Best Bike in the World (Probably)
 

Back in 2003 there was a Ducati dealership right across the road from where I work. Listening to all that bling razzing past all day drew me into a test ride. Me and my mate took out an ST2 and ST4. After 23 years of BMWs and a VFR it was at first a big shock. Never has anything rattled between my legs as much as that! But then the first real corner came up. My jaw dropped out of my helmet and dinged the tank. I told the salesman that if the engine was horse we'd have to take it round the back and shoot it. But the handling sold it, an ST2 and ST4s were ordered on the spot.

The bike that arrived handled pure horrid, not at all like the bikes ridden on test. So I went on the net and learned about ride height. Dialled in 10mm (yes I'm a wuss) and voila; handling and ride quality like I never thought was possible. And whilst the engine was new, it sounded OK. Miles got me used to the clutch basket rattle. Neil Spalding's great article on oil circulation and rockers fell in line with my own thoughts on starting engines. His philosophy has been proved to be very successful.

Ducati's decision (understandably in view of mediocre sales) not to enhance the ST4s (eg Testastretta engine?) led me to keep my 996-engined ST all these six and a half years. 55,593 miles including 12 track days. At last year's Cadwell both me and my son ran her for 2 sessions in every 3 as he couldn't run his Suzuki on day 1. She did 68mpg on 4 successive tank full's of petrol going to Nordkapp in 2006 (severe speed limits in Norway). She has lunched no rockers at all. Just the odd wheel bearing, head races at 36K and a clutch at 18K, due to my intensive wheelying practice no doubt.

About 4,000 miles ago she began sounding like a VFR800 at tickover, especially when cold. Swarf on the sump plug too. We checked everything we could without splitting the crankcases. The bike itself still ran mint. Smooth as ever. But the swarf was coming from somewhere and things inevitably got worse. Soon the engine sounded like a Garrett supercharger, the sweet whirr was now a grating noise.

Cornerspeed stripped the motor and found that the drive side main bearing had failed. Specifically, 1 single ball had failed, all the others were perfect. This tells us the bearing had not been overloaded nor had lubrication broken down. Naturally both mains and other bearings in the vicinity were changed as a precaution or because some of the bits had found their way into them. Detailed examination showed that the rest of the motor (bores, gearbox etc) was in first class condition.

It's a pity because I believed I could, with proper starting, warming and maintenance, get this motor to 100,000 miles without a failure. And the worst thing is, that darned bearing was Made in England !!

Cornerspeed did a great job at a very reasonable cost. My sincere thanks for that. And thanks to Ducati for making the best bike I've ever owned or ridden.

Well done NB, good write & photo's....

I'm leaning more (in the distant future) towards an ST4s than the odd-looking but brilliant Aprilia futura.

A few comparison tests here:

http://www.apriliafutura.co.uk/roadtests/index.shtml

cheers - Frank

Good write up, Please could you show me/point me in the right direction to the warm up and oil flow info you mentioned

Excellent,.....good write up.
I love ST's,..... despite never owning one.The best one I ever rode was Marko's old ST4.What a sweet motor.

Hi Johnny,

Spalding's useful article is here: http://www.sigmaperformance.com/rockers.html

Once the 60-90 secs is done I keep the motor on a light load and less than 3,500 but not labouring for 3 miles. By then, everything is at correct operating clearances. Some question the need but I point to the high mileages on some of my bikes. 175,000 on a BMW R100/7 is the best and thanks to 2nd owner (Roy) also. But that bike made 50% of the power of the ST from the same capacity and didn't do a dozen track days. Did St. Tropez to Blackpool cruising at 115mph for 19 hours though in 1981.

Cheers,


Norm.

Thats an excellent mileage on a great bike. Well done!

I take absolutely no issue with most that is written in the Spalding article as it contains much sensible advice. However, the statement that it takes 60-90 secs for oil to get to the cams on these engines is just not correct. Its really easy to demonstrate this. Just loosen the oil feed union at the feed to the vertical cylinder by half a turn then start the engine. Just make sure you have a spanner at the ready to retighten as oil on my 888 started to come out within 5 seconds despite it not having been started for several weeks.

Keith

Nice one Norman....hmmm ST4S

Funnily enough I know someone who is selling one....................

Yeah, I like my ST4 loads with very few qualms (well, the heat from the pipes during our tropical summers here is a bit of a problem). Read the interesting article you posted. Good stuff. I usually put the fast idle on at startup, especially in the winter, and keep the revs below 3,000 until a temp starts to show on the indicator. Then I turn off the fast idle. I guess I could do without the fast idle at startup, but I haven't had much luck doing that when the bike is cold. Low idle generally means another try and in the winter the battery is getting close to saying 'enough!' After reading the article however, may try starting with a bit less initial idle speed. You brits may be moving quickly into your version of winter, but we still see days over 30 C here....LOL

Great write up.

Mine has 36k on it now, and is still going well (did have a new cam and followers at 24k, but mechanic reckons this was due to 12k checks not being done - tricky to prove).

The best improvements to my bike, which makes it perfect for what we need, are the HID light conversions and DP Gell seat.

I really hope the new bike thats due out soon is as good as the ST.