Went out yesterday for a ride and about 20 minutes in heard an ominous clang. As I was pulling over to investigate another one happened. Fortunately for me, and any riders or drivers behind, the exhaust cover plate was 'resting' on the bike with all three retaining bolts gone. Went home immediately to see if I could get the bolts and speak to Blade Ducati but sadly it was 5.00 pm on the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend so will need to wait until Tuesday now. Taking the opportunity to give her a clean today I took a good look at the rear suspension assembly and though it might seem a bit mad, now wondering if anything else is missing! Took the attached pictures and if there is anyone out there with one who could confirm all looks ok, or not, I'd love to hear from you. Also is the cover plate falling off a known issue to anyone? Thanks for reading and happy riding!
The bike was serviced a few weeks ago but not aware that the cover plate would need to be removed as part of annual service. Only covered 3000 ish miles. Had an Aprilia Caponord that used to vibrate bolts out which I ended up locktiting in. Wonder if this could be the same issue.
The cover plate has to be removed in order to remove the rear wheel, e.g. to change a tyre, and it also has to be removed to access the exhaust flapper valve if it gives trouble (as it frequently does). When replacing the cover plate you would naturally get all three screws started on their threads first, intending to tighten them fully afterwards. Then you might forget - it's easy to do. In my experience (50,000 miles on three different Multistradas since 2011) those screws never come undone if they were properly tightened, nor do they need Loctite.
