Ducati Hatred
 

I have notice since going Ducati about a month ago how many people are bitter about them.

The Reliabilty being overly exaggerated, and stories of £1000 services ?
im getting a service and cam belts changed next week for £250.

Now try to explain to someone that owns a kawasaki that the build quality isnt ****, it is infact alot better than your bike.

i mean you only have to look at each part on a ducati to see the quality the care taken.

The yokes, the suspenion, the wheels, the trellis frame.

Its a bit one man band when you own a ducati trying to explain as youll bet your luck 95% have Jap bikes which are pretty much ALL the same.

ive not noticed any hatred towards ducati owners in the 7 odd years of living with them. a touch of jelousy maybe the reason behind snide coments. (maybe thats why kawasakis are green?)

i find you pays your money & takes your choice. earier dukes did have an issue with electrics & there were reliability problems in certain areas but nowadays i believe they are as good as any other manufacturer.


i guess there are just alot of uninformed riders out there...

Join the Club, ride with fellow Ducati riders and hear no more BS from the majority. Feel the Force young Skywalker :lol: 4D

Similar reasons for hanging back and buying a Ducati, all the so-called bad press.
As of yet had no problems and really wished I'd done it sooner.
But the snob issue is every where. When I used to commute to work on my BMW very rarely got a nod, even got cut up by a guy on a Honda.
Most of the time I ride my St4s now. Had to take the BM for a MOT, forgot what I was riding and kept getting miffed why other bikers would not nod back.

Im talking about friends, they all ride Japanese bikes and seem to find storys based on something from an old duke, chinese whispers means it ends up being of i heard this and this happens on ducatis and they cost £1000 to service and they are poorly built.

which when you compare it to a a kawasaki the quality is exellent :).

And yea everyone now seems to think im a snob and wont take my view seriously.

Probably because there are lot of uninformed, lazy journalists out there who keep perpetuating the myth that Ducatis are unreliable and that they have **** electrics - the reg/rec situation was sorted years ago but I think that the Journos still have a bunch of stock phrases that get trotted out as a pavlovian response to the word Ducati.

I've got two bikes - and between them they've only let me down (to the point where I just couldn't get the bike to start) once in around 30,000 miles - that was a flat battery that was my own stupid fault for not plugging the Optimate in.

I have had two minor electrical problems that have caused the bike to die while out riding, one on each bike. One was a dodgy relay connection on my ST that was fine after it had been cleaned up by KeefyB's thumbnail, the other was a fuse terminal connector (for the fuel pump) that had worked its way loose and was only making intermittent contact. Neither of these breakdowns took much more than an hour or so to fix by the side of the road and in fact both times these breakdowns took place right outside a pub so we had chance to neck a couple of beers while doing the repairs.

There's plenty of doumentary evidence (photos) of both the ease in which Jools' T8 was fixed and the fact that said breakdown's are most likely to happen outside a pub.
There's photos of beer being consumed, too (yeah, like you needed evidence of THAT!).
;)

they ARE expensive to run/service keep on the road compared to a jap bike.....and lets be honest alot of distate from Ducati owners is directed to people that own jap bikes...........................you/we/them whoever are as guilty as brand hatred as the jap owners.................

i should know LOL..i am now a Jap bike owner.................

My Bmw is not far behind in the running costs, but at least it's a twin and not one of those 4 cylinder things!

Ive had 3 Jap bikes before i got the ducati, but it seems everything has to be compared when you have a duke.
its always Jap bike vs duke.

My st4s ain't perfect but I don't care.
My BM is more comfortable, better panniers, better protection, pulls easier from lower revs and far quieter in the wind noise stakes.
But the Duke makes me happy every time I ride it.
I don't care about other bikes, they may have bigger willy extensions attatched to them, but at the end of the day they don't sound like my bike.

MY duke gets called a penis extention all the time :(

Very true. I long for the days of my first 900ss, I remember with absolute clarity the day I picked up my 916, I love my current 900sl (especially the rear 3/4 view), and the little DD racer is an almost perfect trackbike. :D

I had a zx6r for 18 months, it was great, but all I remember was that it was bloody quick and built like a pizza box.....

If I need to spank a jap bike then I'll hire one for a day or two, but for the moment I'm a feeling seriously italian. :D

Ali

So what we could all do with a little more.lol

I say...just ignore the uninformed and quietly enjoy riding something that is a little more special than the mass-produced alternatives. If they don't want to listen, one has to merely feel sorrow rather than frustration! You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, as they say...

Very profound Richard

The funniest thing for me was going into my local dealer (before it closed!) and ordering some simple parts which they had in stock - shear bolt, seat pins, those kinds of things.

There was a guy in there picking up some parts for his Kwak (it was a dual dealer) and was signing a receipt for over £150, for not much really.

They rang up my parts and it came to about £3.

He looked astounded and said "I thought Ducatis were expensive!"

I just laughed politely and walked off.

The thing with Jap bikes is that they need servicing half as often, but cost twice as much when it does need doing. The average Jap bike owner never sees this because they don't put enough miles on it or keep it long enough to reach the big services. They are very much a consumable bike - throw it away when you're done - and don't get kept and cherished like a Ducati does.

Obviously there are exceptions, but you're more likely to find that Ducatis are owned for many years compared to one-or-two years for a Jap bike before it gets replaced by This Year's Superbike.

I wouldn't turn my nose up at a Japanese bike, I've owned them before and may even own them again one day. I would love a Gixer 750 (probably my favourite), wouldn't mind a big retro naked like a CB1300 or GSX1400, so I don't see myself as being superior to owners of Jap bikes.

It's just that once I'd ridden my first Ducati I was totally smitten and have been ever since. I might get my leg over a little Japanese number one day, but my smouldering Italian beauty still makes me go all goose pimply...

Time for a cold shower I think....NURSE...

People get that all back to front, you know.

A penis is simply a Ducati-substitute. No more, no less!

let the non-believers hate ! that what I say
I've always had Jap stuff before the duke,
RD50, AR125, 125LC, 350LC, 250LC, 350YPVS, CBR600, R6 & now the 749R

some love 'em.....guess most are on here LOL
some pooh pooh 'em......I'm just content in the knowledge that they obviously never rode one !

whenever I get to ride my Duke it makes me happy, thats enuff for me !!

no harm in being a little more exclusive either ! LOL

6k service on the r1 = 160 quid approx......12k service = 160 quid approx ..valves checked at 20k miles..

Dont know where you got your figures from..?....

...and the price for the 20K service is.... ?

better informed people than I discuss this very question here.
http://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=701347

Phil, so you've chopped in a 748R for an R1 (in my spare time I am Hercule Poirot)? Any comments from both sides of the fence?

I've had bikes from Japan, Italy, Germany (East and West), India, England and Austria. Far and away the most reliable and least expensive to maintain was the one from East Germany.

Well i wouldnt have anything else

I've had 5 Ducati so far, all super bikes all post 1997 models. Only break down has been a snapped throttle cable on my first 748BP, thank fully this went on the yard before I went out for a blast.

I've had 2 x 749 (S & R), both have had niggling work done under warranty, but, neither let me down at the side of the road.

OK, Ducati have quirks and I accept these as the "price" to pay for owning an Itallian Superbike.

I'd rather put up with the the odd quirk and enjoy the reaction of the public and other bikers when ever I park up.

Before I got in to Ducati's I had a very nice, very clean Kwak ZX6. No matter how much I cleaned it or cared for it, I would be only 1 of dozens of ZX6 at any bike meet.

I pull up on the 749r and there may be 1 or 2 other Ducati's.

I like that kind of exclusivity.

mine is my first bike.
Right on cue, it broke just after i got it and now i am kinda paranoid it will break down and i tend to guestimate odd rattles and noises in pound notes.

I have considered swapping it in for some kind of jap bike, and ive even been to look at a few.

However..i have resisted.

i love the way it sounds, i love the nice comments i get when its parked or i draw up on it, or how people quiety hang around until it starts up.
Its weird cos its not a superbike or one of the prettiest ducatis - its a 97 ss.

In a perfect world i would love a 749 and when i win the lottery i will get one.
The servicing still scares me, mostly with a bigger engined bike.
But as with any transport i own i am willing to learn how it works and do stuff myself.
I think if you have half a brain and a toolkit, youre silly not to learn about it when dealers are up in the £40-50 an hour region.

Cy

Having ridden Ducatis for the last ten years, I'm often ignored by Jap bike owners when I nod at them on a run. However, I used my RC30 for the RTL trip, and I arrived in Glenridding on the Saturday evening - by which time the Lakes were booming to the sound of Ducatis.

Taking the RC for a last run over Kirkstone Pass before I hit the sleeping bag, I passed countless Ducatis heading in the opposite direction - bikes probably returning from Saturday's RTL run. I nodded at all of them (since I'd be meeting up with some of them the next morning) but very few actually returned the nod. Most of them blanked me. Blimey! 'Twas a shock to the system! And this despite the fact that I still had 'DUCATI' emblazoned all over my bike gear and helmet.

So... it works both ways methinks.

I'm sure if I added up what my cbr6 cost me in the first year of ownership, that it would outweigh what Max has cost me in 4 1/2 years.

I`ve just come off Ducatis after six or seven years of them,from SS`s to Monsters and Multistradas to 888s and I can safely say reliability has never been an issue.I came home on a recovery truck once in all that time and that was due to a puncture on an old 600ss,I had a rectifer fail on my T8 after 20000miles but was never left stranded(limped it home)

I do have "issues" with Ducati in some instances:mad: but I voted with my wallet and spent my money else were(time will tell if this was a good decision or not,but at the moment I`m loving it!)
But all Ducatis handle well and thrive on been ridden hard(And I was no exception:rolleyes: ) and to some extent that`s the problem,tracks are where these bikes come into there own(And big jap sportsbikes for that matter) these bikes handle and brake so well they can flatter a "lesser" ride and that can lead to trouble,I`ve seen it first hand,but been lucky enough not have had to phone someones wife or girlfreind and have that awful conversation,a lot of people in this club have ridden bikes since they were teenagers and are now in a position to afford these great bikes and appreciate them,so go careful fellas and ride as far as you can see;)

Getting back to the servicing,that was one of the reasons I swapped brands, as I wanted to service my bike,myself,without having to spend a fortune on special tools,shims etc.Having a "do it yourself bike" is fine,but with technology comes more speed and power and visaversa,my bike is now slower,but a lot more fun and I feel like I did twenty years ago,going for a ride on me bike cos I don`t like being in a car!!!
I don`t care if a rice burning bike half the size of my pushrod powered lump comes flying past and can lap Snetterton 5secs quicker than me,I really ****ing don`t,I can just grab me leather jacket and lid and go for a ride without dressing like a power ranger or feeling pressure to bury my knee into the tarmac at every oppitunity.
And when I order parts for my bike they are normally here in 10-14days not 10-14 months!!Take note Ducati,and from a lot further away!
My last 5000m service cost me £35,that`s Oil,transmission oil and a filter.and a couple of hours in the shed,fantastic!!


But hate Ducatis,

































Never;)

It's tribal. Get used to it. Most of the comments are amazingly ill-informed rubbish which is regurgutated 3rd or 4th hand from magazines and the good old "mate of a mate".

You get the same nonsense about electrics, belts, cylinder studs, chain adjusters, servicing costs.... blah blah...blah. Even when you put a service bill in front of people, or show them the parts prices they refuse to believe you or acknowledge that they're wrong. The bit I find laughable is someone with a Gixxer saying how maintenance intensive the Ducatis often are when he has a 4k interval as opposed to a 6k interval on the Ducati.

Life is too short to argue with unarmed people - ride the bike and have fun. Better still, learn how to ride a Duke well and show them your number plate :)

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Nice one Loz

What always amazes me are the people who come up to you at bike meets or wherever you stop and say "is your bike alright mate, it's making a lot of noise". I'm losing count of the number of times it being said to me. It happened a couple of weeks ago to Richard and myself and I'm sure we both had the same resigned look on our faces and were thinking the same thing - "oh no here we go again".

You can't beat a duke for character and soul which the Japs can't seem to capture no matter how good looking and quick and gimicky they make their bikes.

The general public love Ducatis - they are drawn to them like a magnet. The biking public are usually more cautious but still interested, often trying to start a conversation with some information they heard somewhere once, possibly wanting to be convinced that they are as good to ride as is generally accepted by jurnos - I always see it as a way to recruit more folk to the Ducati fold :)

If you really want to get noticed turn up on one of these - thought I was going to get mobbed when I went to the Alton meet with Stu on Wednesday night ...

I have this a few times too along with comments about reliability and pricing etc. My reply is always the same."Have you owned one?" Invariably the answer is "no".

I rarely meet people who are as enthusiastic or passionate about jap bikes as Ducati owners are about theirs, which says a lot really.

I would sell my ZX6 tomorrow, but never the 749. Shes a keeper!

DM

You speakin for yourself there Loz?

Having said which, I got asked by a bloke the other day what a Ducati was!! He wondered if I had some sort of off-road bike. Duh.

Wave
Just think how much more you could get from our club if you invested 20 beer vouchers for membership!

My friends get rather peed off when they get beaten on twisty roads by a quote 'tarts handbag' ridden by poofs that breaks down every 5 minutes.

What??

Phil, so you've chopped in a 748R for an R1[/quote]

Well I never...:o :eek:
So then Phil, what made you do that??? Just interested after the conversation we had about my 748/749 quandry.....

Ive got two now....can't bare to get rid of the SS.
In three years Ive not come across any biker that hasn't nodded back yet!

When Ive pulled up comments have been made regarding reliability,cost etc but only usually to strike up conversation about the bike...once I start rattling on and singing the bikes praises in the region of "fantastic ride at Cadwell" whom ever I talk to ends up talking about wishing they could own/working their way up to owning/wished they'd never got rid of, blah, blah, blah.
I'm glad I skint myself to get a Duke for my first bike...and hence having a Duke for my second...I love both of my bikes ,Oh and the beautiful little red italian number that is still giving me hastle!!!!!