buying st4s
 

thinking of getting rid of my monster and getting an st4s,
around a 2002/03 model.
what if any probs should I be looking for ? mods to avoid etc.

Do it!
Problems... the only gripes I've had with mine was warped front discs when I first bought it ( 2yrs old & 10K miles ) along with a rocker needing replacement and then at the last service the head bearings were shot ( 4yrs & 22K )

As regards mods, mine has fully floating Wavy discs with P34 4 pad calipers on the front.
ST4 gearing - 15 / 43 ( great fun ! )
Lightened flywheel
Opened up airbox
Techlusion TFI injection module
SilMoto carbon cans ( quiet ish ones though..)
Wavy rear disc
Sargent seat
Evoluzione number plate relocator.

I can't think of any mods to avoid other than garish paint jobs like Yellow
:lol::lol:

I have a ST4 and love it, yesterday at Oulton Park a 996 parked next to me and I was thinking coor look at that and the guy got off and looked at mine with its panniers and top box and said that looks like a thinking mans ducati - high praise indeed.

Get it - I am intending to get a carbon fibre hugger and uprated rear suspension - both are standard on the ST4S I believe.

I had an ST4s for about a year, troued France on it and had a brilliant time. I really wanted a 749 or 999 though and ended up trading it for a 749S (which I also love a lot).

I've seen front disk problems mentioned a few times, and after mine was traded in I was it in the workshop and asked waht was being done. Besides having some carbon cans on it, apparently it needed steering head bearings and the front disks were warped (the mounts were not true). Strange that the same dealer had it for a 2 year service only 2 weeks before I traded it in and never noticed either of those issues. Probbly it's not on the service schedule, but you'd be tempted to thin kit was all OK if just had a major (and expensive) service.

I ended up with ST4 gearing (I think) when I bought new chain/sprockets. I found the front wheel had a tendency to come off the ground if I pulled a way smartish which was .... different. Didn't half go though. :biaggi:

They wold definately benefit from some more open cans and filters. Save a lot of weight too, you;d not beleive how heavy the std exhausts are.

Bottom line is, ST4s is high on my list of bikes I'd own again. :roll:

[Edited on 12-9-2005 by HW]

I have a ST4 and love it, yesterday at Oulton Park a 996 parked next to me and I was thinking coor look at that and the guy got off and looked at mine with its panniers and top box and said that looks like a thinking mans ducati - high praise indeed.

Get it - I am intending to get a carbon fibre hugger and uprated rear suspension - both are standard on the ST4S I believe.

Hello....is there an echo in here?

Go for it!
I bought an ST4s last year and love it. Toured Northern Spain and Portugal this year. Brilliant bike for touring. And when you get home you can take off the panniers and you get a great sports bike too!
Mine is complely standard - so far. For me the performance is enough....I still get a silly grin when opening the throttle. And when I get used to the bike and want a bit more I can do all the mods. First up will be a new chain and slightly livelier gearing.
Daryl

need to make sure I grab big handfulls of front brake to make sure discs wont be as issue on test rides then.
judt one thing Rushjob.............. only seems to be yellow ones avail at present in scotland.

Dont rush into a yellow one a nice faster red one will soon be available Im sure:sing:

Like HW after over 3 years of Ducati ST4S ownership I hankered after a 999 and part-exchanged it for one at Ducati Leeds. I just wish I could have afforded to have both. You will find that most second hand ones owned by enthusiasts will have had any problems sorted. I toured Northern Spain and travelled from Holland to Mugello on mine without missing a beat. Got 220 miles to the tank as well.

My old bike is for sale at Ducati Leeds

http://www.ducatileeds.co.uk/dl_used...ikes_leeds.htm

PS. It's the grey 2001 51 plate

[Edited on 12-9-2005 by chrisw]

I reckon, and it IS only my opinion mind you, that the red (and yellow) look better on the superbikes. My ST2 was silver, and that looked a bit "sensible". The ST4s was the "matt grey", or as the Americans called it on the Yahoo ST group "bat barf grey". Nice! :) It is not a problem to clean, as was feared, I just washed with car shampoo and chamois dry. Done. Bug splat came off easily too, and I live in rural Lincolnshire so there si a LOT of that!

Pic of my ST4s

[Edited on 12-9-2005 by HW]

whats wrong with the yellow ones?......
I know colour is a personal thing, and ducati`s are associated with being red.
I think the shape, like the 748 looks as good in yellow as it does in red.
or does it hurt the value/ ease of resale.

:) there is nothing wrong with yellow - but if you spend a bit of time around here you will see an endless "debate" going on over red vs yellow. Traditionally, the 916/996/998 were red, and the 748 was yellow. The first 749 to come out was yellow, then they started supplying red ones.

Some bikes just "look right" in a particular colour - odd, but that's just the way it seems to be. Surprising the number of folk who agree too, on something that doesn't even make sense!

(of course - red ones are faster!) :smug:

yours isn`t red by any chance is it HW ?.

Well mine is yellow-one of the very first batch to come in registered in May 2001.
I decided that if I was going to have what I regard as a fairly 'bland' bike-for a Ducati-it had to be 'in your face' yellow. I have done a few mods to mine, 14 tooth front sprocket, cams dialled in, P34 calipers, Ducati Performance filter, airbox lid, and cans, lower screen, oh and I have changed the lower fairing panesl to black which sets it of nicely I think. I have done over 25,000 miles on mine, been all over Europe, done the 'Ring, trackdays, Arctic Circle-love it.

John

what do you think? :burn:

Well, my ST2 is a terrific all round bike. It tours, it scratches and holds it's own on ride outs and trackdays. If you could only have one Duke, and it had to do it all, the ST takes a lot of beating

I can only imagine that the extra 35-40 bhp that the ST4S has over the ST2 makes it even better

The bhp, and the extra torque. It's an awesome motor. You can really ride it like a sports bike, then you can put panniers on it and take it aroudn France. I did it all on that bike.

Ratchet

I had an ST4 then an ST4s and covered a fair few miles, both superb bikes, miles better than any VFR (and i've had 3 of them) The ST's are great but very underated bikes, not popular with the press. Mine went round Europe, couple of track days, and general day to day use and loved both of them, don't think you would be disapointed.

I got the suspension set up, needs more ride height, 14 tooth gearbox sprocket, higher screen, Sargent seat and put open pipes on for big increase in midrange power/torque, plus a bit more on top end and that proper sound:D

Only problem that springs to mind was wrapped front discs in just under 20,000 miles on the 4s.

Another warped disk story. Hear that quite often.

I remember what was said about the setup now ... the suspension was set up to be "safe". Meaning slow steering? Like a cruiser I guess. AS BDG says, if it's standard it'd benefit from some added ride height and a bit more compression damping on the front. There was a write up about it somewhere, if I find it I'll post it.

If all the rumours about Ducati stopping production of the ST4S are true there will be some bargains coming up at the dealers.

Only mods I have done to mine is I have now fitted a top case and a screen of Rushjob.

Colour is a personal thing, I only wanted red, I have had some red sports cars as well, having said that I have noticed a few yellow ones catching my eye at dealers.

If money were no object I would get an ST4S, but thats just being greedy as the ST4 is only twelve months old.

Extra...Extra...read all about ride height and other worthwhile ST mods on this here LINK

Applies to ST2's, 3's, 4's and 4S's (except the later 2's and 3's that don't have adjustable forks)

Ratchet
Mines YELLOW - bought my ST4s in June 2001 and it has not missed a beat since. I live in Switzerland and do only tours on the bike (no nipping down to the shops) and it is fun fun fun. Do get the front sprocket changed. Living in the Alps the factory setting was too tall for mountain starts and a bit wrist aching in town traffic slipping the clutch.

Now go out and buy one - before they stop selling them and every Tom Dick and Harry gets to suddenly realise that they have missed the most underrated Sports Tourer on the market for donkey's years. Jurnos they know nothing apart from Bull Sh*t.

should the s version come with paniers as standard
or were they optional, etc.
already had to walk away from one st4s, dealer
test ride form expected me to take ALL liability in any
eventuality of an accident, is this the norm now?.
also bike quite tatty when out in open and able to check.
if anyone nows of one for sale up north of the border
second hand.

Re panniers... not exactly standard but therewas an offer for a while giving free panniers with the ST4S but it ended in June 03... most of them will be equipped though I'd have thought.
As for the test ride, it's normally you have to pay the excess,around £500 locally id you bin it.
Don't buy tatty... there's loads of very clean ones out there.
Patience......

no this one was 3000 excess and they would expect it paid regardless, of incident.

my ST4 came with panniers, I bought the top case separately and later. I test rode a new ST3 at 3X (a year ago) I didnt sign anything they just looked at my licence. No idea whether that is the norm or not but I followed one of their riders, as he was far more accomplished than me there was no danger of me riding too fast and as he was in front less likely to come to any grief.

I would expect £500 at our local dealer. Not test ridden anything there in the past 2 years though so it might have changed. When I tried the 749S I took it away for most of a day to see if I could live with it. A quick ride down the road is not representative of how your back is going feel sat on a superbike for a few hours. as it happens I was hooked and bought it.

The year before that I went to Leeds to test ride an ST4s demonstrator. I signed for £500 excess there too. ON the way back I stopped at (I think) Motor Cycle City that was just up the road. I test rode the RSV Mille R there, and just before I went out the door I signed for £2500 excess. Needless to say I was nervous as hell, and didn't get the full benfit of the experience.

When the shop in Eye nr Peterborough was Carnell (or might have been Riossi by then) we went to look with some friends. I was outraged that their policy was NO test rides on anything. I asked how they expected people to part with their money for something they didn't even know they would like and the sale guy shrugged and said "people do". Good attitude (his, not mine). :)

Ratchet,

Would that be the yellow ST4s in Perth Motorcycles you are looking at?
I had a test drive of an ST4 they were selling last spring. They had the £3000 excess so like Henry I rode it verty carefully indeed. In the event I didn't buy the bike. It was a 99 with 14K on it and they were asking £3,200 and offered a miserly £1500 for my SS. In March I bought my 03 ST4s ABS with 1,000 mikes on it for £5K and sold the SS privately for £2k. I'm glad I waited.
The ST4s is all I expected it to be and a fantastic bike. They don't come with panniers as standard in the UK but I got a set off Henry ;) (Hope you had a good time up here Henry, pity we didn't meet up)

Is this the bike here?

Done it. Got yellow one as it seemed plenty fast enough or me, plus I wouldn`t want to loose the wife off the back.................Too often.
53 plate less money and lots less miles, panniers, termis,carbon clutch cover, heel plates, front fender well chuffed.
only thing is now 2 1/2 week wait till I can go pick it up. Oh and the 500 mile round trip, 250 on the st should be no prob but 250 motorway miles on the 600 monster ?.

Congrats Ratchet. Sounds like a nice bike - shame about the colour though ;)
I don't fancy that 250 miles on the Monster much either but you'll love the return trip.
Since you're only about 30 miles or so from me you might want to meet up to compare STs sometime.
I won't be doing much riding this week though, got a puncture in the rear tyre with only 300 miles on it :mad:

Well done Ratchet. I have a yellow ST4, 2002 (yellow's the way to go). I swapped my 750 Monster for it this summer. I'd had the Monster from new (1997) and thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was time for more miles, more luggage and more go. The ST4 provided all those and more, I'm really pleased with the choice. Especially after I raised the ride height to provide more ground clearance with panniers on (see the thread "Ground Clearance".

Enjoy the ST4, enjoy Yellow!

bummer about the tyre derek, perhaps you may be trying some puncture seal with the new one ?.
each to there own colour, personally I think in red with the styling they look abit anonymous, perhaps thats the appeal to some, perhaps its just us shy guys who want yellow
:lol:
will need to get together at some point, poss you can give me some starting set up tips for front supension etc.

Ratchet,
There are probably plenty others who can advise you better than me on suspension settings and bear in mind that they will be different for every rider depending on their weigt and type of riding.
When I got the bike the first thing I was aware of was that the front supension was too soft, divlng at the least application of the front brake. 2 clicks up from standard on the front compression damping sorted that. I also adjusted the front and rear preloads to give the correct sag for my weight and finally increased the rear ride height to give about 10mm between the rear wheel and the ground with the bike on the centre stand. That also had the disadvantage of raising the seat height by at least inch.

I realise suspension settings are quite personal, but never had adjustable front forks before, so everyone will have more knowledge than me.

There was a write up in a mag once about the ST4s and they said the susension was setup very soft as standard. Of course, you will have no idea whether it is stlil standard or not, but Derek is right that increasing front compression damping a little to firm it up should help. There was a tendency by the factory to make it all too soft I think.

Right enough. Make sure everything is at the factory settings and work from there.

I have a yellow abs, bought in December. Great fun, and the yellow gets a lot of compliments from riders and non-riders alike. Issues I have had so far are hot exhaust under left leg that exits under a pillion as well, making summer a great undertaking (thicker or leather pants are supposed to help, but haven't tried that yet), a little problem with idling and stalling unexpectedly (idle speed lowered of it's own accord during the summer and stalling was cured by another service after the 1000 km service and maybe the 14 tooth sprocket I put on) , a goofy fuel indicator and gauge, and a slippery seat that let's a certain young lady test the limits of pressure on my nether parts while stopping. Otherwise, I love the beast, a real pleasure to ride with lots of toot when you need it.