Welcome to the forum - You need to get used to the dry clutch rattle & aukward low speed town riding, but on the open highway or a twisty open road the Duke is in its element. Oh and note - the Yellow ones are generally that little bit faster lol He11cat - nothing wrong with a CG work ride hack - mine used to be a C90 Cub step through (indestructable & fuel up with a litre or so every few weeks )
after doing my research iv decided to get a 748 sps. im just waiting till next month to get paid. i dont want to pay the prices for the 998 nor the insurance haha, after test riding a honda CBR600RR iv decided the 748 will suit me fine, The honda engine was useless but a 748 has more torque so im just counting the days now.
I stepped back into biking with a little 620 Monster this summer, after an NC30 some 12 years ago it was a bit of a challenge at first but now I love it and think ill just keep it for good as it's the best looking/sounding bike you could buy for £2k. BUT I fancy a bit more vavavoom but with the same amount of character so I to am after a 748. like most things in life I think you need to look after things to keep them on top form...buy a clean, very well maintained cared for bike and enjoy it...
My 748 is being collected by its new owner on Sunday morning. I don't regret anything about owning one and will definitely own another one at some point, no doubt!
iv gone for a 748s from 2002. i prefer the 5 spoke wheels and the grey frame and wheels. low milage and one lady owner haha, just had the belts changed and only ridden 2 miles since the service. bargain!!!!
i picked up the bike on friday and wow is it in good condition!!!!!! absolutely made up with it. damn near perfect condition and plenty of ducati performance titanium bits added on from nearly new by the one lady owner hahahahahaha
sounds lovely - will that be a yellow one then? don't forget to swat up on the gremlins not that it sounds as though yours will suffer from any for a few years How many miles young is it?
If they're the same as the bigger engines, the most likely problems will be the clutch slave cylinder, signified by...errr...no clutch, and the oil pressures switch - oil light comes on, and there'll probably be a smear of oil around the switch. They don't happen to every bike, but they are pretty common faults, and both a piece of cake to rectify. Enjoy the bike. Red ones are fastest, by the way...
Hi Grant and welcome! If you've never had a Duke before and are used to Jap inline fours, then I might suggest that you take a test ride on any of the models at your local dealer, as they will be quite a bit different in terms of power delivery/'character'. As has been mentioned previously, they're not really that happy chugging round town at low speed, but come into their own on the open road. I had an ST4 (same engine as the 916 essentially) and loved it to bits until redundancy forced a very reluctant sale. I rode it all year round commuting to work (fortunately the majority of it on open and rural roads!) as well as weekend blasts etc., and loved every minute. However, a couple of things to keep an eye out for with Dukes in general and Desmoquattros in particular: 1. Ducati's do NOT like not being used! Really, if I fire up and use my 600 Monster regularly, it'll fire first time, every time. Leave it unused a week or two and I'll guarantee that I'll churn it over a few times and then have to whip out the plugs and clean them before it'll think about starting. They sulk you know! 2. Ducati's are NOT hard to work on, nor are the general servicing parts overly expensive (with some exceptions, such as fuel filters!), but they can be time consuming compared to Jap bikes - e.g. valve clearances/belts etc. If you do your own servicing then this is no big deal and you'll save yourself hundreds compared to main dealer prices. 3. Desmoquattro engines need to have the cam followers carefully inspected at each service, as there is a well known and documented problem with the chrome flaking off and potentially damaging the cams themselves if left unaddressed (just do a search on any Ducati forum!). Some bikes don't appear to suffer at all, though most do to some degree, especially if you do any amount of miles like I did) and the genuine Ducati parts ARE expensive. Rich at Louigi Moto has a big box full of knackered ones under his bench and I'd suggest that you could consider them as consumable items. Please note that you'll have to actually take the cams out to enable you to see the area that wears, as it is always partly covered by the cam face (obvious really as that's what's causing the wear!). It only takes an extra 20 mins or so to whip out the cams anyway whilst you're doing the valve-clearances, it's false economy not to. . . If you do find any flaking, don't bother with replacement Ducati items (they had 17 revisions to them over the course of their life - same part used from the 851's through to the 996 - and the last revision was as crap as the first), but send them off to Dave Newman Cams, who will refurbish them for half the price of new Ducati items. They basically cut off the 'ramp/pad' and braze on a replacement made from Stellite (I believe), the same material that they use to re-face cams. This material is much tougher than the chrome but won't damage the cam faces either. From personal experience, I would suggest that you replace any followers as a pair e.g. both exhausts or both inlets, as the profiles are VERY slightly different to the originals and you might experience a slight high-frequency vibe as I did. Change the pair, and the problem seems to disappear. After he trialed a couple of different ways of refurbishing the followers (including one company that re-chromed them which quickly started to flake too!) Rich at Louigi Moto now sends all his customer's cam followers to Dave Newman Cams after he'd seen the results on my bike. Give him a call if you want any advice about anything Ducati, he's a really helpful guy and a well respected independant specialist here in the South-West. Don't let any of this put you off, they are fantastic bikes, but as with all Dukes, they require a bit more 'rider involvement' than anything Japanese. They also reward you more than Jap bikes too! Hope this is of help.
i am now the very proud owner of a 2002 748s with the "R" plastics and a full titanium termi exhaust system i believe as i have a box with a full system in it which is the original. its done 13,ooo miles. il put some pics up in a minute
