G'day all Street Fighters........ I was thinking of you all last thursday........ read on
While I was sipping
at my local Ducati HQ, a V4SF was wheeled out for a punter to take on a test ride.
Embarrassingly it took 3-4 attempts, each time it started it would stall
, until finally it held it's idle. It is not cold over here in Brisbane Au so it wasn't climate related, and a trained Ducati staffer was the one starting the bike for the potential customer.........
So I asked the sales guy I bought my V4S MS from, and he said the V4SF's were a bastard to start until they had about 6k kms on them (4k miles) - they have a very small battery to save weight and space, and the engines are very tight until fully run in. The guy was a bike mechanic before he became a sales manager so he wasn't spruiking sales BS, and my V4S MS still has a tight engine with 1,676kms (1050mls)...... though the V4 MS has much bigger battery plates and starts easily from new.........
FYI...If you are unaware of this... always let a modern FI bike do it's ECU check cycle before pressing the starter, and never add throttle to help it start........ once the motor loosens up it'll start more easily.
Also, maybe consider a higher CCA rated battery if you don't do many miles in a season's riding - the stock battery (without checking the specs) is probably only a 230cca Yuasa lead acid with very small plate/cell size. A high quality Lithium battery should have more cranking capacity, but it will need cell equalizing technology built in and a Li-Ion charger to prevent bursting into flames. Li-Ion batteries don't like extreme cold conditions and can take a few seconds to warm up (eg key on and wait) before they will work. They also don't like being constantly charged while not in use (typically they should be stored long term at 60% charge from memory - Shorai manual - Google Shorai specs and charging info).
I didn't have any issue with my KTM 1290 SDGT, but after I put a 350cca lead acid accessory battery in, I noticed it started far better than before with the stock 230cca Yuasa. I don't need to use a battery tender and rarely charge a battery (no snow and regular riding all year round) so I can't comment on long frozen winter storage strategies.