Personal observation: Monster wrenching vs. BMW wrenching

[Carstarphen]

My new Monster Tricolore is my first Ducati and my first Italian motorcycle. I have been a BMW K-bike sport tourer for many years. But I have always admired the appearance and style of the Italian machines, and the Ducatis in particular, so I bought one for my birthday.

In the past, I have done most of the simple maintenance and wrenching on my K-bikes and am very content with my present one.  It's a great bike outfitted with Ohlins front and rear, PIAA lisghts, Russell seat, and some Rhine West engine work. IMHO, it's a superior bike to subsequent model years of the K-bikes.

Yesterday evening I needed to replace a failing OEM battery and, by the time I was finished, I was again wondering what the German engineers had in mind when they made so many things inaccessible or difficult for the average owner. I was also wishing I had incredibly strong little monkey hands that would reach into small and cramped spaces. Many BMW riders have resigned themselves to having almost all work done by the dealerships and that may be the BMW intention. Changing the oil and filter is a chore, and changing the air filter is a hassle.

Then I did some routine maintenance on my new Monster and was amazed at how easy and how accessible were the battery, the air cleaner, the oil filter, etc.  I don't want to jinx myself, but it appears that routine wrenching on the Monster is going to be a pleasant experience instead of an ordeal.

Imagine, you release a latch, raise the tank, and there are the battery and the air filter. And that's the oil filter sticking out a bit down on the front right of the engine. Wow!

[the_Journeyman]

My Monster is a 2-valve model so it's a good bit simpler.  I can say it's a very simple motor to work on and maintain ~

JM

[Slide Panda]

Heh, yeah I've got my oil changes down to 15 minutes flat if I move with purpose.  I helped a friend with a jap i4 and crikey what a PITA.  Oil filter tucked nicely behind the headers... so close you can't use a cap style wrench.. great.  Headers, that are hot from warming up the bike, like supposed to... ingenious.  Don't get me started on accessing the carbs on that bike

[ducatiz]

it's a function of the culture that made the bike

Japanese and Germans are pretty anal in general, so their designs follow function, not form.  They make great stuff, but you sometimes need an engineering degree just to wrench.  Little monkey hands?  Maybe, or maybe the proper procedure is to disassemble the entire bike each time?   

On the other hand, our Bolognese bikes are the finest in Mediterranean development -- of course the regular maintenance is going to be easy to get to -- Beppo doesn't want to spend 3 hours disassembling the bike just to replace an air filter.

Let me tell you about the time I tried doing a carb sync on a CB750.. ouch.

[woodyracing]

oh yeah, I'm in the Euro specialty at wyotech now and we're doing BMW right now (already finished Ducati and Triumph).  From a technicians standpoint, the BMWs are pretty dang easy to work on if you are comfortable with all the equipment  (aka computer+BMW software and the multi thousand dollar GT1 diagnostic system).  The cool thing about new BMWs is that you pretty much just plug them in, click a few buttons and it tells you whats wrong without having to troubleshoot the old fashioned way.  The engines are actually really simple and they're certainly put together really well (gotta say the quality control beats out the Italians).  That said the Ducatis are more rewarding to work on and you don't have to plug in the special computer for every single little task like you do with the BMWs.  That does make it difficult for customers to work on them themselves but from a dealerships perspective it keeps people that have no idea what they're doing from tinkering with things they shouldn't touch. 
That said I'd have to agree that the BMWs tend to be a bit over-engineered...

[ScottRNelson]

If you truly miss things being hard to get to, you could always get a Ducati ST2, ST3, or ST4.  You have to take all the fairings off to get to everything and they weren't designed to be easily removed.

But I love riding mine.

[scott_araujo]

Well two things, with no fairing maintenance tasks are immediately easier, nothing to pull apart just to get the the meat of things.  Bless the Monster!  Second, Ducati's are not precision Japanese machines and may need a little more TLC than the average Japanese sport bike, so while it's easier you may still spend as much time.

My wife's Volvo car is like the BMW, plug in the code reader and replace whatever is malfunctioning.  Thank god, that thing breaks down all the time and I was getting really sick of $500 repair bills.

Scott

[RBX QB]

Yeah... you think "BMW" and it's hard to imagine wrenching in the garage. It's a stereotype misconception, but it's there. Kinda like, all Ducati riders are short. Or, all SBK riders are daredevils. Certain truths to those, but not necessarily the rule.

I love wrenching, and need to do it more.