[Taleb95]

Hey all,
I’ve been about two months into the life of owning a Ducati and last night I felt something off. So after a night of riding and attempting to do a couple of power wheelies (attempting as I’m new to the bike life) we stopped over for coffees. Upon jumping back on the bike I noticed the bike sounded a tad quieter compared to how she has been since ownership, the usual powerband feeling at around the 7k rpm didn’t have that regular punch it had and just felt it was taking a very long time to hit limiter.
Haven’t had any warning lights on the dash nor any error codes, old owner claims it has 10,000km although I always keep questioning it in my head.
I have read in some places that it could be spark plugs but thought I’ll see if one of you gentleman have come across this and if so what was the issue before I start pulling the bike apart while assuming what the issue is.
thanks in advance x

 

[120CCPM]

Check if the flapper valve (on the exhaust) is stuck in the closed position. It's spring loaded and its resting position should be open. See image below.

 

[Taleb95]

Check if the flapper valve (on the exhaust) is stuck in the closed position. It's spring loaded and its resting position should be open. See image below.

View attachment 41173

Cheers mate
I’ll end up taking it apart tomorrow and will update on what I find. Now with that flapper if it’s resting position is open when does it really close? Or does it stay open always?

 

[120CCPM]

No need to take it apart, you can easily check if the valve is moving freely without removing anything from the bike. The spring keeps the valve in its OPEN position (like in the photo above): with the engine off, you should see a bit of slack in the cable, and you should be able to rotate the valve (with some pliers or even by hand) in the same direction the cable would (I believe it's clockwise, the stoppers on the pulley will also help you understand what to do). With the engine on, the ECU tells the servo to pull the cable and close the valve at specific RPMs. I don't remember the exact logic, but in general the valve will close at low RPMs to keep the noise down. It has no effect on performances.

Many people disconnect the cable to avoid issues: rotate the valve to its CLOSED position, and you should have enough slack in the cable to pull it off the pulley. The ECU will throw a couple errors if it detects that the cable is not being pulled back by the spring, but it will not flash a light on the dash. I personally removed the cable + servo altogether, and I added a little "servo emulator" device (Vizi-Tec, about $40 here in the US) to avoid the error codes.

Speaking of that, if you have MelcoDiag, a laptop and a couple cables, you can check ECU codes yourself. It's a little investment (software is free, cables and OBD adapters are not) but worth it, as it can also reset service reminders and other useful stuff. If it turns out that the flapper valve is working properly, reading the codes might help you diagnose the problem you're experiencing.

 

[RickJason_]

Hey all,
I’ve been about two months into the life of owning a Ducati and last night I felt something off. So after a night of riding and attempting to do a couple of power wheelies (attempting as I’m new to the bike life) we stopped over for coffees. Upon jumping back on the bike I noticed the bike sounded a tad quieter compared to how she has been since ownership, the usual powerband feeling at around the 7k rpm didn’t have that regular punch it had and just felt it was taking a very long time to hit limiter.
Haven’t had any warning lights on the dash nor any error codes, old owner claims it has 10,000km although I always keep questioning it in my head.
I have read in some places that it could be spark plugs but thought I’ll see if one of you gentleman have come across this and if so what was the issue before I start pulling the bike apart while assuming what the issue is.
thanks in advance x

Let us know how you go on this. I've noticed this on my bike too at times, miniscule but noticeable.