The intermittent display fault I had about a month ago reared its ugly head again on sunday so back to Moto Rapido my 2010 1200s went. This time the fault didn't cure itself on the ride down and the guys in the workshop diagnosed a faulty loom (fault made to come and go by tweaking a certain part of the loom). Even though the bike is now 6 years old they are confident of a warranty claim for the parts although the labour is £600 ish to replace the loom which I will need to pay. So left it with them and waited for my mate to collect me. I was thinking of a change this year but no other marques had the bike that I really wanted, the new tiger just dosen't do it for me and the 65 plate BMW s1000 xr ex demo I looked at had a supprising amount of corrosion on some rather cheap looking fittings + the oil cooler below the rad looks quite exposed to stone chips. Anyway my mate turns up and we chew the fat for a bit and find a 65 plate fully loaded multi had just come in with 3000 on the clocks. £500 deposit put down and I'm hoping to test ride it this week ( weather was horrendous yesterday)
The rain buggered off and I got some stuff done: Waranty work on my 2010 bike has been approved (not aftermarket warranty ducati goodwill) Test rode the new Triumph tiger sport: Nice engine and smooth gearbox, fly by wire throttle was easy to "learn" however its 40 BHP short of the DVT and about 30 short of my 2010 multi and I could feel it. Apart from the 3 pre set Traction control modes rain road and sport you can only turn it off. On a 30 min test ride on twisty b roads ( my favourite kind) I found that even in sport mode the traction control was quite intrusive and when turned off ( which you have to do every time you start the bike) a little orange warning light stays on on the dash it sits just in my peripheral vision and was slightly distracting TBH. Still only a slight niggle and the bike is only £10300 brand new. I have ridden a Multi with the DVT engine before but not the latest fully loaded with sky hook. So off to Moto Rapido and onto their demo which is a direct clone of the bike I hurriedly put a refundable deposit on last week............... The trumpet was not bad the New multi was FRICKING EPIC. 3 yes 3 miles and it had me in the palm of its hand. The rear brake seems to work the front brake allows virtual time dialation it drops the speed so dam fast. The sky hook is so good and the engine is smoother in town and a bit less raw compared to my 2010. Any way deal done and I pick her up late next week photos to follow Yes I have had some issues with my 2010 however its a 6 year old 18k mile bike and the only issues have been the display which just had the idiot light glow the suspension ecu giving up and a break in the loom which caused can line errors which whilst never left me stranded did make the bike interesting to ride. The back up from moto rapido and Ducati alton has been very good with recalls done in good time and warranty parts honoured on a bike that is 3-4 years out of its manufacturer warranty. If the DVT hadn't wowed me so much I may have gone for the trumpet however it did so I took the plunge. As an aside My weekend car is a 2003 Porsche 911 C4 (this is not willy waving I promise) with 110K+ miles on it if I had read all the forum posts about £20k engine rebuilds and blown ims bearings I would have never bought it, 4 years later and its still going strong with only a blown rad ( pinhole suspected stone puncture) which was a £180 diy fix (new rad self fitted). If you want cutting edge or £80K car for £13k ( what I paid for the pork 4 ish years ago) I believe you must accept that you may get lucky or you may have some issues. My Multi is a weekend toy and not essential transport, that and the fact that there is nothing else out there that I want is why I bought it.
