Howdy... bit of a quick update.
I sold the ol' Bonneville last autumn and have suffered relentless abuse from my friends, girlfriend and inlaws (all of whom ride) about not having another bike yet this season (I am known to swap them out pretty regularly). Anyhoo, with prices through the roof, finding my usual bargoons has been extremely difficult. I missed out on some great deals on a few XSR900s (the bike I'm really after now) and another Z900 (my g/f also just picked up a '20 Z900 this season to go with her ZX6R).
Couple weeks ago, I saw a bright yellow (definitely not my first choice) 2015 Ducati Scrambler Icon advertised at a too-good-to-be-true price and only 8,000 km. I went to see it and the seller -- a lovely older gentlemen whose arthritis in his hands has gotten the better of him -- needed to get rid of it. We came to terms and I rode the bike home the next day.
It passed its safety inspection without issues but I've now had two occurrences (both when it was very hot out) where the bike simply coughs and stalls, when I've got the clutch pulled and I'm giving a little throttle blip. The bike always starts right back up without issue, but damn if it ain't a bit worrying when both times it's happened in traffic (once on the freakin' Gardiner Expressway!). Both times, it was when the weather was very hot and humid, and the bike was very warm.
I've since discovered pages and pages and pages of folks who've had the same issue with their Scramblers -- some from the time they were brand new -- but nobody seems to have shared a definitive resolution for the problem. I've reached out to my contact at Ducati North America, but in checking with their head tech, it was all new to them (yeah, right). Stopped at the biggest / best Ducati dealership in the area yesterday and the service guy actually snickered and said "Welcome to Ducati life".
So... I've been going through, checking for things as best I can -- air filter is clean, all the connections i can find seem to work fine, etc., and picked up a set of new iridium plugs which are supposed to help smooth things out. The Scrambler is tuned from the factory to run quite lean, so I'm wondering if I just need to have it re-programmed and all will be well.
But... there's the rub. I bought the bike not because I was truly in love with it (I don't really like the character of most twins), and an XSR is really what I want, but the deal was too good to pass up, and honestly, when it's working fine, it's quite a lot of fun to throw around. It's crazy light and steers very aggressively, plus it's very torquey. Chasing down problems through the dealership can get costly in a hurry and I snatched this one up because it was such a good deal, knowing I could flip out of it quickly and easily, probably clearing a profit even after insurance, safety and taxes.
So... I ask the collective wisdom here, do I dig deeper with this thing and try to resolve it, or ditch it, not knowing when the next big deal will come along, and potentially going the rest of the season without my own bike (I do have press bikes booked for trips, mind you...)
?
PS>.. I haven't even been bothered to photograph it for show n' shine yet.
