Whatthe4377

I did a search and didn't see anyone else with this issue so I thought I'd share. I went for a fun little ride down Mulholland Drive yesterday and had a blast. For reference, I'm riding a 2012 1199S ABS model. On my ride home, I was cruising at around 75mph and suddenly had something lightweight and black bounce off of my arm. I took a panicked look around and didn't see or feel anything unusual with the bike so I cautiously kept riding. Stopped for lunch and on my last leg home, I noticed the reservoir cap for the clutch fluid was missing. Luckily, the under-cap (for lack of a better word) kept the fluid in.

I've never touched the cap and as far as I know, it's never been touched during services (I'm just over 4k miles) so the last person to lay hands on the cap must have been a factory Ducati technician. For your own piece of mind (and to possibly save the $6 for a replacement and possible hydraulic fluid on the forks or body work), reach down and give the cap a twist to make sure it's tight. It isn't like the brake fluid cap that is screwed down so I guess vibration is the cause of it coming off. Hope it helps at least one person out there stop a potential problem.

Brad

I lost mine on the very day I picked the bike up from the dealer early on. My bike was in the first shipment.
Others had reported loosing the rear brake cap early on in the production run as well.

Now I check the tightness of the rear brake and clutch fluid reservoirs before I go for a ride, along with the standard pre-ride check of all lights, signals and horn while she's warming up a bit.

Whatthe4377

Hmm, mine's an early one too, one of the 1st S ABS models shipped to my dealer. Do you know if they've done anything to improve the retention on these caps?

Brad

Yep

They will tell you to check them before going for each ride

They only have to be a bit more than finger tight.

Just make it a part of your pre-ride check.
A pre-ride check may also include a bit of a visual of your critical fasteners using the factory applied tell tale paint daubs as a reference.
That way you can quickly see if they're backing off from their factory tension.

I recommend checking the tightness of the fairing screws with a 3 mm Allen key before you ride it next as well. I lost one before the first service.
They are always known to fall out on the road, but they don't have to be very tight to stay put. I usually go over all of mine every time I clean/lube the chain.

Once you've done it a few times you'll pretty much get the feel for it if they're loosening up on you.

HarmonyJim

Mine also. I guess someone didn't tighten them down very well at the factory.

bradp51

My bike was in the first container in Australia and never had a problem with that cap being loose.

BusaDuc

I lost a mirror bolt and a fairing bolt on the first ride after 70km lol after that I just went back to the old days of checking all screws before each ride - no issues since
This is my first twin bike after 17bikes over 39years of riding (yes I am that young) and the first thing I noticed when I test rode the S was the difference in vibration/rawnes etc of the bike and so I accept that this is going back to the old days of bolts coming loose and checking the bike before and after each ride - its the price I paid for the top class bike and thats ok because my 9R is such a beast

Brad

That's the way

Brad

Maybe Gus put yours together and Vito put mine together

That proves it then.
Gus is a better bike assembler than Vito
Maybe Gus is doing Coke?
Or is it that Vito needs a drink of vino before starting work, so he's all good

But in all fairness, maybe Vito's still learning and getting more experience every day.
Who knows, when Vito gets trained up he might even be so good that he becomes the line manager for the assembly line of the 1199 Bayliss edition