Bye bye Ducati Desert X Rally

 It might come as a surprise, even for myself but I sold the DesertX rally.  

This little write up is to sum up why and what contributed to sell the bike.

I first start explaining why I bought the bike in the first place.

The bike was marketed as a "rally' version with upspec suspension like a closed cartridge fork and with 240mm suspension travel beavier rims and all that good stuff. 

In a sense I knew Ducati was going to be expensive because the price is really upthere. On the other hand the fit and finish and the electronic package is really good as well. 

After a test ride which was actually to short I decided to buy the bike because it felt lighter then my previous KTM 1290 bike. I also found that the engine is really good. The l-twin is pumping out 110 horses and is honestly a blast to ride. 

Fast forward to the summer of 2024 , I went to the Alps using TET routes. I almost always travel with camping gear which means I need to be able to carry luggage.

I didn't test my setup before I left because I didn't have the time. The Alps were actually a last minute decision.

Anyways, on the road absolutely no problem to carry luggage, however in the dirt not so much. The problem was that the rear shock bounces to much up and down going to the stroke on uneven terrain. Even when changing the settings like preload and compression I could not prevent it going through the stroke and bottoming it out. But the problem was also that the feel in the front on the dirt just wasn't there, because of the weak spring in the back the front would feel light and sometimes not easy to control with confidence.

For me I found this unacceptable at this price point to still have to change the suspension configuration. The consequence of that was in part at least, that I did not drive the bike nearly as much as I should. It stood for months on end in the garage. Until I decided to participate in an amature rally in Belgium in 2025. 

During that rally I bent the front rim...

Ooh well that was kind of the proverbial straw that broke the camel's bag for me. I never ever bent a rim on any other bike which was far more abused than this Ducati.

And with all that I decide to sell it. I didn't want to invest more money in it. Don't get me wrong it was still one off the prettiest and capable bikes I ever owned but you need deep pockets.

This brings me to my next point, If you fancy not working on your bike yourself than this bike is for you. If you are a bit of a greasemonkey like myself not so much. We all know that offroad riding includes the occasional wrenching, not being able to do that to not void the warranty just didn't work for me.

So in short the cons for me:

• to soft suspension (even though marketed as the best suspension in class)
• price point (makes you question if you'd take it offroad)
• cheese rims
• not able to wrench on the bike ( or warranty gets void)
• desmo valve train maintenance (expensive)

The pro's:

• The electronics
• the engine
• weight and stability
• looks

sold

EAS backup

It has been a while already that I bought the so called faskit from a spanisch company.

This system allows to continue to use the air suspension in case of a failure with some of the EAS components such as:

• the compressor
• height sensor
• valve block
• EAS ecu
• timer relay

The goal is to be able to supply air to the individual air bags or tank by using an external compressor.

The kit comprises of 5 schrader valves allowing even the use of a hand or foot-pump.

In my case the air suspension has been fully rebuilt and is in good working order. But for those times one ends up in more remote locations it is an extra safetynet.

Of course if one ruptures an air bag it is game over anyways but that's the only part that could potentially  mean the end of a trip.

Since my suspension airbags are new I don't think they'll break any time soon.

P38 intercooler installation finished

It took a while but finally I came around to install the bigger volume intercooler on the p38. 

I ordered it as a Brit part but it seems the supplier is Serck motorsport. 

When I received it the weather was bad and I was in a rush to install it. Needless to say it wasn’t that straightforward to install let alone in a hurry.

For ease of access you should drain the cooling radiator,so I did. I also removed the right radiator holder which bolts into the chassis to make it easier to install the intercooler. 

The intercooler is thicker and somewhat different in shape so you cannot re-use the original fixing points. The different shape is also a very tight fit. 

With the intercooler in place I then installed the radiator again. The engine oil cooler now must be installed on top of the intercooler instead of below. With everything in place, I marked some points to drill holes to fix the intercooler and engine oil cooler to the 2 side pillars/ holders. I also added a thick 3mm washer behind the intercooler to allow for a little more clearance.

The installation height for the intercooler is dictated by the oil cooler, because it sits right below the top of the radiator. Like this the hoses for the intercooler line up with the turbo and intake hoses. Just make sure the left side clears the wash bottle filler neck.

I used self tapping screws, I might change that later to bolts and nuts.

Now do I really feel a difference? Well firstly I noticed that the old intercooler was leaking and so I was losing boost pressure because of that. I didn't drive it all that far or long because I still have the transfer case issue that needs sorting, but I will say that in my opinion it feels more powerful in lower rpms. I also noticed the engine is running cooler. Now I have to say I cleaned the radiator a bit while the coolant was out so maybe this helped as well. 

All in all I'm happy with the result, maybe later on I'll try to increase the boost pressure only ever so slightly to extract a little more horses but first the transfer case, the ball joints and the panhard bushes😏😐😂. But that's for another time.

Off road tires for the P38

 It's been a while that I have been looking at tires that are more off road focused for the P38. I did not want to go the route of a mud terrain tire because they would only get minimal use.

Instead I wanted something in between a mud tire and an all terrain tire.

My first ideas were:

• Falken wildpeak at3
• Toyo open country AT3
• Kumho road venture mt51

The problem however was the available sizes and or simply the availability all together.

The tire size I was looking for 265 70 R16. This would allow for more ground clearance without having to do modifications to the car to fit them. 

Like this the car goes from the original 29 inch to 31 inch.

After looking around for quite a bit I found a tire that fit all categories.

The Cooper Discoverer S/T Maxx 265/70 R16 121/118Q 10PR, M+S, POR

It is still an AT tire but the more aggressive kind. I'll put them on original 16 inch alloy wheels after they get painted black.

Ducati Desert X Rally new decals

 I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Kind of a pain in the b*t to apply but it's good enough for me.

P38 Transfer case noise

 After only 1000km the transfer case started to make a lot of noise. 

At first I thought I had an engine problem because the noise seemed to come from the front off the car.

After some investigation I concluded the TC is the culprit. Before that I was thinking the gearbox was the problem so I changed the gearbox oil and filter twice.

Eventually upon changing the oil from the TC it was evident that this was my problem. The oil that came out was not looking good and I found metal particles in it and the little mesh filter was clogged up.

Fortunately I found a second hand unit, I had to drive 4 hours to pick it up and bring it home. 

Of course in the back of my head I was thinking what if I put this one in and it's no good?

So I found a company that is able to check its condition. Yesterday I got the news that it looked brand spanking new on the inside and no work is needed. 

I'm so glad this worked out nicely, now it is just a matter of taking the old one out and putting "the new one" in.

P38 Borg Wagner
transfer case

Rear bumper and spare wheel carrier

Finally finished the installation of the rear bumper and carrier. 💪