customer and his wife drop by so that we could reshape the seat to fit them.
Andrea from Powersport Seats came in and spent a couple of hours talking about what kind of riding they do and telling them what she could do and then shaping the seat to fit. Their new seat is a big improvement over the OEM seat. Andrea does great work and she is always there to take care of our customers.
In this picture, you can see I am starting to work on fitting the luggage and trunk racks. I won't get into the difficulties in getting everything to fit properly, but I will say, the guy who has been doing our painting over the years suggested that we take a stab at doing the modifications
ourselves. So I cut certain brackets off, had them tacked and fitted the way we wanted and then welded everything into place. It couldn't have worked out better...everything is straight, there's no preload on the brackets, and if you want to take them off, it's easy.
Some time in the near future I will post a picture of the OEM rear tail lights with the signal lights attached, just to show the difference.
The OEM signal lights looked dorky, so I cut them off and filed all the edges smooth. Then our painter filled in the holes, sanded some more and painted them gloss black.
The Rizoma signal light were mounted on the ends of the luggage racks.
When I put on the sadlle bags to see how everything fit, I noticed that the signal lights were going to need a little more room. I made up 2 aluminum supports to slide into the back of the luggage racks and also allow me to screw the signal lights into those supports.
The mufflers and the saddle bag brackets are supported by the rear passenger footpeg bracket. Some welding had to be done on the footpeg brackets in order to mount everything properly. Afterwards I had the footpeg brackets painted gloss black so they would match the other pieces. The factory painted them flat black. Looked like maybe they ran out of gloss black paint?
Well, here it is. Finally done...
The paint is a Candy Apple Red. The pin stripping and Ducati lettering is in Gold leaf and hand done.
A PC3 was installed so that I could build a custom fuel map for the uprgrade motor.
I broke the engine in on the dyno and the motor is putting out around 100 hp at the rear wheel.
I took some time to set up the suspension and of course I had to go out for one or two rides to make sure that it ran.
When I delivered the bike to it's owner, I told him that he probably wouldn't like it and he should just give it to me. He laughed and continued to walk around his long awaited new old Ducati.