[redsail]

On a ride the other day, parked up to find I couldn't lock the steering. Turned out there was a bolt in the bowl of the fork clamp by the right steering stop lug. Here's the offending item, question is did it land there from the road or has it fallen out of my bike! I can't find any obvious missing fixings.

 

[rubbish]

Looks like it. 5 mm? There are several of these on that bike.

 

[ducducgop]

Does not look like it was beaten up on the road, likely came from bike. Looks like the bolt that holds the steering damper on.

 

[redsail]

Eek!

A few of us had a look round the front top of the bike, but nothing obvious. Steering damper bolt still present. My dealer recently worked on the bike to replace the headlight bracket, could they have left a stray bolt in there that rattled out?

 

[Akkutz]

The bolt that holds the front cowl to the front subframe?

 

[[email protected]]

Lower triple pinch bolt??

 

[redsail]

It's not the pinch bolt, they are present. Could well be the cowl bolt. Will have a look, where does it attach?

 

[redsail]

The bolt that holds the front cowl to the front subframe?

I think that may be it. Its behind the dash I think? Bolt no 5?

 

[redsail]

Bolt 5 is hidden. I can see bolt 2, but its not an allen bolt. All the front fairing bolts seem to be regular hex head type

 

[rick]

I had the bolt from the brake line guide on the right fork fall out and land on the bottom triple clamp. It looked something like that.

 

[rubbish]

It might be one of the bolts holding the headlight assembly on. I lost both the ones that go through those upper tabs a while back...didn't even notice it though until I took the headlights out.

Makes me wonder if the reason why Ducati used so many bolts for everything is because they anticipated about 10-20% of them rattling out over time

 

[Duc_Soup]

Well it's almost certainly a Ducati bolt. Looks like a pinch bolt, but I think most of those are M8's. That one looks like an M5 or M6 from the measurement.

If it is 8mm in diameter and you don't see anything obviously missing check the front axle pinch bolts. Those are at the bottom of the forks, would be easy to not see one missing. And it could also lead to some bad shit.

If it's an M5 or M6 the only one around that size I can think of from the front end is through the front fairing into the bottom of the oil cooler (somebody else mentioned that also). Might be that guy...

 

[rubbish]

The axle pinch bolts would not end up on the triple clamp if they fall out...they end up on the road. I've lost one of those too before as well ....plus those are M6 if I remember well, not M8.

 

[fazeaway]

I had the bolt from the brake line guide on the right fork fall out and land on the bottom triple clamp. It looked something like that.

+1 to this. Same exact thing happened to mine.

 

[redsail]

Thanks for the help guys!

@rubbish & @fazeaway - brakeline guide sounds v plausible, especially if yours also landed in the triple clamp. Will check it out...