help required perleeze...

hello everyone, i'm a newbie here and require the wealth of wisdom that i hope is within these boards.

please know that i am engine illiterate. i very much enjoy getting from A to B, but how to ride the thing really is the extent of my knowledge.

recently...ish, the timing belt snapped on my 1993 900 monster, laying waste to various assorted surrounding 'things'. the bike was collected by ducati london south, and the work was carried out. cost coming in at just under £500. everything was great.

and then i get a puncture. hurrah.

£200 pounds worth of pirelli's later and suddenly my bike is exhibiting almost exactly the same noises and complaints that occurred when the original belt snapped, but this time it just 'feels' as if the belt may be slipping a lot [definite sporadic slippy/squeaky noise] and as i said accompanied by very similar noises.

i phoned ducati up and explained the situation, and asked if they could collect the bike and check out what i believe to be a similar problem. they said they couldn't do that for another 8 weeks as they are fully booked...

8 weeks!

it's beautiful sunshine and i've got new pirelli's to wear in! they aren't playing fair. i asked if they maybe made allowances for correcting work that they had already 'done', and was told, no.

can anyone please advise me?

i am very sorry for the longwinded email, but i really don't want to lose part of this lovely summer stuck with a bike that i cannot ride. [with new f*cking tyres...did i mention that?]

i live in north-west london. any advice on where to take my bike would really be very much appreciated.

thank you all for your patience.

db

ps. could fitting new tyres have caused any upset..? it happened the very following day.

Hi db
are you any whetre near Ealing General, its where I work
if the belt was slipping you would of had the same problem as before, knackerd top end. there is no reason why you couldnt take of the cam belt covers and have a look at the belts to see if there is any slack, I think they torque up at 5 or 10 lbs, check this figure, so there should be no slack to take up
do you have any warenty with it,
where did you buy it

Ade

[crust]

Try these people, they are a small backstreet garage with a good reputation in Wimbledon.

G R Ducati SW17 0208 947 7555

Crust

if its any help i work in Perivale I'm no expert but I'll gladly give a second opinion

[spacemonkey]

I agree, take it to an independent to check it out. When this problem is over, don't bother with the official Ducati places. They're just taking the **** in every aspect. Even Ruislip Daytona is better than that. When they fork up they see to it straight away!!

cheers ade, i'll definitely check the belt tension myself, and take it from there.

probably by giving the G R lot a ring and asking their advice - thanks for that crust.

spacemonkey, i admit to being shocked by your advice that i should avoid the official ducati places as i simply assumed they would be the best choice. i have been badly burnt in the past by non-ducati mechanics working on my bike with what appeared to equate to the skill equivalent of a one-legged man playing football, and so i thought i'd cut my losses and go to the 'top'. it's now obvious i should have sourced out this site, maybe a long time ago. strength and knowledge in numbers, eh?

thank you everyone for your very helpful advice. very much appreciated.

db

Cant help here but will back up local garages, All a ducati dealler supplys is real Duc parts at real duc prices, with real duc services costs, It dosent mean there monkeys are any good! after all there not getting the $40 an hour are they the shop is, Go to a recomended garage, I take my Ducati to BSD in peterborogh, these guys race bikes and really know there ****,..Additional i take my Honda NTV to Peterborough Motorcycles, £60 flat rate for a full service plus parts, diffrence here is the mechanic gets the 60 quid, so i know the job is done well.... Would never ever go to Ducati to have my bike serviced.....Word of mouth Mate,,,

[spacemonkey]

I've been to DLS once and thought they were a bunch of ..well you work it out. I get the impression from others on here that all they want to do is flog you a bike then never see you again. Customer service sucks, big time, and the 8 week wait for service work is a joke. The biggest joke is that the same people run DLC in Chelsea. They don't have a workshop here so they van them down to Croydon, where -you remember- they can't cope with the amount they already have! Boy it sucks...

Ruislip Daytona have a patchy rep. Some times they can be very good other times not so. Best bet is try a one man band indie. He/she will know the bikes inside out and they may take a little longer, but at least you KNOW the work is done, and usually properly! I take my bike back to my home town area in the New Forest (darn Sarf) in Ringwood to Two Four Italia. It's a 120 odd mile trip but I trust him. Dave Wood Racing in Aylesbury is another trustworthy type and a lot of people here rate him as do I. Nice ride there too....

Hi all
Interested to read db's tale of woe...its remarkably similar to the problems I am experiencing at the moment. (See "loose bolts" thread)

My mistake was to do exactly what Ducati asked me to do; I.E have the bike serviced at the correct intervals by authorised dealers.

The result is, a bikeless summer and a potentially huge repair bill that nobody seems to be accepting responsibility for.

Once its all resolved I shall definately be taking the "one man band " route championed by space

To the woods, to the woods!