I’ll start the ball rolling … Chatting to the Ducati salesman at GT motorcycles in Plymouth yesterday - nice guy called John who is brand new to the dealer and to Bike sales (my DesertX was his first ever sale!) … He tells me they had the Ducati UK rep in recently and apparantly Ohlins are having production problems at the mo and can’t give the bike manufacturers the units they need. He says Ducati asked what the problem is and are told it is because they can’t get their hands on enough Titanium. Next thing, VAG throws it’s huge corporate weight around and gets Ohlins shit-loads of Titanium but says “it’s only to be used on production for Ducati” Who knows if it is true but it makes a good story Anyone got any other “advantages” of VAG ownership and “what they have ever done for us” ?? Obvs no mention of aquaducts, sanitation and roads allowed ;-)
Can they arrange for proper steel fasteners and decent Alli while they are at it ...... like they had on the Stukas .....they were tough old aeroplanes .....
Funnily enough was watching some drivel on YouTube the other day and another video appeared in the margin about finding a German WW2 plane up a remote mountain somewhere. Apart from the destruction of the violent crash lots of it remained, albeit in pieces. All things considered these parts looked in amazingly good condition. Still paint on the aluminium, exposed ali not particularly corroded, even steel parts with little rust.
Ducati represents a nice trinket on Audi's charm bracelet. Can't see them letting it turn into a lead weight, if they can help it, through lost sales as a result of parts shortages, though if true, it does serve to highlight their clout in the industry over and above a successful motorcycle brand's sway.
Cool story. Be more believable if there was, in fact, anything made of titanium by Ohlins in the units produced for Ducati road bikes. They can barely manage aluminium with the pared back penny pinched spec that Ducati take.
they have given me less free hours in the day. they were never the quickest on the phone but since the C word became part of our daily language and that other word, on average it will take me two days of repeated calling to get through to a VW Group Parts supplier in Inverness.
The dealerships all became a lot more shiny when VAG introduced their corporate ways. I miss my 'independent' official Ducati dealer, St Neots Motorcycles, which was more like a local garage, but always friendly and helpful After 10 years? I'm still coming round to the dealer approach, but it definitely has it's upsides, and I'm finally believing they don't seem to have picked up the bad traits of their car franchises in the same group.
Since VAG ducati reliability seems to have improved using Bosch parts cruise control and they jumped on the v4 valve issue and sorted it I am sure the old Italians would have just said it’s part of the charm are the bikes still made in Italy ?
I was curious about this, @Sev you seem to be in the know are there any good guides as to the development of the D16 and how it evolved into the V4 ? I must admit I thought they were more similar, from what you are saying it sounds like that's not the case.
