Panigale spacers PSA

Putting on the spacers was one of the first things I did to my V4, on day two or so. Since then, I've put roughly 2700 miles on it and loved every second with very few issues.

Today, leaving work, I went to turn on the bike and it threw a check engine light at me, struggled to start, and was in limp mode once it did. In limp, it redlines at 4k and is nearly impossible to ride safely on any road faster than 25mph. Took a ferry en route to the dealership, performed a hard computer reset (5 minutes off, then triple click the key) and it was no longer in limp mode, but the CEL remained.

Apparently, the issue was the spacer not letting the throttle reset to the 0 position. It must not have been fully seated when I turned on the bike, giving the TPS a value other than 0 and the bike simply does not like that at all. Hard resetting with the throttle actually fully shut cleared the limp, but the CEL remains until Ducati clears it apparently.

They told me to remove the spacers, which is unfortunate since the stock throttle has an insane amount of slack in it, but apparently that slack is what keeps the electronics happy.

Just a heads up in case you've installed this mod as well or are thinking about it.

MaverickiB said:

Putting on the spacers was one of the first things I did to my V4, on day two or so. Since then, I've put roughly 2700 miles on it and loved every second with very few issues.

Today, leaving work, I went to turn on the bike and it threw a check engine light at me, struggled to start, and was in limp mode once it did. In limp, it redlines at 4k and is nearly impossible to ride safely on any road faster than 25mph. Took a ferry en route to the dealership, performed a hard computer reset (5 minutes off, then triple click the key) and it was no longer in limp mode, but the CEL remained.

Apparently, the issue was the spacer not letting the throttle reset to the 0 position. It must not have been fully seated when I turned on the bike, giving the TPS a value other than 0 and the bike simply does not like that at all. Hard resetting with the throttle actually fully shut cleared the limp, but the CEL remains until Ducati clears it apparently.

They told me to remove the spacers, which is unfortunate since the stock throttle has an insane amount of slack in it, but apparently that slack is what keeps the electronics happy.

Just a heads up in case you've installed this mod as well or are thinking about it.

Click to expand...

I've got them installed on mine and haven't had any issues thus far. But have only done a few tracks days on the bike. They really need to give us the ability to re-calibrate the damn electronic throttle.

I will NOT ride with that slop at the track. It's terrible. Maybe taking out just one of the spacers might be enough of a middle ground to keep the computer happy, but that is still a hell of a compromise.

Every standard throttle from back in the day gave us the ability to adjust to our hearts content. This new age shouldn't be any different and there should be some thought put into tuning and adjustment from the consumer perspective on thing like this.

Has anyone had any issues like this on the 1199/1299? Kind of want to do this mod, but not if it's going to do this

MotoX183 said:

Every standard throttle from back in the day gave us the ability to adjust to our hearts content. This new age shouldn't be any different and there should be some thought put into tuning and adjustment from the consumer perspective on thing like this.

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Totally agree. Why can we not adjust the throttle slack? There should be very little if any at all.

Seems kind of odd though that it took ~2700 miles for that to happen. I'd expect that to manifest relatively quickly (immediately?) given the explanation. Then again, I'm not an expert in this stuff.

gnance said:

Has anyone had any issues like this on the 1199/1299? Kind of want to do this mod, but not if it's going to do this

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I've got it on my 1299. Never had a single issue.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

cpekz said:

Seems kind of odd though that it took ~2700 miles for that to happen. I'd expect that to manifest relatively quickly (immediately?) given the explanation. Then again, I'm not an expert in this stuff.

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I agree. It would have failed immediately. Maybe throttle itself became defective somehow?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

I didn’t have issues on my 1299 and have not had issues on my V4S with the throttle spacers.

The little spacer out of the two does get stuck/pinched under the throttle housing, this is what I found when removing them (to sell).

Halo2 said:

The little spacer out of the two does get stuck/pinched under the throttle housing, this is what I found when removing them (to sell).

Click to expand...

Maybe he needs to make them from a harder (less pinchable) material, some kind of metal.
I too am using them but haven't had any trouble yet.

cpekz said:

Seems kind of odd though that it took ~2700 miles for that to happen. I'd expect that to manifest relatively quickly (immediately?) given the explanation. Then again, I'm not an expert in this stuff.

Click to expand...

I thought the same thing. There is a possibility it isn't from the spacers, that maybe the throttle just didn't reset fully when I parked it so the bike was started with it slightly cracked open. If I put the bike in neutral and apply throttle, I noticed there's a few millimeters of rotation (not slack, but actual tube rotation) before the bike actually gives it more gas. It appears to have a "dead zone" of sorts, the question is if the electronics know about the dead zone and still get readings of throttle position within it, or if they only perceive movement past it (when it actually gives it gas).

I haven't gotten around to removing them yet because I'm trying to locate the tri-winged bit you need for two of the throttle housing screws, but I haven't had any more issues in the 4-5 times I've started it since. However, I will likely remove them anyways because I do track the bike and a friend told me the reason why he never uses them is because they technically limit the bike from achieving true full throttle.

It is a shame the slack isn't adjustable because it's absolute insane how much of it exists in the stock throttle. I'm military so I have to navigate through a gate every day for work, which is a lot of playing the "slow race" game. With all that slack in the throttle, extremely slow maneuvers are very difficult.

For the V2 at least, 100% throttle is possible and can be seen on the DDA+ downloads.

Close to 10K miles on my 1299s with throttle spacers without a glint of issue.

Just an update on this, I started getting more issues with the bike having a difficult time starting. Battery voltage was good, starter was turning over like normal, everything seemed to be working right but the bike seemed to have a fueling issue like if you try to start a bike with the throttle open. After not having fun bump starting the bike to get to/from work, I took out the throttle spacers and the issue has not repeated itself.

They may work just fine for the 1299 and other bikes, but something about the way the V4 initializes the TPS simply does not like them.

Also, bumping a bike with a slipper clutch is not fun. Maybe it's also because of the issue from the spacers, but it took dumping the clutch in 3rd at 12-15mph before it really got turning over. Would not recommend.

Have it on my 1199. Ok so far. Maybe wasn't pressed in all the way causing to drag? Or can file /sand thinner? Is the v4 throttle different?

Rayzor said:

Have it on my 1199. Ok so far. Maybe wasn't pressed in all the way causing to drag? Or can file /sand thinner? Is the v4 throttle different?

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The V4 throttle seems to be the same as the 1199/1299 in design, but I think maybe the TPS itself or related software functions differently. For some reason, with the spacer, it sometimes initializes the throttle in a position other than its actual zeroed position causing fueling issues.

BSR1 said:

Maybe he needs to make them from a harder (less pinchable) material, some kind of metal.
I too am using them but haven't had any trouble yet.

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The original spacers that Brian at Boulder Motorsports designed and made were machined from hard plastic, rather than cast, they were very high quality.

Put them back and perform a TPS reset.

MotoMillion said:

Put them back and perform a TPS reset.

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Ducati did a TPS reset the first time I had issues. The problem came back another thousand miles or so after that, so I had them removed. Panigale Spacers got into contact with me and offered a refund, he was very easy to work with and understanding. After looking at the spacers now that they are removed, it appears they were "squished" vertically which made them bulge out at the sides and take up more room than they originally did. I think they just gradually got more and more deformed until the spacing was big enough to mess with the throttle reading a 0 percent position (or lack thereof). The first issue was at 2200 miles or so, and again recently at 3500 or so. Not sure if many people have that many miles on theirs already with the spacers, so it's worth considering.

It may be specific to my bike, maybe specific to my set of spacers, no real way to tell. Either way, I'm just going to live without them instead of risking having to bump start a slipper clutch bike again sometime in the future. It wasn't fun at all.

Hey guys! Kevin with Ducati Spacers here. Just wanted to share this quick video I made regarding this issue:

[youtube]Kc06dv9VOmw[/youtube]

It's entirely possible that MaverickiB's throttle housing and/or spacers had some manufacturing anomaly that caused an issue. But we've had the kit installed on hundreds of V4's without issue, and under normal circumstances, it's not mechanically possible for the spacers to interfere with the bike's ability to return to 0% throttle. Please check out the vid, if you haven't already!