Don't forget Andy's bike is a 999R.

Ducati have a "book" time for service but I would have thought that dealers can set their own per hour labour rate. An R should have belts every 12 months or 6k miles whichever is the sooner.

I would be very surprised if shimming is needed. The motor in my bike didn't need any at 9k miles.

One advantage of the current engine is that it is relatively easy to dial the cams (vernier cam pulleys?) to produce the engine charateristics you want, i.e. big top end power or big low to mid range pull.

Choose yer fave dealer or specialist, some might have some offers on at this time of year or just after xmas to keep the workshop busy.

Some workshops might be full of pesky budget racers AKA DD bikes, a good 'shop will just leave these outside if they know a proper bike like an R needs the space!! :o:P:lol:

Ray.

You'll be surprised to hear then that most of the shims on my mate's 749 needed replacing on his 2 year service!

HW,

Gulp!

There are a number of reasons for the clearances to be out of tolerance maybe I was just lucky or ................

Were the rockers OK?

The stretta motors don't tend to wear rockers/shims in normal circumstances...................maybe Ducati haven't laid that ghost to rest after all.

Ray

Have you had any rockers replaced in yours Ray?

'blimey Andy - thats 100 miles a month - are you sure you like that bike :puzzled::o;):lol:

TP,

Nope, no rockers and no shims needed as part of a service at 9k miles/3years and before Henners says any thing I've been playing catch up 'cos the previous owner only put 1.7k miles on it in the first year!

I got a full listing of the clearances as part of the service report.

Ray

Well that's good news. I've never heard of any testastretta engines having rocker issues before, I thought I'd left those behind for now :)

The rocker issue is not so much "which engine" but more "when were they manufactured/fitted".

There is a tech article on Sigma's website that explains it (I think), but the gist of it is that during a period in the 90's when Ducati were trying to cut some costs they sub contracted out the hard chroming of the rockers. They subsequently discovered that the chroming was not up to standard and was prone to flaking causing increased cam wear. Ducati then stopped outsourcing and did the job themselves in house. They will retrofit where they find a problem and any new rockers will be OK (in that respect). Of course, all Testestretta engineed bikes will have new(ish) rockers so should not be an issue (not the same issue anyway!).

I don't know why that bike needed so many - although I have a suspsicion that it was not an Italia bike originally. I would be surprised too if a new bike came from them, and then needed that many doing at service. It's not like it's had a particularly hard life either - well looked after.

TP,

I thought that was the case as well. I thought that better/quicker lubrication at startup on the 'stretta engines had pretty much sorted the flaky rocker issue.

I haven't heard of any probs with 'stretta bikes until HW mentioned his mates 749.
HW said the shims all needed replacement but that could be down to something other than big wear on the rockers due to the "known problem" HW didn't say the rockers needed replacing, just the shims so I still reckon the stretta motors are OK.

Ray.