Panigale Vision

[Andy7]

The Spider Shock Mount looks lighter and stronger

I’m honestly terrible at comparing parts and weighing them to determine what the savings are! I’ll check out their website and see if there’s any difference. There could only be a couple of grams in it. I think I’ll try get the whole bike weighed when I’m up at the dealers and get an idea of what the total savings might be so far.

 

[Andy7]

Spent a fair bit more time than I planned with the torch trying to get the titanium coloured evenly. The light was playing tricks with the camera so it’s hard to get a complimenting pic but you can take my word it looks far nicer in person.
(Before and after pics for comparison)

 

[HKMP7]

That looks absolutely amazing. The color match to the headers is spot on. Love it.

 

[Andy7]

Thanks very much @HKMP7. Obviously my first time trying something like this so it’s certainly not perfect but I love the little imperfections. And there’s a huge variety of colour from white/blue to deep purple (even a rose gold kind of tinge around the welds) and the original bronze finish.
Hopefully the exposed areas will remain a nice colour as the gas passing through shouldn’t be hot enough to affect it like it does on the headers where they are attached.

 

[Andy7]

Sunday was spent finally putting everything back together, It started with the painted brackets & shock linkage then onto CNC rearsets and finally the exhaust.
The brackets and linkage were easy to refit and took me about half an hour to get them back on. Now the rear stand could at least support the weight of the bike again which meant I could move it out of my squat rack and have some extra room to work with.

The brake-side rearset went on without any troubles thanks to the help of a youtube video I didn't have to do any back tracking. The gear change side was a bit more challenging as theres a few more moving parts.
The bike was setup with reverse shift when I bought it which I wanted to keep however between switching the stock rearsets to the CNC ones this was again flipped back to the regular pattern (kind of a double negative if you know what I mean). Anyway this meant I had to remove the shift rod from where it attaches beside the engine which is where my troubles began. The allen bolt was stripped from where it had previously been unscrewed before I owned the bike. They must have been having a laugh at me because not only had the worm bolt been re-used instead of replaced but they must have used an entire bottle of loctite on it. I decided to give up on removing the bolt altogether and hammer out the small bearing from the shift rod then resign myself to purchasing the bits I'd butchered and make a neat job of it at least. Unfortunately in doing so the bearing housing on the shift rod was bent slightly so I expected I'd just have to spend a bit more and get a new one. More on this below.



Now the bit I was really keen to get to was hooking up the Akra silencers properly and seeing how it all looked with all these new parts installed. Here 2 more problems reared their head after I'd spent the whole day getting to that point. These issues were a small exhaust leak at the join where the Akra silencers mate to the VanDemon system and the carbon heel guard failing to meet the carbon exhaust shield at the correct point.

I had enough at that point and was content on the progress I'd made. However still in a bit of a foul mood after the issues I had, which were compounded when I discovered the shift rod part I needed couldn't be purchased separately to the sensor and was gonna cost me the best part of $300.

I spent the evening and most of today reading up on quickshifters since I want to ride this thing asap. Translogic, HM, Cordona - I seemed to get good reviews of them all from different people who had used them. Anyway I went to bed still in a bad mood haha.
Finally today I spoke to Aaron (Cycler on ducforum) whomst is currently putting an order together for me with a few things. I asked for his feedback on which was the best option and if I could benefit from his dealer discount and add the QS to the package he's sending me to save on extra delivery fees. After a good chat and a preview of his bike in action I was sold on HM OEM replacement product. It ended up costing me a little over $700 (around $530usd) however after seeing the benefits of the product and the amount of adjustment it offers I'm very excited to try it out - Yes it was a bit frustrating to spend the money but I was going to do it eventually as the stock shifter had been giving me a little bit of grief already so I can do the job properly now and forget about it.
Problem 1 resolved

Howard has been impressing us with his bracket fabrication this weekend which gave me the idea to do come up with my own solution for the heel/exhaust guard misalignment you can see in the picture above. This is something I'll attack this week and hopefully have both an effective and attractive result.
Problem 2 (almost) resolved

The exhaust leak wasn't a huge deal on it's own for me but since it was the 3rd thing that wasn't going to plan I decided to just be annoyed at it anyway and include it here lol. I always planned to use a clamp to secure that part anyway so this afternoon I did just that - lo and behold it worked a treat and once I fired the bike up the issue was gone.
Problem 3 resolved




I have a few videos with sound clips my phone - I think the best thing to do will be uploading them to youtube so I can share here soon.

Thankyou for coming to my TED talk

 

[craig bush]

Wow, that looks awesome!

 

[BMW Alpina]

I personally always bias with a TWIN UNDERTAIL Silencer Setup, but combine with the BLUE Heated Titanium Pipe it is even more GORGEOUS

 

[HKMP7]

Its a shame that the fairings and carbon guard will cover up all that Titanium goodness.
10/10

 

[Andy7]

Thanks guys appreciate the compliments
I agree it’s a shame to have so much of it hidden but at least with the v2 you get some exposure through the fairings unlike the v4!

 

[BMW Alpina]

Thanks guys appreciate the compliments
I agree it’s a shame to have so much of it hidden but at least with the v2 you get some exposure through the fairings unlike the v4!

Even if the modification that we performed were hidden from outside,
I personally believe the most important thing is "we know that we did it" and "we are happy because we successfully complete the modification the way we wanted it"
In the end, we perform this modification for our own satisfaction

 

[A016738]

That is a ridiculously cool exhaust mod.

Wish I could replicate it for the V4 for less than a wheel barrow full of $$ for a full WSBK part.

 

[Andy7]

Exactly right Howard, 90% of people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference from a $100k V4Sl and a $500 postie bike anyway
@A016738 thanks very much, I spent a little more than I planned to on this however I think I’m still about $3000 ahead of where I’d be if I’d just bought the full Akra gp system!

 

[Andy7]

Haven’t achieved much this week since I’m waiting for my chain, sprockets & quickshifter to arrive next week hopefully.
However I finally made a rough template of the bracket I need to attach the exhaust shield to the heel guard to avoid it rattling and possibly cracking against the rearset.

This was just using tin, hopefully I can find something more suitable lying around the workshop here. It’s gonna be painted black anyway so don’t expect anything too fancy, although I may try find someone who can replicate in carbon or fibreglass too

 

[BMW Alpina]

Haven’t achieved much this week since I’m waiting for my chain, sprockets & quickshifter to arrive next week hopefully.
However I finally made a rough template of the bracket I need to attach the exhaust shield to the heel guard to avoid it rattling and possibly cracking against the rearset.

This was just using tin, hopefully I can find something more suitable lying around the workshop here. It’s gonna be painted black anyway so don’t expect anything too fancy, although I may try find someone who can replicate in carbon or fibreglass too View attachment 3348View attachment 3349

Hi Andy,
Just a thought, if you can't find anything else at the moment, and if you think that bracket is too thin, maybe just made a double bracket and put them on top of each other (basically double thickness) to get the strength.
or mfind 2 stainless steel flat pates and put them on top of each other, but cut one a bit short to clear the "curve"... or maybe use flat stainless steel plates and stack of washers to replicate the different in "height" (if this is possible)

 

[Andy7]

Great ideas @BMW Alpina! Thanks for those, I might incorporate them next time I need to fabricate a solution like this.
Must have had too much energy because I just spent the last hour and a half coming up with something a bit more permanent. Some more refinment and polishing/painting to do before it gets fitted however the result is exactly what I needed.

(The cutout was a challenge as you can probably expect. I had to drill out two holes at each end so I could know what size slot I was working towards. Then use a grinder to open a gap in order to fit a file through and make the rest of the hole even)

 

[Andy7]

Also, a sound clip (finally) for you to hear the result of this combo

 

[BMW Alpina]

Also, a sound clip (finally) for you to hear the result of this combo

Wow, not only your new exhaust sounds STEREO with great deep full V-Twin sound, even the Sparks (fire) looks STEREO
Congratulations Andy

 

[Andy7]

Will have to get another clip when it’s dark so you can see them clearer - but I’m looking forward to hearing your 916 Anniversario with the new system, you’ll have the dual flamethrowers now too

 

[Andy7]

Mail arrived a day late so I was getting a little impatient here but it was well worth it.

I can’t describe how much I love the look and finish of AEM’s product here, but memes never let me down In fact I think I might be a bit sad to actually install these because they’d make an awesome ornament on my shelf


The one thing I have to decide now is whether to hit these ti sprocket pins/nuts with some heat to make them nice and blue like my exhaust or leave as they are. Thoughts?

 

[craig bush]

So nice

I vote “heat”.