Featured Threads Archive

I've said a sad goodbye to my gorgeous 2015 DVT Multi yesterday. I have deeply enjoyed my 3 years with it - what a superb bike.

Why sell it? No technical reason - the Multi was doing superbly at 11,500 miles. But I fancied a change. I both couldn't afford a 1260, nor did I see it as being significantly different enough to warrant the change. So I wanted something to tide me over for 2-3 years until the inevitable V4 Multi appears.

I did however take a test ride on an MT-10. Wowza. What a missile. I was sucked in hook, line and sinker. Add in a good discount down to £9999, brand new, with 10% of a few bits, and the bike was mine.

I don't ride as much as I used to so an insane naked is much more suitable than it would have been before. Also, it's actually really rather comfortable (esp with the comfort seat). Mrs T fits on the back (shortish journeys only obviously), though I need to get her a grab rail. I did get offered a great deal on an SP model (electric Ohlins & colour TFT...

Coming up to a year now since i bought my 1198, so thought it was a good idea to explain a little about the bike, recap on the ownership and just generally throw up a few sunshine photos.

May last year and i stumbled upon my bike in the classifieds, it had the Corse Se looks, but without the price tag, and a decent spec list. The seller was knowledgeable about the bike, trading in mostly touring/adventure bikes, hed taken the Ducati in p/ex from a customer who 'couldnt live with it'.

I liked the sellers honesty, and viewed the bike - it was clean and had good history, new belts, new sprag clutch, new battery, lot of work done at ducati under recall (engine casings, gearbox etc) so a deal was struck.

This is the day i picked it up...the tyres were 5 years old but the outer third had never seen tarmac, i guessed it had been used pretty conservatively.
So after a few weeks getting to know the bike, i found a myriad of issues. Hot starting was non existent...hence the recent new...

So I put a deposit down on an 848 yesterday, I had one a few years back and maybe didn't give it a fair crack before moving it on for a Daytona and then the 899 which was a great bike to ride but I want to get a more 'classic' Ducati that will hopefully have done it's depreciating. Also my budget was £8k and I could only find higher mileage 899's for that which I'm not interested in having had a really low miles minter previously.

I paid £7995 for it, there are cheaper ones around but this has the pipes, Ohlins rear shock, Oberon slave which are all bits I would do, and it's having a full belt service and Brake pads etc for the money. Hopefully I'll get it in a few weeks and it can sit alongside it's stablemate.



and it's little Garage mate...

Vehicle is an Audi 2.0 quattro Special Edition Cabriolet.....Well folks this has to be the worst condition vehicle I have had the pleasure to get my hands on. This was a pre-sale detail for a client. Both sides of vehicle heavily...and I mean heavily scratched and marred. Vehicle had no love for over 5 years and it showed

.....wheels were really needing a refurb as they were very bad.....anyways interior first.....whole interior steam cleaned and addition of Gtechniq biocote* Triclean to get every surface back to factory.

Seats were glossy so much was the ingrained dirt and grime. Interior obviously vacuumed and all mats were cleaned with a Karcher Puzzi 100/1 extraction machine.

Glass cleaned with Angelwax vision and all surfaces dressed with 303 Areospace protectant.

Engine bay next up with bonnet....thoroughly pressure washed ( on low pressure ) and treated to Britemax Grimeout at 4:1....agitated with a multitude of brushes and rinsed...then all areas force air dried with...

Two years ago I got my 1098R. Have probably been on a dozen or so track days here in Dubai and Abu Dhabi since then. So, I feel pretty comfortable on it and, while not exactly competing for race glory, I like to give it some stick at the track.

Well, Ducati Dubai offered me the chance to take a V4S out at Yas Marina this morning. 4 x 20 minute sessions. Sunny and 30 degrees, clean, grippy track.

I took the 1098 out for the first session to get used to the circuit again, then rode the V4 for the remaining 3 sessions.

Well, I was 3-4 seconds a lap faster on the V4 first time out and then took another 4 seconds out of that by the last session. That thing is a weapon. So smooth, so easy to go fast on, so easy to get comfortable with. It was just awesome fun. A couple of mates usually leave me on their S1000RRs, but I was passing them on the V4. Bloody loved it!

So, the 1098 is going in the living room and I’ll be round to Ducati on Sunday with my deposit for a Speciale...

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...

Ducati brings forward some of the innovations from its “2025 Safety Road Map”, the strategy aimed at introducing new safety systems and technologies
Phase one already started: ABS Cornering to be fitted to all motorcycles in the Ducati range
Ducati testing future-oriented radar systems soon to be fitted to a production motorcycle

Ducati has always been at the forefront regarding safety: the only motorcycle manufacturer world-wide to have a vehicle able to interact with the jacket-integrated D|air® system, and the first company in the industry to equip a heritage/classic model, the Ducati Scrambler 1100, with the ABS Cornering system. This level of safety awareness, combined with the constant drive towards innovation, have led the Bologna-based manufacturer to define its safety strategy until 2025.

At the basis of this many-sided strategic plan is the implementation, in the short term, of ARAS (Advanced Rider Assistance Systems) on Ducati motorcycles. Advanced assistance systems...

Well they arrived, delighted and skint. Been a long time coming and total selfish indulgence but had to be done as the bikes a keeper.

Picked up the 1199R yesterday, well delivered by OYB to be honest

Quick pic - intro to the other stable mates then out for a blat and scrub new tyres in

It’s quick and had a stupid grin on my face by the time I got back love it

At home Bored so decided to paint my bike - Forgot how relaxing a bit of painting is !

Hi guys,

Due to a serious back injury ive been out the game for a while but my injury has recovered enough to ride again. I treated myself to a euro track day last weekend at monteblanco in spain and it was immense!

Here is a pic of my on the Hyper.

Im so glad to he able to ride again

As a few of you lot know I traded my 899 pani in against a 1198s a while back....after a few runs out in it I got back to the garage and noticed coolant across the fairing and steam rising at the front, after a bit of research and a few checks I concluded it had the well known fault of the rad breaking at the fixing point, I reported it to ducati manchester and within the hour they were back in touch to let me know a new rad was on order and would be replace free of charge! Had it done today and all is well, once again I can't fault the guys at Ducati Manchester for friendly and efficient service.

Whilst waiting I had the option to take a multistrada out for a couple of hours, I was impressed at how comfortable and capable it was to ride, although it felt rather large compared to the sportbikes I'm used to, once going it felt very easy going in both touring mode and in sport mode, cruise control was a new one for me but it was incredibly easy to use!
Pretty good day really!

Hi guys i thought id just show off some wrapping ive done for a member on here
Gloss carbon
White number boards with flou pin stripe
Flou detail
Flou wheels

So finally the cold weather in Denmark came to an end. That meant that the first ride on my 1198s was finally possible. After having owned a 749 and a 998 I was excited to try the 1198s which in my thoughts would be “the best of both worlds”. This of course due the light handling from the 749, and the incredibly torque I so loved from the 998 but now with even more. It is always dangerous to great expectations to the new toys, but this time it blew my mind.. The 1198s is such a joy to ride, (with 14/38 gearing) And a totally different animal than the 998, was expecting a difference but that much, no way... And having tried the 959 and 1199 I having a hard time seeing any other Ducati taking it’s place any time soon.. Next job is getting the suspension set up and then it is all set and go.. (And boy I like the Bridgestone Battlax RS10s)

Hope you guys had a great weekend on the other side of the water as well

2018 No Limits Racing Race Calendar
24-25 March Snetterton 300
21-22 April Cadwell Park
19-20 May Donington Park 6 hour
9-10 June Anglesey 500km
14-15 July Croft
10 (Fri) -11 August Oulton Park
1-2 September Cadwell Park
6-7 October Donington Park

First race weekend of the season racing for the Army team. Happily managed to keep it shiny side up for the race days which was my main goal. I did manage to send it into the scenery on the last corner of the first flying lap of qualifying and picked it up and set a decent lap time straight off the pickup
The Le Mans style running start is a fun novelty.

I used Metzeller M7RR for the weekend and they were great. Most of the fast guys were on the usual slicks but the moment it spitted a few drops of rain there would be ten of them crashing at the same time because their tyres were not up...

Was just going through my phots and found this. Isn't she a beauty?

I'm gonna keep this short just to keep certain people happy.....A mega vehicle to work upon....personally love the interior!!!....Interior received a full Gtechniq Tri-Clean cleanse prior to application of Gtechniq L1 Leather Guard and Gtechniq C6 Matt Dash - both with Biocoat Anti-bacterial...Carpets cleaned by hand using Britemax Interior Cleaner. Interior Glass cleaned with Angelwax Vision. And onto the outer.....Wheels attended to first as usual...arches and tyres degreased with Bilt hmaber Surfex HD diluted to 3:1....wheels pretreated to Angelwax Billberry wheel cleaner at 3:1...allowed to dwell for 5 mins then agitated with various Wheel Wollies & EZ brushes...faces cleaned with Pure Hogs hair brushes....all high pressure rinsed off. As usual the entire vehicle including the already clean wheels and arches covered in a blanket of AMAZING Bilt Hamber Auto foam and allowed to dwell for 10 mins to remove as much dirt and debris as posssible before contact washing. 3 bucket...

Both Performance Bikes and Practical Sportsbikes magazines are running a sticker sheet soon and I have purchased www.ducati.tech for myself to be in both magazines - while negotiating I also added a separate Ducati Forum sticker too . It will be as shown below with a white background so will show up on all colour applications - sticky on the reverse so externally applied.

The magazines with the sticker sheet will be Performance Bikes on the 30th May (Circulation 15,000+) and Practical Sportsbikes on the 11th July (Circulation 18,000+)

I don't know the end size of the sticker as they don't know until the sheet is designed.

Stu
@Rob @El Toro

Hi All, after several years away from sports bikes since selling my Superlight and riding mainly Monsters I got a yearning for another sports bike before I get too old . I have bought this beautiful yellow 749. Its from 2005 and has just 14500 miles. It had not been ridden for a few years so I have had full belt service by Iain Rhodes @ RPM in Northampton. Top bloke if any of you are looking for an indy.
I only managed one ride over the weekend between showers but apart from a slightly achy neck it was as comfy as I expected and while not as happy as the Monsters at going slowly, when the coast is clear it all gels beautifully. Just the right amount of power for me too, enough to be interesting and fun without scaring the crap out of me and the handling is amazing. Keeping the Monsters for now , S4R1000 and S2R1000 ,although I may sell one in a while depending on how much each gets used.

I`ll add a bin shot another time for all the bin fetishists, I`m thinking the standard black...

Took a ride to Hyside as they had this in the showroom, which happens to be my most favourite bike from WSB and if i have a lotto win you bet I'm having one.