Dvt Multistrada Handling

I'll try and keep the story short but I am hoping some of you may be able to help me with a significant handling problem I have been experiencing with the DVT Multistrada.

I have owned four Multi's in all, two of the first MTS 1200 (base versions) and now two of the DVT versions. The first two were great and I completed a lot of mileage on them; but both DVT versions, with the revised headstock angle, seem to have a real handling issue at higher speeds.

I live in Singapore (where speed limits are low and strictly enforced) and tour all around Malaysia, Thailand and venture into places like Cambodia with like minded mates. Racking up the miles is easy, the scenery is fantastic, majority of the roads are in great shape, lots of curving twisties and on the freeways - let's just say on these roads speed limits are not too much of an issue.....

My first DVT Multi was the base model, great bike initially but once I had completed running it in and went over the border where I could really enjoy it, I was very disappointed. I found the throttle was flat with a response not unlike the early turbo-charged bikes (i.e., open the throttle count to five and off you go) which meant the only way to enjoy the twisties was to keep the motor bubbling away over 7,000 rpm whilst playing tunes on the gearbox. However the biggest problem was at speeds in excess of 140 KPH: the bike would start to "wobble" initially gently but would quickly lead to the bars actually "shaking". Faster I went worse it got, panniers on, panniers off, different tyres, pressures, suspension settings, two up, on my own did not matter.

Ducati in Singapore took a look at the bike on numerous occasions and eventually organised for the factory in Thailand to send an engineer down to Singapore. Unfortunately before that could happen, a friend of mine who is a mature and very well respected ex racer, took it for a spin to see if he could help me sort it out.

Regrettably the bike got into a huge tank slapper with the bars whipping from side to side so severely they sheared the frame stops and the bike went down. Ducati were pretty good, they rebuilt the bike with a new frame under warranty after which we did a road test (back in Malaysia of course) where I could take it up over 200 kph and it was as good as gold.

I still had a couple of other issues with the bike related to the poor throttle response which was never really fixed and I disliked the soft Showa suspension anyway so I traded it in against a Pike Peak.

The Ohlins transform the bike and the later model has improved throttle response (although these fly by wire throttles are still not as good as cables in my view). So this weekend, we had a track day up in Sepang for which I am lucky enough to own a Pierobon framed 1198SP that I built myself and a 2008 ZX10R. Now the Bike's fully run I decided to ride up to Sepang from Singapore on the Pikes Peak (panniers on) with the expectation of getting some speed on.

As soon as I hit 155 kph the bike started wobbling just like the other one, faster I went worse it got; the road surface made no difference and there as no single thing (other than the speed) which set the Bike off. So its going back to the dealer tomorrow for investigation - apparently there's some sensitivity with the engine mounting bolt torquing process so they'll repeat that first.

I appreciate speed limits in the UK are prohibitive and it's possibly difficult for these issues to rear their head on European bikes given the strict enforcement of speed limits - but I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced any high speed handling issues with their DVT Multistradas and what you may have done to resolve it.

 

Thanks for the all the input and welcomes. I will update the thread if the dealer's frame re-torque exercise does the trick.