Workshop Tips
Ducati 888 cam belt swap
People do worry about what can go wrong with Ducatis – especially older ones like this 888 – but a lot of the time their fears are unfounded. The big issues, on a bike like this which is used fairly regularly, is to keep on top of changing the oil and filter, and to have [...]
Suzuki GSX-R1000K3 replacement engine Dyno set-up
A bit of a sad tale surrounds this Suzuki GSX-R1000K3 trackbike, which is owned by a good customer of ours, who’s been coming to us for years. Anyway, he blew up the engine in fairly major style and decided that the cheaper option was to source and slot in a replacement motor rather than rebuild [...]
2005 Kawasaki ZX-12R valve clearance check
Valves – why should you worry about ‘em…? Well, if you own a bike less than five or so years old you can bother a little less, because materials are so much better, tougher now than they were even just a short time ago (which is why service intervals have generally grown) but bikes like [...]
Need a perfect paint colour match for your bike? We have it!
As a company in the motorcycle trade, we know how difficult it can be to get a good colour match when ordering paint, to either completely re-spray or just touch-in the odd scratch or scrape. So when we find something that works, we want to shout about it! To that end BSD would like to promote [...]
Aprilia Tuono fuelling problem
This Aprilia Tuono is raced by a customer of ours who is a very fast and competent road rider, who decided that maybe he was going a little too quick for the road and took up track days; a familiar story. Once he’d got bored with trackdays he decided to go racing in the Streetfighter [...]
2010 Kawasaki ZZ-R1400 service
The local Kawasaki dealership shut its doors recently and has left a bit of a void; the mantle has been picked up by another dealer but some of the customers of the original shop have been a bit loathe to go over to the new shop – so quite a few have come our way [...]
Honda Blackbird alternator problem
Regulator/rectifier problems are common on Honda FireBlades, but this Blackbird had burnt out its alternator. The ancillary bits and pieces that many owners run on bikes like this – heated grips etc – can place too high an electrical load and the earlier fuel injected Blackbirds seem prone to failure in this area. The solution, [...]
Ducati 749S service and running issues
This Ducati 749S is owned by a customer who’s been coming to us for several years. It’s been parked up for a while but he dragged it out wanting to use it but found it was suffering with a load of running problems – holding back, misfiring, general lack of power etc. And it’s the [...]
What (not) to look for when buying a used bike!
We wouldn’t normally feature a bike like this here but a) because it belongs to Gill in the office’s other half and b) it actually serves as a useful tool to show the level of bodging some people stoop to, we thought we’d give it an airing. As a used buy this old Kwak ZX-12R [...]
Ducati 916 full service and preventative maintenance inspection
We always write in Ducati belt covers so we know for a fact when we last saw the bike; this 11,000 mile 1997 916 last passed through our workshop doors back in 2006, when it had its belts changed. This is a tidy, low mileage bike and the engine itself will go on to do [...]
Bike File
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2010 Triumph Sprint ECU Reprogram
The issues with this bike mainly concern power and power delivery off the bottom especially two-up. It’s been back to the dealer and had the latest factory tune, but the owner wants a little more. First job? Isolate the Lambda sensor and cap off the emissions unit. The bike was then put on the Dyno and we reprogrammed the stock ECU; fuelling at the bottom end has been richened up, taking away the ‘hunting’ snatchiness. Fuelling all the way through the rev range has been optimized and the ignition curve trimmed.
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2009 Yamaha R1 Road to Race
To upgrade to race spec we’ve fitted an Öhlins rear shock and MCT have modded the front forks. The engine’s been out and we’ve adjusted the cam timing, ported and skimmed the cylinder head and we’re fitting a set of BSD Performance adjustable bellmouths. It’s also having a YEC race loom and ECU, plus quickshifter.
