Had a lunch date with a lady friend on Thursday. Hop on the bike to set off and nothing naught zero zilch....battery flat! Put the charger on 15 mins later try again, clatter clatter as the fuel pump struggles with hardly existing voltage....cancel the lunch date with the distraught lady grrr grrr Two hours later bike starts and I ride her to KFC to eat away my sorrows and to charge her up. Friday morning she starts ok, but I put her on the charger again. Friday afternoon she is now fully charged! Hadnt riden her for maybe two weeks, and the last ride had a small element of rain, so I assume a bit of water got in somewhere and is now causing the battery to drain slowly....but what and how do I find the culprit. Bike is under two years old 8900miles! Dont want to miss out on future lunch dates
It's a Ducati - it got jealous and threw a strop because it knew you were going to lavish attention on another!
Exactly what I was thinking. It knew that should the lunch have gone well, its days in your household were numbered.
yep,i left the kill switch down for a couple of weeks once...flat as a pancake! permanently plugged into optimate now
yep it was down....but why should that happen and where exactly in this silly switch is the current leaking? Should I ask for a warranty exchange?
Had the same issue on mine and was told it could be because the bike keeps searching for steering lock if the red button is left down how true this is couldn't say as I've never left the switch down since and prob hasn't recurred. Have a look on Multistrada.net I seem to remember some of the first bikes did have issues with the kill switch.
If you've had the ecu updates it should throw a triangle and message on the dash to warn you about leaving the switch in this position
I kept getting "Red button not released" messages and had to twiddle the button. They replaced the whole switch under warranty eventually.
I think it is only if the kill switch is hard down that the problem occurs, you should also get the warning on the dash but only when the switch is at the bottom of travel, the internal spring should return it part way to the up position. Software upgrade should have cured this problem.
I remember this old thread: Email from Ducati USA re: poss battery discharge, switch position - Ducati.ms - The Ultimate Ducati Forum And there has been millions other posts of it. Notice the text, how they try to cover up they had faulty switches. Mine is a 2010, and I have no clue if mine has the problem or not, as I have always left it in the up position. My bike has been standing for months without draining, so scratch this one off your list of worries, if you put it in the Ducati approved position. I actually got that on SnailMail from Ducati, since I had registered my Bike. The problem doesn't always occur if the switch is down, but all it takes is one time where it stands like that for a while, and the battery will be drained (And most likely ready for the bin (in an environmental safa way of course)). What happens is most likely the bikes circuitry for finding the key gets activated at the same time you press the red button down, so the bike tries to find the key at the same time you try to start it. But apparently the electronics that searches for the key can somehow remain on, due to the faulty switch, if you leave it in the down position.
