PrincessFalafal
Well-known member
tl;dr - It's awesome
In January 2019 I did exactly what everyone advised me against doing; swapped a battered but reliable V-Strom 650 for a pants-on-head-retarded Ducati Multistrada to use for daily commuting. I had been an inch away from buying a nearly-new Tiger 800 with all the farkles for 2/3rds of what this big Ducati cost, but at the end of the day it was that goddamn test ride that did me in.
One year, three months and 13,000 miles in, and there's two prevailing thoughts I have about the Ducati ownership experience:
1. I am so glad I bought this thing.
If I had listened to the logical part of my brain, I would have spent $12,500 on a 2018 Tiger 800 XCa with 3,500 miles, a full set of luggage and eighteen months of factory warranty left.
But instead I spent $20,000 on a three year old Italian monstrosity with questionable reliability and plenty of well-documented flaws and hideously expensive maintenance. It sucks down gas and has stupid gearing and looks absurd and makes too much noise and is fucking brilliant.
Dealers take note; if it hadn't been for that test ride, I never would have ended up with this thing in my garage. On paper an Italian motorcycle makes no sense. You don't get it until you feel it, and now I understand why Japanese dealers are so stingy about test rides while European dealers are so flexible. No one would ever buy a Ducati based on the spec sheet and MSRP, on paper there's not much to differentiate it from similar Hondizukiakis aside from the high price. But when you ride it . . . you feel it.
If I had bought that Tiger, I'd still be thinking about the Ducati.
Every time I come out of the grocery store and see it in the parking lot it makes me smile. Every third-gear power wheelie, every pop on upshift, every crackle on overrun, every peg-scraping corner, all of it leaves me laughing and shaking my head at the lunacy of a bike this comfortable with this much practicality that rides this well. And in spite of all of this mania, so far it has been . . .
2. Confusingly reliable.
Last summer the fuel level sensor went out, a common and known flaw that was fixed at no out of pocket cost to me under Ageis warranty (so I'm $331 into the $800 I paid for it). But since then it's been . . . almost boring. Every morning it starts, it rides, it never hiccups or complains. I keep putting gas in the top and the miles go out the back.
If Aleks and Wilder were still at Motoguild, they'd probably be wondering what happened to me. I was in there every month with my old V-Strom, as you tend to do when you have a bike with 90,000 miles, but since I got the Ducati I've only needed to go in to put on tires and a chain. Not even enough to bother with a monthly pass.
It's not all peaches and cream; there was the much-maligned valve/belt 18K service that I went through in August:
When I bought the bike I also purchased the pre-paid maintenance plan for $2,100 that covers the next six servicings, according to Ducati's Minor/Major service schedule. So this cost me nothing out of pocket and once I go in for the Minor service in ~June, I'll have broken even.
A word about the servicing: I had it done where I bought the bike, at Ace Motorsports in Concord, and through the entire ownership experience they've been nothing but good to me. The warranty fix and servicing were both 100% covered with zero hassle, and I've had no problems with their work. They've been great about scheduling and communication, and they even gave me a loaner bike to ride for the few days the Multi was in for the Valve/Belt service (They did quietly say that it's not something they do for everyone, but for people who've bought a bike from them and use it as their sole mode of transport they're usually able to give a demo bike for a few days).
And in exchange for the good service, I've been in there not-infrequently for parts and accessories and referred more than one person their way who ended up buying a brand new bike from them. Customer service; it works, bitches.
Is the bike perfect? Gosh no. It's a Ducati; if it didn't have at least something wrong, it wouldn't be Italian.
Flaws
In January 2019 I did exactly what everyone advised me against doing; swapped a battered but reliable V-Strom 650 for a pants-on-head-retarded Ducati Multistrada to use for daily commuting. I had been an inch away from buying a nearly-new Tiger 800 with all the farkles for 2/3rds of what this big Ducati cost, but at the end of the day it was that goddamn test ride that did me in.
One year, three months and 13,000 miles in, and there's two prevailing thoughts I have about the Ducati ownership experience:
1. I am so glad I bought this thing.
If I had listened to the logical part of my brain, I would have spent $12,500 on a 2018 Tiger 800 XCa with 3,500 miles, a full set of luggage and eighteen months of factory warranty left.
But instead I spent $20,000 on a three year old Italian monstrosity with questionable reliability and plenty of well-documented flaws and hideously expensive maintenance. It sucks down gas and has stupid gearing and looks absurd and makes too much noise and is fucking brilliant.
Dealers take note; if it hadn't been for that test ride, I never would have ended up with this thing in my garage. On paper an Italian motorcycle makes no sense. You don't get it until you feel it, and now I understand why Japanese dealers are so stingy about test rides while European dealers are so flexible. No one would ever buy a Ducati based on the spec sheet and MSRP, on paper there's not much to differentiate it from similar Hondizukiakis aside from the high price. But when you ride it . . . you feel it.
If I had bought that Tiger, I'd still be thinking about the Ducati.
Every time I come out of the grocery store and see it in the parking lot it makes me smile. Every third-gear power wheelie, every pop on upshift, every crackle on overrun, every peg-scraping corner, all of it leaves me laughing and shaking my head at the lunacy of a bike this comfortable with this much practicality that rides this well. And in spite of all of this mania, so far it has been . . .
2. Confusingly reliable.
Last summer the fuel level sensor went out, a common and known flaw that was fixed at no out of pocket cost to me under Ageis warranty (so I'm $331 into the $800 I paid for it). But since then it's been . . . almost boring. Every morning it starts, it rides, it never hiccups or complains. I keep putting gas in the top and the miles go out the back.
If Aleks and Wilder were still at Motoguild, they'd probably be wondering what happened to me. I was in there every month with my old V-Strom, as you tend to do when you have a bike with 90,000 miles, but since I got the Ducati I've only needed to go in to put on tires and a chain. Not even enough to bother with a monthly pass.
It's not all peaches and cream; there was the much-maligned valve/belt 18K service that I went through in August:
When I bought the bike I also purchased the pre-paid maintenance plan for $2,100 that covers the next six servicings, according to Ducati's Minor/Major service schedule. So this cost me nothing out of pocket and once I go in for the Minor service in ~June, I'll have broken even.
A word about the servicing: I had it done where I bought the bike, at Ace Motorsports in Concord, and through the entire ownership experience they've been nothing but good to me. The warranty fix and servicing were both 100% covered with zero hassle, and I've had no problems with their work. They've been great about scheduling and communication, and they even gave me a loaner bike to ride for the few days the Multi was in for the Valve/Belt service (They did quietly say that it's not something they do for everyone, but for people who've bought a bike from them and use it as their sole mode of transport they're usually able to give a demo bike for a few days).
And in exchange for the good service, I've been in there not-infrequently for parts and accessories and referred more than one person their way who ended up buying a brand new bike from them. Customer service; it works, bitches.
Is the bike perfect? Gosh no. It's a Ducati; if it didn't have at least something wrong, it wouldn't be Italian.
Flaws
- The heated grip button placement is stupid. There's no way to press it without taking your hand off the throttle, unless you have some kind of freak mutant fingers. I usually turn the cruise control on for a second so I can take my right hand fully off the grip to turn the heaters on/off.
- This one isn't actually Ducati's fault; the SW-Motech tank bag connection system sucks. The release latch is way harder to pull than it should be, and the jaws on the bag will frequently get stuck open and need me to pull out my leatherman to jam a screwdriver into them to pry them apart. I think I might switch to a Givi ring, even though it's bulkier.
- Gas mileage is not brilliant, although putting on the luggage hurt it more than anything. My commute is mostly open highway, and without the luggage I was getting 45-48mpg. With the luggage, I'm averaging 42mpg and will be on fumes at 200 miles on a tank (ran it fully dry once at 204 miles). I do miss the 260+ mile range of a smaller bike.
- Unbeknownst to me, the bike already had lower gearing on it when I bought it; the previous owner had put on a 42t rear sprocket. The bike feels good, but it definitely feels like it's a tooth high in the front. I haven't gone down because so much of my riding is open highway, but if my commute ever changes a 14t front will be the first thing I do.
- It's too damn loud and looks ridiculous. Woe is me. :teeth
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