Ken's Motoworks' Thoughts on Ducati | Page 4 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Ken's Motoworks' Thoughts on Ducati

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Sorry I think this a funny. You youngsters with all these new fangled bikes have broken Ken. So it seems Ken is now an old man that laments "the good ol' days"
So I guess there is no more playing on Ken's lawn... and if anyone sees him out back yelling at clouds....
 
bitzz said:
Sorry I think this a funny. You youngsters with all these new fangled bikes have broken Ken. So it seems Ken is now an old man that laments "the good ol' days"
So I guess there is no more playing on Ken's lawn... and if anyone sees him out back yelling at clouds....
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I fail to understand why you think this is funny ?
Ken keeps up with what's current and knows more about Ducatis than anyone I know. If you've been paying attention to the thread, the fundamental complaint is that you can't repair anything any more, you turn into a parts replacer. And who ends up paying - the customer. No one in the service business wants to be the bearer of bad tidings, especially when it's related to the failure of a $25 part you can't buy separately.
And that's NOT funny.
 
bitzz said:
2) It is cheaper to buy a bearing/hub assembly than to pay a mechanic shop rates to putz around pressing bearings in and out.
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Heh. In the last five six years I have TWICE had mechanics agree to (without badgering) press out & install bearings into a spindle that I brought, for very reasonable prices. They were different mechanics though... both had varying degrees of regret on their faces after. It inspired me to get a press... haven't used it ONCE yet myself, other family members have used it.

I will say though! I removed the uh, clip retainer thingy myself before bringing it to them. That alone was a PITA
 
bitzz said:
I have a 20 ton. My neighbour has a 50 ton... if I need to get serious
Using an impact gun to install a bearing isn't doing the bearing any favours. The PROPER way to install a bearing is press it. NEVER use a hammer or an impact on a bearing you plan to use.
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The impact is to turn the nut on the threaded rod "press".
 
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TwistedKestrel said:
Heh. In the last five six years I have TWICE had mechanics agree to (without badgering) press out & install bearings into a spindle that I brought, for very reasonable prices. They were different mechanics though... both had varying degrees of regret on their faces after. It inspired me to get a press... haven't used it ONCE yet myself, other family members have used it.

I will say though! I removed the uh, clip retainer thingy myself before bringing it to them. That alone was a PITA
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A proper hydraulic press makes things so much easier. I started off using threaded rod, then got a cheap bottle jack press. Returned that pretty quick and got a King 10T that's way sturdier and safer, and haven't had any issues pressing in/out any suspension components. There are some cases where I'll go back to threaded rod because it's easier to align everything on an awkward shaped object.
 
TK4 said:
I fail to understand why you think this is funny ?
Ken keeps up with what's current and knows more about Ducatis than anyone I know. If you've been paying attention to the thread, the fundamental complaint is that you can't repair anything any more, you turn into a parts replacer. And who ends up paying - the customer. No one in the service business wants to be the bearer of bad tidings, especially when it's related to the failure of a $25 part you can't buy separately.
And that's NOT funny.
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The vehicle manufacturer generally only sells parts in the same form that they are getting from their supplier. If the supplier is supplying (let's say) a complete throttle body assembly with all sensors in place and calibrated, to the vehicle manufacturer that's one part number. That's the way they receive it from their supplier, that's the way it goes to either the assembly line or the parts warehouse.
 
Brian P said:
The vehicle manufacturer generally only sells parts in the same form that they are getting from their supplier. If the supplier is supplying (let's say) a complete throttle body assembly with all sensors in place and calibrated, to the vehicle manufacturer that's one part number. That's the way they receive it from their supplier, that's the way it goes to either the assembly line or the parts warehouse.
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And the original vendor can't (or won't ) sell component parts separately. Buddy needed a TPS for a set of injectors on his Kawasaki 636 - nope, replace the whole injector setup at megabucks.
Off to the local Parts Source, the replacement was less than $50 (as I recall). Just 'cause they won't doesn't mean they can't.
Brembo makes it really hard to find rebuild parts for their calipers and master cylinders (see a previous thread). They're out there, but you sure have to dig.
Total B.S. in my opinion.
 
Liquid lunch and carbed out on bread....then a triple capuchino to open their eyeballs for the remainder of the work day. Lunch in Italy is a two hour affair. Add some wine and bread (every meal) and you have Italian Motorcycles with $3500 FBW throttle assemblies. How's that even possible...is it made of gold? The screws autographed by Massimo Tamburini? Somehow this makes sense to this company.

Japanese lunches are from 12:00 noon to 12:01 pm. Consist of vegetables and rice and some tea. Morning work begins with Tai Chi. If you tour the Suzuki plant, it's full of robots making robot noises and if something goes wrong on the assembly line it is stopped and all employees must step back from the assembly line and put hands to thighs.

While I am embellishing a bit on the Japanese lunch break time, the rest is true.

You get the idea.

The guy formerly known as Mladin.
 
-Maverick- said:
Liquid lunch and carbed out on bread....then a triple capuchino to open their eyeballs for the remainder of the work day. Lunch in Italy is a two hour affair. Add some wine and bread (every meal)
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This sounds lit tbh.
 
OK, something about this thread has been bothering me and I just realized what it is. The 821 has the TPS integrated into the twist grip. It was known to be problematic on early models (at least the Hypermotards), and the solution was to replace the throttle grip with an updated one. No need to touch the throttle bodies.

As for the price of the throttle bodies, I had to see it with my own eyes, and now I'm gonna give Ken the benefit of the doubt that he made a typo. GP Bikes parts page shows a 2016 821 Monster TB set for $2400. Sure, still expensive, but not $3500 expensive. A lot of other manufacturers no longer sell individual TB components and make you buy the whole assembly. KTM's are $1300 as I came to discover, and so are the Honda CBR's.
 
Was on a few Ducati forums from 2017-2021 when I had my Multristrada. Put 40,000 trouble-free km's on mine and from the thousands of other users posting up they had no abnormal issues either. Those were people that put on miles, not from their driveway to the local coffee shop in the same town and sit then back home. I'd happily (and most likely will) buy another.
 
I've heard ken doesnt work on V4 ducati's either.
 
topendz said:
Well Ken gets nothing but positive from me. His the only one that I allow to work on my 998 or 1199s when it’s something I don’t want to touch no or don’t have time
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Nobody's saying anything negative about him, he's the one being negative about late model Ducati's.

That said, hopefully he learned on my 998 before touching yours, but he tried prying out the tabs on the rear velocity stack/injector mount instead of simply turning the entire assembly counterclockwise to remove them. So some of those tabs are now broken and the rear stack sometimes pops off (presumably when I hit a really bad bump). And of course you can't just buy that one piece, you need to buy the whole injector assembly.

Pic showing tabs (not mine):
img_0528-jpg.39547


Fuel injector assembly (#4):
1694053140437.png
 
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