1260 1260s - 1,500 Miles Completed. Opening The Taps.

So, finally hit the magical 1,500 mile point which signifies the completion of the break-in period and thought I'd come back and share a bunch more observations I've made along the way.

Exhaust valve - I'm really disappointed that Ducati still haven't managed to sort this stupid issue out with the exhaust valve. From day one, every time the valve reset at ignition on or off, you could hear it moving and every time it sounded like a donkey ... "Hehaaaaaaaw". At least you knew the thing was working and knowing what the DVT was like I've been listening out for it, expecting the worst in that one day I wouldn't hear it at all. At the beginning of this week at about 1460 miles I experienced the early symptoms of the exhaust valve playing up - no donkey sound. I started my daily commute and could immediately tell that there was an issue as the bike sounded decidedly more muted. As I got onto more open roads the mid-range was all but snuffed out and whilst it did rev much more readily than a DVT with the same fault it was obvious the valve was stuck closed. I pulled over, killed the ignition, turned it on again, started her up and resumed my ride and it was fine once again. Needless to say a DUC-EE has now been ordered, but this time I'm going to see if someone is going to reimburse me for this because it's just ridiculous. I shouldn't have to pay $50 plus shipping because Ducati can't make a bloody exhaust valve work reliably, when other manufacturers seemingly can without much trouble.

Not starting - I hate to say it but the valve isn't the only issue I've experienced. On at least three occasions, on the cold and damp mornings we've had prior to this last week I've had a bike that just won't start at all. It just spinds over and over on the starter motor with barely a splutter as it tries to start. My bike is garaged and so not left out in the rain, but I suspect that there has been sufficient moisture in the air to cause an ignition issue. The issue has been cured by bringing an industrial fan heater into the garage and letting it run for 20 mins, and then trying again, whereupon hitting the starter button has the bike immediately coming to life. I'm certain it's some shitty HT leads or plug caps. Never once had this issue with the DVT. My 1260S has directly caused me to be late for work on at least three occasions.

Finding Neutral - The struggle to find neutral has all but gone - sometimes it can take a little effort to find neutral at a stand-still but it's generally pretty good. For anyone else experiencing the issue just get into a habit of selecting neutral whilst just rolling to a stop. With the wheels still rotating just a bit it always goes into neutral just as easy as any other bike. It does improve significantly and I really wouldn't worry about it.

Quick shifter - It's good but I've tried better. I've had a few missed shifts and one occasion where it just flatly refused to downshift at all until I'd come to a stop and turned the engine off. I'd also started to notice that sometimes there would be too much of a blip on a downshift and it would cause tiny lurches as you come down the gears. I've not found anything in the manual but I suspect that the tyre calibration feature is related to the performance of the downshift, since it is trying to match engine speed with road speed, therefore a small change in wheel diameter due to tyre wear would seem a likely candidate to upset things enough to notice it. A few days ago I did a recalibration and I've not noticed the issue again since but I suspect it's something that I'll need to revisit from time to time. It will be really interesting to see what the difference is when I ditch the crappy Pirelli Scorpions.

Luggage - Finally got around to refitting the topbox off my '15 DVT. No issues, anyone wondering if it fits I can categorically state it's all the same even though the pillion grab rail might look different.

Suspension - from day one, and as has been observed by a few other people, the standard "Touring" suspension setup has felt quite firm. Something occuured to me which made me change the default "Touring" mode suspension setting down to just one setting softer front and rear. Some time back I acquired a used Nissan GT-R R35 with only 800 miles on the clock and I was keen to make sure that I continued to observe the break-in process, and in the owners manual it instructed you to always set the suspension in the softer "comfort" setting to allow the suspension to more easily cover the full range of travel during the break-in process. By logical extension I figured that before critiquing the suspension on the 1260S too much I should probably follow the same process on the bike too. Sure enough, as the weeks went by and the mileage increased I could detect a noticeable difference in suspension performance as it was getting generally more compliant. It got to the point where I thought I had a rear puncture, before realising it was the suspension feeling particularly loose, so I returned it to it's standard settings after which it felt MUCH better. I don't know if it would have loosened up just the same if I hadn't changed it, but I've had a better ride for doing it anyway so I'd recommend it to anyone and get ready to put back to standard setting if it does feel a bit too boggy. This is where the I think longer wheel base does become more noticeable - with a softer suspension setting it does take more effort on initial turn in and to keep it turning, just like having a soft rear tyre.

Now the part you've been waiting for ....

Engine - So having found that the stock performance in "Touring" mode to be more than ample and already exceeding the '15 DVT, I've not played with the "Sports" mode very much. There really has been no point, at least until we've completed the break-in process and we're ready to ping it off the rev-limiter properly. Leaving it in "Touring" mode I totally love the way this thing makes so much grunt at low revs and under a heavy throttle. You just keep shifting at 4K RPM you just romp down the road on a huge wave of torque, just keep hitting the quickshifer up the gears as quick as you can until you're in top. You can barely detect a change in RPM or engine note when you do it and it just goes "BLARP-BLARP-BLARP" through the gears and pulls like nothing else.

Then there's the other engine modes - When putting the bike in "Sports" mode there is something else going on here and it's not like the '15 DVT at all. The characteristics of the engine changes way beyond anything you can achieve by simply playing with throttle opening maps. You can even feel it in the way the thing ticks over and the engine seems to develop a slightly stronger vibe and adopts a noticeable difference in overal character. It sounds like a cliche but it really does seem to come alive - not that it was asleep before hand! From a stand-still the difference is tangible. Pin it in first gear and in a blink the rev counter turns orange whilst the front wheel is just skimming over the tarmac. You grab another gear and for a split second the front of the bike bobs down, then up as the quickshifter cuts the power and it comes back in very quickly, front wheel still feeling like you've got the smallest amount of contact patch under the tyre with speed rising at an alarming rate whilst revs don't climb with quite the same level of urgency, but rise they do. You've already had most of the torque below 4K but it continues to build steadily all the way to the red-line in a very linear fashion. The rev counter turns orange again. Into third and it's much the same but by now you're backing off as you're firmly into license loosing territory. Whilst you're spinning the engine all the way to it's top end you do notice the much taller gearing. All the sheer grunt ensures that speed accumulates faster than the revs rise. There's no big top-end rush but it is blisteringly fast and without the DWC doing it's thing you'll be pulling wheelies off the throttle quicker than blinking.

There is no way a '15 DVT is hanging with it if you're up for it and you've got this thing nailed. You'll be sitting behind any bike that happens to be in front of you on the motorway and you'll be wanting to give it the 'hurry up'. He'll pull over and by just opening the taps and without changing down you'll go thuming past, complete with top-box. It's pretty comical.

It's been said before but the 1260S is definitely the bike that Ducati meant the '15 DVT to be. I always felt that there was something missing on my old bike and the best analogy I can come up with is it felt like a rock guitar amp with a volume setting that wouldn't go past 7 or 8 - it was good but you never felt it was capable of reaching it's full potential to comprehensively melt faces. Whatever it was that the '15 DVT was missing, Ducati have found it, re-installed it, and then turned it up. I'm going to stop with the guitar amp analogy because I don't think it's quite got the spinal-tap "11" setting, but it's definitely a solid "10".

There's only one thing left to do now - and that's bin the OE Pirelli's. I know their limitations and they're starting to affect my enjoyment of this bike because I know I can easily ride off the side of them. Even day to day riding I'm holding back quite a bit because I know the bike is more than happy to lean much further than I'm currently prepared to take it. The fact that I'm holding back AND I have zero chicken-strips on the rear is a worry and is on my mind a lot. Probably going to go with Bridgestone's but haven't decided on T31 or maybe try the S21 for use through the summer. I had the T30 Evo's on my '15 DVT and they were very good. I'm off to Germany in a few weeks so need to do something pronto.