I will get the alignment checked. Its telling that so many others report this slight pull to the left, not just on this forum. As I said, it only pulls slightly without hands on bars and you have to shift weight to the right to get it to run straight. Not noticeable with hands on bars whatsoever. I do think that this bike is heavier on the left, I tried balancing it with a spirit level on the grab rail and it always wants to fall left. If it is normal I can live with it, I just want to identify any problems before the warranty runs out later this year.
UPDATE. I went to the Ducati dealer on Saturday and took a demo 1200S for a ride. It also drifted left with no hands. It seems it is just a characteristic of the bike, it rides fine with hands on bars, I think it is heavier on the left and the steering is very sensitive. No problem, apart from the latest niggles, heated grip stopped working so booked in for warranty work. Screen came loose yesterday and lost some fasteners so need to book in for that too. it had been back once for a new ball joint on the screen 2 weeks ago. This is my first Ducati after years of BMW, Honda and Triumph, luckily I work less than 100 metres from Ducati Leeds. Oh and paint is coming off front cylinder head, 3500 miles and 18 month old, even the Beemer engine paint lasted 5 years before flaking and they are notorious for it. I'm loving the way it rides though.
This may sound like a daft question, but what do you wash your bike with? I stopped using Muckoff and opted for a ph neutral wash, one that's kind to Aluminium, I've had no issues with discoloured fastenings or paint coming off casings and the likes since.
I haven't used anything like Muc-Off yet. The damage was done with the previous owner. The bike was bought new in October 2015 (why?) and I reckon it was used in the salt and not washed off. Lots of item show signs of corrosion. I have been round the entire bike dabbing Waxoyl on fasteners etc. I bought an aftermarket engine cover from Evotech which is an excellent precision made attractive item which will protect the engine from grit and spray and hides the unsightly paint peeling off. Rear wheel nut looks a mess too. A shame because everything else looks mint.
I don't use muck off. Gets washed more than any bike I've owned. Used once in the winter and rinsed off. You'd think I'd ridden it thru 2 winters with no washing looking at the paint on the heads and the fasters at the front/rear wheels area
I don't use muck off. Gets washed more than any bike I've owned. Used once in the winter and rinsed off. You'd think I'd ridden it thru 2 winters with no washing looking at the paint on the heads and the fasters at the front/rear wheels area
One of the advantages of Cruise Control is that on long rides from time to time you can set the CC and rest your hands/wrists by slackening your grip on the bars for a few seconds. It is easy to can ride along for a while with fingers barely touching. An incidental side effect is that if there were any tendency to pull to one side, it would be very obvious. I have to say that I have never found any such problem. Even with one pannier full of stuff and the other pannier empty it still tracks remarkably straight. I am mystified by this notion that drifting left is a "characteristic of the bike". Not in my experience it isn't.
I had a GSXR 750 fell off its stand and developed this trait, the bottom yoke was slightly twisted on the fork legs, we just slackend every thing off and centralised it all and it was ok
Like I said it is very slight and only happens when both hands are completely off the bars. A few people have replied to this thread saying the same happens on theirs. The new 1200S I tested on Saturday also did it. It is not a problem, even with hands off the bars briefly a very slight lean to the right corrects it, I just wanted to make sure my expensive new purchase didn't have a problem caused by a crash or some manufacturing error, the Ducati warranty has 4 months left. My Triumph Thruxton R runs dead straight and it requires some effort to make it turn with hands off bars. My Fireblade and CB750F also dead straight with no hands. The sweet effortless handling of the Multistrada may just exaggerate the effect of any offset of the bikes centre of gravity. I'm glad its not just mine, I'm very happy with the bikes handling, the steering feels perfect during normal riding.
Cruise on 60 mph. Hands completely off bars. No pull at all. 2015 DVT. 2011 BMW RT. Cruise on hands off. Pulls to right significantly. Never noticed I don't ride with hands off.
Maybe because you ride on the right and the camber counters the additional weight on the left side. BMW has drive/swingarm on the right side. I've read a lot about these pulling right in USA, my 2012 GS didn't pull either way in UK.
This video shows a lot of no hands riding (9.00 minute point) and the bike is pulling left, the rider says he has to lean right.
Easy solution, use a spirit level get it perfectly stud up right then let go. do this 50 times and log which way it falls to the floor each time, then slowly add weight to the side opposite the way it fell the most, bish bash bosh you'll soon have a balanced bike that don't pull to one side.
