Ducati's New, Injected 900SS

Ducati, finally, decided to add fuel injection to their air-cooled line-up.

Apparently, the venerable 900SS likes several things about the fuel injection components, which, appear to be (dimensionally) similar to the 907ie components.

Reed Herman decided that he'd like to 'build' one of the new 900SSs , and since fuel injection capabilities are just around the corner, we can go crazy on this model with impunity.

Reed's daring has been rewarded with a fine handling, reasonably powerful, version of the Ducati's old 900SS.

After putting about 300 miles on the it, we couldn't resist flogging the poor thing on the dynamometer. Following is a chart showing the stock (almost, broken-in) 1999 900SS compared with a stock 900CR (although a little anemic, not atypical) and Reed's with the airbox lid removed.

The first thing I noticed was the RPM of the peak HP.

The inlet length seems to be similar to the previous, carburated, 900SS. When you look inside the air-box, you'll notice a smooth transition from the throttle body to the duct that leads up into the air-box. This lead me to believe that the dyno chart might be similar to the carburated models.

However, the duct size, influenced by the throttle body diameter, is considerably larger than the carburated versions, so the port volume is considerably greater. (check-out the tech report on the 750, for comments about port volume).

Removing the air-box cover changes the torque curve much like on the carburated models. In this case, the CO didn't change enough to cause any power lose, but more extensive tuning changes will be accompanied with mapping changes.