YAY my Multistrada just turned 40k on the clock!!

[Mr. Whippy]

That being said, I used to love the brand and their products. Now I am finding out that the D16RR is suffering from broken valve springs which is amazing to hear about a $65k bike. That tells me that they are less concerned about the owners than they should be.

james

Hmmm....

Small company putting out a motor which is different in design from everything else they've produced for decades--might just be shaking out good vs bad parts suppliers for essentially a first year product.  It really depends on how they're handling the failures.

[atypical1]

But it's not a "first year product". It's an "only year product" and one that costs over $65k.

james

[Mr. Whippy]

Correct.  When problems crop up, it generally in a minor component (valve spring, bolt shearing, wire damage) rather than a fundamental design flaw.  

Again, it really depends on how they handle the failures.

BTW, BMW rider complaining about another company's customer service?  

[atypical1]

Well, it is not a minor component. It requires taking the motor apart as the valve springs are not scattered throughout the motor. They are fixing the problem but the owners are without their bikes for a month. Oh, and Ducati is short changing the dealers on the cost of the service so how motivated are they going to be to do the work?

Yeah, I know. But so far (8k since May) the BMW has been perfect and has had no problems and the service has been great.

I really am not trying to bash Ducati. I have owned three of them so far but I just think that they don't think of their owners as well as they should considering the loyalty the brand has.

james

[Mr. Whippy]

Well, yes a valve spring is a minor component.  It may be difficult to get to, but valve springs are like bolts or bearings.  Lots of suppliers who have various levels of consistency between manufacturers and even within a single suppliers' various types of valve springs.  

Not unlike the ignition coil failures in Audi engines (manufacturer problem) but certainly not like the oil starvation problems of the BMW M-series from a few years ago--which was related to bad shell bearings IIRC. --and which BMW denied until a group of racing enthusiasts threatened to sue.

[canyonchaser]

Every manufacturer is going to produce an occasional Lemon.  Its too bad you couldn't get covered in the lemon law.  If you think Honda is immune to these problems, spend some time over on the cbr forums.  There's some awful stories over there - and from what I've seen, Ducati tends to stand behind their bikes better than the Japanese companies.

That said, it totally sucks when it happens to you, and its really hard to get behind that mark ever again.  My first Ducati experience was less than ideal, but the next two Ducati's were fantastic.  This latest one its too early to tell, but I've already found a few issues with assembly.  The throttle cables were twisted and binding - I fixed that last night, and I lost a couple of fairing bolts the first big ride.  Not inspring, but nothing too tragic-- at least not yet.

dp

[couchflyer]

Congrats on 40,000.  Mt ST-3 will turn 20,000 miles soon.  

Dealers are a PITA, so I have been doing the maintenance on my bikes.  Its their mechanics that's wrong not the bike.