View Full Version : The joys of Ducati ownership
So we set out from Bury, north towards the Trough of Bowland with the intention of going to Windemere.
Stunning weather...
Amazing quiet roads...
And catastrophic electrical failure!
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u285/woz70/DSCF1963.jpg
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u285/woz70/DSCF1964.jpg
There isn't much worse than being stranded at the side of a beautiful road with a bike that won't go.
kwak zzr
27-07-08, 08:28 PM
ooops sh#t! how did u get home?
Ducati's eh?
Bags of spanners!
Who would ever be dumb enough to buy one of those!
rictus01
27-07-08, 08:56 PM
Ducati's eh?
Bags of spanners!
Who would ever be dumb enough to buy one of those!
Proactive self defence Lissa ;)
Cheers Mark.
ThEGr33k
27-07-08, 09:00 PM
:( A shame! Bah. You'd have thought there would be 3rd party Loom replacements about :D
Proactive self defence Lissa ;)
:D;)
ooops sh#t! how did u get home?
I got home on my SV, he got back in a recovery van. Breakdown cover eh... worth every penny.
Who would ever be dumb enough to buy one of those!
That'll be you then. :D
:( A shame! Bah. You'd have thought there would be 3rd party Loom replacements about :D
Turns out it wasn't as catastrophic as first thought. The recovery bloke reckons it's a knackered battery so a relatively cheap fix.
ThEGr33k
27-07-08, 09:38 PM
Turns out it wasn't as catastrophic as first thought. The recovery bloke reckons it's a knackered battery so a relatively cheap fix.
Aye... How long since last run? Leaving them around too often tends to kill them. :( Also 1000 V-twins (I guess it is the 916-998?) take a lot of cranking juice! :rolleyes:
yorkie_chris
27-07-08, 10:07 PM
:( A shame! Bah. You'd have thought there would be 3rd party Loom replacements about :D
Yeah, there's a guy called ferret who does loom replacements with all OEM connectors that actually last more than 10minutes, he does all other marques too.
What's the point of ducs though? They're still tarty.
Yeah, there's a guy called ferret who does loom replacements with all OEM connectors that actually last more than 10minutes, he does all other marques too.
What's the point of ducs though? They're still tarty.
Careful Chris, your prejudices are showing:p
454697819
28-07-08, 10:54 AM
Yeah, there's a guy called ferret who does loom replacements with all OEM connectors that actually last more than 10minutes, he does all other marques too.
What's the point of ducs though? They're still tarty.
not too tarty for you to park next to one at the AR... ;)
Aye... How long since last run? Leaving them around too often tends to kill them. :( Also 1000 V-twins (I guess it is the 916-998?) take a lot of cranking juice! :rolleyes:
It's a 748. It's used regularly all year round, was only run a couple days before and a it's only a week since it was serviced. But he admitted to not plugging it into it's optimate for a few weeks so at a guess it's some kind of charging issue. Battery/reg/alternator are the current (no pun intended) suspects although the reg is only a few months old.
The wierd thing was, it only packed up when it had run for a while. Once it cooled for 15 minutes or so it could be bump started but would only make it a mile or so before dying again.
As I type, it's being dumped at the garage that did the service and if I know my mate, there will be threats of violence being made to the spanner monkeys if it isn't fixed.
ThEGr33k
28-07-08, 01:09 PM
I hope it gets sorted for you like! Certainly sounds heat related... Hope its nothing serious. :D
petevtwin650
28-07-08, 02:09 PM
Sounds like he's doing everything right by the Duke, mainly riding it and not coddling it.:D
Here's a website he may find useful if he isn't already a member that is.
http://www.ducatisti.co.uk/
The reg/rec is situated in a good place for access but a horrible place when the weather warms up. Fingers crossed it's a cheap and easy fix.
yorkie_chris
28-07-08, 05:32 PM
not too tarty for you to park next to one at the AR... ;)
Hey I thought I'd park mine there and make your's look good...
Then again, a rat-duke would be cool! Maybe a 916 or something to make the duc-fans go "nooooooooooo"
Thats the only worry with Italian bikes. Like Ducatis, Aprilia also seems to have a bad name. Its mainly attributed to the Falco which got them such a bad reputation.
Ive heard their more modern, more up to date bikes have pretty much ironed out any old niggles....:D
ThEGr33k
31-07-08, 10:58 AM
Thats the only worry with Italian bikes. Like Ducatis, Aprilia also seems to have a bad name. Its mainly attributed to the Falco which got them such a bad reputation.
Ive heard their more modern, more up to date bikes have pretty much ironed out any old niggles....
Bah im sure you are trying to wind me up... Ducrappy = unreliable, Aprilia = pretty much Jap reliable. Duc's probably still have issues. :rolleyes:
muffles
31-07-08, 11:04 AM
Bah im sure you are trying to wind me up... Ducrappy = unreliable, Aprilia = pretty much Jap reliable. Duc's probably still have issues. :rolleyes:
Not only that but he said Falco ;)
wiki spiel
Aprilia SL1000 Falco, also known as SL Mille, is a 60o V-Twin light motorcycle made by Aprilia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia) between 1999 and 2005. It proved to be a unpopular motorcycle as regards sales. Many reasons have been put forward including its unreliability. One of the favourite reasons was that it was neither fair nor fowl. It had all the features that would be expected by a race replicate, including a lap timer, and extreme ride position (though not as extreme as Mille), but used a slightly deturned version of the RSV Mille (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia_RSV_Mille) engine. People wanting the race replica features bought the excellent Aprilia RSV Mille (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia_RSV_Mille). Those who wanted a comfortable road sports bike would have found the Falco ride position too uncomfortable. Designed to compete agains the Honda VFR1000 the Suzuki TL 1000 and the various Ducati sport tourers. In head to head competiton the Aprilia Falco showed itself as a far better bike, albeit a few thousand dollars more expensive. The fact that people's tatse change and shifted towards standard or "naked" bikes is as much a reason that the Falco didnt continue production as anything. Of the competitors mentioned only the Honda is still on sale in 2008.
The Falco never broke out of the Mille's shadow, unlike the Aprilia Tuono (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aprilia_Tuono&action=edit&redlink=1) which also had the Mille engine but in a very different type of motorcycle. Despite this the Falco is rated very highly by owners and by the motorcycle press, given 4 out of 5 stars on every level by Motorcycle News (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_News).[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aprilia_SL1000_Falco&action=submit#cite_note-0)
The only change made to the motorcycle in the time it was produced was to change the rear shock absorber after the first year. The Falco has Brembo brakes.
All fixed now apparently. There is an electrical connector block wedged between the battery and the engine which has a habit of melting away (typical Italian trait of the way something works being infinitely less important than the way something looks). The block has been replaced, the beast fired first time and ran perfectly well for an hours blast.
Gonna give those roads another go this weekend, weather permitting :D
ThEGr33k
31-07-08, 12:56 PM
wiki spiel
Aprilia SL1000 Falco, also known as SL Mille, is a 60o V-Twin light motorcycle made by Aprilia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia) between 1999 and 2005. It proved to be a unpopular motorcycle as regards sales. Many reasons have been put forward including its unreliability. One of the favourite reasons was that it was neither fair nor fowl. It had all the features that would be expected by a race replicate, including a lap timer, and extreme ride position (though not as extreme as Mille), but used a slightly deturned version of the RSV Mille (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia_RSV_Mille) engine. People wanting the race replica features bought the excellent Aprilia RSV Mille (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia_RSV_Mille). Those who wanted a comfortable road sports bike would have found the Falco ride position too uncomfortable. Designed to compete agains the Honda VFR1000 the Suzuki TL 1000 and the various Ducati sport tourers. In head to head competiton the Aprilia Falco showed itself as a far better bike, albeit a few thousand dollars more expensive. The fact that people's tatse change and shifted towards standard or "naked" bikes is as much a reason that the Falco didnt continue production as anything. Of the competitors mentioned only the Honda is still on sale in 2008.
The Falco never broke out of the Mille's shadow, unlike the Aprilia Tuono (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aprilia_Tuono&action=edit&redlink=1) which also had the Mille engine but in a very different type of motorcycle. Despite this the Falco is rated very highly by owners and by the motorcycle press, given 4 out of 5 stars on every level by Motorcycle News (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_News).[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aprilia_SL1000_Falco&action=submit#cite_note-0)
The only change made to the motorcycle in the time it was produced was to change the rear shock absorber after the first year. The Falco has Brembo brakes.
And... here is the real Quote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia_SL1000_Falco
Aprilia SL1000 Falco, also known as SL Mille, is a 60o V-Twin light motorcycle made by Aprilia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia) between 1999 and 2005. It proved to be a unpopular motorcycle as regards sales. Many reasons have been put forward for this even though it was a reliable and powerful sports bike. One of the favourite reasons was that it was neither fair nor fowl. It had all the features that would be expected by a race replicate, including a lap timer, and extreme ride position (though not as extreme as Mille), but used a slightly deturned version of the RSV Mille (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia_RSV_Mille) engine. People wanting the race replica features bought the excellent Aprilia RSV Mille (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aprilia_RSV_Mille). Those who wanted a comfortable road sports bike would have found the Falco ride position too uncomfortable. Designed to compete agains the Honda VFR1000 the Suzuki TL 1000 and the various Ducati sport tourers. In head to head competiton the Aprilia Falco showed itself as a far better bike, albeit a few thousand dollars more expensive. The fact that people's tatse change and shifted towards standard or "naked" bikes is as much a reason that the Falco didnt continue production as anything. Of the competitors mentioned only the Honda is still on sale in 2008.I have read that somewhere and I cant remember it saying unreliable being an issue... Its more down to the people wanting ultimate power. It isnt a detuned RSV Engine its a 2000 RSV Engine where as the RSV at the Falco's release was the updated "big valve" engine... So the Falco has the same plant as the 1999-2000 RSV mille.
http://www.bikez.com/bike/rating.php?idbike=20409 In this review is consistently scores higher than Average... inc reliability.
Form on the subject...http://www.sportbikes.net/forums/aprilia/277489-aprilia-reliability.html
http://www.pnwriders.com/general-discussion/17937-aprilia-falco-any-good.html
I've took the bate now ain't I :( You know you should all get one :smt077
petevtwin650
31-07-08, 01:47 PM
All fixed now apparently. There is an electrical connector block wedged between the battery and the engine which has a habit of melting away (typical Italian trait of the way something works being infinitely less important than the way something looks). The block has been replaced, the beast fired first time and ran perfectly well for an hours blast.
Gonna give those roads another go this weekend, weather permitting :D
See, an easy fix. Annoying but there you go. Nothing worth having is easy.:scratch:
Hope you get a repeat of the weather.:cool:
Dangerous Dave
31-07-08, 04:50 PM
Sorry 'ThEGr33k' but they are known to be a little unreliable, but that doesn't mean they are all a little unreliable. Many peolpe have the Reg/Rec fail on Curvy SV's, I have owned three road Curvy's in my time and none of them have ever suffered this problem. The 750 for example still has the one bolted on during the factory production line!
Brettus
01-08-08, 10:19 AM
Saw this and thought of this thread heh:
http://yarp2.motivatedphotos.com/autocdn/motivatedphotos/http://yarp.motivatedphotos.com/uploads/2008/6/16/633492503715519620-ducati.jpg
chakraist
01-08-08, 07:17 PM
I feel pretty sorry for that falco you have, I'm sure it's a lovely bike.
ThEGr33k
01-08-08, 08:46 PM
I feel pretty sorry for that falco you have, I'm sure it's a lovely bike.
:confused:
get one you wont regret it. :)
chakraist
02-08-08, 07:31 PM
:confused:
get one you wont regret it. :)
I'm sure as fantastic as it is, I'll be sticking with the SV at least until my restriction period ends! I doubt a litrebike would restrict very well.
Jelster
03-08-08, 10:28 AM
My Falco was unreliable, I got fed up of it not starting on cold mornings. Many said the battery wasn't big enough, others said it was battery "leakage".
I eventually solved the problem by regularly taking the starter switch to bits, spraying with switch cleaner, and putting it back together. However this was a pain in the neck at 06:00 in the winter!
I'd have another one if I could find a very late one (and my back/neck would let me).
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