Ducati?

thedoc46 · 13 Apr 2013 at 04:07

Ask Rossi what he prefers riding

bakes0310 · 13 Apr 2013 at 07:56

Nice post agnes, quite an eye opener to what you need to be like to look after a Ducati. I nearly bought a multistrada but im glad i didnt, cause im the type who doesnt mantain his bike every day, but more like every other week

MatteH Oxford · 14 Apr 2013 at 11:48

arctine said:
Absolute nonsense.

Firstly, hot air carries more water vapour than cold air

Secondly, it would take a lot of exposure to water, let alone water vapour, for a copper cable to erode to the point of destruction. That's why we use copper for you know, water piping.

Thirdly, how many uninsulated cables are there on any motorcycle?

So you're suggesting a typical garage, which probably has temperatures ranging from around -10c to +30c in the UK, has less condensation than one which is kept at a constant temperature via a thermostat?.

Water piping doesn't carry electricity, well maybe a bit due to static because of water passing through it, but it will corrode externally & turn that blue/green colour. Your typical electrical cable on a vehicle has a resistance of about 1 ohm, when you double that to a paltry 2 ohms the voltage drop would be a massive 6 volts. To put that into perspective, most 12v circuits have a recommended loss of no less than 0.5v from good battery voltage figures, so ideally no less than 11.9v anywhere. It doesn't take much corrosion to render a circuit faulty, and it would be suffering critical voltage loss at a point well in advance of the 'destruction' of the cable.

Not many cables themselves are unprotected, but the connectors and the terminals/pins inside them are susceptible to water ingress - more so on a Ducati than a Honda in my experience. Often there are bare cable ends within crimped connectors, like on stater motor terminals, often corrosion sets in between the wiring and the crimped terminal.

Killer Carson · 19 Apr 2013 at 14:24

I had a 916 (1997) and despite being well maintained and serviced, the electircs were troublesome from time to time. I replaced the rectifier at least twice.

But I have to say, it was well worth it! Felt like Troy Bayliss whenever I got on it (although I probably looked more like Trevor Bayliss).

And they seem to have improved steadily through the 998/998/999 era to be pretty much as reliable as anything else if properly maintained and serviced.