Plus Ça Change (Tweaking Part II)

Categories: Bikes Diary Reviews Tech

I've had my Multistrada for just over a month now – time enough to find out the good, the bad and the incomprehensible about it. And yes, it IS as good as the reviews say it is (my own full review has been much-delayed by the simple fact that I've been out riding it!) but it ain't entirely perfect, so here's my thoughts to date on what can be improved in future and what needs to be fixed by Ducati right now. It's a very short list, considering that this is a brand new bike designed to appeal to a much wider market than Ducatis of yore – and, by definition, a market less accommodating of Italian, ah, idiosyncrasies. But here they are, in all their ignominy – let's see what Ducati come back with:

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Posted by Richard at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)

Tweaking (Part I)

Categories: Bikes Diary Reviews Tech

Whilst my natural inclination with a new bike is to start fiddling with its setup pretty much on the way out of the dealers, with The Raven I've been giving myself time to slowly get used to it, to play with the various suspension modes and generally suss it out until I understand it enough to start prodding at it. That does however assume that Ducati have pretty much got everything right to the point where, whilst I might want to tweak to taste, there's nothing I can't live with. So time to look at the figures.

The graphs below show the electronically adjustable bits of the system and the stock settings for each mode and load (for the Preload settings, the higher the number the greater the preload and, for damping, the higher the number the 'lower' the damping effect). Whilst there's a mostly logical progression - increasing rear preload and commensurate increases, particularly to rebound damping as the load rises, there are a few anomalies in various modes that I'm still trying to work out. Also, rear damping is jumped right up in Two-Up+load in Sport mode - a bigger difference between any other mode and we're finding that Touring mode is generally a little undersprung and damped and Sport mode slightly overdamped. I've a feeling that the rear shock might need respringing - I probably weigh a tad more than the target Italian norm...

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Posted by Richard at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)

Butting In…

Categories: Bikes Tech

The Ducati STx bikes have pretty good seats. For a Ducati. That actually doesn't do them justice – several 500 mile-plus days without major pain, loss of feeling or feelings of self-flagellation have demonstrated that. However, to be picky, the side ridges of the rider's perch can start digging into the inner thigh after a few hundred miles, and one 600-mile two-up epic revealed a few, ah, points of discomfort for my uncomplaining pillion – it wasn't anything she said as much as the very fine John Wayne impression she did on dismounting. So several alternatives presented themselves: the buy-in, from Corbin or Sargent, a new model year Ducati OEM seat (they're distinctly plusher on the butt) or the full custom route.

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Posted by Richard at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Braking and Banjos

Categories: Tech

In an earlier post, I mentioned strange problems with a heavy judder under braking, something I've seen reported by a number of people in various fora. It's been a while, but we finally managed to find a solution. Even better, it's a very cheap and easy solution. I'd gotten as far as having the the head bearings changed, to little effect - they were rusted and badly worn (traditional on the STs, apparently, as Ducati don't seem to get around to greasing them at the factory), but not completely shagged – they would however only have lasted another few thousand miles. After that, I was looking at the fork slider bushes and the disks themselves – neither of them being cheap options.

The guys at Snell's, my local dealer, then got in touch with Ducati UK, who suggested trying the modified banjo assembly for the brake master cylinder that Ducati produced to address similar problems with some Multistradas. So we did, it was fitted this morning and all is now smooth as silk.

So, for anyone suffering from that dreaded judder under braking, one solution (YMMV) is a simple banjo kit: It's listed as a Multistrada part, number 69922861A. In my case, it was supplied and fitted under warranty, despite the bike being 18 months outside the warranty period. Result, and very impressed with both Snell's and Ducati UK.

Posted by Richard at 05:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

How far? On a what?!

Categories: Bikes Tech

“You go touring. On a Ducati? – so where's the tow truck?” – if I'd had a quid (Eng. coll: unit of currency) for every time I'd heard that from fellow bikers, I'd be at least a couple of dozen cappucinos to the good. So here' we are, three years and 31,000 miles down the line, and me and the Stealth Bomber are not only still hanging around together, but doing very well – I haven't even managed to drop it yet, despite one panic-fuelled deadlift of 210kg – a strained muscle was self-healing, fairings aren't. So, 31,000 miles in three years, on a Ducati. Without a support vehicle? (remembering that the average annual mileage of a Ducati in the UK is 2,500) Er, yes actually, so it's probably worth a review of the score so far – let's see just how temperamental these 'fragile' Italian beasts really are. First, the vital statistics:

Number of breakdowns: 0.
Number of no-starts: 0.
Number of not-quite starts: 1 (cold day and dodgy battery - replaced under warranty).
Number of stops on-the-road: 0 (although a worn-out wheel bearing discovered at the Nurburgring caused some nervous twitching).

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Posted by Richard at 11:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack