Headlight ear trivia

[Rick]

I saw some headlight ears on Ebay not too long ago, advertised as the correct, short ears for use with clip on handlebars, and the seller said something to the effect that these ears were different than just cutting off the top of the longer ears. It didn't seem likely that Ducati would manufacture 2 different castings, but the seller seemed to know what he was talking about, so, today I measured a set of each ears, and, he was right:

headlight ear.jpg

Dimensions 'A' and 'B' are the same, so, because of the taper, if you shorten long ears they'll be too wide at the top.
I wouldn't want someone to take a bike with shortened ears to the Concorso Moto Snobio and be ridiculed by the gentry...
Rick

[Eldert]

Hi Rick

and then there is the widecase variety : they have slots instead of holes to mount the headlite

Eldert

[ajleone]

Rick,
So, what exactly is the measurements of and A and B, if B was a cut off ? I am curious as to how many mm we are talking about ?
Thanks,
Tony

[Rick]

Eldert-
My 1969 has the old style round holes- you probably know when the slots started. I can't come up with a good reason for a slot, but I'm sure there is one.
Tony-
A and B are 42mm, and cutting the long ears down leaves the top at 44mm, so your eye will really only see a 1mm difference at the edge- I doubt if anyone would notice, but measuring would tell the tale. The tall ears are fairly cheap, and the short ears are expensive- I'm not too proud to cut them down if I need some.
Rick

[Bevel bob]

Now I Know why my narrow case is the only one with slotted HL brackets!!, What a bitza!!.

[ajleone]

So a cut down versus actaul short ears is 2mm diameter and 1mm on each side, and after some polishing, etc. not sure it really matters. IMHO I would put the money in parts that are more obvious, but I am not a purist.

Eldert - thanks for the info. Interesitng that there are these subtle details in the parts on these bikes. regardless of the direction anyone takes.
Tony

[Gboblebeef]

And then there was the 200MX. These seem to be unique to it. If I am wrong let me know, but do be gentle. My calipers are at work so I do not have measurements at this time.