Two years ago after 15+ years on various Hinkley Triumphs I fancied a change, read all the great reviews on the Multi, so decided to give Ducati a try and bought a new Multistrada S Touring. Two years on and enough is enough! So, just like Rossi I’m going back to my tried and trusted (no not an M1, I’ll make do with a Speed94R). Why?.... The 2 year warranty has just expired, I have the option of taking out an extended warranty but I have no reason to believe the constant component failures will stop and each trip to my nearest Ducati dealer is a 150ml / 3hr round trip. In the past 2 years I’ve added 1,000mls to the clock (both of them) just getting warranty issues corrected, so it’s time to move back to something more reliable (I trust). The Good: It never left me stranded, two 3wk / 3,000ml Euro tours two-up with luggage around the Grossglockner, Dolomites, Stelvio, Tuscany etc. A great ride when everything is working as it should. The Bad: Way too many warranty issues:- 1. Before the 1st service I notice hazard warning lights issue, dealer indifferent, Ducati take 18 months to correct with software update. 2. Start switch sticking, replaced in 1st year, fault returns in 2nd year, I dismantle and lubricate. 3. Instrument panel condensation in cool spring weather, don’t bother reporting / replace until same occurs in 2nd year, transferring milage required yet another trip to the dealer. 4. Fork tube finish damaged where brake pipe rubs, replaced, I fitted some VentureShield to prevent it recurring. 5. Rusty brake disk bolts replaced (apart from holidays never ridden in wet, always meticulously cleaned). 6. Black anodised trim on exhaust replaced after it turned brown (seen this on several other MTS) 7. Centre stand rubbing on cat’ wearing paint off stand, rubber stop replaced but doesn’t align with bracket. Ducati refused to fix (from what I’ve seen this misalignment is common) 8. First fuel sender unit fails and replaced. 9. Second fuel sender fails (less than 2mths old) 10. Heated grips fail on the way to dealer when getting second fuel sender replaced. Back to the dealer again at the weekend to get grips replaced..... The bike goes the week after. The Ugly: Having decided to trade in and move on, trade-in value (or lack of) proved a bit of a shock! Best offer I’ve had means l’ve lost £7,000 in two years. My experience is that non Ducati dealers really don’t want it, being offered as little as £5,000 in one case. I’ve had to buy from a joint Ducati/Triumph dealer 400miles away to get a vaguely sensible deal. The Multi is a sport-tourer and I’ve done 14k mls in two years, not excessive to my mind, but if you want top book trade-in just make sure you don’t do more than 3.5k mls a year! Personally I buy a bike to ride......... and preferably not just to the local dealer. Great forum guys......shame about the bike. p.s. went on Ducati museum and factory tour this year......Rossi, never heard of him.
Good luck. Fwiw buying a new vehicle is never an investment if you're buying it with your own wedge and they are making more than say 500 of em. Knew a bloke, brand new Porsche, paid around 70K for it. Three years later he couldn't find a Porsche dealer that would give him 21K for it. Sell it privately, like he did, if you want to limit your losses. That's how the market works I'm afraid. That's why this constant cycle of leasing makes sense to those that want a new vehicle with no worries. Makes financial sense to many too. I was brought up on old Triumphs and BSAs (out of personal choice) and only want Ducatis now, I've had several Japanese and German bikes along the way. IMO there is no comparison between a modern Triumph and a Ducati, Ducati beats em hands down. Sometimes things go wrong with new products - Google bathtub curve failure rate or whatever and see how all shit conforms. That's the way it is. Each to their own.
Agreed Air Duck, I bought the bike to enjoy. Unfortunately for me the fun/aggro ratio has proved to be <1 ...So I take what I can from the experience and move on. The Multi had been in production for 3 yrs when I bought it, I was aware of the common faults (from researching this forum), but ever the optimist I didn't think I'd be hit with the full house. I hope Ducati get a grip on their QA, it's not where it should be and they will loose customers if they don't improve. At present in many cases they seem content to simply replace items during the 2yr warranty (I guess we've already paid for them in the "premium" price of the bike) rather than actually fixing the problem. Even when trying to fix it they're not too successful (how hard can it be to make a reliable fuel gauge?). I also think some of their pre-production testing leaves a bit to be desired - e.g. hazard lights on old bike and trip resets on the new. Did they test the old one with centre stand fitted, or have Italian test riders got really small feet? I hoped I'd get used to riding with left foot instep on the peg rather than ball, I never did,... just got my toe down more often riding the Grossglockner , though the new bike is marginally better now so may be they've listened. Ducati are just following market trends so no fault of theirs, but the one thing I've learnt from this bike is that all the bells and whistles add little to the experience (and the new Multi has even more). Two wheels, a good engine and quality suspension is all that's needed to enjoy a bike (I'll take the safety net of good ABS as an exception). I test rode the new Multi while waiting for warranty work, my opinion is obviously coloured by past experience, but I came back with the impression - nice bike, some significant improvements, but no "must have" feeling. Rode straight to the Triumph dealer and test rode a SpeedTripleR, simple pleasure to ride, felt connected, came back with an ear to ear grin. ........sold. I guess I'm just a Triple man.... (legs, bums or tits?.......legs I think) Each to their own.
Gotta say mate, it's not really like for like comparing a Speed Triple R to a Multistrada? Compare a Multi to a Tiger maybe, and a Speed Triple to a Streefighter. Just saying eh. As far as niggling problems that we all think should've been covered in the R&D stages, yeah that's frustrating to all of us and even the Germans are guilty of it - as are pretty much all manufacturers I'm afraid. As long as you're happy mate that's all that matters and, yeah, couldn't agree more - a good engine and sorted suspension is all we *really* need at the end of the day!
Absolutely, they're not comparable, and that's partly the reason to change. In a (failed ) attempt at brevity I didn't explain in the OP, which was mainly an attempt to warn prospective owners what they might be letting themselves in for, why the move to a different class of bike. The Tiger, NO! Pig ugly and way too heavy. I don't buy into this adventure fad, nearest I got to off-roading on the Multi was 800mtrs of gravel drive to a "country" hotel, never tried the Enduro mode and I suspect neither have 95% of owners. Do we really need extra ground clearance on the new Multi, if they bothered to ask the average owner I suspect not. Tiger Sport may be, if the planned update loads it with electronics it might get a bit closer to the Multi (not sure if that's a good thing). Anyway, having toured Europe repeatedly over the past 20 years we've done all the good bits 3 or 4 times over, got the tee shirt, and the trek across France is getting a bit tedious (yes, we use the Santander ferry too). So the plan for future holidays is to hire a bike (GS?) out there, leaving the possibility of flying to Canada, New Zealand, USA or even Europe and just doing the good bits. On top of that the wife rides - Daytona675 (which is why I was aware of the hazards problem so early). So the rest of the year I'm riding solo wishing I was on something a bit more sport than touring...........hence the method in my madness.
I read your first post and thought I'd written it, only you left some trips to the dealers out, like going the 200 mile round trip 4 times for an update on the hazards that he couldn't find each time, or the other 5 times for switch gear and more heated grips. As for your Dude you aint riding it right, I hassel gixers and R1's for fun on my S GT. A pita for warranty work but far out weighed by the capability of the bike, I to did a 4500 mile tour of Europe's mountains and lakes last year 2 up with full luggage and we're doing Slovenia and Croatia in a few weeks, but I know when I get back it's just a case of unclipping the luggage and pressing a few buttons and I'm on a red animal that's itching to find some jumped up "I've got all the gear on" Rossi wanabe and wipe the floor with him.
It's not hard, I mostly just open the throttle and close my eyes, and if I'm lucky I can hear the engine above my screaming so I know when to change gear.
JCM, so I'm not the only one to get the full compliment of faults.....is that meant to be reassuring? Yeah, not saying the Multi's slow (far from it), it's just lost that grin factor for me when I'm half wondering which gizzmo is going to stop working before I get home. Probably psychological, but I immediately connected with the Speedy ..... Guess I'm a Triple man. Have fun in Slovenia & Croatia, some nice roads if a bit sketchy surfaces in places (but I was on the SprintST at the time, you'll be fine on the Multi ). Did them a few years back (2009) with a few friends, I remember at the time there were still burnt out bullet holed buildings by the side of the roads, was a sobering reminder of the past troubles.
