Weirdness.

Hello You Lot,

I've done about 300 miles on my D16 now and I absolutely love it. It's everything I hoped it would be and nothing I feared it would be. In fact, I'd like to write a little review thing of it if that's the sort of thing we do here/ is ok here?

Anyway, I've done all 300 miles of my riding on brand new 2015 Bridgestone tyres thanks to an awesome member of the forum, and I'm running them at 2.9 Bar front and rear as recommended by the Ducati update letter thingy.

That seemed mentally high to me in terms of pressure, but I've been riding on it like that the whole time and I have to say it's been brilliant, almost comfy, plenty of feel, plenty of grip, plenty of stability and turns in nicely. I have all my bikes really stiff, but this was genuinely comfortable by comparison which was a fantastic surprise given that I was expecting it to be horrible on anything less than velvet based surfaces after everything I'd heard/ read.

However, I went out for a ride today on one of my normal routes and all of sudden the bike feels ridiculously stiff both front and back, bone shakingly, teeth chatteringly, bowel emptyingly stiff. It's almost unrideablely stiff even for me and all that lovely friendly feedback and all the nice confident feel has gone. It's like everything is suddenly made of wood.

I've come home and tested the pressures straight away, half expecting them somehow both to have ballooned or deflated (for them both to have deflated is obviously unlikely, and it's really not that warm here and I wasn't going fast really so it's unlikely that I've forced the pressures up suddenly insanely high) but they're exactly where I set them- 2.9 bar.

Likewise, the suspension looks fine, it isn't suddenly sitting low or lacking in rebound and I haven't changed anything. I rode it last weekend, it was fine. Ride it this weekend, it's suddenly insanely over-stiff. Funnily enough it's now exactly how I expected this bike to be from the start.

So, what's going on? I know I could just drop the pressures, and I plan to do exactly that to what the book pressures are rather than the later Ducati update letter pressures are, but what I'd like to understand is why it was fine before- great in fact- and now it's not. It feels uniformly worse to me by the way, not just front or back but both.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas you have on what's happening.

Thanks in advance,
N.

 

By the way, there's no leaking from the forks that I can see and the 'travel marks' on the forks themselves show that I'm not bottoming out or anything.

 

Hi.

No, nothing like that. Did everything the same as always, same roads, same speeds, etc so as to try and be able to work out what's happening.

 

Ha. I was waiting for that!

Here you go:

 

Thanks mate. Much too nice for me that's for sure!

I have a link to how it sounds too if you like? It's not got a standard exhaust. Sounds insane.

 

The first owner had it made. It's him in the video.

 

Done.

 

Thankfully, I'd had the forethought to make them think I'm a twat long before I bought this. It's been a real time saver for them as they've got a lot more hating packed in.

 

It sounds totally mental on the go. Like nothing I've ever heard before. My best mate rode it past me down a long straight road and it made me laugh my head off. My missus described it as 'offensive on every level'. So, perfect then.

 

I understand that completely. My neighbours didn't want to get rid of their cockerels, so it seems only fair that I'm a noisy cock too.