Jap bike tend to run Timing chain or gears but even the chains have to replaced and the tensioner will go.

Most dealers of any make are selling bikes alot cheaper and don't make much profit, the only way they make money is by service costs.

It does make you sick tho when my Honda Civic will cost me £140 for next service !

The Jap answer to valve operation and synchronisation is to use chains to drive the cams instead of belts as 'We' do.
Reasons; weight reduction, quieter running, no need for an oil supply to lube chains, COST!!.
Downside is obviously the need to maintain them more, especially on models with high shock loadings caused by extreme cam ramps (sp, sps, R.)
I personally do all I can to my bikes apart from the tasks that require special tooling or expertise just to keep the costs to a minimum, you'd be surprised how much the average person can undertake and how much it knocks off your total bill. ;)

Its best to get the dealer to give you a rough estimate as to how much they think the service will cost. I was quoted around £450 for 2 year service on my 999r, when I came to pick the bike up they said it was £660. I told them they had previously quoted around £450 and just like magic the bill reduced to £500

Also some jobs included in the service shedule might not be necessary (depending on mileage since last service) eg fork oil, you can ask for these jobs to be left out in order to get the bill down.

P.S - there is an article on a 748 in this months Performance Bikes magazine that has done over 50,000 miles without missing a beat.

yep - ur right...hope to this year, already on the 'ring thing' got to stop thinking about depreciation and think about appeciation of riding!!!

Doesn't that one belong to a DSC member?

Don't forget that Ducati service intervals are at 6000 miles compared to 3500 to 5000 for many modern Japanese bikes.

("3500" inserted.)

[Edited on 21-2-2006 by Loz]

Only 4,500 maybe, but that's a hard 4,500 right Paul.

Yep - thats Moto748 (aka Fred)

C:)

Ducati servicing seems to be done on fixed price menus at franchised dealers - they're very over-inflated pricewise in my opinion. I would use an independent specialist - even so I think some of the costs quoted here are ludicrous. It's not like Ducati parts prices are that high - in fact they're often very much cheaper than Japanese equivalents. It's for these reasons that I will probably never buy another 4-valve Ducati...another customer lost then. :borg:

I forgot to say there's things you can do to mitigate costs such as all the basic stuff like filter and oils, brakes, brake fluids etc. You can save a remarkable amount of money that way and you can spread out those costs by scheduling one job for one month, another for the next etc so, your salary doesn't take a major bash at any one time. Anyone who works in a maintenance engineering capacity will understand where I'm coming from...planned preventative maintenance. Doing it all at once is not always best practice.

Of course, if your bike is under warranty then you're pretty much handcuffed.