S4 Senna - genuine model or not?

[itiejim]

My recently purchased S4, bought from a good mate, was described as a Senna model. It is in the Senna grey colour and has carbon fibre front mudguard, hugger, belly pan and side panels below the seat plus Senna stickers in various places. It's also got an Ohlins shock.

Looking online though, it appears that the only recognized Senna models were the 9XX ones, rather than any of the monsters. So, is this the case, do I have a special edition model or just a bike with a previous owner who had a carbon fibre fetish?

[Darren69]

The S4 Senna wasn't a special edition as such, just a standard S4 painted grey with red wheels. As far as I'm aware they didn't have any 'Senna' graphics, just the standard S4 ones. The carbon is standard on all S4's. The Ohlins is not standard but a good upgrade. The only factory sspecial S4 they did was the 'Fogarty' special, of which only 300 were made which had a lot more Ducati Performance parts, more carbon, special paint, different forks and a full Termi hi level system. I have one.

The other one that comes up for sale now and again is the 'S4 Challenge' which is the standard bike prepped for the one make 'S4 Challenge' race series that supported SBK back in the day, not as high spec as the Foggy but still has some nice extras.I think there were only a very few of those, maybe 30-40 machines (I can look it up) Hope that helps?

Sounds like you have a nice S4, the Ohlins is a lot better than the Sachs that came with all the others, Fogarty included. I have upgraded mine to Ohlins and you can tell its a much higher quality unit (if a bit soft/undersprung esp for 2 up). that can be remedied by adding more pre-load. Mine has the hydraulic pre-load adjuster which makes that really easy so you can always add one or adjust manually if you find its too soft.

[itiejim]

Thanks for taking the time to give all that detail Darren. As soon as the weather's better I'll put some pics up of my bike. In the meantime I'll try to find another Senna sticker to replace the one I blew off that little panel under the headlight when I pressure washed it the other day...

[Darren69]

I wouldn't pressure wash as it wiil cause you all sorts of problems with electrics and such.

[buzzbomb]

Pressure washing a Ducati...:shocked:

Now that's got to be a hanging offence...;);)

[itiejim]

Mmm, it did cross my mind....

It's my first Italian bike, but a couple of decades of Italian car ownership really should have taught me that particular lesson.

I promise I won't do it again. :)

[Darren69]

Just check reg/rec connections are good and dry. Under the seat on that model the white and black plugs. You should get away with one pressure wash as long as everything is dried out after. I once pulled the wiring loom off my 750ss and got a cup full of water drain out of it. The rectifier was also full of water too! They have got better since the early days with better connectors and such but still not 100% waterproof!

[Mr Gazza]

I have mine dry cleaned....It always comes back in a nice thin polythene bag...:cool:

[itiejim]

Blimey, hope it's OK in the rain. Was planning on going to work on it tomorrow!

[Darren69]

Keep the bag on it! Seriously though the S4 is pretty bullet proof and most (I say most) of the electrical gremlins had been ironed out by that time. It doesn't seem to suffer like most of the earlier pre '00/01 bikes from poor wiring and connectors.

[Darren69]

Engine paint will bubble and wash off though!

[itiejim]

Well, it's already done 32K, and hasn't fallen apart yet. Can't get too precious about it :)

[Darren69]

Ride it, love it, its mechanically pretty bullet proof if you get it set up properly by someone who knows how to set up the desmo quattro. If its done that sort of mileage then that goes to prove that if looked after properly then they can do the miles.

It's an ST4 engine when all said and done so its supposed to be able to do some miles! Personally I think they are more robust than some of the 2v air cooled engines. You just need someone who knows the engine to set it up properly.

[Albie]

Thanks for taking the time to give all that detail Darren. As soon as the weather's better I'll put some pics up of my bike. In the meantime I'll try to find another Senna sticker to replace the one I blew off that little panel under the headlight when I pressure washed it the other day...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=senna+decals

Nice colour scheme that