Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 998 / 996 / 916 / 748 > Servicing Dukes

[pguenet]

Guys,

Sometime ago I had a big bitching at the general poor quality and stupid prices we get charged for servicing our pride and joy from big bike shops.

So this weekend I went to see CornerSpeed (nelly on this forum) and did a full service on my track bike. This has just confirmed to me that the best Ducati specialists are small workshops run by enthusiasts that know their stuff, not high street shops where you never meet the guy that worked on your bike.

Nelly does a real clean job and has the right attitude to approaching problems. He doesn't leave things half done and never leaves something unexplained either. He once gave me a complete explanation on the TPS of the ST2 and you could tell that he got to the bottom of it!! This weekend he sorted out some issues on my wiring loom nicely too.

I just wanted to address a special thank to him and highly recommend you all to trust him servicing your bike. We like people like him and should bring him our Business. He is based near junction 28 of the M1 just above Nottingham.

Cheers all
Philippe

[Desmondo]

You've got it mate, stick with the specialist companies. Some may think I'm stupid but mine has never been serviced by a Ducati dealer. I'm never going to sell it so I'm not worried about having the stamps in the book. Tec Moto look after my bike and I won't take it anywhere else.

[antonye]

What's an (approximate) cost of a TecMoto service compared to a Ducati dealer?

I've spent some money at TecMoto and their customer service is great, so I'm thinking of using them for bike servicing too.

[scoot]

i used a specialist and found him to be overpriced and could not do all jobs
(im not saying there all like it as ive heard good things about some specialist) his hourly rate was the same as a dealers on one of the bills he had over charged by about £200 quid and then the spragg clutch went and he said he had not replaced it but i had paid for one on the bill so now i will only use jhp as i rate him highly

[rcgbob44]

Just like to say that if you find someone that your happy with to get there mitts on your pride and joy, then go for it.

I to have experienced some dealers that i would never return to and one that i trust always with my Duke.

So i will take this oportunity to recomend ProTwins @ Godstone, there a good bunch to deal with and install confidence in there work and dealing with customers.

[pguenet]

Pro Twin, JHP, Tecmoto and Sigma are top notch and I would actually think that they charge more than Ducati Dealers. They have lots of experience tuning up Dukes for racing so I would be a little afraid that things might turn expensive with them.

But for general maintenance work, you do not need such specialists and the small independents are the best alternative as far as I am concerned. They are generally passionate people that know their stuff and love to do a good job. Not the trainee mechanic that some big workshops sometimes let loose on your bike!

The only problem with independant specialists is that you need to find a good one that knows his stuff and that has the tools for the job. Those guys will do a great job at reasonable price and this is why you should recommend them when you happen to meet one of them!

[sps955]

Got to agree with pguenet,small independants tend to actually be passionate about the bikes.
I have some very scary stories about my official dealer.
They couldn't even do the pdi properly on my 998R.
Have never been back.
The guy who used to work for them doing all the Ducati's didn't like the way things were going and he felt that they were making him rush the service or miss things out to get more bikes through the doors.
He decided enough was enough and opened his own workshop.
I only wish he had done this a lot sooner.
Can't sing his praises enough.

[kfz2]

its a no brainer really guys, at the end of the day its an Italian bike not stamping out tins of beans, im not sure they lend themselves to a production line type affair, find a decent independent who you trust and stick with them. I tend to treat every bike on an indvidual basis but then I have the time and i dont 'need' the money.

If he genuinly cares about your bike then he'll take the time to talk to you about it.

You should put a little DSC recomened dealer contact page??

Kev

[Jools]

Well there is a dealer comments page accesible to paid up members to vote for dealers they've had good/bad service from. I'm not sure you could do a 'DSC Recommended' because we're just a motley collection of individuals who can't take a unilateral decision of behalf of the whole club.

Having said that, I can back up 100% the original comments about Cornerspeed. Top service.