If you've not seen the topic in the For Sale section, I picked this 748 up from 748 fidler on Sunday. The bike is in good condition and serves as my introduction into the world of Ducatis (and "big boy" bikes having just passed my test last week). I also plan to carry on 748 fidler's tradition of servicing and maintaining the bike at home. I almost didn't get to take the 250 mile trip up from Kent to Scunthorpe, as my licence is currently with the DVLA meaning I couldn't hire a van, and I made the decision to buy a bit too late to secure a bike trailer. In the end I was lucky that my mates Ford Tourneo Connect, affectionately nicknamed The PopeMobile, was available, and after measuring up I was relatively (ish) certain the bike would fit in the back. Well I was just about right as the following photo testifies: And this is the current state of affairs:
Finally got a break in work to get out into the garage this evening to start doing the odd few jobs that need doing to it. Firstly, the tail section is quite loose when locked down into the catch. Had a look around and still can't see exactly why this is. Maybe the catch needs adjusting? The belts haven't been done in 3 years, so that's the first major job I'm doing. Ordered them from Moto Rapido today; superb price and the staff were mega-helpful. In preparation for receiving them I took the fuel tank off. As you can see in the pics in the first post, there is a bit of carbon fibre vinyl wrap on the bike. It looks good from a distance, but up close it looks a bit tatty (sorry 748 fidler if that was you who'd put it on). So I've now removed the vinyl wrap from around the ignition barrel and also airbox bit below the tank. The carbon fibre wrap on the tank The wrap on the airbox After removing the vinyl, taking off the remaining glue with some white spirit and then using AutoGlym Paint Restorer and AutoGlym Polish
One final thing tonight, if anyone is looking at this and is looking at buying themselves a 748; insurance. My situation is that I'm 27, live in a relatively low risk postcode (I think), keep the bike in a brick built, locked garage overnight. I passed my test a week ago and have 0 bike NCB. I have been driving for 8 years and have 7 years car NCB. Firstly I did the usual quotes on GoCompare and Confused before I bought the bike to make sure insurance wasn't going to be prohibitive. The cheapest fully comp quote came back at £800 (Motorcycle Direct through TheBikeInsurer.co.uk), which I was happy with. I spent today ringing around for the best quote. The two big insurers, Bikesure and MCE couldn't get close, coming back with fully comp quotes of around £1200-1400. After reading threads on this forum I decided to try Carol Nash. Again they couldn't get close with their fully comp quote at ~£1250, but the TPFT quote came back as half of that. I realised if I crash in my first year I almost certainly won't claim as 1) I can repair it myself and 2) the first years NCB will be very useful, so decided TPFT was the way forward, just for my first year. I rang Swinton as well, but they wouldn't quote me because of the bike and the fact I'd only just passed my test. They passed me on to Call Connect who in turn passed me on to Bikesure and MCE. As a final resort I rang Motorcycle Direct. Their TPFT quote roughly matched Carol Nash, though the package and payment terms were slightly worse. I was bored of phoning people now so I decided to go with them anyway. Unfortunately my card got declined due to the amount of money that had gone in and out of my account over the last few days. So I was given a reference number to use when I phoned them back, after I'd phoned my bank to speak to Frank Drebin @ The Fraud Squad. Fate intervened and just after I'd got off the phone to Lloyds, my man at Carol Nash phoned me and managed to do the policy EVER so slightly cheaper, so I happily went with them. So the final deal was, TPFT, 5000 miles a year (planning on trips to the 'Ring and the TT next year), £100k legal cover, some security stuff they chuck in for free, £240 mandatory excess + £500 voluntary excess. Price was £596. I opted to pay an extra £29.99 for excess insurance too, which means my excess is now effectively £240, as I can claim the £500 excess back. On top of this I was very happy with the service Carol Nash provided, bloke on the other end of the phone was nice enough to chat too and genuinely seemed to want my business, rather than just going through the motions of giving me a quote.
If you're planning to go to the Nurburgring be aware that you will not be insured if you crash on the track or anywhere near it. Pretty much all UK insurance companies see the 'ring as a risk too far, and exclude it from their cover.
I've been with Carole Nash for years now. They always come up trumps at renewal time. Maybe not with the first incarnation of the requote, but after make a couple of calls to some of the other usual suspects (Bennetts, MCE, e-Bike etc) they always come in just under any other quote on a "like for like" basis.
Yea I know, I've been quite a few times. I used to go at least once a year, but I haven't been in a few years now, mainly due to lack of time and money, but also it's lost a little bit of that magic since it largely became privatised. They do seem to be quite good. Though it annoys me when companies don't give me their best price straight away. I rarely go back to a company after they've quoted to see if they can beat a later price. Oh, and I've had the belts through from Moto Rapido today. Ordered yesterday at about 4pm, arrived today just after 10am. Great service and I'd definitely recommend them!
Had my first ride on the bike this afternoon and WOW! The noise, the acceleration, the noise, the handling, did I mention the noise. Definitely made the right choice in purchasing this awesome feat of engineering. Got home after a quick ride up and down the road (read: an hour and a half around the A roads of Kent), thighs and wrists need replacing but it's a small price to pay. Have spent the past couple of days in the garage working on her. Took half the bike apart to change the timing belts and valve clearances. Both were just a precaution as the bike hadn't been used much at all over the past year. Good news is that all the valve clearances were within tolerance. The closing clearances are dam awkward to measure though. Timing belt was pretty straight forward too - just care to make sure the engine is at TDC and the timing marks all line up, then whip the old belts off, put the new ones on, tension up and put everything back together! Glad I changed the belts actually, the old ones didn't have any writing on them at all. New ones are Ducati items with red writing. Couple of pictures: Quite close! Found out my speedo cable is broken too after my little ride. Easy enough to fix. Luckily my local Ducati garage has one in stock that I can pick up tomorrow, so no waiting for postage from M-R this time. I have to say, I quite like the look of the 748 sans windscreen: Lastly, found this odd bit of wiring:
Speedo cable had broke just behind the clocks. Not sure how it happened, maybe in transport if one of us had accidentally grabbed the cable whilst man-handling the front? Who knows. No problem, picked up a new cable from Laguna Ashford today for less than £25 and it's a doddle to fit. Spent half of tonight looking into what to do to get the seat recovered, and which material to use. Narrowed it down to Neoprene or Alcantara and think I'll be ordering some Alcantara from Glen-Revis on Monday. Also found out that with my backpack on, it restricts slightly my head movement, both looking up and side-to-side. Ended up with rather sore wrists and aching lower back after 2-3 hours of riding today (the freezing cold didn't help), so much so that I was guilty of my thoughts turning to riser bars! I'll leave it a few more hundred miles though before I seriously consider anything like that. The acceleration is very addictive though, and it's very frustrating that we've not got the nice dry roads at the moment to really get to grips with the handling and probably won't for several months!
My wrists really felt it on the first ride out every spring but soon got better,if your thinking of bar risers just go the whole hog and buy a 1200gs ,ha ha.
Haha, you knew what I love about the 1200GS? Just how usable it is in every situation, even just pottering down to the shops! My speedo cable from Laguna Ashford and the new breather hose from Moto-Rapido: And then a quick snap from my hour and half, 30 mile, "quick run up the road to check the speedo is working".
