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Took my new-to-me Ducati Monster 620 for a short ride today, including a stop for breakfast. Fun little bike. After breakfast I rode to the top of 10,000' Kenosha Pass, parked, and turned off the bike. It wouldn't restart. I could hear the fuel pump whirring and all the fuses were intact, but the engine wouldn't crank over. No clicks, nothing. Dead. Five hours and an expensive U-Haul truck rental later, the bike is back in my garage, still dead. I'll go through all the connections, switches, solenoids, relays, and points of failure this week and see if I can find what's wrong. The battery is new this year and spends its sleeping life on a Battery Tender, but it's possible the stator is fried and I've been riding on borrowed time.
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What a bummer. It'll be good to hear what's wrong.
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These Italian bikes are beautiful and have character. Right?
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From what I'm reading on the Ducati forums, this isn't uncommon. I'll test the battery and replace the $20 starter relay, which apparently is prone to failure (why???). If this doesn't work, I'll need to confirm the immobilizer antenna is intact, so the bike will recognize the ignition key. If this isn't it, it's possible the ECU / gauges / dash / keys will need to be replaced, at a cost of nearly what the entire bike is worth. That's not happening. I'll part out the bike and junk the rest if that's the case!
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I had an Italian girlfriend once. She had character too.
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Bummer. Hopefully the starter relay is the problem.
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My son has a 696 Monster. His wife bought it for him new as a wedding present. He had wanted a Ducati since he was a kid. He has about 6000 miles on it I think. Owning it has been a trying experience. The electrics have gone out, it has had persistant oil leaks, the transmission locked up, and the rear brake has squeaked loudly since new. He calls it his 50 mile bike. He won't ride it more than 50 miles from home. If he actually wants to go so,eplace he rides his Yamahas.
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Sorry to hear of your Ducati woes. I traded my Guzzi for the CB when dealing with the Italian bike's "character" became too tiresome.
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Ferret, that's too funny. The top of Kenosha is exactly 45 miles from my house. Your son may want to rethink the 50-mile radius for his 696!
I had two Guzzi V7's and was never stranded on either of them (great little bikes!), but I'm not going back.
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(08-15-2016, 12:34 AM)LongRanger_imp Wrote: Ferret, that's too funny. The top of Kenosha is exactly 45 miles from my house. Your son may want to rethink the 50-mile radius for his 696!
I had two Guzzi V7's and was never stranded on either of them (great little bikes!), but I'm not going back.
