[braknanklz]

I posted the thread about 748 vs. 749 and now I was wonderin if any people own these bikes and have had problems. I have head horror stories about owning a Ducati with mat. costs and problems. My monster had problems, but now huge ones.

 

[rubberduck]

The older 748s (pre2000) I think some troubles with the rocker arms flaking off their surface metal. The clutch slave cyclinders might leak, but that was the case with most ducs. The 749 is a bit too new to talk about long term reliability I think, but it has every indication of being a better made bike with closer tollerances met on almost every part. Hec, just pulling the cams looks to be a lot simpler now. These are performance bike though, so they are not as forgiving to neglect as lets say, something like an CBR600. But I have personally seen more Ducatis with over 40-50k miles on the clock then other bikes of the same year. I really think the poor reliabilty issue is a bit of a fairytale on these modern bikes.

Plus think Italian. No Italian cared if their Ferrarri or Ducati was reliable. They just wanted them fast and beautiful (kinda like their women). If it needed more attention to keep it on the road, it was just considered part of the cost of ownership. If you want style an artfullness, buy the Duc and enjoy. If you want reliable buy an RC51. /yawn

 

[Gman86]

I bought the extended warranty when I purchased my bike. I heard the stories too, but I still wanted a Monster. ;D

 

[ScottRNelson]

The 4-valve motors are known for rocker problems from 1997 onward.

My 2-valve M900 has been totally reliable for 6 years now.

 

[mnztr]

Just got back from a 4500 km ride all the way through Blue Ridge parkway and back (to Toronto). The bike ran great and got awsome gas milage (as much as 55 mpg or 23 km/liter) on some tanks. I was caught in some pretty bad rain and the bike kept humming along. Used about 1.2 liter of oil. All in all it ran wonderful. My bike is coming up on 50,000 km as well. 2V Ducks are pretty solid.

 

[chris]

all ducatis are pretty reliable. even the rocker problem is just an inconvenience in the big picture. BTW, the rocker problem affects all 748,916,955,996. all, as in ALL years, ALL models, and ALL variants. if further definiton of all is required, please consult a dictionary. all. ;D

back to reliability... do a good and thorough tune up and check everything out... then you're good to go for a while. zina and i ride to laguna almost every year... it's a 1100 ~ 1300 mile round trip and we don't hesitate to do it. my 6 year old 30k mile m900 is not really any better or worse than an average well used japanese bike.

chris

 

[MarkV]

ducati's are fairly reliable for the most part... if your ducati proves to be unreliable the blame will most likely rest on either the service technicians, the service managers, the area dealer reps, and/or ducati north america customer service reps' inabilities/lack of motivation to follow through a task or any combination there of.

oh yeah keep in mind the history of the particular model that captures your fancy.... which include but are not limited to flakey rockers, leaking batteries, cracked frames, cracked swingarms, cracked headstuds, loose flywheel nuts, loose oil galley plugs, poor wiring, bad clutch slaves, etc...

 

[CRED]

ducati's are fairly reliable for the most part... if your ducati proves to be unreliable the blame will most likely rest on either the service technicians, the service managers, the area dealer reps, and/or ducati north america customer service reps' inabilities/lack of motivation to follow through a task or any combination there of.

oh yeah keep in mind the history of the particular model that captures your fancy.... which include but are not limited to flakey rockers, leaking batteries, cracked frames, cracked swingarms, cracked headstuds, loose flywheel nuts, loose oil galley plugs, poor wiring, bad clutch slaves, etc...

So what are the known problems of the 620 vs 695 vs colored vs Dark.... are these all the same bike?

What is the difference and what are their weaknesses....

 

[ManxKat]

I've done 6000 miles in 6 months on my M1000S - 2k of which we toured europe. No problems so far. Just coming up to the 12k service.

 

[krolik]

Did you push the "resurrect a thread" button?


;D

 

[baadaaboo]

the 748 & 996 have an unknown electrical problem, such as the battery dies ever 6 months. My monster doesn't have this problem and have been owning it for 18 months.

The vertical cylinder gasket may leaks. Other then that... I didn't have anymore problems.

My true experience is... believe it or not the engine runs better if you ride it like it's stolen. More you baby it, more problem you'll have.

 

[njineermike]

the 748 & 996 have an unknown electrical problem, such as the battery dies ever 6 months. My monster doesn't have this problem and have been owning it for 18 months.

The vertical cylinder gasket may leaks. Other then that... I didn't have anymore problems.

My true experience is... believe it or not the engine runs better if you ride it like it's stolen. More you baby it, more problem you'll have.

+1 When I quit riding mine like it was made of glass it really got in it's groove. Minimal maintenance, and my cost of ownership hasn't been bad at all so far. 15000 miles in 6 months and the only real issues are self-inflicted.