Bike's done 1000miles, had first service, doesn't shake when cluctch is in (so not wheel realted), gets worse at higher revs blah di blah. Was out yesterday for an hour giving it a bollocking and at one point I couldn't even tell if my foot was on the brake pedal or not (not that I was going to use it). At 9k revs the seat is shaking, my legs are shaking, my feking brain is shaking. This aint normal, I just want some amunition in case the dealers don't act (so far they've been great, but as they've test ridden it I'm feeling less confident). I realise that the bike is not strickly faulty.
As has been advised, just take it back to where you bought it and discuss. Use some of your intelligent design in a discussion :wink:
I will, or course, be taking it to the dealer. But I know very little about bikes inner gubbins. Justy looking for some insight in case I get plamed off.
I really do understand the huge amount of info and benefits some can get in learning about their bikes and how to address and fix problems and issues from forums like this. But when it comes to a brand new bike, still under warranty, and you have a problem then you just hoof it back to where you bought it from and get it sorted. And if they don't sort it then get your money back. Its not rocket science.
I know, I know. But my curiosity is getting the better of me. I should go and watch some you tube vids about engine maintenance and tuning, see if that helps. Actually I have learned a little bit about the engine in the 848 and its interesting (belts driving the valves, no springs etc, its like a swiss watch) but I don't have a very good overall understanding of the engine and the dependencies (the fueling, airflow, cooling etc). I'm picking things up here and there but I don't even know how a bike gearbox works (how are gears selected?). I wish there were books about it that a non-mechanic like me could understand - or maybe there are? Bought a haynes manual for a Bonnevile once, couldn't make head nor tail of it. I have great respect for those who can work on their own bikes.
Here's some stuff get your brain ticking http://www.bikeboy.org/performance.html . PS, just take the bike back before you get enough info wrong to make a complete ass of yourself. If a haynes manual (for home mechanics - not engineers) baffles you, I dare not think what a real engineering paper would do .
I was about to ask what stuff? Then the link apprerd when I quoted your reply. thanks will check it out
If you can't understand a Haynes manual then face it, you are not mechanically minded. Just like me. We are destined to take stuff to people that know these things, and to pay them for their time, knowledge and expertise. Once cack handed, always cack handed is my theory.
Red as a matter of interest does the bike vibrate unusually at a standstill if you steadily increase the revs , or is it only when the wheels are turning i.e. on a run. Have you also checked the headstock bearings for play. Pete.
I don't know about that. Best way to learn mechanics is to take things to bits and put them back together. It all looks quite simple then. Best to do it on something you don't immediately want to ride, seeing as you'll make all sorts of mistakes in the learning process. Now, electricity, that's a different matter. The stuff is invisible.
Hah, I'm not cack handed thankfully just lack the vital experience. I found the Hyanes unhelpful because the step by step genre is a kind of obfuscation. My fault for buying the wrong type of book. Actually in a past career I wrote technical manuals and books and developed some very good strategies for learning and teaching. I hate with a passion teaching books that are filled will unnesessary crap or that don't organise the information logically (ie based on the dependencies in the information itself). I never assumed that just because a reader might be new to a subject you needed to corrput the information or dumb it down. You don't. Trust me it works and can be applied to lots of different subjects. Ever seen those huge tomes on Photoshop in book stores? You could kill someone with one of those, but they are only about 1/10th useful information. Which means it takes you ten times as long to learn how to use the program if you read the thing. Better as a door stop. Anyway I digress.
I completely agree, and have considdered getting an old bike engine just to take it apart and have a play. The assumption with the Haynes is that its simple because it's for DIYers. Its actually incredibly complcated. When your book is designed to hand hold someone through the physical process of picking up spanners and using loctite or putting x ammount of a particular grease just to the right of the thingamywatsit its gets mind numbingly complicated.
I'd love to actually, but the wife would have serious words about filling the garage up with more crap!
Mine too... Interesting. Another one, who would have thought that. Mine was smooth as [enter favourite smooth item/object] up to approx 1000 miles [1500 km] . Then it started exibiting signs of what I usually connect with a seriously worn chain; shuddering when opening the throttle especially at low speeds. This was and is usually accompanied by an interesting sensation in the foot rests. At 1100 miles or so I replaced the chain just to rule it out...and unfortunately there was no improvement...not that I expected it. I just hoped for it. Up until this point it had been well, if not vibration free so nothing to call home about in the vibration department. Then it got worse! After appr. 1600 miles [2500 km] the vibrations started to get more pronunced and ... When the tacho sort of is done with it's display averaging and starts to show 6k the seat starts to vibrate/tingle as if it was attached to a pneumatic compactor and not a motorcycle. Then as the engine reaches 7k the handlebars start to feel like concrete de-aerators... The only positive thing about that is that the hands go numb really quickly with the flip-side of that being a somewhat limited feel for what the bike's up to. So far so bad... One thing that's bothering me no end is that this behaviour and the amount of it isn't entirely consistent. If I from a rolling start, 1st gear + 3k rpm or so just wind the throttle open and work my way through the gearbox, changing gears at somewhere between 8,5 - 10k or so - the rev counter isn't exactly the focus of my attention, especially when in 4th gear and above-neither the seat, footrests nor the handlebars seem to be as vibey as when going full throttle from 3-4k in fifth or sixth gear. So "lugging" the engine in high gears yields more, stronger and pronounced vibration whereas just opening it up from 1st makes for a less "vibey" bike even if the final speed is the same. Odd. Someone elsewhere in this thread mentioned the going over and re-tighten the exhaust, the engine and whathaveyou might have a positive effect on vibration related issues. My 848 being my first Ducati, I'm not exactly used to "things starting to fall off" issues, well, not counting when my Norton Commando sort of just lost it's right hand side exhaust whilst on the road...I had or so I thought, almost managed to repress that memory. Anyway, I've as many others in this forum experienced more than my fair? share of false neutrals and I do start to wonder if that might have something to do with the increased levels of vibration. It's not really an ideal situation for the engine when your in 4th or 5th gear close to the redline with the throttle fully open, ready to engage the next gear and when you do- or rather try to-that you hit a false neutral and eventually the rev-limiter cuts in. The rpm display working the way it does, gives no real clue as to what revs that are really reached. It's of course even worse when shifting between lower gears but I've mostly encountered false neutrals between 5th and 6th gear and the odd one or two between 4th and 5th. The quickshifter/gearbox combo is at best erratic in practice... All that said, if there's no easy fix to this, the bike will eventually wind up at the dealerships workshop [it's under warranty] but it's some distance to transport/drive the bike there and taking into account that we're in the middle of our "season" they're probably booked solid and if I can avoid it don't want to have the bike just sitting there....until they get around to working on it. Now to end this wall of text, I would be very surprised if this whole vibration issue has a simple fix such as throttle sync, tps or or re-tightening some odd screws, bolt and fittings but one can always hope for it.
