Hi Everyone, I'm excited, and a bit nervous, about picking up my ST3 after not riding a big bike for 16 years. I have a Yamaha XT 600E which I am very comfortable on, but this thing is a whole different ballgame. It's pretty much like new with 22500Km, so I am happy that it was worth waiting for. The sound of those Ducati performance exhausts send a shiver down my spine! When the weather warms up a bit I am hoping to do some touring in France and perhaps Italy. I have a couple of questions already. Maybe the forum etiquette is that I post them in them in the relevant topic, but I'll mention them here anyway. I'm sure these answers have already been answered in those hundreds of pages, so apologies for not trawling through it all. I'm happy to be sent the link.... 1) The throttle is seriously abrupt when rolling off to idle and then when you pick up again, say when entering and exiting a corner. I find that makes the bike really quite difficult to ride at urban and lower speeds. Otherwise the power at other revs is great. I haven't got around to checking the throttle cable play yet, but as I've never owned a Ducati before, I was wondering if it's a known thing. 2) The right hand mid fairing was cracked and I believe it is because it gets removed so often in order to charge the battery. I have had it expertly repaired, but am looking for a better way to keep the battery topped up. Is it possible to charge it through the powerlet plug on the left side below the seat? I'm very conscious about screwing things up, and although I'm happy to wire things up, I'm not an expert electrician. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks to you all and especially the organisers and moderators. It seems like a really friendly and helpful place. Cheers John.
Hi John The lumpiness at low revs is common on big twin cylinder engines, it’s something you’ll get used to As for the battery an optimate trickle charger is what you need. Wired across the battery terminals with the terminal positioned somewhere convenient for use. Welcome to the forum.
If you plan to leave the bike connected to an optimate (or similar) use in conjunction with a seven day timer that way you can charge the bike when you need it and the battery doesn’t learn the cycle. So my local Ducati dealer told me. My first Ducati and big bike was an ST4, which had most of the ST4S attributes, loved that bike. welcome
Sh*t! If my Ducati is capable of learning when I'm going to charge its battery, its about time it learnt to keep its bloody engine paint on! And why the hell hasn't it learnt its way home? I'm going to have words... BTW Les salutations JC!
Hi John, whereabouts are you? I'm just north of Toulon in the hills near the gorge d'Ollioules. Always available for rides to the Verdon..etc! Welcome! Cheers Grant
Thanks everyone for the replies. I’ll wire up an SAE lead to connect to the charger. I was just curious about the Powerlet (BMW Style) plug, but probably best left alone it seems. As for the throttle, it’s not so much lumpiness, more of a dead zone when you roll of the throttle and then and a jerk when you open it again. I found a thread from several years ago which talks about resetting the throttle position sensor and balancing the throttles. That’s beyond my knowledge, so it’ll have to wait.
Hi Grant, I’m near Grasse, so not close, but not too far either. It would be good to meet up at some point, maybe when it warms up a bit. Cheers John.
