Anyone got one and whats the riding and ownership experience like when compared to a duc of a similar era is 748 and 749 cheers!
I have one. Owned and ridden for the past 22 years They are reliable. It is a bigger stretch, more uncomfortable than a 748 for me. Spares are hard to come by these days but luckily the major part that fails is the rear hub and there are alternatives or you could service it regularly to prevent failure. They get very hot in traffic. Comfort wise I have a set of bars that are adjustable the clamp on the fork leg is like rose joint so can be minutely adjusted. The cooling I have sorted by fitting a third fan on the left of the radiator. The final thing that is a "must do" if you buy one is to check the well nuts that hold the trim pieces to the airbox. They perish and the brass ferrule inside falls out. The rear ones are directly over the outer cylinder bell mouths. I have replaced mine with Riv nuts. They are not like riding Ducatis they need a lot of revs
ok thanks much appreciated - hav heard bad stories about heat and rear hub what was the production year run and are the later ones ie evo 2 and evo 3 better? im finding it hard to get decent non US info online and prices range from 6-9k but not sure what they sell for
Mine is Evo2, 2002 model year They switched to the 1000 in 2005 The first ones had a single radiator and suffered from overheating evo 2&3 have 2 radiators still get hot though I bought an SPR engine a few years ago and fitted that more power close ratio gearbox
I find my F4 1000 more comfortable than my 916. The 1000 doesn't need to rev it's tits off. Plenty of torque quite low down in its rev range. Certainly more than a 916. The overheating can be overcome with a better water pump. They only get hot in traffic at low rpm as the OEM pump is designed to not work well below 4k. Costs less power that way but not fantastic for a road bike. The rear hub just wants a new bearing on the right every now and then. That's the one that fails. You can fit the hub from a gen2 bike which hasn't got that issue. Most "reliability issues" appear to be self inflicted. Lack of maintenance mainly. Spares are a problem. Headlights, fairings, rear sets, levers etc are no longer available. Used spares are also getting scarce. It's a good 3rd, 4th or 5th bike but as a daily or only bike, not ideal in my view.
Owned mine for ten years. Ridden it to Le Mans and track days at Brands. Totally reliable and no worse than a Ducati to maintain, although parts harder to find. Quite a focused ride and only really comes to life above 10k revs. Then there is the looks…..
