More on the smoking issue

Sir, there could be a problem that requires you to keep extra oil on hand but hey it's "sporty". I hope I get one of the sporty non-oil burning bikes.

You guys are making me feel guilty that my bike doesn't smoke

I think I may be checking out what the bike does before I sign for it.

FrostyFire said:

I think I may be checking out what the bike does before I sign for it.

Click to expand...

not the worst idea of the day... especially concerning the consistency of this issue!

I did a stupid thing and went down and paid for my bike on Saturday. The dealer told me the bike had been released and was in transit.

I have a feeling that means its mine even if it falls off the truck!
Im usually much more disciplined about this kind of thing, I don't know what I was thinking.

Smoke or not, it looks like I'm taking it home.

flynbulldog said:

I did a stupid thing and went down and paid for my bike on Saturday. The dealer told me the bike had been released and was in transit.

I have a feeling that means its mine even if it falls off the truck!
Im usually much more disciplined about this kind of thing, I don't know what I was thinking.

Smoke or not, it looks like I'm taking it home.

Click to expand...

Blame it on the wife if there's an issue.

flynbulldog said:

I did a stupid thing and went down and paid for my bike on Saturday. The dealer told me the bike had been released and was in transit.

I have a feeling that means its mine even if it falls off the truck!
Im usually much more disciplined about this kind of thing, I don't know what I was thinking.

Smoke or not, it looks like I'm taking it home.

Click to expand...

Eh, they'd replace it. I did the same. Paid monday for my Tri, and hoping it comes today. Was hoping for yesterday, but protestors started breaking things /sigh

If you've already paid for a bike with a VIN attached, they don't "just replace it." it's not a DVD player.....stand in line for warranty.

flynbulldog said:

Smoke or not, it looks like I'm taking it home.

Click to expand...

How many years of pre-production testing did Ducati do on this engine? Wouldn't they have recognized and known this was an issue? Wouldn't they have tested enough engines to determine that this is DEFINITELY not a problem?

Then, I remembered what a .... storm the whole low end fueling issue was on our SF's. I still can't believe they brought a bike to market in that condition.

What are the odds Ducati would build a bike that they know has problems and push it through, anyway? Could it have been that the sale was coming and they didn't want to have any red flags? Maybe the old owners knew that they had big problems coming and that's what prompted the sale to begin with

Or MAYBE as Ducati has said, this is a design element and is nothing to worry about.....

Obviously, I hope for the ladder!

I brought my pani home tonight. Put about 75 miles on it so far. Feels light and stable. turns nice, handles great, and fit and finish is superb. The bike is stunning.

Power is lame, just plain week, I didn't get it up into the 9k region but wow what a disappointment. It looks like I'm gonna have to ride it like a race bike if I want to feel any rush at all. I need some time to get used to it but I'm not sure this is my kind of bike. I'll give it a chance before I do anything drastic.

flynbulldog said:

I brought my pani home tonight. Put about 75 miles on it so far. Feels light and stable. turns nice, handles great, and fit and finish is superb. The bike is stunning.

Power is lame, just plain week, I didn't get it up into the 9k region but wow what a disappointment. It looks like I'm gonna have to ride it like a race bike if I want to feel any rush at all. I need some time to get used to it but I'm not sure this is my kind of bike. I'll give it a chance before I do anything drastic.

Click to expand...

Sleep with her tonight, ride her afterwards and tell us all the things you like to do with her and what turns you off

flynbulldog said:

I brought my pani home tonight. Put about 75 miles on it so far. Feels light and stable. turns nice, handles great, and fit and finish is superb. The bike is stunning.

Power is lame, just plain week, I didn't get it up into the 9k region but wow what a disappointment. It looks like I'm gonna have to ride it like a race bike if I want to feel any rush at all. I need some time to get used to it but I'm not sure this is my kind of bike. I'll give it a chance before I do anything drastic.

Click to expand...

Sounds like your experience taking it home is much different than the others on this forum. I know based on your office pic that you have plenty to compare it to.

flynbulldog said:

I brought my pani home tonight. Put about 75 miles on it so far. Feels light and stable. turns nice, handles great, and fit and finish is superb. The bike is stunning.

Power is lame, just plain week, I didn't get it up into the 9k region but wow what a disappointment. It looks like I'm gonna have to ride it like a race bike if I want to feel any rush at all. I need some time to get used to it but I'm not sure this is my kind of bike. I'll give it a chance before I do anything drastic.

Click to expand...

Well, that's disappointing! Almost every test I've read has said that things don't really get moving till 7k though. If you weren't having to short shift 1st, I'm sure it would feel faster. And it will probably just take a little adjusting to a different power curve. Can't wait to hear more Flyn!

FrostyFire said:

So what I want to know is, why the hell are some smoking on every start up and some aren't smoking at all????

How the hell are you supposed to accept that as normal when they're doing different things????

Click to expand...

Have to agree. DAMN, I really want this 1199 over the Ape (we all appreciate the unique Ducati character), but I'm definitely nervous about this since I had a 1st year 1098 that had engine problems. Will be mad as f@!# if this one does a "repeat performance!"

I'll be closely watching for feedback from current owners.

flynbulldog said:

I brought my pani home tonight. Put about 75 miles on it so far. Feels light and stable. turns nice, handles great, and fit and finish is superb. The bike is stunning.

Power is lame, just plain week, I didn't get it up into the 9k region but wow what a disappointment. It looks like I'm gonna have to ride it like a race bike if I want to feel any rush at all. I need some time to get used to it but I'm not sure this is my kind of bike. I'll give it a chance before I do anything drastic.

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear this. As someone who does a fair amount of trackdays as well as racing, I already have a R6 race bike that I can rev for that top-end rush. I hope your feedback on the 1199 will change as you put more miles on her and experience the mid-to-upper powerband.

Guys, there really aren't any surprises here as far as power goes. The dyno charts have been out there for quite a while showing the 1199 being weaker than the 1198 below 8K or so, it "should" feel that way; especially if you're following recommended practice during run-in. I expect some tuning out of the tight, emissions-based lean spots will lessen the gap down the road, but at the end of the day, the motor was designed to be able to compete on top end with the best I-4's, so the bottom end was going to suffer.

Do note the comparative dyno charts in the Fastbikes comparo that's been posted though. Versus the RSV4 and the RC8R, the KTM walks on them both power wise below 8000rpm with it's old(er) school v-twin power just as the 1198 would. However, the 1199 is stronger than the RSV4 all the way from the bottom up, and by 8000rpm revs has a huge advantage over it. As all the tests have noted, the Superquadro is an engine that splits the gap in terms of power characteristics between more traditional v-twins and the I-4's. And at least in that test, it ends up about 20HP north of the KTM and 12 or so of the Ape on the top end HP so that's the design payoff. Is racebike motor, you know...

It'll be interesting to see more inclusive dyno charts when they come along, but I'm expecting the Honda and probably Suzuki to also be stronger than the Panigale in the range of around 5000-7500rpm. But I'll be surprised to see any of them have a steeper graph in the midrange than the Pani does from about 7500-8500; that's a serious hit of oomph.

EDIT: just to stay on topic, the above applies whether it smokes or not. But I have to admit some concern over the issue, having owned an '08 Fireblade, a model which was notorious for going though lots of oil. Mine didn't thankfully, but too many owners were not so lucky, and Honda's early statements smelled a lot like the ones coming from Bologna. We shall see!

I haven't ridden a Honda but a GSXR and my MV f4 would absolutely stomp this bike below 9000 RPM and most likely above from what I feel so far.

The pani doesn't bridge any gap - it falls far short in my brief experience.

a couple of positive things I will note; the fueling is superb, no surging and no flat spots, and an incredible turning radius for a sportbike, both making this bike very easy to ride in town.

Another surprise is the amazing sound. I'm running the stock exhaust on my tri right now because the tech didn't have time to install the termi yesterday.
The sound of the stock exhaust is fantastic, honestly the best sounding stock bike I've ever heard. it makes me giggle.

flynbulldog said:

I haven't ridden a Honda but a GSXR and my MV f4 would absolutely stomp this bike below 9000 RPM and most likely above from what I feel so far.

The pani doesn't bridge any gap - it falls far short in my brief experience.

a couple of positive things I will note; the fueling is superb, no surging and no flat spots, and an incredible turning radius for a sportbike, both making this bike very easy to ride in town.

Another surprise is the amazing sound. I'm running the stock exhaust on my tri right now because the tech didn't have time to install the termi yesterday.
The sound of the stock exhaust is fantastic, honestly the best sounding stock bike I've ever heard. it makes me giggle.

Click to expand...

And what about the smoking issue?

flynbulldog said:

I haven't ridden a Honda but a GSXR and my MV f4 would absolutely stomp this bike below 9000 RPM and most likely above from what I feel so far.

The pani doesn't bridge any gap - it falls far short in my brief experience.

a couple of positive things I will note; the fueling is superb, no surging and no flat spots, and an incredible turning radius for a sportbike, both making this bike very easy to ride in town.

Another surprise is the amazing sound. I'm running the stock exhaust on my tri right now because the tech didn't have time to install the termi yesterday.
The sound of the stock exhaust is fantastic, honestly the best sounding stock bike I've ever heard. it makes me giggle.

Click to expand...

Certainly an atypical response so far, but not to say invalid. Doubt any of the rest have ridden theirs at similar altitude; seem to recall you're in the shadow of Pike's Peak or thereabouts, no? That'll certainly magnify any power shortcomings, but in any case there's no doubt the motor's gonna like revs; it does have a near-F1 bore/stroke ratio after all.

Steve B said:

Certainly an atypical response so far, but not to say invalid. Doubt any of the rest have ridden theirs at similar altitude; seem to recall you're in the shadow of Pike's Peak or thereabouts, no? That'll certainly magnify any power shortcomings, but in any case there's no doubt the motor's gonna like revs; it does have a near-F1 bore/stroke ratio after all.

Click to expand...

Agreed, Im at 5500 to 6500 feet and it does suck the power out of everything. But I'm speaking in relative terms here, other bikes just aren't this anemic even at this altitude.

I was there for the very first start and the bike smoked even more than I expected, much more. And the smell was very clearly burning oil.

But the smoke cleared after 10 minutes or so and the bike was started several more times while warm and it did not smoke again for the rest of the day.
I had made up my mind that I was just going to deal with the smoke for at least a thousand miles so I wasn't concerned about it in the least.

But the power delivery is a big dissapiontment and changes things for me. I may hang on to it for a while and see how it goes but my guess is I won't keep it for long.

I wouldn't suggest that anybody cancel their bike or have second thoughts based on my feelings, I think my curcumstance and my expectations are unique