Ducati Truth

[iBike]

Hi all,

Any truth to the rumour that Ducati's are high maintenance?

[B1ade]

I have 2 right now, a 2010 848, to date it had 1 electric regulator problem which was a common recall and fixed for free, 1 x new battery and a service every year, no other problems. The other is a 2013 Hypermotard (latest model), to date no problems just servicing. I do take good care of the bikes, regular oil changes, battery optimiser, regular chain adjustments and so on, but I don't consider that high maintenance, I do that on any bike. I know there will be others who have had problems, but to date nothing out of the oridinary **touch wood**

[Pdaz]

Yep same for my Sport Classic. 5 yrs no issues. Service from Ducati is very cheap compared to UK as well.

All the " Italian electrics" and other urban myths are just history these days

[greg71]

This is taken from the expat bikers facebook page ----

A wee bit of a shock today....or could be Tales of the Not so Normal....
My Multistrada has been giving an intermittent Throttle Position sensor error...... off to Ducati to fix it.. turns out you can't just buy the sensor you have to buy the whole Throttle sub assembly at Baht 130,000 ./ unit ........
Fortunately I located a sub assembly unit off a late model low mileage bike in USA and got that for Baht 10,000..... love my Ducati but certainly at times they can stress one out a bit

Edited July 19, 2015 by greg71

[Lucky33]

I have a Ducati Diavel with 12,000 kilometers on it and a few months ago it quit on me. At Ducati Pattaya they said six weeks to get the pressure sensor part for the fuel injection and 9,500 baht. I had to wait three weeks for an appointment after it quit to take it to Ducati service so they could look at it and tell me what was wrong and then it was another five weeks before the part came in and it was fixed. I didn't mind the 9,500 baht charge as much as I minded being without my Diavel for two months. Ducatis are great bikes, I like the way they ride, look, and sound but they aren't the most practical motorcycles that you can buy.

[fullcave]

Compared to Honda yes the maintenance costs are substantially higher and replacement parts if available may need to be special ordered (down time) and will cost you an arm and a leg. But still the maintenance costs are substantially less here than in EUR.

[thaiguzzi]

Belts changed every 2 years. Air cooled 2 valve motors are easier to do valve adjustments than ANY DOHC shim type motors. If you are mechanically adept, they are easier to work on than modern Jap bikes. As stated above, if electronics go tits up, it can get expensive. Sensors etc do not seem to last as long as common Jap alternatives.

Me, i like carbs and points... (Luddite).

[iBike]

I'll scrap that and stick to the Jap idea then.

I'm all up for as little stress as possible!

[WingNut]

I have 2 Hondas. One is pretty much still brand new, only a bit over 1,000km and no problems so far, but that doesn't tell you much. My other Honda, which is well over 3 years old now has had no mechanical problems at all. I had one issue though, the LED lights in the gauge assembly wore out and I couldn't see the gauges at night. I could have lived with it, but I decided to replace the dash gauge assembly unit because it It was only 3,000 Baht. I got the part from Honda in 2 days, and I changed it myself. No drama. The part would have actually been covered under Honda warranty, but by the time I got around to contacting Honda about it, my 3 year warranty on the part had run out by a couple of months already. So I had to pay and couldn't claim it because I waited too long. My bad. Otherwise, I had to change the battery once on it (about 2,000 Baht) and tires (2,500 to 4,000 Baht depending on brand). But I consider those maintenance items anyway.

I would say most of the time with Japanese bikes just change the oil every 3,000km (because oil changes are so cheap in Thailand) and put decent quality petrol in them. if you do that from the start then most of the time you can pretty much just drive them without having to think about them much or do much repairs on them.

The OP asked about maintenance in his original post. I think maintenance is necessary with any machine, although some machines are higher maintenance than others. I think his question is really about unexpected repairs, high cost of repairs, and overall reliability though.

Edited July 20, 2015 by WingNut