Ducati Monster Forum

I'm new 'round here and new to Ducs and motorcycles in general. I've fallen in love with the Monster and I've found a 2005 M620 for sale locally. The bike has 6300 miles on it. I'm waiting to hear back from the seller on it as to whether the 6k service was done and if so, where.

What special issues are there I should be looking for? I know to check the battery to make sure it hasn't leaked, but are there any other quirks or notable failure points besides the battery to be looking for?

Thanks so much in advance. This board is great and I'm fired up to get my Monster before too long.  ;D

As with any used item, records will be important.

A key item that will need to be discussed is the cam belts.  They are spec'd to be 12k or 2 year replacement items.  So by the calendar they are (over) due to be replaced.  If you've got a local duc shop, ask for an estimate on the cost of replacing belts on a 620.  At 6300 miles they may not have had the 6k service performed yet.  That combined with the belts is a few hundred dollars worth of service you'd be confronted with before the bike should be ridden. 

One thing that some folks do, it have a bike into a shop for a neutral party evaluation.  Most shops will do this, and it'll run you about an hours worth of labor charges.

If you've got a gear head biker friend, bring them along.  620s aren't known to have any particular issues, which is good for you.  But having someone along who has a better notion of where to look for signs of distress or damage is always good.  Even a 2nd set of eyes that might catch something you've over looked is always good.

Yuu,

Thanks so much for the info. I'll follow up on the belt issue and will make sure the 6k service is done beforehand. I appreciate your info, since I might be able to use that to negotiate a lower price on the bike.

Were the leaky batteries a problem on the '05 620?

Nope, not unless the battery was abused in some way.  But it wouldn't hurt to have the tank up and look around teh battery box and Vertical head. 

I had a '05 dark 620 as my 1st monster and it never let me down.  Oh 05s area little odd that you might get a metal or a plastic tank on it.  Bikes made early in the year will have a metal tank.  Ones produced later will have plastic that all monsters now have.  And there's an off tiny small chance that if it's really early build, it'll have the nicer 4 piston calipers that were phased out in 05 for the smaller monsters. 

I thought all the metal tank 620s had the 4 pots?

don't forget to get the red key from the seller  [thumbsup]

oooohhhh yeeeaah... and the card, too.

I haven't confirmed which key he has, but he says he has one key for it. Sure hope it's the red one...if not, is there any way to get spares made other than getting a new ignition system? On the old board I thought I saw something about getting the key blank and taking it to a locksmith.

I've heard you can get blanks, but my question would how do they synch it's immobilizer code w/o the code card for the bike? unless they reset everything... ???

There are people out there who can clone black keys, but I don't think anyones solved the problem of needing to replace the ecu and gauges as a pair if either gets damaged if you don't have a red key. I'd definitely be negotiating a significant price reduction if I was buying a bike without a red key, but it wouldn't be a show stopper if the price was right (you need to estimate your likelyhood of having a crash that damages the gauge cluster that'll end up getting fixed out of your pocket, and reduce the "value" of the bike by a factor based on that estimate times the price of the new gauge/ecu pair - if you don't plan on full comp insurance or are a newer rider, the price will have to drop by a greater amount due to the higher risk of out-of-pocket crash repairs)

Oh, and +1 on everyone elses "get the belts changed" advice...

big

So the seller emailed me tonight and apparently the dealer where he purchased the bike (NOT a Duc dealer, one of the big moto dealers here) said the 6k service was done but "couldn't say for sure whether the cam belts were changed, but that they wouldn't have sold the bike if the cam belts were in need of a change."

What do you think? Still waiting to hear on the key situation.

If they won't tell you for sure that they were new at the 6k service, I'd be budgeting to get them replaced asap - the service schedule calls for replacing them at "12k or every 2 years", it's easy to ignore that last half of the recommendation, and I suspect any shop diligent enough to have replaced them due to age at the 6k service on a 3 year old bike would have mentioned it, if for no other reason than to justify the extra ~$120 or so cost for the new belts.

What they say doesn't stack up anyway if they "wouldn't have sold the bike if the cam belts were in need of a change", surely that means they know with certainty that the belts are less than two years old, so how come "couldn't say for sure whether the cam belts were changed"? Smells fishy to me...

big

thanks bigIain!

here's the direct quotation from the seller's email..."I asked about the cam belts, he couldn't tell me if they were replaced or not because for that it would have been sent to a ducati dealership, however he did say that before it was sold that is one of the things that is inspected and they wouldn't have sold the bike if it was in need of a new cam belt."

The situation with the bike is a bit weird. The seller is a Marine who purchased the bike from a buddy who deployed to Iraq and was getting rid of stuff that was costing him money. The guy who deployed purchased it from a dealership (San Diego House of Motorcycles), and the history of the bike before that is unknown right now. The buddy only bought the bike in early April.

There are two Ducati shops in San Diego, so it won't be too bad for me to get the belts replaced if this is in fact the bike I'm going to end up with. I can ask to have those deducted from the cost of the bike.

I hear what you guys are saying about this sounding a bit fishy...so unless I can get this straightened out, anyone know of a Monster for sale in Southern California for around $5k?  ;D ;D
 

a 620 in the $5g range should not be hard to come by...

if you're really fixin' for a ride, I'd try to haggle them down a few bills and just replace the belts after purchase. if they have records for the rest of the 6k service, it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

IF there's no history of knowledge of the belts being changed, one has to assume that they NEED to be changed.  Shredding or tossing a belt will be an expensive lesson in prevention. 

Would you guys pass on a bike with a somewhat uncertain service history like this, or is it probably an ok bet provided I get the belts changed right away? Any idea on the approximate cost of the cam belt change?

Okay, the seller only has one of the black keys and says he's going to look through his stuff for the card...what does it look like? What's on it?

And should I be looking to forget this sale and move on and look for another Monster considering a) the belt issue b) the lack of records c) the absence of a red key? I'm excited to get a bike, and I REALLY want a Monster, but I don't want to get one if it's going to turn out to be a headache or a money pit.

Thanks again...this board is awesome.  ;D

Abandon ship! 

That Red key is a major issue.  Hopefully you'd never need it.  But if the immobilizer was triggered after you got the bike, youneed that key to disable it.  If you don't have that key, it's over a grand worth of parts alone to solve the problem. 

My rule is - if it's got the immobilizer, it better have the red key.  If it doesn't I ain't interested.

Not sure if it's too late on this Monster, but for your future purchase(s), I would say chain and tires.  Obviously there will be some wear, but if it needs a new tire (or two) right off the bat, you'll be looking at extra cash going out.  Make sure the chain isn't stretched and the sprockets look good.  You can do a search and find pictures of good vs. worn sprockets.  For the chain, just be sure it has the same tension all the way around. 

The belts aren't bad to change on your own.  I'm a simpleton when it comes to these things and was able to change my belts in less than an hour.  I would do it just to have the piece of mind.

Check the bar ends, exhaust, pegs, levers, engine case, etc. for scratches to see if the bike has gone down. 

I don't think that's true - I'm 99% certain you only need the red key if you're replacing either the instrument cluster of the ecu, or for programming new black keys without a key cloning machine.

Just triggering the immobiliser doesn't require the red key.

That said, yeah, it _is_ a major issue not having the red key. I'd be walking away if I couldn't negotiate the price down by $500 or so from a comparable bike that came with the red key...

big

it's credit card size... one side has a pic of a key and the duc logo, and says "code card"

the back side is printed w/an "electronic code" and "mechanical code"

and "This card must be kept in a safe place..." in 6 languages