Damn Ducati...You let me down...

Panigale loose shifter - YouTube

Check this out too. After driving home from the dealership. Very bad quality checks on a brand new bike. I love ducatis, and they have a certain character, but for trouble free longer rides, I always prefer to take out the k1300s. Don't want major hassles, 100's miles from home. Just my 2 cents.

Mark- I'll take your HP4 spot [/QUOTE]

no need to take my spot make the call monday and you will have the comp. my bike will be ready when i get back from vacation. then my thoughts start. keep the 1199 or sell the 1199.

i mean i will have an 1199 an hp4 and a ninja zx6r. i don't know what i will do. i hate the process of selling and i do love looking at the bike but after i was told that bs yesterday I'm just so fed up.

oh yes yesterday. so my rubber that caps the electronic suspension is all cracked. so it has holes in it. stealership said i need an entire wiring harness for that. I'm like whatever dude i have an extended warranty. stealer said it was cosmetic and may not be covered use clue or electrical tape. i said i spent 25k for a bike i expect the rubber to be intact after 2 years. I'm not using ....... glue on the rubber. anyway i will call ohlins tomorrow as they make the part not ducati. i cannot believe you can't just get a new $1 piece of rubber. if anybody knows let me know . here is what i mean

back on topic since this never happens and obviously its the fault of the owner cause ducati quality control is second to none, i don't have mine safety wired and i didn't use red.

Ya this is what I am afraid of with extended warranty. $hit is all ok when you sign and pay, and start becoming BS once you file a claim. They say factory and extended is the same and then this. I had the same thing happen with my other vehicles.

Good luck man.

BadBoyBeltran said:

Ya this is what I am afraid of with extended warranty. $hit is all ok when you sign and pay, and start becoming BS once you file a claim. They say factory and extended is the same and then this. I had the same thing happen with my other vehicles.

Good luck man.

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i will be on the phone tomorrow with ducati na. i will also be on the phone with the stealership. no way those rubber pieces are staying like that

once you get on the bmw you will miss the panigale for sure. The twin engine is always addictive and this bike TURNS heads.


BMW should stick to making cars.. at least the cars look good.

melvinakshay said:

once you get on the bmw you will miss the panigale for sure. The twin engine is always addictive and this bike TURNS heads.


BMW should stick to making cars.. at least the cars look good.

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From my point of view this was never a Bmw vs Ducati debate...I only mentioned the beemer to give context to the sale and my efforts to convince my buddy that Ducati's rep for unreliability was overblown..then bam!!

I love my Ducati. But it's really embarrassing when all my R1, CBR, ZX buddies can all buy brand new Japanese bikes and laugh when this thing has continuous dumb problems and they do not. I'm not switching my loyalty, but for crying out loud Ducati make a bike we can be proud to brag about.

...stepping off my soapbox to go to the garage to check my wiring boots

Sounds like your buddy better start checking every bolt he can get a wrench on, make you wonder what else was left loose. I guess I'm lucky my 2012 has been trouble free.

centeroff said:

Sounds like your buddy better start checking every bolt he can get a wrench on, make you wonder what else was left loose. I guess I'm lucky my 2012 has been trouble free.

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I believe...but yet to be confirmed...that dealer is picking up the bike and taking it to the service dept..I agree..makes you wonder what others may be loose.... It begs the question Ducati or dealer responsibility?? I think Ducati..there must be a myriad of bolts the dealer cannot reasonably can be expected to check.....

Stw said:

I believe...but yet to be confirmed...that dealer is picking up the bike and taking it to the service dept..I agree..makes you wonder what others may be loose.... It begs the question Ducati or dealer responsibility?? I think Ducati..there must be a myriad of bolts the dealer cannot reasonably can be expected to check.....

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Most dealers would be factoring in 2-3 hours max for the Pre-delivery. When you take into account how far across the bike they get in that time there can't be many that they get.

I learnt my lesson with fairing bolts and the heat shield. If you want pieces of mind, do it yourself. I did lose fairing bolts on my old ZX10 as we'll so I guess it is not just an Italian thing..

melvinakshay said:

once you get on the bmw you will miss the panigale for sure. The twin engine is always addictive and this bike TURNS heads.


BMW should stick to making cars.. at least the cars look good.

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yea im going to really miss all the problems on the 1199. the s1000rr/hp4 has the best engine on the planet so i doubt i am going to miss the 2 cylinder. yes it turns heads but thats about it.

back to the thought though. ohlins does not make that rubber thing ducati does figures. had a long talk with ohlins on the phone and they said if it were theirs they wouldnt let that happen as they are associated with quality.

ducati na said there are after market ones. obviously he misses the point of my complaint. i can buy the 10 (ducati tax) piece. I SHOULDNT HAVE TO THATS THE POINT THE BIKE IS 2 YEARS OLD.

my dad has a 66 chevy. most of the rubber is original. ducati cant even last 2 years

So the Ohlins folks won't send a fix? Did they bother to offer a PN#?

What is the cost of these rubber caps? How lame of DNA if this is the case.

I gotta tell you I own an 1199R and an HP4 and have had problems with both. I lost the kickstand at one point on the 1199 and I lost the shifter on the HP4 at 800miles. My friend bought a brand new ZX-10R and has had his share of problems. There are some people that will buy any bike and have no problems at all and put a ton of miles on it riding hard. Ive also had numerous problems with the quick shift messing up on the HP4 to the point of everything was connected and adjusted properly and I could not shift it in or out of neutral. For a lighter rider its is extremely difficult to set the appropriate SAG and suspension setup on the HP4 from the factory, and I would actually say overall I have had less problems with the 1199 then the HP4. I am actually going to start the process of selling the HP4. These are the problems you encounter when always having to have the latest and greatest and listening to others and their reviews. If any dealer or someone I had knew would have let me test ride the HP4 first I would never had purchased it. My out look on the whole thing from my experience of having owned just about everything is but a base of any model you like and spend the money on suspension, wheels, mods that are gonna suite you and you'll be so happy. You could buy a base put termis, wheels, suspension, and whatever paint sticker bits you want on it and still probably be under the price of an S.

mark419ny said:

back to the thought though. ohlins does not make that rubber thing ducati does figures. had a long talk with ohlins on the phone and they said if it were theirs they wouldnt let that happen as they are associated with quality.

ducati na said there are after market ones. obviously he misses the point of my complaint. i can buy the 10 (ducati tax) piece. I SHOULDNT HAVE TO THATS THE POINT THE BIKE IS 2 YEARS OLD.

my dad has a 66 chevy. most of the rubber is original. ducati cant even last 2 years

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on the new boots i suggest wiping them with 303 aerospace protectant...and D should absolutely honor the warranty (assuming you are within it) esp of a NON wear and tear part like this...

and i have ridden the bmw and there is no comparison in terms of fun faktor : for me the duck blows the beemer away....

mark419ny said:

back to the thought though. ohlins does not make that rubber thing ducati does figures. had a long talk with ohlins on the phone and they said if it were theirs they wouldnt let that happen as they are associated with quality.

ducati na said there are after market ones. obviously he misses the point of my complaint. i can buy the 10 (ducati tax) piece. I SHOULDNT HAVE TO THATS THE POINT THE BIKE IS 2 YEARS OLD.

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As much as I tend to discount complaints against Ducati (no one said you were buying perfection with your $24k), I'll be the first to admit that those rubber boots on the "S" electricals are a poor design. Why they didn't make those as a 90d instead of the straight angle they came with (and attendant strain on having 'em bent/twisted for routing) is beyond me.
You should be able to source an aftermarket solution rather than replacing with Ducati's faulty solution.

Own a 2013 Diavel, 13K miles. One master cylinder, break disk, & a thermostat.

2013 Tri with 2900 miles, not one issue.

Any thing can have problems & no one talks about the problems they don't have.

Any thing can have problems & no one talks about the problems they don't have.

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Well said Sloopy, and that is why the best form of advertising or marketing is word of mouth. You never go into to much detail about a great meal but you sure as hell let everyone know in great detail about a bad meal or bad experience.

I guess I'm one of the lucky few. '13 White 1199 with about 4000 miles, 5 track days (so far this season) and have been caught out in the pouring rain a few times with no issues.
I do thoroughly check the bike often, do some of the maintenance myself and have found no leaks and nothing has fallen off... yet lol
The only problem I had was when I bought it brand new and had the hot start issue (charcoal canister) but that was an easy fix and starts up fine every time now.

I also disagree about this bike only being a head turner. Yes, it definitely does turn a lot of heads, but it also has a lot of character & does really well at the track (though I do favor my old '13 Triumph Daytona 675 for track use)

Anyways, I do strongly agree that Ducati is the one responsible for having every single bolt/nut tight before shipping. I also do not think the dealerships are necessarily the one to blame when such things happen. Yes, they are supposed to check that all the electronics are working as they should during the PDI process and I would assume they make sure the axle nuts, triple, brakes, etc are all torqued, but it is not their job to disassemble the whole bike and retighten everything that the factory should have already done.

My opinion comes from the fact that I am a ASE Master Certified Technician for Lexus and I have PDI'd plenty of cars and also have had plenty of cars come back with little things wrong here and there. There has been plenty of cars come back with oil leaks within a 100 miles and I've had to drop engines just to fix them. It's not my fault that this has happened, it's the factory. They're the ones that should have made sure that the front timing cover should have been properly torqued before shipping. These cars have maybe one or two miles on them by the time it gets to us so you know they're not driving them nearly enough before shipping them out to dealerships. It's not necessarily that the quality has gone down, it's that they're having to produce more of these cars/motorycycles in a shorter amount of time to meet the demand. And it's not just Lexus, it's happening in all makes for automobiles/motorcycles, anything really.