South of France, here we come.

[Steve_D]

Currently the 'strada is back at the dealers for: non existent rear brake, brake warning light keeps coming on, broken pannier straps, warped top box lid, oil stained sump cover (was done at first service and will not clean off), corroding foot pegs, poorly fitting panels, poor stitching on the seat, washers bodged behind the headlamp to make it fit straight, badly squeaking front brakes, serious water trap in the rear swing arm that means the lower shock mounting bolt remains submerged under half an inch of water, rattling clutch to name just a few faults. Not good for a three week old £17K bike! He's very fond of exotic, expensive, temperamental, poorly built, Italian shite!

Latest update on the 'Strada. They are replacing the bike for him. Should think so too for that sort of money. Gotta wait three weeks though and as a bonus they are giving him a white one which is a £500 option apparently. Let's hope this one is a better pile of shite than the last one.

[Steve_D]

Update: Went out today with the owner for a ride to run the new strada in. It only had 14 miles on the clock. Two nose-cone panels came unclipped and sprung out. Badly fitting panels again. Stopped for a while and had a bugger of a time getting it to start again - it's a keyless model and for a while the owner thought he was going to have to get it recovered when all of a sudden it recognised the 'key' and sprang into life again. Poor finishing on it again and he is going to have to drill some form of water drain into the swing arm to cure the water retention problem as Ducati don't want to know.

Oh, and I heard the full story of exactly why he got a new bike out of them. The frame was bent as it had been damaged at the factory. It was even rusting where the powder coating had cracked. And they still built a bike around a damaged frame! Their first offer was to re-frame it for him. He refused and that's how he got the new one. I'd have asked for a full refund and walked away.

[rtfm]

..
Oh, and I heard the full story of exactly why he got a new bike out of them. The frame was bent as it had been damaged at the factory. It was even rusting where the powder coating had cracked. And they still built a bike around a damaged frame! Their first offer was to re-frame it for him. He refused and that's how he got the new one. I'd have asked for a full refund and walked away.

That's incredible, he should report that to dvla/trading standards. To risk his and his pillion's life (not to mention other road users/pedestrians) to sell somebody a bike which might have a fundamental safety problem is unforgivable. How many more have they made like this?

He must really like this model to put up with that shit, I would have taken my money back and run a mile! And then got as much bad pr for the manufacturer as possible. ...

[spaceprobe]

I love that part of France have a great time.