HOLY SHIT! Have i joined a forum of motorcycle bandits??!!! Proper badman, innit man, me dash says so
I think the bandits are all buying Scramblers, there's quite a few by all accounts but not all are fully out of the closet yet
Read through this thread and I'm having the same issues with my 119, the fixings are corroding. Bought new, I did 10K in a little over a year - most weather - and the poor girl is looking a little worse for wear. I paid for the dealer ACF50 treatment at the 600 mile service and bought a load of it to continue applying. I wash the bike a couple of times a month then apply ACF 50 generously as you all seem to do. Speaking to the dealer last week, they recommended - and had cans lying around showing they used it - GT85. There is a good deal on Amazon Prime right now and I was wondering if anyone on this thread had experience of GT85.
Interesting article on ACF50 - ACF-50 Corrosion Control for Motorcycles Washing once or twice a year or after the winter is over is mentioned. '..Remember, ACF-50 protects jets on US aircraft carriers! If it works for these jets in these conditions, think how well it's going to work for your bike!..'
It can only be to do with each individuals' cleaning regime, otherwise they'd all be rustbuckets. And it does seem to me that it's the ones who are extra fastidious with the bucket and sponge that are finding the biggest problems.
GT85 wont do much. Ac50 stuff works really well from people ive spoken with but you need to stop washing the stuff off every 2 mins and let it do its job
Not sure that I completely agree with you. I have an 12 year old 955 Daytona that is kept in the same garage, same cleaning regime and same commute that has not deteriorated as bad as the Panigale. Putting aside the usual quality of the fittings and components discussion, what preventative maintenance options are there other than ACF50 that we have all found works to a lesser or greater degree?
FS365 may be worth a try for you. It's water-based so you must re-apply it after every wash. It does the same thing as ACF50, but as I say you have to keep reapplying it, so it'll work out a lot more expensive.
I know this is your view and I don't disagree. When the dealer workshop manager mentions my bike is dirty and I should clean it after riding 150 miles to and from work - takes me two days - my defence of ACF50 sounds pretty weak. The Panigale is a thing of beauty and should be ridden in my opinion. Even when she's dirty and the tyres are bloody lethal in anything but dry conditions over 20 degrees.
Sounds fair, but by all accounts, the PTFE in GT85 makes it more suitable for moving parts as it's persistent. Not sure that using only water will wash off ACF50 though. If you reapply properly, whats the problem?
Well, that's me done then, I can't think of any useful advice to offer. In four decades of biking I've had bikes of all nationalities, genres, ages and values, and they have all, without exception, left me in better condition than they arrived. Even the old shitters I used to courier on survived well (if I didn't blow 'em up first). And it ain't ACF50 or FS365 or any other letter/number combo that saved 'em, it's common sense. People say you should never use washing up liquid to clean cars or bikes. Utter bollocks. I've used exlusively washing up liquid to clean every vehicle I've owned, and they all singularly failed to dissolve. People say you MUST wash your bike before you put it away. Yeah, right. Like that's ever gonna happen. I'll wash the bike maybe every fortnight if the weather's nice - no safe detergents, no blow-drying, just a wash, dry with a chamois, maybe a lick of Back to Black if I'm feeling generous. In winter I rarely bother cos I don't like getting cold and wet any more, and even if I did risk a ride I'll be buggered if I'm gonna stand out in the freezing cold cleaning the sodding thing, it can wait til the weather's good again. Yet despite all these no-no's the bikes and cars stay rust-free and mostly sparkling. All of them. Ducatis included. I tried ACF50 on my Le Mans cos it was an old bike that took a lot of cleaning up when I bought it. Can't say I was impressed or unimpressed, but I wasn't keen on the idea of the bike staying slimy so I only used it once. It didn't rot away, to be fair, but then neither did any of the other bikes. I still say it's over-aggressive cleaning that's causing people problems. We've had threads here from people moaning their chains are going rusty, only to find out later they've been going at them with industrial machinery and chemicals so potent they'd make your skin fall off. For the love of god, leave it alone. The vast majority of corrosion-related problems I've read or heard about have come from people who feel the need to wash their bike/car every 5 minutes. There really is more to life.
Disagree fig....ive not had to "look after" my rsv anywhere near as much as the hyper...the last time the rsv got a good clean was over 6 months ago..... normal cleaning....wd40 Full going over....sdoc100
Nope. Not even the stock bolts holding thd sump have gone chalky (this is the rsv). I think everyones point on here is we accept everything rusts and corrodes....i do...its just the speed that it happens is fastest on a duc. And yes, to those who just say "just fucking ride the thing...." yeah....i do, but af the same time you want protect your investment. Im not expcting the thing to be made of titanium, but i think someone shelling out 12k plus on something would expect a degree of longevity before corrosion starts and expect that to be extended if they took extra precautions. I dont personally think that is unreasonable. I know everything has to be built to a cost, that's business but when youre forking out a fair bit of dosh...I mean lets take the panigale 9 rough price 14k....what would it cost to cover the thing in stainless fittings...50 quid?, after all theyd be buying bulk...saying that a lot of the fixings on the rsv are stainless (it looks to be about a 70/30 mix - the 30 being stainless) - so they could do it - why couldn't ducati...even for the areas that they expect to corrode first...ie brake calipers, round the bottom of the engine, etc etc... Even Rich at Louigi has said when they have to strip a duc down a proportion of the labour is spent removing rusted and stuck bolts...
