Ducati Monster Forum

Guys,

I'm not sure which forum I should post this question in ... hope it's the right forum.

I was told by a guy, that the wheels on the recent monsters are "soft". What he meant by "soft" is the wheels are more prone to failure, or can bent easily when hit a pot hole. This guy is a shop owner mostly work on Japanese bike but his shop also works on ducatis and he rides one too, not an authorized ducati shop though.

Is it true what he told me? I hit a pothole on my sportster once, hit it quite hard that both the fork seals blown, but the wheel was fine.
thanks in advance,

I have over 9000 miles on mine and haven't bent any wheels yet nor have I ever heard of anyone saying their wheels are soft.  Sounds like pure bullshit if you ask me.

I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm pretty sure that if his statement held even the slightest bit of truth, there would have been a massive recall by now. 

or at least a ton of forum pregnant doging

there was a recall.... and a handful of 2012 1100evo rear wheels were affected... and they probably are all been fixed by now

Wheels on recent Monsters have been sourced from both Enkei and Marchesini....  so how likely do you think its gonna be that both manufacturers are supplying "soft" wheels to Ducati?

So with the exception of these few.....
.....I'm going with this

Thank you very much guys. Great to hear that. [thumbsup]

You know, I was worry when I heard this, worry enough that I thought about replacing the wheels on my bike. Because even though the road surfaces in the city are smooth, well with holes here and there just like any other place I guess... the roads out of town are not really smooth. And I don't want to worry about every holes on the road when I ride, you know, hit a hole and worry about whether it bent the rim or not... I'm sure you know what I mean.
Thanks again guys.

I've seen quite a few bent Duc wheels roll into my shop.

9 times out of 10 there's 20psi in the tires (or less :P).

Just keep your tires properly inflated, and you're 99% there.

never heard of "soft" rims before...

well the magnesium rims are mad soft but pretty light and usually used for race only, using them on the street is asking for trouble... the aluminum forged rims are a happy medium between weight/strength

IIRC, they were doing testing for the SF848 which was using the 1100 EVO rear wheel and found cracks in some of the spokes on the rear wheel, they looked at their Monster 1100 EVO test mules and found 1 test bike which had over 26,000 miles on it with a couple cracked spokes.

UH Guys....they're soft (at least the 3-spoke Brembos), and they're frickin expensive.

I hit a pothole a few weeks ago on our 11' M696 and put a couple inch long, about 10mm deep bend in the almost $1200 front wheel.

As I understand it some European manufacturers (BMW comes to mind) follow the philosophy that they'd prefer a softer wheel material that is more likely to bend than to fail catastrophically after cracking. I've seen plenty of BMW car and bike wheels bend over the years, but I'm newer to Ducati and this was my first.

Yes, tire pressures were in spec.

http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=59537.msg1098780#msg1098780 (http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=59537.msg1098780#msg1098780)

Did you get your wheel fixed?  A friend of mine bought a set of Marchesini wheels off an ST3 on e-bay for his Sport Classic and the front one was bent.  He took it to a specialist who straightens motorcycle wheels and had great results with that.  He has been riding on these wheels for a couple years now.

I can't imagine what you'd have to do to bend one of these wheels.  I've gotten air, hit speed bumps at a pretty good speed, dips, rises, rough pavement, even some off-road.  Never bent a wheel.  I sure wouldn't discount buying a Ducati because of this anyway.

I got a replacement wheel (earlier model take-off) from a board member. I'm sorting spacer issues right now (because the model it came off had a speedo drive so I need 9mm more of spacer).

I might get the original one fixed eventually - if I can do it cheap enough. But it's the wife's bike and I really don't want to risk an undetected crack or weak spot. I mean, she put the first 1k miles on this bike pregnant - we even got ABS for that extra margin of reassurance, so I'd feel pretty weird about a repaired wheel.

Anyway, I'm not saying NOT to buy a Duc because of this, but it's good to be extra aware of...

That's why you take it to a professional.  They can tell if the wheel is cracked and can be repaired safely or not.  I've had 2 Lexus wheels straightened for my wife's car.

There is a guy up in the foothill area of Los Angeles who did my friend's wheel.

Nothing personal, but I've been in the tech industry for more than 2 decades.

If I told you every horror story I've heard/seen of a "professional" shop we'd be here till 2014.

I mean unbelievable stuff.

So my trust level is VERY VERY VERY low until someone proves themselves to me.

If it were my wife's CAR I'd have a wheel fixed in a heartbeat.

But a bike? - I'm much more reluctant.

I MIGHT STILL, but only after a more thorough vetting of the shop in question and I want to get this bike on the road again long before that could happen.

No biggie...

Like I said, a friend of mine did the research.  I know probably the best guy for this kind of work in the SoCal area.  Wouldn't hesitate to use him for this at all.

Ive hit potholes hard enough on both my old 696 and my 796 that the forks bottomed out...never a sign of damage to the wheel or the tire.  just my wrists and spine.


(side note, dont clamp your gopro onto your forks...at least not below the bottom triple clamp...my front fender has a sweet crack in it from when that POS front end bottomed out once..)

If you hit something hard enough to compress the tire and some, the wheel will either crack or bend.  Bent is better than cracked.  TUV sas a standard for this. 

As far as straightening goes, I found these folk to be excellent, with quick turn around  http://www.mcwheel.com/ (http://www.mcwheel.com/)

purely out of curiosity...how often do you wreck wheels!?!?   :o  [laugh]

On the Monster, twice in 11 years, but keep in mind, this is New York City.

(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm276/hlep2890/Pothole.jpg)

Ghostbusters II comes to mind...