Hi all Just thought I'd pass on some information I picked up at Woods Motorcycles, Abergele last night. The mechanic/technician said you should not bump start a new(er) Ducati. Apparently you can get away with it once or twice but eventually it will damage the ECU's on the bike. Also, that connecting the bike to start it or connecting it to a booster charger to start only once can fry the ECU's. The Multistrada which they used in the technical evening had six on ECU's on it each costing £1000 Euros! They said that the breakdown organizations are now usually refusing to start a bike with a flat battery with a booster charger because of this issue as damage can be traced to them by the dealers when they boosted the bike. Also, don't cut into wiring looms/switches on new Ducati's to connect e.g. sat nav's or heated grips as this lowers the current in the circuit which the bike detects and will show up as a fault. Also you can't just solder a damaged loom as this will show up as a fault. Also, that bike batteries on the new bikes (from all manufacturers) are very small nowadays and it takes very little to drain them e.g. leaving the headlight on but engine not started will drain the battery in about 5 minutes. They said the engine can crank over but if the battery cannot get it up to the required cranking speed the bike won't fire up. They said they connect Optimates to the bikes when they are working on them with the ignition on but the engine isn't running. I'm not a technical person so I'm just relaying what the mechanic said to us. All in all it was a very interesting and informative evening at Woods. If you get chance to go when they do another one it's well worth going. Cheers. Phil.
OOps, too late for me!! I have two sets LEDs, HID headlight, sat nav, all wired in, and all working fine, for the moment!!!
Did they explain how you DO start one then if the battery is flat ? or is it another "Have your machine recovered to your nearest Dealer " scenario? All cars have ecu's that dont fry if you jump start them, why cant Ducati build one ?
I think they said either recovery to the dealer or put the bike on a maintenance charger until the battery has recovered full charge.
I cannot understand what the issue might be, if the ignition is on then the bike would be expecting 12 volts to be available to start it etc, and run all that is relevant at the time. Using a boost charger might have a huge reservior of current availavle but still only 12 volts and the starter solenoid/moter will only draw the current it needs . Also, as started, almost every other vehicle around has an ECU these days and they dont suffer. Doubt the Ducati ECU's in question are unique either. Curious !
I reckon you would be OK jumping a bike, as long as you leave both vehicles connected for about 5 minutes after starting. If you disconnect straight away then the jumped bike still has a flat battery and its voltage regulator goes to full output. This voltage spike can fry the ecus.
