Up until now I guess most of the mods you have done have been subjective (gold bolts everywhere for example) but each to their own, we all have our own tastes. The ONLY thing I could not bring myself to live with are the carbon wrapped inner fairing panels. The weave is such that it is clearly looks as if it's not real carbon but again, all I will say is if you like it, that is all that really matters. For me personally, I would remove it, as it cheapens the look of the bike. I am sure in the fullness of time a carbon part will be made available, be that through Carbonvani or Peter Lieb, though I wouldn't buy anything from Carbonvani, if my life depended on it, as from personal experience the fit, finish, accuracy and quality of his parts are plain dreadful. Good luck with the rest of the build.
Hello Topolino,
Yes, everyone have their own taste, it could be because everyone have "literally" different eyes and brain.
What I mean by that is, the shade of color that my brain saw (after interpreting data from my eyes) "might" be different than the shade of color that your brain decode from the input from your eyes.
This explain why some would love certain color while other do not like certain colors.
However, not all the bolts (on my bike) is in Gold color but I am using contrast and gradation to guide my choice of the ProTi color.
If you notice, for the front caliper (at least at this moment with the stock Stylema caliper), because the color of the caliper (greyish) combine with the AELLA Titanium caliper spacer and also AELLA special washer in Titanium Silver, I choose ProTi Titanium in Titanium Silver Color.
The same thing with the Banjo bolts, because I will be using Cooper washer (which I will polish to mirror finish), I choose ProTi Titanium Banjo bolts in Titanium Silver Color.
However for the upcoming rear brake, where the Brembo CNC rear caliper is in the old style Brembo hard anodized color, I decided to use ProTi Titanium Caliper halves Bolts, Pin and Banjo Bolts in Gold color there.
(I even do some color matching experiment for the Brembo CNC rear caliper that I posted here a few pages back).
For the rest of the fairings, the ProTi Titanium in Gold color will give nice contrast with the Black, Red and White fairings, while silver bolts will look... "ordinary" and "nothing special".
However, for the Rizoma Rear Set, I went back to ProTi Titanium bolts in Titanium Silver because the way the finish of the Rizoma make it more suitable to combine with high brilliance of ProTi Titanium Bolts in Titanium Silver color providing a nice gradation.
Another thing I want to point out is the material of the bolts. From your thread, I notice all your bolts were made from STAINLESS STEEL material which of course usually available in either silver or black stainless steel only.
So, by choosing STAINLESS STEEL as your preferred material of choice on your build, you are more limited in color choices. However STAINLESS STEEL have advantage in pricing of course compare to the more expensive Titanium Bolts, but Stainless Steel are heavier than Titanium and could possibly be heavier than some of the stock bolts (which of course won't matter much unless you also after weight reduction which is not my priority and I believe not your priority too).
While TITANIUM Bolts material like the bolts I source from ProTi are available in Gold, Titanium Silver, Blue, and Black color. So this gave me more freedom to choose (although I stay with Gold and Silver Titanium only) depend on location and contrasting background.
Another thing I notice (from your post) was that in some of your rear suspension link, the stainless steel bolt that you originally plan to use did not have the proper strength that the original steel alloy bolt from Ducati has, so you revert back to the original Ducati steel alloy bolt. I solve this by using an even higher grade Steel alloy bolt than the original Ducati steel alloy bolt, than coat them with TiN (Titanium Nitride) coating so it will have even higher strength than original ducati steel bolt plus the looks of TiN (Gold) to give contrast. Stay tune once I am finish with my install and you can see what I mean.
Regarding the plastic panel that I wrapped with carbon, like what I said a few days ago, I am going to wait until I install all the fairings back and see how it look with the rest of the fairing and carbon panel. The beauty of wrap is, you can take it out anytime you want, unlike painting. However, just like the bolts color that I choose for gradient and contrast, it is the same principal here. I would like to see a contrast between this plastic panel with the black painted area above it. Painting it all in the same color will make it lost contrast (plain). You need contrast just like the way Ducati paint the number 1 in black, but put a "white" background on my bike. So if somehow the contrast that the 3M carbon fiber wrap provided did not match the rest of the panel, I will simply take it out and let the original plastic color be the "contrast" again.
Back to the 3M carbon fiber wrap, I used it on my car for front lower lips and they look like real carbon fiber. Some people use resin to coat them and the result is like a real carbon fiber, because their surface is not smooth and feel like a carbon fiber weave. In fact, if I post here that I replaced that plastic bit with carbon fiber, I am sure people will thought it is a real matte carbon fiber (just different weave and bit shinier than the original Ducati/Peter Lieb).
Also. if you recall, only a small rectangular section of this plastic part will be exposed after they were installed, so I want to see how it looks after I install everything.
Yap, I won't buy Carbonvanni parts either, for me the quality of a carbon fiber is determine not only from the finish (color), but more from the FIT. (Fitting it without "adjustment").
I will not replace any plastic part with carbon fiber just for the sake of replacing a plastic, especially if the quality of the carbon fiber part "FIT" is actually lower than the original plastic parts. A carbon Fiber part that FIT without any "adjustment needed" show the precision of the mold and craftsmanship of the maker which mean the engineering quality.
I do appreciate your pioneering in Samco hoses (that Samco use your hoses as template for their first Samco hoses offering), I also will take out all the upper air box to properly install the Samco hose (like you did) and also Thank You for recommending the Mikalor clamp.
