Just washed the bike, dried and polished ready to go to London. I have noticed bits of rust appearing, by the rear reflector started almost straight away then the tubular part of the top box assembly, difficult to remove as the screws are made of high grade plasticine, standard. As I'm drying off I notice the paint starting to bubble on the engine, around the oil sight glass and in various other places, really not happy. My old 999 lost most of it's engine paint, actually looked alright in the end but this looks like the aluminium is starting to corrode under the finish. Is this normal? Can it be sorted?
It's normal, and seems worse on more recent machines (I suspect after the move to water-based finishes) Most durable finish on any Ducati I owned was my 1982 Pantah. My 1999 748 wasn't bad, except for the cylinders & heads, my 2002 ST4s is pretty meh on engine and wheels, my 04 749r is pretty good, largely because it's led a sheltered life and my '10 Multistrada 1200 has the worst engine finish I've ever encountered.
