Proud new owner and member-ADVICE?

[XLR8]

Hello,
I just bought a 1992 Ducati 907ie Paso. (Pics to come)

I wanted to know what type of upgrade I should do to crank some more horses from this motor.
I have read the posts for a while in anticipation of buying my bike.

The 3 basics I want to upgrade follow:
- Beefy Exhaust
- Bigger/ More Powerful Carb
- jcslocum's Electrical Upgrade

Any and all advice will be appreciated.
I would just like to know where to get the parts, which ones to look for and which to avoid.

Thanks in advance for the info.

[du907]

New exhaust is good. However, you will have to change chips in the ECU most times. I changed my slip-ons and I have a specially programed chip.
As far as carbs go . . . . the 907 is fuel injected, throttle bodies, no carbs. The only thing to do here is the chip change in the ECU. I guess you could enlarge the throttle body sizes (the diameters of the throttle bodies) but that's more than I can tell you.
Another change is an American voltage regulator that will last. Next check electrical connections just down line from the voltage regulator for melted connectors. The clock will run down the battery, so keep a charged battery or check the posts here for ways to render it useless. Sometimes after hard riding the seat moves forward and pulls away from the seat lock. I can tell you how to fix that. Be careful when filling the gas tank. You can hit the overflow pipe with the pumps filler neck knocking off the rubber hose connection to the metal pipe and gas will POUR out the overflow. If the fork seals start to leak, I would replace them with 900ss ones. They are the same size but the 900ss seem to not leak as bad as brand new 907ie replacements. There is a slight modification. I can tell you that also.

Good Luck with the bike. Like my riding buddie and cousin tells me, never get rid of that bike. People that don't know motorcycles know it's a Ducati, and people that know motorcycles know it's an unusual Ducati.

[XLR8]

Thanks for all your info, sir.

The dealer told me that the 907 was carb'd, and I assumed he was correct because there is an external choke...

Oh well.
I like the bike so far, the previous owner only did 2 modifications to it:
-Corbin seat
-Clock disconnector switch

A couple of q's for you:
-What type of pipes do you have on your bike? May I ask where you purchased them?
-Where did you get your chip?

Thanks again for all your help.

[persempre907]

First of all, check your cam belts.
They need to be changed every 12k miles/20k kms OR 2 years.

Besides, you have to know that very often a different exhaust system doesn't improve the performances at all.
All the engine has to be tuned (i.e. larger bore kit, cams, air filter, chip.....).
I'm not sure if the power improvement is worth.
You have to spend a lot of money for such mods.
However, I have 2in1 Conti on my red 907 and the stock mufflers on my black 907.
I'm waiting for 2 kinds of 2in2 Contis.
Sometimes, they are sold on ebay.

Ciao

[jcslocum]

The 907 does not need the electric upgrade. They had it sorted by then. You should pull apart every plug that you can see and make sure they are clean and well connected. Also, find and clean every ground strap. Take them off, unbolt and scrub with sand paper or scotch brite. This is very important for electric system health.

The Paso were built as more of a sport touring bike so major HP increases are not so easy to do. The motor is more about Torque and grunt than high revs and HP. I would pick up some nice CF mufflers to improve the sound and spend the rest of my money on the suspension. Get the forks set up for you with a rebuild and some race tech parts. Have the rear shock rebuilt too. Get everything sprung for your weight and properly set the sag. The take some more of your hard earned cash and get to a real riders school. Keith Code is one of the very best and you will learn so much about your bike and riding.

Enjoy your 907!

[XLR8]

jcslocum- Thanks for your reply.
Told you guys I'm a n00b

I'm going to take down the bike and clean all the grounds and plugs tonight after night school.

About the exhaust, when you say 'CF' I assume that you are saying 'Carbon Fiber'.
Should I just take the bike to a muffler shop and they can fit up a universal bike muffler?

This link is to a YouTube video of my ideal sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1popG9td1I

I would really like to keep the dual exhaust.

I want to do this right.

Your replies are very much appreciated.

[jcslocum]

Yes, carbon fiber mufflers. You need to shop around online to see who has some or ebay. Don't go with some kind of universal muffler.

That youtube exhaust is a custom made super trapp system and is very loud. I think the owner is on here.

[du907]

Good advice from all above.
I have the cobra F1s on my bike, (pictures). I needed a richer mapping after adjusting my throttle position switch and balancing the throttle bodies. A fellow from the UK sent me a program as an obj file and a fellow in Washington state, USA burned the program on a chip and that is what I have now. I have 52,000 miles on my 907, I just had the engine rebuilt by the Ducshop in Atlanta. Balanced and blue printed, the heads polished and flowed, the works. The nut on the alternator rotor can become to tight and the rotor split down to the crank shaft, this made the rotor increase in diameter which made it melt into the stator and it locked my engine as I was going about 110 mph on the track. Metal particles went everywhere inside the engine, so it had to be clean out and rebuilt. By the way, there is a service bulletin about checking the torque on that nut at specified intervals to keep this from happening. Also, Two Brothers racing still makes slip-ons for this bike, check their web site. There are some cobras for sale on e-bay now.







I bought some cobras that would fit a Kawasaki zx6 and had new mounting brackets welded to them. You still need the front pipes for the ducati though.

[jcslocum]

I had the Cobra's on my first Paso and they sounded great! Nice pipes.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DUCATI-P ... ccessories

These are used and I don't know for sure that they will fit the 907.

[andrew_b]

That external choke is just a fast idle lever.

You need to get the numbers off the chip that is already in ECU as many of the bikes sold in the US came with both a performance spec chip and another that runs a bit leaner to help pass emissions codes of the day. If you have one with -023U- on it, that is the lean USA chip. If it is -023- you have the Euro spec chip - runs a bit richer...nice! Anything else and you have an aftermarket spec chip and you will have to post the numbers for the geniuses here to decode for you.

There is a wealth of info on various mods here...but you've already heard the best advice for getting more performance out of your 907....

Get to school and learn to ride it well!! Theat experience will also allow you to really set up the suspension properly...then you can think about rebuilding it if needed.

In my 20 years of riding bikes I have not met many guys that can really out-ride their machines, even stock bikes...but maybe you are one! Enjoy! I'm heading out on my 907 in just a few minutes here!

Cheers
Andrew

[Tamburinifan]

If you open up breathing, mufflers & open airbox,
many are happy w the FIM 907 chip.
FIM are out of business now but some shops may have their chips or similar,
like FastbyFerracci.

[XLR8]

You guys are awesome and have some excellent suggestions.
I am signed up for an intermediate riders course in a couple weekends, BYOBike, should be fun.

Is the Kawasaki ZX6 a good substitute for Ducati pipes (except the mounting brackets) ?

I tried TwoBrothers Racing, gave them a call and they said that they do not make a slip on exhaust for the 907 anymore

jcslocum, did you get your Cobra F1's from a Kawasaki?
I guess I'm just set on some pipes for my first upgrade. And anything else that I have to modify (air box and chip)

Any pics or tutorials for the air box mod? Forgive me if I'm being too n00bish.

[persempre907]

First of all, you can buy a better air filter like the K&N.
Besides, you can cut the lid of the airbox so that you keep only the outer frame so that you can lock the filter in.
Take a look at the mod done below. It's an Italian forum but the pics tell more than thousand words .
http://www.motoclub-tingavert.it/t303226s.html

Ciao

[jcslocum]

jcslocum, did you get your Cobra F1's from a Kawasaki?

Nope, they were for the Paso. They come up on Ebay once in a while as well as other pipes. Just be patient. Owning a 20 year old bike means waiting to do some things!

[du907]

More detail on the Cobras:
I had bought a set of Cobras for the Ducati 907ie. I then had a accident that scratched the aluminum canister part and bent one pretty bad. I could never find any replacements, and when they showed up on e-bay, they went higher than a new set. I then got a look at the specs for a set Cobras for a Kawasaki ZX6. The mounting bracket is welded to the aluminum canister at the same place it is for the 907. All that was needed was to lengthen the bracket about an inch. After having the bracket lengthen, I just slipped them on the end of the chrome adapter pipes already on the bike. Basically, I just replaced the aluminum canister part that was damaged. On the Cobras, the aluminum canister is the same except for the placement of the mounting bracket. The adapter pipes (the chrome pipes) are made for each specific application.
du907