Trade my Panigale in for a Vespa?

A quick recap:

My bike has had an intermittent coughing exhaust/high idle issue for 8 months now. It's been to 3 different dealers ~8 times. In the past six months it's been in the shop a total of at least 9 weeks and they can't find the issue.

I've been extremely reasonable and extremely patient for a couple reasons: 1) Ducati has their top guys working on it (well, now at least) and 2) there are so few high mileage (28,000) Panigales in existence that there's no real knowledge base for the kind of R&D I've done.

However, the lack of a solution has pushed my Round the World trip back by a significant duration, meaning I'll miss Isle of Man and will lose at least a month of good riding weather.

I'm desperate, and really ....... stressed out now. I quit my job and my last day is coming up soon, which means I'll be burning through savings with my thumb up my ... in LA instead of riding the world.

Ducati offered me a few grand off a 2014 S, but that would leave me with
1) a bike with an undiagnosable high-idle problem that would need to be fixed out-of-warranty when I get back.
2) a huge chunk out of what I'd budgeted for this trip.
3) a bike I'd need to store, insure, etc. here in the US.

What do you do if you're me?
1) Try to sell a bike with an undiagnosable problem to someone who wants to own the (arguably) most famous and most photographed Panigale in the world so I can justify the additional expense (and reliability) of a new bike?
2) Wait it out and hope a fix comes soon?
3) Return the email of the lemon-law lawyer who recently contacted me?
4) Find a high traffic mall, park my bike with the key in it and call my insurance company the next day when my beloved has been dismembered for sale on ebay?
5) Go balls to the wall and score a new Vespa for the trip?
6) Insert recommendation here.


HELP!!!!!

I can't believe they (Ducati) can't fix their own bike! I'm a little ( read a lot ) disappointed... I'm sorry your having to deal with this, especial considering the trip.... I don't know what to recommend. Sorry... But I'm feeling for ya! I wish I could help.....

Have you tried a different ECU, or program such as the TuneBoy to see if the cause is ECU programing related? Compression and leakdown tests? Battery replacement? I know these sound off the wall, but at this point it would appear time to "think outside the Ducati box". Good luck. I would be pissed as well. In regards to the Vespa idea, when I was in Italy, there were zillions of total babes running around on mopeds - might be a great way to meet some of them (many Italian girls are beyond stunning, love to party, and for the vast majority, are totally fit. Unfortunately they also smoke like chimneys).

You have been the poster boy for the Panigale. I'm really surprised it's taken Ducati this long to look into this (their top engineers).

Ducati I hope you're reading this.

More and more of my buddies are converting to BMW. With the lack of service you read often in threads on this board is anyone surprised?

Dennis.... I think in your situation I would file a lemon law claim... and in the interim buy the best used bike you can (not Ducati) and use that as your RTW bike... Then I would blog the trip making sure you mention often your treatment by Ducati and the inherent disappointments you feel...Hopefully when you return your claim will have been settled and you can regale us with your adventures....

That sucks man.
Can't believe they won't be able to fix that.
Have you explored the option of landing in BLQ, leave the bike to their lab, and getting a loaner for the trip?
IMHO it is unlikely to be the ECU. I am more inclined to point to either the sensors feeding signals to the ECU, or the actuators fed by the ECU.
Did anyone log the data in/out the ECU while the high idle happens?


PS: I toured EU with a 125 PX when I was 17, it was fun, but I would not do it again

I agree in regards to the sensors being a possibility. I had figured they would have been the first things checked, but you never know if they are acting up intermittently. I have had to deal with a similar problem with a Ferrari Testarossa years ago. The district service manager personally oversaw the techs at Beverly Hills Ferrari change out just about every single component that bolts onto the engine over the course of six months. Nothing worked. In the end, it turned out to be two small fuses inside the two ECUs that had been blown when the car was being smogged months earlier. The point of relaying this tale is that even when supposedly qualified personnel are working on a machine, they can still miss the obvious. It took a little shop run by an Armenian man about 30 minutes to figure it out.

IMHO, I think you are at the end of life on that bike. I kept one Ducati up into that mileage range and it was one problem after another and several trips to the dealer for the same problem over and over so I gave up and traded it in. I decided not to sell it privately since I felt I couldn't do so in good conscience without letting the new owner know. I am sure others have had different experiences, but my own experience has led me to the conclusion that Ducati just doesn't make the kind of bikes that you can pile the miles on. I don't plan to keep another one that long. My plan since then has been 10k miles give or take and then let it go and get a new one.

Are you wedded to the Panigale platform? I know, I know, it's your thing, but I wouldn't hesitate to run a Japanese bike or a GS or something 100k miles. I just dunno about a Panigale.

Dennis - do the lemon law and force them to take it back. I did that with mine due to the fact they had to replace the clutch slave 4x and master cylinder 3x in the first 11 months. I was patient with the bike, but it then end it wasn't safe to ride. The shop where I purchased it offered zero help on the recall process (I think they get charged back on the sale).

It took me writing a simple letter to DNA explaining the issues; there were terrible about following up and only when I stated that it had been 5 months since I wrote the original letter and told the shop I would include them in any litigation did DNA complete the buy back.

You have been the 'poster boy' for the Panigale since purchasing your bike in 2012 and if they can't take care of you on the buy back then it would be a public relations nightmare for them!

How about "Around the world on a Superleggera"?? Has a nice ring to it

EvoL said:

How about "Around the world on a Superleggera"?? Has a nice ring to it

Click to expand...

I'm thinking that would turn into "got to San Diego and it broke down on a Superleggera". Better look into a Yamaha.

I refuse to believe that the bike is anywhere near the end of its life. The brakes, the suspension, the cosmetics, the engine (except for the high idle) are all seemingly new. The bike is just so spot on except for this one issue.

Service dept has tried just about everything....new ECU, new heads, leakdown/compression tests, new exhaust, secondary air system....I'm guessing that, yeah, it's something small and insignificant, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm hosed right now on the eve of heading RTW without a bike.

Ducati has spent as much as it would have to replace the bike at this point. We'll see if by the end of it how much less expensive it would have been to mail me the key to an R.

Two years ago I said it and I'll say it again. There's one bike I love and the 1199 is it. I cannot imagine doing the trip on another bike. Wouldn't be the first time I've been in love with something that could destroy me, though.

My 2012 Base has by far exceeded it's sale price in warranty claims yet I managed to sell it and buy a 2013 demo unit for 3500$ al taxes in.

Phoned the buyer today to invite him for our Friday night ride and he's perfectly happy with his purchase.

Went from 18k km's to 1500 because I feared the 25k km tune-up.

Your bike is so famous it will fetch top Dollar no matter what state it is in. Put an add out, wait and see! Just be upfront with your bikes issues and no buyer will give you grief about them.

There are no moral issues in selling a sick horse as long as the buyer knows it's sick.

She has one issue and that's it. Being that it's under warranty, and the issue has persisted for quite some time means the issue will be fixed, it's just a matter of time that I will soon no longer have.

I would be filled with regret if I had to sell my bike. It's the only thing I've trusted for the past two years. But I may be in a corner here with no other option than to sell and start over.

AntiHero said:

I

Two years ago I said it and I'll say it again. There's one bike I love and the 1199 is it. I cannot imagine doing the trip on another bike. Wouldn't be the first time I've been in love with something that could destroy me.

Click to expand...

I'm on my 2nd Pani and my 25th motorcycle and for the first time I'm not longing for something else except for an R or an SL.

Keep knocking on doors an making phone calls, a door will open for you soon!

Did they replace the RPM/timing sensor?

AntiHero said:

She has one issue and that's it. Being that it's under warranty, and the issue has persisted for quite some time means the issue will be fixed, it's just a matter of time that I will soon no longer have.

I would be filled with regret if I had to sell my bike. It's the only thing I've trusted for the past two years. But I may be in a corner here with no other option than to sell and start over.

Click to expand...

Maybe you could go back to work and push the RTW trip back until the bike is sorted out.

Can't believe Ducati is willing to risk bad press about this. Imagine what it would mean to them in bad PR if you'd switch to an HP4!

I know you don't want another bike, but I wouldn't be surprised if BMW wouldn't be willing to help you out; just like they did with the Long way round, and look what it meant for BMW; the GS is now king and KTM is left with the breadcrumbs.

Stw said:

Dennis.... I think in your situation I would file a lemon law claim... and in the interim buy the best used bike you can (not Ducati) and use that as your RTW bike... Then I would blog the trip making sure you mention often your treatment by Ducati and the inherent disappointments you feel...Hopefully when you return your claim will have been settled and you can regale us with your adventures....

Click to expand...

Lemon Law on a 28k mile bike? Good one... Why are you so easy to jump on the idea that Ducati is trying to blow him off? I can promise that if Dennis contacted anyone he knows at Ducati, they are trying to get him handled. You guys are all so funny. Throwing stones and bitchin at the drop of a hat. It's always Ducati shitting on the little guy.

Dennis- get with me offline. I will PM you.

Edit - Didn't realize this wasn't the original 1199 you rode the US with... My apologies. But I still PM'd you...