Ever have someone else crash your bike??

Worst feeling ever!...came home from vacation to find that a friend who was watching the house had decided to take my bike for a ride (without permission...and not the duc thank god) with some other friends...I wanted to hurl (and hurt him badly!).

But to your original question, IMO, if you are still out for 9 months, fuel stabilizer and disconnect the battery...ethanol does bad things to unused motors without an additive to balance it out and we all know that there are battery issues if left sitting...or find someone else with a Ducati to take it out now and again, though you still run the same risk. Remember, it's not IF you go down but WHEN you go down. Every time you ride you risk someone not paying attention. At least another Ducati owner will know how the bike is going to react and in the worst case, I dare say most other owners would make it right for you, just by thinking about being in the same situation.

Starting an engine and letting it idle for long periods is an easy way to build up carbon on valves, seats, spark plugs etc etc. Build carbon up and eventually it will run badly. Let idle often and it'll run badly sooner rather than later. As has already been mentioned in here, it'll take a long while at idle for the engine to get up to operating temp and even longer to burn any moisture out of the crank case.

The start up circuits on the Ducs enrichens the fuel mixture to keep it running till the engine warms up enough to let the computer fully take over to keep things moving. That enrichen circuit is what would cause an engine to carbon up if left running to warm up.

Any engine is at it's most unefficient at idle as they are designed to move a vehicle, not sit and idle to warm up.

Best procedure for these bikes is to fire it up, put your helmet and gloves on (approx. 30seconds) then ride away gently at first to put a load on the engine and hep things warm up. Do that a few minutes then give r'!!

What [email protected] said. An idling or unloaded (unridden, undriven, not running a pump, generator, sawmill, whatever) engine cannot reach a combustion chamber temperature high enough to burn clean. The coolant temp is what shows on your gauge, and it will eventually get up there, but the LOCAL temperatures in the cylinder head, piston crown, valve seats, etc. (which is actually much higher in a loaded, working engine, than the coolant) won't get high enough because there isn't enough pressure generated in the cylinder. Either the expansion of burning gasses is pushing against a piston that just easily moves (an idling engine) or it pushes against a piston that doesn't want to move, because it's connected to a load. If the piston is connected to a load (pushing a motorcycle, or cutting your lawn, doesn't matter) the piston will resist movement, requiring pressure in the cylinder to build higher against the piston during the power stroke. That generates more heat and more heatsoak into the cylinder head area.

The other issue is, when you shut off a running engine, the air inside the vented crankcase is warmer than outside air and contains moisture. The moisture will condense on the inside walls of the crankcase (which cools off quickly) and run down into the oil, forming acids that corrode your engine's internals while it sits. Shutting off a warm engine allows this. A warm engine is any engine that hasn't operated "under load" at operating temp. Shutting off a hot engine leaves oil that is dryer and enough heat throughout the entire engine (not just hot coolant) to dry out the moisture in the crankcase.

As far as people with a short commute, all things being equal, those people's cars, trucks and motorcycles will die an earlier death than the people who get on the highway and drive a long way to work. Multiple short trips, especially at stop and go and low speeds make for a shorter engine life. Ride it or don't start it and avoid short trips when you can for a longer engine life.

I bought my 1198 brand new and it sat in my kitchen on the side stand for almost two years before I even started it. (Long story). It had a full (aluminum) tank, fuel stabilizer, battery tender and tires were at recommended pressure. After two years, it started right up.

There's no reason to start a bike unless you're going for a ride*. It does more harm than good.

Hi 182. I started admiring Ducati's (from a distance) in the 851 era, then completely fell in love when the 916 came out. That thumping twin in a delicate, steel tube frame with the rattling clutch, etc. was like a raw, mechanical beast in a hard, candy shell. So different than the sterile Japanese bikes I saw on the road, but my budget was more in the $1000 range, so no Ducati for me.

At 38, with a better paying job, I decided that to reduce the suckiness of turning 40, I'd buy myself a brand new, red Ducati for 40th birthday. A modern version of the same steel tube, dry clutch, half skeletal machine/half liquid shell as the 851's and 916's I fell in love with.

Then I read about the upcoming 1199 and it's lack of the unique qualities that (I felt) set Ducati apart, and realized that by the time I turned 40, getting the new Ducati I wanted would no longer be an option. I was gonna get an 848, then "what? no dry clutch?" An 1198 then. "What? a plastic tank? For the bike of a lifetime?" Then I read about the 1198SP. Steel tube frame, slipper dry clutch, lightweight, forged wheels, beautiful aluminum tank, full Ohlins. Jesus Christ that's a lot of money, but it's... perfect.

So at 38 I ordered an SP, had it assembled without the mirrors, told them "no one rides this" (I was there when it came out of the crate) and had it van delivered to my place where I pushed it into my kitchen (no mirrors) with the stickers still on the tires and waited 20 months for my 40 year old self to show up and claim his bike.

It made me anxious to turn 40, so it worked perfectly.

I have an open offer for anyone at our td org to ride my bike. Only had one (expert racer who's pretty quick on any bike) take me up and go out on it for a session at RA a couple of years ago.

Usually someone will ask me thru FB messenger before a trackday, and then really look over the bike in person when they come over to our pit area. Then they just back away saying something like "hats off to you for riding that thing like you do, I'd be way too scared to crash it"...or something to that effect.

Best response so far was "Geez, it looks much more intimidating in person than it does in pics." That was when I showed up in the street fairings to a DCTC day and just track prepped it on the spot to go out for a few sessions, lol.

Probably won't get any takers next season when the new track bodywork goes on. :-(