... but it does look like it might be dissolving: That's the lower cylinder head cover screw on the horizontal cylinder. Looks like the surrounding metal is crumbling away, and I'm not impressed, seeing as the bike's only just over a year old. I rode it through winter, but I hosed it off and slathered it in FS365 every evening without fail. Anybody else seen the same? Is it worth a warranty claim, or just keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't get any worse?
I'd say salt has been at that , are the rocker covers aluminium or magnesium . If aluminium galvanic corrosion between the ally and the metal rocket cover stud , poor finish whatever it is
Yes made of magnesium, and once any coating goes through it rots, thats what you get if you don't look after things
What am I meant to do, lick it clean after every ride? Keep it locked up in a heated and dehumidified garage until after the spring equinox? Or should I have known that Multistrada is short for "Multi strada, ma non in inverno"?
I dropped my Multistrada off at the KTM dealer yesterday when I traded it in and my final gift was the safety recall notice that arrived this week. Less than 3 years old and the first year was great but after that a new instrument panel, 2 new cylinder heads, 4 new fuel sensors and a bike that still smelled of burning coolant every time I started it left me so pissed off it had to go. Last weekend I took it to France and when it was raining or there was damp in the air the fuel consumption dipped from high 40s to about 38mpg and it ran like a dog but apparently there's nothing wrong with it! When I questioned the fact that it was still burning coolant I was told that the smell was because when the heads went the coolant burning goosed the cat but now it's out of warranty I couldn't have another one even though the fact that the cat is fucked was playing hell with the engine management. The dealer suggested that buying a full Akro would remove the cat and it's be fine after that. Really? There was also emulsion in the oil sight glass but that burned off when I gave it hell (as predicted by the dealer) so it wasn't noticed by the shop where I traded it in and that was the end of that one. Now I know that I'm not an expert but in my experience you only get emulsion in the engine oil when there's either a lot of condensation in there or coolant is getting into the oil but it's had new cylinder heads and there can't possibly be a problem. I loved riding that bike and it did what bikes are meant to do which is make me laugh but for reliability it was a piece of shit. I feel guilty for letting Paul have a decent test ride on mine and telling him how good the Multistrada was.
It's not like it was my first Ducati rodeo, and I only lost ~4 weeks due to warranty stuff in my first year of Multistrada ownership. Let's see how the second year pans out... got to say, I quite fancy something orange anyway...
If you washed it after every ride, you were washing it too often. You would just be making the salt corrosion work even better especially as the bike would have stayed damp all night.
I didn't wash it after every ride (who the hell has time for that?), I hosed it off with cold water to wash the salt off. That's just getting it wet, so it can't be too often.
Have a go on mine when we go to Spa, what could possibly go wrong after a decent test ride on a mates bike?
Buy something other than Ducati. The Multi was fantastic when it was working, but spent far too much time in the workshop for a bike with that price-tag. Never again for me.
I ended up totally demoralised by mine which is a crazy thing to happen with a motorbike but it had reached the point where if it let me down when I was abroad I'd have torched it in the nearest quarry. I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of which is a better bike between the Multi and the bike I've replaced it with because both are better at some things but I wouldn't buy another 1st generation Multi if it was offered to me dirt cheap.
My dealer's taken some photos to send to Ducati, of the corrosion and of the general state of the rest of the bike (which is otherwise pretty good). He's not optimistic about warranty claims for corrosion, but I think the fact that it's not just surface marks has got to help. We'll see...
... and the man from Ducati, he says, 'No'. What a surprise. Right, where's the local BMW dealer? I wonder if they've got a S1000XR demo bike yet...
