Open Letter to Ducati engineering dept - Ducati.ms

SquireSCA · Aug 10th, 2008, 7:21 pm

Dear sirs,

I am an avid Ducati fan. While I do own and enjoy "other" bikes, I myself have purchased 4 brand new Ducati's in the past 16 months:

2007 S2R1000
2007 S4RS
2007 999s Team USA Edition
2008 Hypermotard

Roughly $58,000.00 of your bikes, in 16 months, all of them new and purchased through a Ducati authorized dealer. Last time I had the energy to add it all up, there was another $20,000 or so in aftermarket DP parts, upgrades and accessories.

So needless to say, I am a fan of your product.

Now, Ducati's are known to have a few quirks. Most of "the faithful" tend to rationalize those away as "character" and things of that nature. Just one of the things that you can expect with a fine Italian machine. They almost seem to take on the status of something like a "beauty mark".

Well, on Cindy Crawford, most people can look past the big mole on her face, and instead focus on the beauty surrounding it, while on any normal woman, it would be a freakin mole.

That aside, some things are cosmetic, as is the case with said mole... ahem, I mean beauty mark.

But I have found one common theme to every single of the above-mentioned bikes that I have purchased.

Neutral, seems to me more of a guess than a certainty.

Allow me to elaborate!

A false neutral between 5th and 6th gear. This issue has existed on all 4 Ducs I have owned, and it is most vexing. Thank god for the rev limiter, or else I would surely have had a piston come ripping through the cylinder head, puncturing my gas tank and touching off a conflagration that surely would have sent me to a most spectacular and painful demise.

Now, this issue is not much of a true safety issue with the rev limiter working properly, but it vexes me all the more when one considers the next gem on my list of complaints.

The neutral light is on, and when you start the bike it is actually in gear and rolls off the side stand, forcing you either watch in horror as your exotic Italian beauty tumbles to the pavement faster than a sorority girl during pledge week, or, you can try to catch the damned thing, which let me tell you, is excruciating when you have a badly sprained wrist from a dirt bike accident. The pain of either watching the bike crash to the ground and the ensuing $1500 repair bill, or feeling your torn/pulled ligaments being, injured further, really distracts you from the pride of ownership of your otherwise fine motorcycle.

This has happened on both of my Monsters, and now on the Hypermotard.

Ducati, you may not be as large as the Japanese makers, but you certainly have enough experience under your belt from your domination in MotoGP and WSB.

Please, for the love of God, build a damned gearbox that has not only a positive neutral, but ONLY ONE (1) neutral!

I mean seriously, for what we pay for your machines, you can certainly justify the expense of improving your gearboxes so that at the very least, we do not have to worry about starting the bike and having it fall over because it is in gear when it says it is neutral.

Yes, I know that a workaround is to always pull in the clutch when starting, but let's face it, I should not have to do that. Neutral, should mean neutral.

I can live with the false neutral between 5th and 6th, as annoying as it is. But the thing with it saying neutral and being in gear when starting, is a huge blemish in my opinion.

That is not a beauty mark on Cindy Crawford's face, that is Cindy Crawford with a huge burn mark on her face and an eye patch.

I implore you, fix the damned problem, don't sweep it under the rug and try to placate your customers with the notion that your flawed gearbox, that feels 30 years behind the competition in regards to refinement, is somehow a benefit.

Just fix it, please.

Regards,
Dave in Atlanta

johnchypermotard · Aug 10th, 2008, 7:57 pm

sorry to read about your troubles with the gear boxes in all of your ducatis.

i have only owned 4 ducatis (currently own 2), and have not had any issue with a false neutral, and have not had any issues with finding neutral (after the first ride on the first ducati when i learned to select neutral before i came to a complete stop).

perhaps i am simply lucky, or i shift with a more positive gear selection motion?

on the neutral indicator light issue ... i have never trusted them on ANY bike, and as such, i never start ducatis if i am:
1 not sitting on them and
2. i have not checked to see if the bike really is in neutral by rocking it back and forth.

a presto,
johnc

nog00der · Aug 10th, 2008, 8:40 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnchypermotard

sorry to read about your troubles with the gear boxes in all of your ducatis.

i have only owned 4 ducatis (currently own 2), and have not had any issue with a false neutral, and have not had any issues with finding neutral (after the first ride on the first ducati when i learned to select neutral before i came to a complete stop).

perhaps i am simply lucky, or i shift with a more positive gear selection motion?

on the neutral indicator light issue ... i have never trusted them on ANY bike, and as such, i never start ducatis if i am:
1 not sitting on them and
2. i have not checked to see if the bike really is in neutral by rocking it back and forth.

a presto,
johnc

thats missing the whole point, isnt it? you just dont trust your neutral light on Ducatis because sometimes they lie! and you rock it back and forth because you know this to be true. so the gentleman above you is merely pointing this obvious flaw out to Ducati. without regard to the complacency of some Ducati owners such as yourself.

SquireSCA · Aug 10th, 2008, 8:43 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnchypermotard

sorry to read about your troubles with the gear boxes in all of your ducatis.

i have only owned 4 ducatis (currently own 2), and have not had any issue with a false neutral, and have not had any issues with finding neutral (after the first ride on the first ducati when i learned to select neutral before i came to a complete stop).

perhaps i am simply lucky, or i shift with a more positive gear selection motion?

on the neutral indicator light issue ... i have never trusted them on ANY bike, and as such, i never start ducatis if i am:
1 not sitting on them and
2. i have not checked to see if the bike really is in neutral by rocking it back and forth.

a presto,
johnc

Well, I understand the point of not trusting the light, but of the 11 bikes I have owned in the past several years, the only ones to have the neutral light issue and cause the bike to start and roll off the stands, have been Ducs. Never had it happen on my Honda's, Yammies, Suzuki, or even my Honda dirt bike.

It is definitely a Duc thing. Not trashing Ducati in any way, but I have seen it happen several times, and read about it many others, so it isn't like this is not a known issue.

I know what the workarounds are, it just bothers me that they let something like that through R&D or quality control, ya know?

happyfunjuice · Aug 10th, 2008, 8:51 pm

Squire - I agree - there are some issues there and while I've had jap bikes with trick neutrals, it's disappointing considering the lineage.

SquireSCA · Aug 10th, 2008, 8:59 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by happyfunjuice

Squire - I agree - there are some issues there and while I've had jap bikes with trick neutrals, it's disappointing considering the lineage.

Exactly. Given their reputation and the things that they have accomplished, it is disappointing.

Long Valley? I used to live in Califon, my ex-wife still lives there. Small world!

GHEZZI · Aug 11th, 2008, 1:06 am

QUITCHABITCHIN and buy a 5 speed Guzzi, then you can have 4 neutrals with no green light for any of them, and when the light is on, you know for sure it's either in 1st or 2nd.

george_v · Aug 11th, 2008, 4:34 am

at least you guys have someone complaint at - in your case, as i have seen from others, a responsive DNA importer -!!!
in my case, in Greece, the importer refuses any warranty work expect those recalled from central ducati!!

i.e. i ve seen some recall job numbers in here and if i wouldnt bring the numbers to them they wouldnt say anything about them.

Anyway my Duc, hyper, with over 7000euro in excess of upgrades accessories and parts broke down suddenly during my vacation messing up above all my piece of mind! Something is broken within the clutch cylinder or slave or i dont know where! And now for the rest of August i cant use my bike as evrything closes for summer vacation here in Greece!!!

As i v seen within a thread somewhere in here "Ducati making mechanics out of riders since 1921"

sakucee · Aug 11th, 2008, 9:44 am

Stopped using clutch on fast upshifts, no more false neutrals...

johnchypermotard · Aug 11th, 2008, 1:15 pm

perhaps ... perhaps not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nog00der

thats missing the whole point, isnt it? you just dont trust your neutral light on Ducatis because sometimes they lie! and you rock it back and forth because you know this to be true. so the gentleman above you is merely pointing this obvious flaw out to Ducati. without regard to the complacency of some Ducati owners such as yourself.