Wedg1e
They call me Mr. Bodge-angles
- Messages
- 7,735
- Location
- Teesside, England
A Scotland tour has become an annual fixture with my cluster of mates: this year we did 1600 miles in 4 days based in Inverness, last year Oban... to return to the original topic, some of my cronies have Ducati Multistradas (the 1200, one's a Pike's Peak) and two have KTM 1190s (one the Super Adventure). The guy with the PP has the new V4 Multi on order, also a PP - something like £25K 
In terms of reliability, the Multis have all been spot-on, apart from one guy who took his (out of warranty bike) in for a service at a non-dealer where he was told that his cam lobes were disintegrating (looked like poor case-hardening). Cutting a story short he was lucky to find some used ones and the engine was rebuilt, but the suspicion persists that the 'specialist' had another bike with the cam problem and switched Rob's cams to fix it...
None of the Multi owners have been brave enough to tackle the dreaded cambelt change themselves, instead paying £00s to have it done, and apparently one of the rear spark plugs is as inaccessible as Emma Bunton's knicker drawer, which I think also afflicts the KTM. Fair enough, not all riders are mechanics.
The KTMs in the group haven't done enough miles for things to wear out yet, so hard to say. They certainly bu99er-off over the horizon quickly enough when prodded - as do the Multistradas. I just wallow along in their wake on the Pan European, safe in the knowledge that if there's a Plod hiding up ahead, I'll get plenty of advance warning over the intercom
There's also a 1200GS, which up to 100mph is unbelievably nimble and tractive, losing out to brute horses on open roads - but only there. This one had a gearbox bearing disintegrate; Neal the owner sourced a used good box with a cracked case and swapped the bits around. He says now he realises that a particular vibration he thought was normal for the bike was actually the first sign of it going and he'd catch it earlier next time - eventually there was so much slop that it trashed an oil seal and dumped the gearbox contents, firstly over the dry clutch, and then on the ground in a pub car park - but he still managed to ride it home.
As for the Pan Euro: it's a Honda. Some say they're boring (as well as boringly reliable) but if you think it's just a big fat bike for commuting down motorways, you'd be wrong. Granted if you feel the need for an aural feast and to have the front wheel waving at the sky, you'll be looking elsewhere, but in real-world conditions, over several-hundred-mile days, we all seem to arrive at our destination at about the same time. So yes, it weighs as much as the Death Star but it's also got a torque curve flatter than Keira Knightley and the fuel range of the USS Enterprise. You'll break before it will
In terms of reliability, the Multis have all been spot-on, apart from one guy who took his (out of warranty bike) in for a service at a non-dealer where he was told that his cam lobes were disintegrating (looked like poor case-hardening). Cutting a story short he was lucky to find some used ones and the engine was rebuilt, but the suspicion persists that the 'specialist' had another bike with the cam problem and switched Rob's cams to fix it...
None of the Multi owners have been brave enough to tackle the dreaded cambelt change themselves, instead paying £00s to have it done, and apparently one of the rear spark plugs is as inaccessible as Emma Bunton's knicker drawer, which I think also afflicts the KTM. Fair enough, not all riders are mechanics.
The KTMs in the group haven't done enough miles for things to wear out yet, so hard to say. They certainly bu99er-off over the horizon quickly enough when prodded - as do the Multistradas. I just wallow along in their wake on the Pan European, safe in the knowledge that if there's a Plod hiding up ahead, I'll get plenty of advance warning over the intercom
There's also a 1200GS, which up to 100mph is unbelievably nimble and tractive, losing out to brute horses on open roads - but only there. This one had a gearbox bearing disintegrate; Neal the owner sourced a used good box with a cracked case and swapped the bits around. He says now he realises that a particular vibration he thought was normal for the bike was actually the first sign of it going and he'd catch it earlier next time - eventually there was so much slop that it trashed an oil seal and dumped the gearbox contents, firstly over the dry clutch, and then on the ground in a pub car park - but he still managed to ride it home.
As for the Pan Euro: it's a Honda. Some say they're boring (as well as boringly reliable) but if you think it's just a big fat bike for commuting down motorways, you'd be wrong. Granted if you feel the need for an aural feast and to have the front wheel waving at the sky, you'll be looking elsewhere, but in real-world conditions, over several-hundred-mile days, we all seem to arrive at our destination at about the same time. So yes, it weighs as much as the Death Star but it's also got a torque curve flatter than Keira Knightley and the fuel range of the USS Enterprise. You'll break before it will
