This is based on your owning many Ducati's?

 

Since I sometimes ride with the local Duc club I have to chime in and say reliability is fine (at least in recent years) all the way up and down the range they produce. When we're not riding we're jawing about bikes so they'd say if something was a problem.

The problem is the small total # imported makes for a small number of knowledgeable dealers & mechanics.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris S
[B]a) headshake - go buy a steering damper, and headshake be gone...simple as that
b) the GSXR750's tranny probs. are well-documented, mainly for MY'00.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris S
[B]

I disagree:

 

No selling them!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Penforhire
[B]Since I sometimes ride with the local Duc club I have to chime in and say reliability is fine (at least in recent years) all the way up and down the range they produce.

 

Ahh I see, so based on your vast experience selling, not owning, not riding these bikes they can't take "abuse".

This as opposed to R1's 954's etc that "like" this same abuse.

Right.

 

Having owned more than a few Honda motorcycles (I'll focus on those purchased new, since there is no way of knowing what kind of abuse/neglect used bikes have suffered) since 1971, I don't think Hondas are significantly more reliable than anything else, to wit:

1987 CBR1000 Hurricane: blown rear shock, less than 6K miles. Niether my '91 Kawasaki ZX11 (50K miles) or '01 Suzuki GSX-R1000 (7K miles) have had problems with so few miles.

1996 CR250R - notched clutch basket. Neither my '98 Yamaha YZ 125 or '99 YZ250 had any reliablity issues.

On the other hand, my '84 XL350R, '94XR650L, or '00XR650L had no problems.

Car wise, I've owned the following NEW Hondas: 1986 Accord, 1987 Accord, 1992 Civic, 1994 Accord. The '94 Accord has rust problems (totally inexcusable in this day and age) and tranny issues. The others were very reliable (the '92 Civic was a miserable car, but never broke), but no more so than my '01 Buick Regal or '99 Camaro Z28.

IMHO, Honda products are probably slightly more reliable than other vehicles, but seem to have higher build quality (materials, squeaks/rattles, etc.). I haven't bought a new Honda car since '94 (too slow, overpriced, jackass dealers), although the last dirt bike I purchased was an '01 CR250R (reliability was great, out-of-the-box jetting was horrific).

 

my s2k and 929 are good. i do abuse them and with all things treated the way i drive em... they are bound to break sooner than later.

 

Actually you right. R1, 954, gsxr all love abuse, you can wheelie, endo and outright kick the sh*t out of them for 20km w/o 1 problem. W/ a Ducati if you simply ride it, even somewhat hard it will do ok, but it can't take half of what a Jap bike can. Oh and yes at the dealership we had many problems w/ Ducatis, from very hard riding and problems not caused by owners. The bigest problem that we had was all of the blown engines from doing wheelies, which has nothing to do w/ being a V2 since the RC51 has no problem. That dry clutch that they use to make up for the lack of power sounds real cool but doesn't last. Don't get me wrong I love Ducatis there just not the bike that you want to have unless you don't mind keeping up on the maintenence and repairs.