Author Topic: The Truth About Ducati...which is? (Read 16505 times)

Daytona · « **Reply #15 on:** December 16, 2005, 02:20:27 PM »

Quote from: "Bantana"

The DS1000 motor is very reliable as are many of the air cooled ducks.
The water cooled motors can be finicky and there have been some pretty severe problems with those powerplants. I have many friends with Ducatis and the 996 motors had problems with rocker arms, countershaft sprocket seals, swing arm bearings and electrical gremlins. Last year on the way to Laguna Seca from Alabama a friend had his ST breakdown after being serviced by the one of the most respected technicians in the Southeast..

He had GRIT or bigger ones than most! Triumph and for sure DUCa owners that i know only go as far as the trendy spots close, compare bike garb, shop bills and show off their $1,300.00 exhaust systems. They would never think of a 250m ride!

Desolation Angel · « **Reply #16 on:** December 16, 2005, 02:47:14 PM »

Quote from: "daytona"

Quote from: "Bantana"
The DS1000 motor is very reliable as are many of the air cooled ducks.
The water cooled motors can be finicky and there have been some pretty severe problems with those powerplants. I have many friends with Ducatis and the 996 motors had problems with rocker arms, countershaft sprocket seals, swing arm bearings and electrical gremlins. Last year on the way to Laguna Seca from Alabama a friend had his ST breakdown after being serviced by the one of the most respected technicians in the Southeast..
He had GRIT or bigger ones than most! Triumph and for sure DUCa owners that i know only go as far as the trendy spots close, compare bike garb, shop bills and show off their $1,300.00 exhaust systems. They would never think of a 250m ride!

Wow, you're making Duc owners sound like H-D owners!

They just can't be the same kind of product that Harley puts out. Surely not!

Daytona · « **Reply #17 on:** December 16, 2005, 02:55:47 PM »

Quote from: "Desolation Angel"

Quote from: "daytona"
Quote from: "Bantana"
The DS1000 motor is very reliable as are many of the air cooled ducks.
The water cooled motors can be finicky and there have been some pretty severe problems with those powerplants. I have many friends with Ducatis and the 996 motors had problems with rocker arms, countershaft sprocket seals, swing arm bearings and electrical gremlins. Last year on the way to Laguna Seca from Alabama a friend had his ST breakdown after being serviced by the one of the most respected technicians in the Southeast..
He had GRIT or bigger ones than most! Triumph and for sure DUCa owners that i know only go as far as the trendy spots close, compare bike garb, shop bills and show off their $1,300.00 exhaust systems. They would never think of a 250m ride!

Wow, you're making Duc owners sound like H-D owners! They just can't be the same kind of product that Harley puts out. Surely not!

Atleast you can get parts for a H.D. that's over the warrenty period!!! Status Symbol!!

B12Teuton · « **Reply #18 on:** December 16, 2005, 04:05:55 PM »

Quote from: "KX5000"

Yeah, ya gotta love that rattlin dry clutch, no thanks I'd rather ride a TL 1000S

Hmm, let's see:
Dry Clutch = easy to work on and access if needed. Allows you to happily run non-motorcycle specific oils

TL1000S = glitchy fuel injection and chronic tank-slappers from poorly designed steering geometry and radial POS steering dampaner that together have caused more than a few riders to crash to their death.

You're right, go with the TL... at least it has terrible resale value.

right back at you

B12Teuton · « **Reply #19 on:** December 16, 2005, 04:14:09 PM »

Quote from: "solman"

So what does it cost to have a dealership check the valve clearances? Or how about a tune up?

The bikes do cost a bit more and service is usually $10-$20 per hour more than Jap bikes, but my dealer sold Yamaha, Kawasaki and Triumph as well.
As far as the cost, that depends on the bike. A regular, air cooled desmo with only two cylinders and 2 vlaves takes a lot less time to service than a ZX-6 for example.

As far as the electrical issues and such that you heard about, I can't speak to that. But if the battery is dead, it won't take a charge and the bike needs to by push started. Not the bike's fault and not a mechanical failure. That's like saying my brake pads wore out and the bike won't stop anymore. And if things are falling off a bike I imagine vibration caused bolts to loosen and fall out. ( it's a v-twin afterall) If the bolts were not checked at the last service this COULD happen to any bike.

Vidrazor · « **Reply #20 on:** December 16, 2005, 06:03:48 PM »

Hey, I went to check out the new Triumph 675, soI typed in http://www.triumph.com/

Go there and check out the rides...

Desolation Angel · « **Reply #21 on:** December 16, 2005, 06:24:51 PM »

Yeah, I knew about that. Some of the girls in other markets are better than ours. But I'll leave you to find them.

www.triumph.co.uk/usa/ is what you initially wanted.

ttewejnodnarb · « **Reply #22 on:** December 16, 2005, 06:49:40 PM »

I have first hand experience. My first bike was a 2002 Ducati 620IE. It was a leftover. I put about 15K miles on it in the 1 1/2 years I had it. I love the idea of Ducati...the heritage and the exclusivity BUT I actually did have a fair amount of problems with the bike. I broke it in stricktly as the manual suggested and did all the maintanance required.

The first thing to go was the slave cylinder. Not a big deal, but it was under warranty so I didn't (couldn't?) do the repair myself. $80 to tow it because it was impossible to ride in NYC traffic w/o a clutch and I couldn't put on an aftermarket to lessen the pull.

Then there was the service, which due to the warranty and being a REAL newbie at the time I had the dealer do. Definatly more expensive than a jap bike. Once again, because of the waranty and being very new I didn't give much thought to any other way to handle it. I'm sure there are ways, and I'm sure even if you are a beginner mechanic you can perform most maintenance but I didn't.

The worst problem was a cronic and dangerous one. I was never told exactly what caused it and it was never fixed. It kept re-appearing. The first time I noticed it, I was twisting the throttle and instead of the bike surgeing ahead, I was thrown into the tank and bucked back by engine breaking followed by throttle. It was like I shut of and twisted the throttle roughly in a very quick motion. This happened a few times and would get worse over a week. Then the guages died/came back/died again etc. Finally it gave out on me, stalling and refusing to restart NEAR THE TOLL BOOTHS ON THE TRI-BORO BRIDGE!

Got it towed...got it "fixed". The dealer said it could have been the computer going into "limp home mode" I wasn't impressed with this technology. It happened again a few months later ON THE ENTRANCE RAMP TO THE QUEENSBORO BRIDGE!

I had to back it off between oncoming traffic. Not fun.

I finally got rid of it because I was scared of it. I still love Ducatis and if I had several bikes, one would be a Monster. It wasn't babied but it wasn't beaten and this is only one mans experience. Take it with a grain of salt.

Desolation Angel · « **Reply #23 on:** December 16, 2005, 08:50:45 PM »

Quote from: "ttewejnodnarb"

...I finally got rid of it because I was scared of it. I still love Ducatis and if I had several bikes, one would be a Monster. It wasn't babied but it wasn't beaten and this is only one mans experience. Take it with a grain of salt.

Not a ringing endorsement.

I guess we could find a Suzuki guy with the same kind of story, if we tried. Anyway, thanks! I see these things all the time in the BMW shop along with Triumphs and they sure look sweet. I've never bothered to read reviews in the rags, though.

I was just curious about them. Thanks, guys!

Now, isn't this more fun than playing video games? So far I've gotten input on the FJR1300A, R1150RT, and Ducs in general. I've got some others that interest me that I have absolutely no experience with. Hmmm, which is next...

Red01 · « **Reply #24 on:** December 16, 2005, 09:11:11 PM »

Quote from: "daytona"

He had GRIT or bigger ones than most! Triumph and for sure DUCa owners that i know only go as far as the trendy spots close, compare bike garb, shop bills and show off their $1,300.00 exhaust systems. They would never think of a 250m ride!

Don't tell that to Gary Eagan, who set the record for the North America transcontental endurance record, riding 5400 miles from Prudoe Bay, Alaska to Key West, Florida aboard his Multistrada in 101 hours.
(and only 3 hours sleep!)

And before Gary got his Multisrada, he had a ST4 that he put 118,000 miles on in a year.

PitterB4 · « **Reply #25 on:** December 16, 2005, 10:21:06 PM »

Quote from: "Vidrazor"

Hey, I went to check out the new Triumph 675, soI typed in http://www.triumph.com/

Go there and check out the rides...

I'd ride that!

speedytriple · « **Reply #26 on:** December 16, 2005, 10:56:08 PM »

cause the 870 miles from cleveland to suches Ga. was not a real ride on my 2000 triumph right? and the 2700 miles five day road trip that ensued is not real riding either? i have ridden almost 27000 miles in 2 1/2 year on my triumph with no more problems then a broken speedo cable which was fixed by the dealer. i have never had any other problems with my speed triple. and i do not ride it gentle. as for the ducks they can be a bit more prone to problems. but the newer bikes are not as bad. what about the thousands of bandit that burned a quart of oil every 600 miles that they let out and then said they were fine just to recall them later?

mike

solman · « **Reply #27 on:** December 17, 2005, 12:10:20 AM »

Quote

Hmm, let's see:
Dry Clutch = easy to work on and access if needed. Allows you to happily run non-motorcycle specific oils

TL1000S = glitchy fuel injection and chronic tank-slappers from poorly designed steering geometry and radial POS steering dampaner that together have caused more than a few riders to crash to their death.

You're right, go with the TL... at least it has terrible resale value.

I have a friend of mine who had a TL1000S and put a 100,000 miles on it. He didn't have any big problems with it until he reached 100K. What put the bike out of commission was a rod bearing went bad. When the mechanic took the motor apart, he said that everything look fantastic for a bike with that many miles(except for the rod bearing). As far as the guy with the push start problem, it was a brand new bike. If memory serves me correctly, it was his first time taking it out for a run. If the bike had a glitchy fuel injection and was a chronic tank slapper, you sure couldn't tell when he rode it. It also seems after reading some of the other testemonials, Ducati's reliability has some issues. Don't get me wrong, I really love Ducati, I just don't think that I would ever be interested in buying one.

Quote

He was so dissapointed with the repeated problems he had with that bike that he left it in Oklahoma, took a flight to Laguna, had the bike shipped back to Birmingham and sold it for parts.

Quote

You're right, go with the TL... at least it has terrible resale value.

So what is a resale value of a Ducati parts bike?

Vidrazor · « **Reply #28 on:** December 17, 2005, 01:31:22 AM »

>>So far I've gotten input on the FJ1300A...<<

What kind of input have you had on it? I've been interested in this bike as well, although it's kinda steep for me right now.

I think if I had to choose between an Italian bike like an ST3 or a Jap like the FJ1300A, I'd choose the FJ1300A.

Daytona · « **Reply #29 on:** December 17, 2005, 02:03:34 AM »

Wow tis the season rite??? Hey bet you won't ask that again Desolation Angel
Board Homesteader!

The Truth About Ducati...which is?

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Ducati. Cool looking bikes. Are they any good? BMW sells them near my house. I've been told more than once that if you buy a Ducati, buy a bunch of new tools, too, 'cause you're gonna need 'em!
Is that true? Buy a Ducati and be broke down a lot? My favorite...

Hey i'm not knocking the Brits! I owned an 850 Norton back when Honda was Just a pup! I think their big bike was the 175 twin Dream model (remember those) Ducati had a single 250 4 stroker that was the fastest thing in that size & stroke. Then came the 2 stroke Zukster's Kawi's Yama's and the rest most of you know... youngsters!!! Triumph, BSA, Norton, Royal Enfield, and Duc's should be ashamed of them selves to let these folks dominate the way they are.. when was the last time a Triumph BSA Rider make the podium? I wonder if Mat Mladin could on one.. Anyway its like Kmart letting Wallyworld just smash em! Why or how can this happen?