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ST4s Mystery

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  tonered 
#1 · (Edited)
I've just bought my third Ducati, an ST4s sourced out of the States. It's a 2002 model with just 7,400 miles on the odometer. You might well ask; how could that be? This is less, far less, than most people put on in a year. So what's the story.

The dealer won't say, so I did some sleuthing. CarFax had only one hit; a registration change of address in New Mexico in 2005. After that, nothing.

I examined the bike closely. Biggest issue, a busted speedometer cable. I'll get back to that. Generally, the bike looks and feels very fresh. There is absolutely no slack in the throttle. It's been dropped once in a parking lot with scratches on the bottom of the right hard bag, a tiny scratch on the right faring and an even smaller one on the right mirror tip. I figure someone tried a burnout and it got away from him, spinning to the left.

Couple more things: the side stand was really stiff. I checked it out and the grease on it had the consistency of tar. Same with the rider and passenger footpegs. There is an added power cable on the right side the fits my Battery Tender perfectly. And one more thing; the windscreen has been cracked on the top right and top left edge. That's it.

So here's what I think. The bike is not a repo because it would have been back in circulation after being repossessed. It's either a) seized by police as part of a proceeds of crime case and held in a lockup for five years, or b) the owner was a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan who left it in someone else's care and then didn't come back.

That person kept the battery up, ran the engine occasionally and didn't ride it. When the owner's will was probated, it was put out to some wholesaler and picked up by my dealer: International Motorsports.

Back to the broken spedo cable. Over the five years it was mostly under a tarp (which cracked the windscreen edges), the grease in the cable turned solid so that the first time the front wheel turned, it snapped the cable. Since it was being wheeled into a truck, no one noticed the speedometer wasn't working.

One more thing. It came with brand new Dunlop 616 tires. These are rain tires I've never seen before but they seem to work fine. I'm guessing they had to put something on the bike because the originals perished after sitting unused for six years.

Think I'm close with this idea?
 
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#2 ·
Not that unusual.

I purchased my 2004 ST4S with 2400 miles on it last November. The original owner had purchased it as a leftover model then rode is for a season before some personal issues got in the way of riding it. So it was only ridden to keep things from rotting and fuel stabliizer was kept in the tank. It was owned by a friend of a friend who confirmed the condition and had been storing the bike for the last year or so in his garage.

A fresh tune and new tires (to replace the tires that had lots of tread but to old for safety) and off I went with an amazing bike. It now has 3800 miles on it. I may never let this one go until I am to old to handle it.

Also, back in 2007 I bought a 2003 Triumph ST. Great bike. But the owner preferred riding his cruiser style bike and it only had 1200 miles on it and was four years old.


Tod
 
#3 ·
fhillard,

That is a lot of speculation, IMHO. It could have sat for many reasons. And, garage drops are not uncommon. They hurt the emotions more than the scratches. My Duc was given from the original owner to his brother-in-law. In the first six years, it saw an average of 3,000mi per year. The bro-in-law put on 1k/year for two years. They upgraded and kept the ST in great shape. In just over 2yrs, I put on over 20k, mostly commuting. It just depends how your use it.

My speed drive toasted itself and fragged the cable after just about 10yrs and 28,500mi of use. It is one of the few parts that I sourced as new not used. I'm glad Duc still has some on the shelves in Italy.
 
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