Members bikes - Jerrys S4Rs

[JerryXt]

I had the pleasure of meeting Dan and Mrs Dan last weekend and realised that while you were bored to tears with little asbo, I hadn't posted any pics of my S4Rs - Lucrezia.

So here they are:

I first had a ride on an S4Rs just after they came into the country. I was completely mesmerised by the handling, the poise, power and braking and had to have one. A year went by and I went looking; no-one anywhere had a white one, so I reluctantly looked for a used one. A local guy had one for sale at £3,000 less than new - rubbish ad, but I went to have a look anyway. As soon as his garage door opened, I knew that I'd buy her - 350 miles only and a year old. The bike was completely standard apart from the seat, which had been covered by a local Harley company and an alarm/immobiliser. Two days and a huge wedge of cash later and the bike was mine. Fantastic!

After the first service, Brett at ProTwins found a 500 mile full termi system complete with uncoded ecu and fitted them for a lot less than the cost of a new set. The system opened up the midrange and she roars and howls under load. Excellent.

As soon as it had done 1000 miles, we did the ukmoc trackday at Mallory. 130rwhp and a lot of 583s and 620s in novices made for an interesting day... I did learn why I neeed a slipper clutch tho, so that went on next, together with a bling open clutch cover and teardrop DP mirrors to replace Mickeys ears.

After a few more trackdays, I was shown that pretty bikes and tracks weren't a good idea for me when a buddy, Nim, had an off and did a load of damage to her bike.

Since then, the suspension has been tweaked a little to improve turn-in and stability mid-turn, new levers fitted as the originals looked terrible after one winter, better mirrors, adjustable rearsets and a steering damper from CK.

The only thing I'd criticise the bike for is the woeful flyscreen that vibrates like a humminbirds wings at speed, pitiful tank range and the forks are a little light on oil - 10mls has cured that nicely.

I've had no problems with the bike at all - just get on and ride and grin

It really is a do-everything bike - tour, hoon, trackday and commute.

Thanks for reading!

[hjworton]

Beautiful bike. I must admit to not usually liking the White/Red colourscheme but the red saddle somehow improves the look for me. Carbon rad cover looks the biz, see you have a cover for the oil-cooler too. Been looking for one, no luck so far, any idea where they can be found ?

[vasco851]

mamma mia!

she is beautiful.....

[JerryXt]

thanks chaps - she's a proper Italian beauty - looks stunning and goes like a hooker on speed

The rad and oil cooler protectors are moto corse ti - silly money, but I'd been waiting for months for some rearsets that e-moto said were in stock and finally gave up - used the credit note for bling. They are almost invisible and impossibly thin.

[singletrack]

It looks beautiful, Jerry.
I think the white and red paint fits the S4R very well, especially with the red seat.
What make is the clutch cover?
And is that a matris steering damper? Was it easy to fit?

[Paivi]

Very nice, Jerry, but judging by the location of the pics, looks like Lucrezia will be picking up an asbo soon, too.

[sjr999r]

Fantastic looking bike...bet it must be a beast to ride

[JerryXt]

mmm, it's fun! A lot of people forget that the S4Rs shares a lot of components with the 999S and R. It's a good compromise for London where you can't really get the benefit of a good sportsbike. It has a lot of the performance of the superbike with a more user-friendly riding position.

Paivi, the pics are in Richmond Park - about 10 yards from a carpark. In fact it was really hard to avoid getting a Berlingo thing in the background .

Singletrack, the damper is Extremetech -from CKs 1000. I haven't had to use it properly yet, so it's on the lightest setting for now. The clutch cover is Rizoma. The window is a pain to clean, but it's better than getting shoelaces caught in the clutch.

Next changes are to increase the rear ride height to put some more weight on the front to help feedback and Mark Hill at MHP (he did an excellent job on the db killers for asbo) is rumoured to be putting some ti covers on another set of termis I found. The carbon tubes on the 'standard' termis don't match the quality of the rest of the bike and I'd like to see what ti cans look like on this Ducati. And I've got a carbon flyscreen coming that should be a little stiffer than the standard item. It's down for painting at some point.

She's currently running Diablo Corsa 3s that I used on the track a couple of times, but the front is getting pretty knackered. I'm thinking of going back to Mitchelins next time. I liked the way they handled on the road.

[Cess pit]

Gotta say I can't fault the Michelins.....good in the dry, very good in the wet.

[Rudolph Hart]

Terrific looking bike.