Andy, You’ve said enough to put me off the Datatool unit and remind me to follow my own rule of thumb which is to never use aftermarket parts unless I absolutely have to. I didn’t have any complaints about the Ducati unit on my V4 S so I’ll put the same unit on my R. Once again this forum has provided the best advice I can get anywhere! Thanks all.
I had am OEM alarm on my MV Agusta. Biggest PoS ever, failed within two weeks due to water ingress. It was fitted by the supplying dealer and mounted in the specific cut-out on the faring inner. I opened the casing and tipped water out. Got a refund from the dealer and bought a Datatool Evo Compact alarm. All I wanted was a vibration alarm for my reasons given above. Solidly reliable over the 2 years I had the bike and fitted into the same space as the crap MV one. I did take considerable care in fitting, no shonky connectors. Used OEM type mesh shroud around all cables and connected to a hidden un-switched live feed. I don't bother declaring an alarm for insurance discount, tends to be negligible and in the case of the Mutley they insisted on the tracker and accepted the factory immobiliser too. The broker informed me, when I started talking about my lock and chain, that only the first two declared security items count, any others don't earn you extra discount. However, if you do declare them they can refuse a theft claim if they aren't fitted at the time of the theft!
You either like or hate them. Personally I’ve got alarms on all my bikes. For the Ducati’s it’s a Meta 357 V2 fitted at date of purchase. When fitted in 2004 to my monster failed 4 times under warranty and replaced. The fifth has worked faultlessly covering 140k miles. My 60k miles 1098 fitted in 2007 worked faultlessly until last year when the internal non replaceable battery failed. Anyway there’s now a direct meta replacement which connects to original system and has a replaceable battery. As many say no one cares about the alarm but when parked up always close by I’ll hear the alarm and that’s what matters to me. Saying that I’ve been with other riders sitting ripping out the harness to remove really pissed off.
The one i had on my 900ss completely immobilized the bike when i needed it to go to an appointment, , in the end it cost me a taxi fare and i had to get a new indicator relay because in the act of ripping the fucking thing out it blew the relay!! There was one on my 996, it's in a box with the other one at the bottom of the garage, (both Datatool) it's another marmite thing.
Having had a couple of datatool failures before I'm in the cheapo disk lock alarm club. I don't have much faith in Ducati wiring systems at the best of times, not confident in adding anything extra to it.
I think the older members of the Forum (like me) have had issues in the past with the antiquated alarms that used to be available. Perhaps the best were the Datatool alarms. However at some point they've played up, not switched off, or still wouldnt allow the bike to start etc. It was the same with car alarms which were all aftermarket. But as time has gone on and with factory fitted car alarms and immobilisers they all seem to have an integrated factory fitted unit. 99% being extremely reliable. Perhaps the manufacturers should fit system integrated alarms as well as the immobilisers? If they did I'd consider one, but an aftermarket system, no way. The alarmed disklock is probably ideal so long as you dont forget to remove it.
