SeekingFire Ducati Blog
First Impressions: Problems
October 01, 2007
There are some things that nobody needs in this world, and bright-red hunch-back, warp-speed 900cc café racer is one of them—but I want one anyway, and some days I actually believe I need one. That is why they are dangerous.
Other people have reported all sorts of surging problems in the 3-4000 RPM range, I haven’t seen any of those issue. Actually, mine pulls smoothly from around 2500 and if I’m extra smooth with the throttle I can steady-state cruise at 2000. The engine felt very tight during the break-in period, and a couple of thousand clicks later I can still feel it slowly loosening up. It’s started great and is slowly feeling better and better. Based on this I’d have no problems with buying a well-maintained used Ducati—it would let me get to the magic stage of the engine immediately. Based on my research I’d say that the maintenance, especially the valve adjustments and the need to remove the fairing for just about any real work, will be a bit more expensive overall than the Bandit. I have no problem with that, the rewards seem worth it. Some things, such as syncing two throttle bodies instead of 4 carburetors, are possibly even cheaper (though I haven’t price checked that yet). The narrowness, except in the fairing – putting my legs too far forward at a stop hits them Oddly, the fuel mileage and large tank – this thing has range. Call it 400 versus 300. Front brake is amazing; the rear brake seems to be ornamental The foot controls(not the pegs) are set way too high by default. Or maybe my feet and boots are just unusually thin. Stalling – takes a long time to fully warm up but doesn’t exhibit any “cranky” behavior other than at an idle Stupid clunk on the “boomerang”, temporarily solved with a piece of foam
