Hi All, I got rid of my Honda Blackbird after moving to Devon about 10 years ago. Mainly because it was too refined to feel exciting at speeds suitable for South Hams roads! I decided a big twin, maybe unfaired would give me my buzz at lower speeds. tried various including a Guzzi 1100 but none really put a grin on my face. Tested an ST3 & it was a revelation. Took quite a while to stop grinning! My bike has to be approved by "head office" & she found the ST comfy although didn't speak for a while after I blitzed past 6 cars on a B road :-> I've since tried a mint ST2 with Arrow carbons & suitable chip. Amazed me that with relatively low power (compared with Blackbird) the bike feels so quick. Anyway, I am testing an ST4S this weekend because I think it will probably be the most appropriate version for my taste. There don't seem to be that many ST4S's about & those that are not necessarily great. I should have bought one I saw which was like new with I think it was ~4k on the clock, but it didn't have panniers. I have since bought ST panniers & frames so I can consider any bikes I see whether they have boxes or not. I also bought some used DucatiSport carbon exhausts, but would prefer a whole bike rather than buying piece by piece on Ebay! Does anyone have or know of a nice ST4S available for sale? I would prefer Red but condition & history are more important to me than colour. Many thanks in advance.
Hope you find a good one - Blue ones are the best... ( Although some say that yellow ones are the fastest... ). I have had my 1999 ST4 since 2001. The original Ducati panniers are a classic of Italian design - will take a full-face helmet, but not an A4 ring-binder... I will, hopefully, be out and about on mine in November when I get back to the uK...
You are a friendly lot! Thanks, the one I am looking at this weekend is a blue one, although it is Subaru blue, originally red. So could be interesting... Have to say it looks V nice in pics that colour. A shade lighter than Duc blue. I know what you mean about Italian design. First car was a 64 Alfa & had various FIATS. I always remember seeing the Abarth Strada with James May showing how the sports seats hit the roof when lifted so people couldnt access the back properly!
I think I have already said hi to you but I can say it again ..... Hi Pssst don't listen to him up there red is the best ;-) he doesn't know what he is saying
Connoisseurs known that grey is quickest,and rarest,mine has 45000 trouble free miles,and,touching wood,it's looking good with no big signs of wear and tear,believe me I ride in all weathers and pretty hard too.Its never missed a beat.Regular 48 mpg,or much better if riding slowly,but I don't so,48 mpg good enough for me.More important is how the previous owners cherished their bike,not the age or mileage maybe.Best of luck though.£3500 should get you a goodun.
Hi Mate - Welcome! Having ridden an ST4 all year round for two years (until redundancy forced a very reluctant sale :frown, I can vouch for what an under-rated bike it really is! It has superb handling (once you've raised the rear ride height - see other threads on here, as it makes a HUGE improvement), more than adequate performance and long distance comfort - what's not to like! Just a word of caution though, the Desmo-quattro engines in the ST4 and ST4s do have one or two weak points to look out for - some suffer and some do not. The main one is that the cam followers can be considered 'consumable' service items if you use the genuine Ducati items. Basically the hard chroming is crap - they had 17 (count them!) revisions of the chrome on the followers through their life from the 851 to 916 etc., and the 17th was no better than the first! Just type in a search on any Ducati site to see what I mean . . . Now before people chime in - for some reason there are a some bikes that do not appear to suffer at all and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with frequency or quality of service/oil etc. although this obviously can increase the rate of wear on bikes that are prone. Suffice to say that Rich at Louigi Moto has a big cardboard box full of knackered ones under his bench - some so worn that they actually had significant 'dips' in the follower where the cam had been hammering away at it, obviously knackering the cam in the process! You really need to take the cams out to check the followers properly as part of them will always be covered by the cam lobe and it's odds on that this is the place where the chrome is starting to flake off! It's only an extra 20 mins work to do that, but definitely worth it! Whilst re-building my engine due to a knackered main-bearing (over-shimmed at the factory - not the first case that Rich had come across either!), we discovered that the chrome was flaking off four of the followers. After some research and recommendations on the old Ducatisti site, I had Rich send mine off to Dave Newman Cams for refurbishment. The results were fantastic - absolutely no wear in the following 6,000 miles before I had to sell the bike and half the price of a new Ducati item. The followers are reconditioned by 'cutting' off the 'ramp' of the follower and brazing (I think?) on a new 'ramp/pad' of a much harder material (can't remember what it is), that doesn't seem to affect the cams either. At the same service I found another 'original' follower was shedding it's chrome too! At the same time Rich sent another set off to an engineering works that reckoned they could re-hard chrome them. He subsequently tried them in a bike and within a very short space of time they started flaking off too! He now only fits Dave Newman Cams recon items. . . A word of advice if you do have any followers refurbished with Dave Newman Cams - do them in pairs e.g. both exhausts on the same cylinder - as from experience, we found that you might get some high-frequency vibration from the engine due to what Rich thinks is a very slightly different profile from the originals. Change them in pairs and the problem doesn't appear, as I can vouch for!? Don't let this put you off what is otherwise a fantastic bike, I was gutted when I sold mine, just go in with your eyes open is all I'm saying.
Good luck in your search! I've just bought a red ST4S with ABS and it's fantastic! Love the way the engine growls as the revs rise! Feels like a real bike and much better range than any of the Monsters. Buy and enjoy! Engaging bike.
