Why I'd never buy a Ducati | GTAMotorcycle.com

Why I'd never buy a Ducati

TK4

TK4

Well-known member
Pull up a chair, this is a long story.
A friend of mine has a Ducati Monster 696, it needed the wiring harness replaced - the headlamp stopped working and there were some other issues. A new one is $1200 (???) and apparently not available from Ducati North America.
After further investigation, it turns out there is a warranty recall for this problem that called for relocating the harness so it didn't cause the particular problems she was experiencing.
The dealer and DNA dragged their feet over the fall and winter, finally agreeing to perform the replacement of the harness because the original is smoked.
She took the bike into the dealer in April, and waited, waited, and waited.
After contacting DNA again, she was told the harness was finally on its way and should be at the dealer shortly (like now).
It still hasn't arrived, and when it does show up she has been told they'll get to it when they get to it, its not a high priority.
I hesitate to name the dealer, but they haven't done anything to ingratiate themselves, nor has DNA. If I were in the market for a new machine I would look elsewhere.
End of rant....
 
Evoex said:
Incoming wave of satisfied Italian bike owners in 3...2...1...

But yes, i could never go Italian if it was my only ride.
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She's ended up buying another bike (Japanese) to fill the void while she waits....
 
That sucks. Did she pay for the repairs or was it covered by factory?

Name the dealership. They should at least be given a chance to respond.
 
Sounds more like a dealer problem to me.
 
Sounds like a Ducati problem, they can't supply the harness. How can you blame the dealer, they would have had the work completed in the slow April period. For her story, probably a dozen Ducati owners in the same boat.
 
Did someone mention GP Bikes?
I'm sure I heard that somewhere....

Who remembers Steve?
My Ducatis are great, wouldn't trade them for anything BUT I wouldn't touch anything newer than a '98.
... and DNA, they're a fun bunch.
John at Peninsula is a nice guy.
 
bitzz said:
Did someone mention GP Bikes?
I'm sure I heard that somewhere....

Who remembers Steve?
My Ducatis are great, wouldn't trade them for anything BUT I wouldn't touch anything newer than a '98.
... and DNA, they're a fun bunch.
John at Peninsula is a nice guy.
Click to expand...
Steve Hicks? ya,he is an odd sort of guy.As are a lot of the old time DOCC peeps.But fun to be around.
 
JavaFan said:
bad deal

belt driven cams
and fear of valve springs
is all the reasoning I need to avoid the Duc
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No love here for rubber band drives here but valve springs? What's your concern there, you know how the Desmo valve system works yes?
or is that the root of the problem with people being afraid of owning a Ducati?
 
The belts are easy to change.The only failures i have ever heard of are twits that shouldn't be allowed to have a fork in their hand,changing them and saying.....looks pretty close! Wham.Bent valves,new motor.


Ughh.Why did i get sucked into this? Ducatis are horrible.Don't buy them.Leave me alone in my comfy little niche.
 
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I'm still trying to imagine a wiring harness preventing me from going riding lol. Unless I maybe parked it where the porcupines and mice could get at it.
 
Replacing the harness sounds a little drastic. Surely it could have been repaired and repositioned by a competent tech.
 
Blackfin said:
Replacing the harness sounds a little drastic. Surely it could have been repaired and repositioned by a competent tech.
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The recall is for a 2009 model - had it been performed when originally announced then you're likely right.
It wasn't done by the first owner, no way to know if they'd ever been notified.
 
Personally I don't get why Duc doesn't dump desmo. Historically it is significant, a novel way to overcome the redline limitations of primitive valve springs. That problem got solved 50 years ago with better metallurgy, unfortunately in those days Ducati lacked the engineering and financial resources to re-engineer their motor to modern standards. Instead they fiddled with Desmo until around 2010 when instead of redesigning with valve springs, they again tweaked desmo for better service intervals. Unfortunately this saved a little time, but not cost -- it's still crazy expensive to maintain.

I'm pretty sure Desmo is to Ducati what Potato-Potato-Potato is to HD -- nostalgia that is baked into the brand. The 24K/30K servicing of timing belts and desmo shimming runs $1000 to $2200 plus parts depending on the model. I spoke to a fellow a few weeks ago who just had the 24K service on a '14 Diavel -- it cost $2400 at GP. It's not like a Jap bike that will rarely needs reshimming and almost never needs rockers or cams replaced as normal wear items.
 
If you are not sold on the Desmo valve technology, then you really don't want to be buying a Ducati, although there is certainly nothing about the design that would stress a valve spring any more then any other valve spring and if Ducati had a recall, big deal, so they identified a known problem and provided a solution to fix it. Very poor reason to never want to buy their products.

... and no, valve float was not made obsolete by advancing spring technology, smaller lighter valves is what reduces the phenomena because poppet valves with less less travel and inertia are less prone to float in the first place.

I don't know how any of you guys can afford to own nice motorcycles when you are paying somebody else to work on them, if I had to do that I would have been motorcycle poor and mechanically ignorant decades ago.
 
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