longevity

Originally Posted by MattCo

If it were to go bang at 60,000mi it will still be under warranty - 2 years unlimited - but that would be no consolation.

You do 30,000 miles a year on your bike in the uk?! you need a car my friend

[Viney]

Mines happy at 8 years old and a tad under 60000miles. It gets its oil changed at 5k and has done all its life. Other than needing a new rear tyre its fine.

[jambo]

Originally Posted by hob

Not afaik

Few car manufacturers (think VW) changed from 12deg to 8deg cylinder angles.

Still not as bad as flat engines which get the full force rather than a fraction of gravity.

I think most manufacturers have done this to get more compact engines, VW I believe managed to make a V6 that used a single head, as they got the V tight enough. I don't think gravity wear on the pistons is all that important otherwise all Ducati L-twins would wear the front cylinder out much faster than the rear, and I'm not sure that's what happens.

But this is a bit of a diversion from the original post, let's not get massivly side-tracked.

Jambo

Originally Posted by speedplay

You do 30,000 miles a year on your bike in the uk?! you need a car my friend

Hell NO! I couldn't imagine cranking up that sort of mileage in the UK and I would imagine that the only people to get close to that over there are couriers. I am in the NT, Australia where everything is at least 300mi away. That is an easy sub 4 hour squirt down the road at the 80mph speed limit. It is very easy to rack up some serious mileage (70k annually on two bikes) with little effort when there is nothing to get in the way.

Car?!... You call yourself a friend and throw such an insult!

Cheers

Originally Posted by MattCo

Hell NO! I couldn't imagine cranking up that sort of mileage in the UK and I would imagine that the only people to get close to that over there are couriers.

I'm no courier, and over two years (and a bit - K6 bike), I've managed 37k.

Normal maintainance, if lovingly given by myself rather than a garage, and she's still going strong.

so apart from regular oil + filter change what are the most important things bits of maintenance to be done?? Or is it just a case of do what the service manual says?

Originally Posted by jambo

I don't think gravity wear on the pistons is all that important otherwise all Ducati L-twins would wear the front cylinder out much faster than the rear, and I'm not sure that's what happens.

I would be highly interested to see how Ducati lubricate the front cylinder are Ducati engines reliable?

Originally Posted by arcdef

so apart from regular oil + filter change what are the most important things bits of maintenance to be done?? Or is it just a case of do what the service manual says?

Do what the manual says. Though I tend to do it before the manual says it needs doing most of the time. That's mostly due to me thinking ahead about time I have available to work on the bike though, rather than any inclination to help the engine survive longer.

Could still blow up on me tomorrow though.

[Sid Squid]

I know a few high mileage SVs, one has more than 100,000 and is still going well. Other than routine servicing and crash repairs it's fairly original and not much has been done.

Guess i best book it in to get the valve clearance checked/adjusted then!