Tip for 999R/749R buyers
 

Before you buy, have a look at the swingarm where the real wheel axle nut sits. On a LOT of the 999r's and 749r's I've seen, it looks like a gorilla has been at the rear wheel nut with a cannon-sized torque wrench. Many of the swingarms have bits of the black paint missing and have suffered various chip, scuffs and scrapes, often through to the aluminium underneath. Even seen one 749R for sale with a crush dent to the rear swing arm. Not good for that money!

Watch out for that nasty tank weld on the 749R too -- most are okay, but I've seen couple where the red paint hadn't covered the primer, and even one with a small fissure in the weld!

Other things to look out for: scuffs, scrapes and scratches to the carbon parts (timing belt covers seem bad for some reason) and black stripes on the rear number plate not lacquered down at the end.

Sheesh, Ducati quality control where are you???

Rob

If anyone want to scrap theit 999/749r black swing arm, ill give yer £50 for it?:roll:

Seriously mate, the worst of the ones I've seen you wouldn't even have for £50. Not unless you'd be happy bodging it with filler.

Rob

If they are the latest WSB derived swing arm, they look and function the bizz.

As you say it is dissapointing if they have been damaged in some way given the price.

In was looking at a 749R tother day..those tank welds are nasty....cue Mr Hackett getting a carbon cover knocked up to prise even more of yer hard earned out yer pocket !!!!!!

Not that Im jealous or owt...:lol:

Nat

tank weld is to add extra volume to the tank to last the distance in the supersport races why bother tarting up something on a bike which is designed to be raced not ridden on the road

So Nigel the fact that it is a homologation bike means that the standard of welding can be such as would disgrace a first year apprentice.....try looking at the GP bikes!

Furthermore these bikes are being offered for sale as road bikes at a hefty price premium. The point is that this is undoubtedly affecting the willingness of punters to part with their hard earned cash.

It is time that Ducati realised that poor workmanship and lack of attention to detail will result in consumers buying elsewhere.

Yes maybe people will go elsewhere but they won't get that sort of spec for the money

And it's such bad value for money that Ducati have stopped taking dealer orders due to demand until autumn

If they are prepared to accept p*$$p**r workmanship then more fool the buyers .
It means that Ducati will not be forced to improve ....then we are all losers.

sorry didn't read your post properly thought were commenting on why the weld was the not the quality only just read that bit :saint::saint::saint:

There is exactly the same weld on all 749 / 999 tanks but you don't see it as it is covered by a small plastic plate , the plate would look silly on the bigger tank , I don't have a problem with it being left off.

As someone else also posted , what hefty price premium ? :o , the 749R is quite a bargain when you consider what you get for your money , same frame as a 999R , same swingarm as a 999R , brakes forks , magnesium rocker covers , carbon bodywork (ok the seat is plastic) unique engine bore / stroke compared to other models , you even get titanium valves which the 999R does not have..........all for £6k less than a 999R :sing:

Nigel ....no problem .....we all do that on occasions.

YFE ......the price premium is in relation to most other brands on the market. We pay a premium for bikes that need replacement engine parts every 6000 miles or so and on which the welding is third rate!!!!

Would we accept this from our cars?

I think not.

*feeling ****ed at the thought of replacement rockers now the 996 is out of warranty*:mad:

Possibly not. But when you consider the specific output of a 996 is somewhere around 120Bhp per litre and a 999R is in the region of 140Bhp per litre that's a big ask from any twin, which means they're in a pretty high state of tune for a 'standard' road bike.

How many normally aspirated cars are in that sort of territory? By my reckoning that would mean a performance oriented car like a BMW M3 at 3.2 litres would have to make nearly 450 Bhp as standard - and it doesn't does it, over 100 Bhp less in fact. If you raised the state of tune, my guess is that the Beemer would need a good deal of fettling every 6000 miles as well.

There are loads of people that know far more about cars than I do - I'm well out of touch. Maybe somene can help identify how many normally aspirated cars including real exotica make that sort of specific power output and what their reliability record is like?

[Edited on 4-5-2004 by Jools]

Interesting point Jools.......however I note that our Far Eastern brethren seem to be able to extract even higher BHP from 1000cc and still not require the replacement of what should be parts which last the life of the engine after 6000 miles !

Good to see you on Sunday BTW.