It’s not a secret a whole series of Ducati bikes requires more frequent adjustments comparing to their closest competitors – Japanese brands. I think this fact doesn't scare the majority or Ducati owners as we are ready to pay for real quality and a charismatic bike with its own character. It’s not a secret that every motorcycle owner wants to see own bike in a proper working condition as long as possible. To get this you must pay particular attention to servicing issue. Those who make all adjustments by themselves shouldn't miss the following steps to provide the best service to their Ducati. Even if you allow dealer to do all the adjustments, make sure its specialists include these works.

1. Oil screen cleaning. Quite often even highly professional service centers can forget to do it. I don't know the reason for that, but this mistake can lead you to future expenses. The fact is if your oil screen is not cleaned for a long time, it causes early transmission damage signs like small steel chunks, so from time to time clean the screen and put it back.


2. Don’t forget to change your belts. In general belts must be replaced with new ones every 10,000 miles, but if yours become worn earlier, don't wait until the planned time and change them. Checking belts tension from time to time isn’t that bad idea as some riders have belts that are unbelievably loose. In your free time look at your belts closely to see whether they have those little rocks behind belt covers. If you find any, clean them. 4V model owners shouldn’t put back the same, already used, locknuts to keep tensioner pulley safe.

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Making short rides to your job or local supermarket and riding several hours long are totally different things. When the final point is not far from the starting one, all you need is general comfort, but in long hours “iron butt” rides many small things you may have not mentioned previously become particularly important.

If you plan to ride for 20 or 30 hours, there is a series of questions you may ask yourself. First, is your bike good for that? If you are not feather-light, you know how inconvenient smaller sport bikes are. You simply won't get rid of the feeling you’re too big for this bike. On the other hand, too big and heavy bikes are not a great decision either. I saw many riders larger and heavier than me, who stopped their heavy bikes at parking lots and dropped them due to exhaustion. Determining “your” bike is not that difficult – just visit any big retailer or motorcycle exhibition, sit on each bike and imagine you will remain in this position for many hours. Will it be a convenient ride?


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Winter is slowly approaching and soon there will be a time when you will need to prepare your bike for short winter sleep. If you want to get your bike clean, shining and ready for action in spring, the following steps are for you.

First, you should find a place to keep your bike over the winter. This place should be dry. It can be your own garage or sometimes dealers offer Ducati owners use their own garages for storing purposes.

Let’s start with engine related issues. If you’re going to stop riding your bike for more than a month, you should know you cannot leave any petrol in it. If you have spare time, make a last ride on your Ducati. This way you can warm its parts and top off all petrol it has. In case you don't have enough time, just pour out all you have in your tank.


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Nowadays the competition in motorcycle market is so tight that it takes many efforts to choose a brand and model. Ducati is known to produce motorcycles of the highest quality. However, this is not the only thing that can make you love them. Here is the list of reasons why you should pay your attention to these bikes.

1. Ducati means quality. These Italian bikes are known to have huge history as this manufacturer produces bikes for more than 50 years! Ducks are constant winners in world's major motorcycling competitions, showing total dominance in Superbike class. Ducati team has even such motorcycling celebrities as Nicky Hayden who has recently joined it. The company never stops developing new, more sophisticated bike models to show the best not only on race track, but on a road as well.

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In fact, many bike owners are curious about Ducati, but hesitate to choose it. This article is an attempt to list advantages of getting Ducs.

Let’s start from the very beginning. Ducati is a motorbike with long and respective history. In true, the history of motorcycling and history of Ducati coincide pretty much. The company was founded in middle 20s of previous century by Adriano and Marcello Ducati. First company planned to specialize in producing radio components, but with beginning of the Second World War Ducati factory started manufacturing military equipment. At the same time Italian inventor Aldo Farinelli decided to create an affordable auto replacement for public. He added a small engine to bicycle thus creating a small prototype of modern motorbike. When Second World War finished, Ducati brothers, who had been really interested in this invention, started manufacturing their first bike called “Cucciolo” (it means little puppy as small engine was producing a sound close to puppy yapping). This name was soon replaced with “55M” or “65TL”. As postwar Europe was a fast developing region that time, Ducati quickly gained popularity and started producing more than a hundred bikes a day. This also was the time when first Ducatis took participation in racing.


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So you plan to buy or just have bought Ducati. Great job, you've made a good choice! Now all you need to do is to keep your Ducati in a proper condition. Just as well as cars, bikes require maintenance. Usually manufacturer establishes time intervals when some routine things like changing oil or replacing filters are done. These intervals depend on a brand. Ducatis are great bikes and many say they're simply best ones, but prepare to go through maintenance more often then with most bikes.

First thing that scares almost all new Ducati owners is valves. «How do those valves perform?», «Do Ducati valves require frequent maintenance?» – these questions arise from time to time on various motorcycle forums. Many riders confess they’d like to buy Ducati bike, but are deterred by specific valves and their maintenance. Indeed, all Ducatis have an exclusive desdromonic valve system. It has been created in attempt to make 2 cylinder engines as powerful as 4 cylinder ones. The main idea is in reducing valve float. All Ducati engines don’t have any valve springs, special rockers are used to open and close the valve. With no valve spring your bike can run at tremendous 18,000 rpm and even higher! You can read detailed information about Ducati valves and their desmo system in official Ducati website. If you use your spare time to read this information, you will see what exactly requires adjustment and understand desmo is not scary at all. I bet you can even do it yourself. Certainly, there's nothing bad to pay to professional to get your valves adjusted, but prepare to pay around $250-$300 for 2 valves per cylinder and twice as much if you own a superbike with 4 valves per cylinder. If you decide to adjust valves yourself there are plenty of web sites describing how to do it. You can even watch a video showing this process. If you’re a person who wants to know everything about the bike you own, then don't hesitate and do it. Anyway, valves adjustment must be done every 4,000-6,000 miles and that is pretty often comparing to other bikes. Typical Japanese bike owner will probably make 12,000-16,000 miles before valves adjusting and certainly it is not so complicated. Ducati is a real bike of the dream, but it's not cheap in maintenance, so if you need to make frequent bike rides on a daily basis, think of buying second motorcycle with cheap adjustment costs.


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If you want to buy a motorcycle, but have no experience in this field, you may feel confused and even somewhat lost since the styling, models and technical characteristics are so wide that can muddle even experienced riders. Beginners will surely be under strong emotional pull. This short guide is an attempt to through the light on a problem of first motorcycle choice.

When you plan to buy your first bike, I'd recommend you to pay your attention to famous manufacturers as in this case you reduce the risk of making a wrong choice. Also note you will need to maintain your bike in good working condition. It's good to learn how to perform basic maintenance like oil level adjusting or changing filters, but beginners usually know nothing about engine and valves, so you cannot avoid service center and a happy owner of brand bike can always visit official service center and solve the problem of bike maintenance in a simple but effective way.

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