Trade-in Monster for new Multistrada?

Quote from: koko64 on October 31, 2015, 04:13:24 PM

What were some of the issues with the MTS1200?

Here are my thoughts on the 2015 MTS S Touring I had. I've since gotten rid of it. You can find the whole thread on ducati.ms (sorry for the external board link, peeps). Since then, they've updated the firmware to resolve the 2nd gear problem.

Quote

Well, I rode 928 miles this past weekend and now have a bit over 5k miles on my 2015 MTS. I wanted to note down my thoughts on the bike as, I'm not sure how much longer I'll have it.

TL:DR - Ducati made an amazing bike but, a part from a couple of exceptions, the good ideas are poorly executed and the bike, as a whole is flawed.

Starting with the things that are straight good; the handling is excellent (I can drag a knee on this thing, it's epicly good!), skyhook evo is excellent, the motor is excellent (that's just excluding the tune *which can be fixed*), pinch adjustable screen.

The good ideas that are poorly executed:
Cruise control: not exactly a new idea but, really glad that Ducati have it on the bike. How is it poorly executed you ask? In markets where people use "Miles", the bump controls actually work in KPH so, when you try bumping your speed up or down, you sometimes hit the button twice for one "MPH" because #MATH. I've also found that, if you're cruising and speed up, while above your cruise speed, if you hit the "down/set" bump button it'll actually set your cruise speed rather than bump down the stored cruise speed. That may be by design but it was unexpected for me.
Cornering headlights: One of the reasons I wanted the 2015 over my 2012 but, poorly executed as they only really point in one direction which, only really works for one corner radius. Otherwise, they're not really helpful. I pretty much use them to flash cars that put me in their blind spot when I don't have any other way out. Lean the bike to 6º at the car and it lights them up.
Backlit switchgear: Great idea, really, really great idea... execution... not so much. You light up that there's a button there but not what the button actually does? So, how is that helpful exactly? The buttons should have their symbols lit up as well so you have some chance of knowing rather than just having to remember them anyway.
Seat height adjustment: Did you seriously include THREE separate pieces of plastic to raise the riders seat that use DIFFERENT bolt sizes than the single piece of plastic you have to use to close the gap on the passenger seat if you're not using the spacer for the rider? O_O Also, for all of us "normal" sized people (I'm 5'9"), the bike was designed around the lower seat height - everything wind related is better at the lower setting (except I have long legs for my height so my knees hurt).
Display: Yes, it's very pretty (and, actually, I really like that uses the ambient light sensor to change between night and day mode, that's a win) but please don't touch it... oh, it's scratched now. Everything is in KPH but is converted for display which is why you can't go 64mph.
Fuel gauge: I can't even tell people how irritating it is to me (YMMV) that Ducati have had problems with the fuel sender unit for the last what, 5 model years (?) and haven't fixed it (I suppose you could argue that they've fixed it many times...). Aside from that, this is a touring bike (with a bunch of sport, obviously) and the fuel light comes on with 2 gallons left... in a 5.3 gallon tank?! Seriously? On my 900+ mile trip this past weekend (mostly freeway) I averaged 50mpg so (52.4 was my best, ~130 miles, put 2.9 gallons in the bike), I should be able to get ~220 miles out of a tank of gas and *still* have some left to not run the fuel pump dry but my gas light comes on at 150/160?
Keyless ignition: So I don't need my key... until I need gas... then I need to fish it out from somewhere because there's nowhere to put it on the bike anymore.
Bluetooth: if you want to use the "player" to control your phone, you can't see range or miles travelled. Who thought that was a good idea? The BT on the bike is flakey at best, I know some people have found it to be ok but I just can't use it. Even with all other profiles deleted, I cant use it as a comms hub between my phone and BT headset, it drops out constantly.
LHS controls: If I have my hand inboard on the clutch, I'll occasionally activate high beams when I'm changing gears, not a huge deal but certainly conceivable.
DWC/DTC: Both have settings that are pointless. 8? Seems like we should have gone to 11 because it's louder.
Headlights: Much improved over the 2012 (not sure about the '13 & '14) but what's the the dark halo in the high beam?
Panniers: I like them but the removing them can sometimes lead to issues, like don't want to keep trying for fear of breaking a tab (again - warranty)

(not actually the bike but, part of a pattern)
The "urban" tank bag: you have the USB hub have a really long, straight plug, thereby taking up a bunch of room inside the bag? Did you think this would be good? You have a rain cover for the bag that doesn't have room for the (possibly?) waterproof connector?
The app (it's a beta so, somewhat expected): Constant issues connecting to my account; I have created two accounts and, the last issue required me to change my password before I could log in... I rode 900 miles this past weekend and couldn't get the app connected even after I'd resolved the account problems. The developers were threatening to release it soon and, if so, I really hope I'm an exception.

Stuff that's actually bad:
Fueling... EURO4 compliance means we have shitty fueling which, at best is irritating and at worst dangerous. On the trip, I actually felt it pretty strongly trying to overtake on the freeway in urban mode (much softer for bumpy roads) as well... :-(
Starter motor never really feels like it's ready to roll. :-/
Issues with seat losing cover... (not the first time this has happened on a Ducati model...)
Pannier tab broke
Bolt fell out of center stand (possibly my responsibility)
Center stand damaging exhaust shield
Front brakes got soft in < 3k miles (need to be bled) and are now getting soft again - I need to put RBF600 in them because the DOT4 or whatever they're using doesn't cut it.

Ducati's lack of communication on the actual issues on this bike is really disappointing. This is my 5th Ducati and, I like it better than my 2012 MTS in spite of all of this; it's an excellent motorcycle but it'll be my last Ducati for a while. I'm happy to discuss solutions to these issues because I haven't decided if I'm going to switch or not but, one of the big reasons I'm considering it is the way Ducati is handling these problems. Hopefully new management will start doing a better job of looking after customers but who knows?